21st Century Socialism

Reinventing the Project

Edited by Henry Veltmeyer

The growing polarization between the rich and powerful and the poor and powerless, the yawning social and developmental divide and the multidimensional systemic crisis of capitalism have given rise to a fundamental problem of our times: barbarism or socialism? Will we continue on the path of capitalist barbarism or move to a more just socialist system? Bringing together a passionate group of socialists, 21st Century Socialism participates in the emerging and critical debate concerned with reinventing… (more information)

About Canada: Media

Peter Steven

Canada enjoys a long-held reputation for producing high-quality media, from National Film Board documentaries to the CBC to children’s programming. But in recent years, funding cuts, commercial media concentration and a sour political environment have been steadily eroding this reputation. In About Canada: Media, Peter Steven examines developments in film, television, the internet and newspapers and finds that the quality of our news and entertainment media is steadily declining, as well as… (more information)

About Canada: Queer Rights

Peter Knegt

Is Canada a ”queer utopia”? Canada was the fourth country in the world — and the first in the Western Hemisphere — to legalize same-sex marriage. Queer people in Canada enjoy many of the same legal rights as heterosexuals, and social acceptance of homosexuality has grown exponentially. But are these the goals that queer activists hoped to achieve? Is this legal regulation and normalization of homosexuality what the lesbian and gay liberation movement of the early 1970s fought… (more information)

Al-Qaeda

From Global Network to Local Franchise

Christina Hellmich

Al-Qaeda, the first transnational terrorist group of the 21st century, embodies the new enigmatic face of terrorism. Since perpetrating the most destructive act of terrorism to date on September 11th 2001, it has dominated discussions over national and international security. Yet, even now, despite what so-called ‘experts’ might claim, we know surprisingly little about it as an organization. What is the physical and ideological make-up of this group that features so prominently on our… (more information)

Archival Narratives for Canada

Re-Telling Stories in a Changing Landscape

Edited by Kathleen Garay, Christl Verduyn

Every nation has stories that help to define the country and its people. Focusing on widely varied written sources, Archival Narratives for Canada is an examination of the stories that have defined Canada. Professional archivists, scholars and other researchers working with archives — from the local and regional to national and international — explore the changing landscape of archival resources in Canada and in particular the role of archives in shaping the country’s narratives… (more information)

Chasing Freedom

Gloria Ann Wesley

Young Adult Historical Fiction A story of the struggle of Black Loyalists and their arrival in Nova Scotia. “...This novel of a revolutionary era, of Yanks and Africans “chasing freedom,” is arresting, with startling events, intriguing characters, and vivid language. ...“ — George Elliott Clarke The American Revolutionary War is being waged, and the fate of slaves in the colonies is on the line. Sarah Redmond, a slave on a South Carolina plantation… (more information)

Community Organizing

A Holistic Approach

Joan Kuyek

From the Introduction: History is full of stories of the oppressed rebelling against the oppressor, only to reinstate an equally oppressive system. What we learn from oppression is how to oppress. If we want a truly transformative politics, then we must take up methods that embody the kind of world we want to create; we have to change deeply embedded beliefs and behaviours. In this engaging and passionate book, long-time community organizer Joan Kuyek offers important insights and… (more information)

Food Sovereignty in Canada

Creating Just and Sustainable Food Systems

Edited by Annette Aurélie Desmarais, Nettie Wiebe, Hannah Wittman

Contemporary Canadian agricultural and food policies are contributing to the current global food crisis: the industrialized, high-input, export-driven agricultural production sector, coupled with concentrated corporate processing and retailing, are ecologically unsustainable, increasingly unaffordable, unhealthy and socially unjust. Employing an interdisciplinary and multi-sectoral approach, Food Sovereignty in Canada explores how communities all over the country are actively engaged in implementing… (more information)

Gendered Intersections

An Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies, 2nd Edition

Edited by C. Lesley Biggs, Pamela Downe, Susan Gingell

Following the structure of the successful first edition of Gendered Intersections, this second edition examines the intersections across and between gender, race, culture, class, ability, sexuality, age and geographical location from the diverse perspectives of academics, artists and activists. Using a variety of mediums — academic research, poetry, statistics, visual essays, fiction, emails and music — this collection offers a unique exploration of gender through issues such as Aboriginal… (more information)

Good Girls, Good Sex

Women Talk about Church and Sexuality

Sonya Sharma

What happens when a woman’s identities as a Christian and as an embodied sexual woman collide? What impact does a conventional Christian view of sexuality have on women’s sexual lives? Through conversations with thirty-six Protestant women, Good Girls, Good Sex explores how both religious values and communities shape women’s sexual experiences and the role of social class and race in this shaping. In their stories, the women reflect on how they handle conflicts between their religious… (more information)

Governing Girls

Rehabilitation in the Age of Risk

Christie Barron

In recent years there has been significant media hype and moral panic over assaults and violent crimes perpetrated by young women. The governmental response to control crime and to provide protection to citizens has taken various, often contradictory, forms. The current research agenda on controlling youth violence in Canada, especially in light of provisions in the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is focused on risk assessment. The approach, however, ignores how “risk” is a socio-cultural… (more information)

