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Lorinc, John The New City: How the Crisis in Canada's Urban Centres is Reshaping the Nation Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006. 378 pp. ISBN: 0143056042 It is gratifying to those of [...]

Issues concerning the increasingly dominant position that Chapters has over the Canadian book industry are presented. Canada's book industry ownership rules dictate that companies are Canadian owned and controlled; it is suggested it would be beneficial to establish a real competitive market by opening up the doors to foreign firms.

Education, with Ethics John Lorinc Cities. Groundwood $18.95 Kevin Bales and Becky Cornell Slavery Today. Groundwood $18.95 Deborah Ellis Lunch with Lenin and Other Stories. Fitzhenry & Whiteside $14.95 These [...]

This article makes the case that electric micromobilities (EMMs) are the site of a moral panic and employs the lens of mobility justice to explain it. Through analysis of scholarly and media discourse, interviews with, and social media content produced by, EMM riders (eriders), and the auto ethnographic experiences of the lead author as an electric unicycle rider in daily life, as a participant in online and offline "erider" communities, and as a food delivery worker, we reinforce the conclusion that alternate mobilities face an uphill battle in gaining legitimacy and inclusion in transportation policy and infrastructure. While this is not a new finding—alternate mobilities have a long history of being demonized and excluded—this article offers insight into how individuals who find themselves unwitting scapegoats in conflicts over public space consciously engage in deliberate actions to resist EMM panic and achieve greater mobility justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lived expertise (LE) is a valuable form of expertise that can lead to more effective policymaking. Existing research points to important mechanisms for where and how to include LE. It also offers lessons around the potential exclusionary effects such mechanisms may have. In this article, we bring the discussions together and ground them in the Canadian case of homelessness. Failures in Canadian homelessness governance and policy highlight the utility of LE where it has been included, but we also find that its prevalence is unknown. Recent mechanisms including LE are still limited and their influence is questioned. We insist that the inclusion of LE cannot be haphazard or merely a nod to its value. Rather, it requires careful and considerate inclusion that centers LE throughout the policy process, encourages its influence and innovation, and embeds mechanisms for its long-term involvement within governance structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias" by John Lorinc is a comprehensive analysis of smart cities technology and its historical and conceptual development within the field of urban studies. The book explores the complexities of defining smart cities and examines the array of technologies that contribute to their development. It also delves into the connection between smart urbanism and utopian thought, as well as the role of technology and planning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The book emphasizes the importance of urban governance and the need for a balanced understanding of the positive and negative impacts of new technologies in urban landscapes. While the book could benefit from further exploration of the utopian origins of smart cities and post-colonial analysis, it is a valuable resource for researchers interested in the intersection of technology and urban planning. [Extracted from the article]

Since the 1990s, Ontario and Canada at large have seen the rise of the neoliberal state with a concurrent punitive turn in public policy. While academic inquiry has attempted to understand the evolution of penality, the functional linkages that exist between the social assistance and penal apparatus have been largely overlooked. This paper seeks to bridge this gap through examining the way in which community housing is increasingly being envisaged as a mechanism of social control and an exclusionary tactic. Drawing on 150 newsprint media items, reports produced by non-governmental organizations, and Hansard transcripts, the hegemonic discourses surrounding Ontario's Community Housing Renewal Strategy are explored. Particular attention is given to the proposed amendment which denies individuals criminalized for a 'serious criminal offence' from accessing community housing. In conceptualizing criminalized individuals as 'non-deserving' citizens, exclusionary tactics are legitimized as 'crime reduction' strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The meaning-making system of the sky has persisted for millennia (Peters 2015). Yet, many of us do not relate to the importance of the connection with celestial sky anymore. One of the many contributing factors is our relation to urban systems, as well as densification and, consequently, the verticalization of living. As an example of the power of place-making strategies and its friction with the architectural set-up in high-rise mass dwellings and estates, the novel Beschreibung einer Krabbenwanderung by Karosh Taha makes use of the night-time sky in idiosyncratic spaces of the high-rise, such as the balcony. Here, the links between relations of time and space, the here and there (Perez Murcia 2019), as well as inside and outside spaces, become apparent and show a connection of the liminality of post-migrant identities. In an analysis of the access to the night-time sky and its concluding place-making strategies by one of the protagonists of the novel, I show how the balcony functions as a liminal space that is idiosyncratic for the mobile and mediatized identity in the western European high-rise dwelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synthesizing and extending multiple literatures, this article develops a new approach for exploring the spatial articulation of urban political cleavages. We pursue three questions: (1) To what extent does electoral conflict materialize between rather than within neighborhoods? (2) How salient are group, place, and location in defining urban cleavages? (3) How do these sources inflect one another? To answer these questions, the article analyzes a novel longitudinal database of neighborhood-scale mayoral voting in Chicago, Toronto, and London. We find strong evidence of spatially articulated cleavages: in each city, voting patterns are equally or more geographically concentrated than the non-White population, income, and poverty. While group-based interests define Chicago's cleavage structure, place and location are paramount in Toronto and London. We conclude by proposing a research agenda for investigating the spatiality of urban politics and advancing a preliminary typology of urban political cleavages and the conditions under which they may arise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We investigate the phenomenon of municipal‐level strategic voting in a high‐profile mayoral election with a nonpartisan ballot. The rate of strategic voting is calculated, and we investigate whether different types of anti‐candidate attitudes (based on policy or personality) affect strategic behavior. Methods: We use survey data from the 2014 Toronto Election Study. Results: The estimated rate of strategic voting was 1.3 percent. Among those who did cast a strategic ballot, we find that anti‐candidate attitudes did not affect the likelihood of voting strategically—until the source of the dislike is considered, at which point electors who dislike a candidate on the basis of personality are shown to be more likely to cast their ballots strategically. Conclusions: Strategic voting was minimal, and did not affect the election outcome. The type of dislike toward a candidate (either on the basis of policy or personality) affects strategic behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a presumably ‘post-material’ digital age, the turn to materialism has been unmistakeably pronounced in recent years. Renewed critical attention to ‘thing theory’ and material culture also points to fertile ground for writers and teachers of writing. This paper offers an exploration of how writing about ‘things' – in this case, a ‘garbage land' full of discarded things – can teach students to engage with the world in innovative, alert, and ethical ways. It considers such sites as rich repositories for creative research and embodied observation that can help beginning writers move beyond the ‘radical subjectivist expressionism' (in D. G. Myer's phrase) often associated with ‘creative writing’. From a case study in material ecology, the paper ultimately progresses to a consideration of the cultural ecology of the workshop environment itself, and the value of ‘situated learning.' Ultimately, I argue that thinking through material culture at the local level can help clarify – for us, no less than for our students – the value of a convergent mental and physical presence, of