Kaandossiwin

How We Come to Know

Kathleen E. Absolon (Minogiizhigokwe)

Indigenous methodologies have been silenced and obscured by the Western scientific means of knowledge production. In a challenge to this colonialist rejection of Indigenous knowledge, Anishinaabe researcher Kathleen Absolon examines the academic work of fourteen Indigenous scholars who utilize Indigenous worldviews in their search for knowing. Through an examination not only of their work but also of their experience in producing that work, Kaandossiwin describes how Indigenous researchers re-theorize… (more information)

Men & Women and Tools

Bridging the Divide

Marcia Braundy

Although there have been many equity initiatives to encourage women to train and work in the trades, Canadian women still represent less than 3 percent of tradesworkers. Why does this disparity continue to exist? In Men & Women and Tools, Marcia Braundy — herself a tradesperson — explores this issue by focusing on male resistance to the inclusion of women in technical work. Early in her research, Braundy conducted an interview with several male and female tradespeople. Finding this… (more information)

Out of Left Field

Social Inequality and Sport

Gamal Abdel-Shehid, Nathan Kalman-Lamb

High-performance sport, like other social and cultural formations, is a site of social, economic and racial inequalities emerging from larger histories of colonialism and capitalism. In this introductory text, the authors explore the nature of historical and contemporary social inequality in high-performance sport, both globally and locally — understanding high-performance sport as a model that is emulated on other sports fields. In addition, the authors examine the enduring appeal of high… (more information)

Pursuing Justice

An Introduction to Justice Studies

Edited by Margot Hurlbert

This book is about justice: its definition, its boundaries, its contradictions, its nuances. It is also about pursuing justice and the mechanisms and practices that enable this pursuit. But justice is a tricky topic — just defining it is daunting. There are diverse and competing philosophies about what justice is, as well as several theoretical approaches to justice studies. Adding to the complexity, justice is played out within many social contexts and issues: the Canadian justice system,… (more information)

Remaking Scarcity

From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy

Costas Panayotakis

The dominant schools of neoclassical and neoliberal economics tell us that material scarcity is an inevitable product of an insatiable human nature. Against this, Costas Panayotakis argues that scarcity is in fact a result of the social and economic processes of the capitalist system. The overriding importance of the logic of capital accumulation accounts for the fact that capitalism is not able to make a rational use of scarce resources and the productive potential at the disposal of human society… (more information)

Shaping an Agenda for Atlantic Canada

Edited by John G. Reid, Donald J. Savoie

Atlantic Canada stands at a crossroads. Slow population growth, political marginalization, an aging population and fiscal stress are among the most urgent issues. Faced with this reality, Atlantic Canadians must find a new way forward. Shaping an Agenda for Atlantic Canada offers the perspectives of authors from a variety of disciplines reflecting on historical and contemporary themes relevant to the future. The goal is not to offer glib diagnoses or instant solutions but rather to identify considerations… (more information)

The Birth of Capitalism

A Twenty-First-Century Perspective

Henry Heller

In the light of the deepening crisis of capitalism and continued non-Western capitalist accumulation, Henry Heller re-examines the debates surrounding the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Europe and elsewhere. Focusing on arguments about the origin, nature and sustainability of capitalism, Heller offers a new reading of the historical evidence and a critical interrogation of the transition debate. He advances the idea that capitalism must be understood as a political as well as an economic… (more information)

The Crisis and The Left

Socialist Register 2012

Edited by Greg Albo, Vivek Chibber, Leo Panitch

As the crisis continues to bite deeper into the lives of people around the world, The Socialist Register 2012: The Crisis and the Left considers how the Left has responded and asks if it can offer a viable alternative. Examining the crisis in a variety of geographic areas including Africa, Latin America, Europe and China, contributors explore many themes of crisis from finance to climate, oil and auto to poverty and over-accumulation. (more information)

The Ocean Ranger

Remaking the Promise of Oil

Susan Dodd

On February 15, 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland taking the entire crew of eighty-four men — including the author’s brother — down with it. It was the worst sea disaster in Canada since the Second World War, but the memory of this event gradually faded into a sad story about a bad storm — relegated to the “Extreme Weather” section of the CBC archives. Susan Dodd resurrects this disaster from the realm of “history” and… (more information)

The Women, Gender & Development Reader

2nd Edition

Edited by Lynne Duggan, Laurie Nisonoff, Nalini Visvanathan, Nan Wiegersma

Third World women were long the undervalued and ignored actors in the development process but are now recognized as playing a critical role. This book is a comprehensive reader presenting the best of the now vast body of literature that has grown up alongside this acknowledgement. Divided into five parts, this book incorporates readings from the leading experts and authorities in each field. The first part acts as an introduction to the field, examining the key theoretical debates and discourses… (more information)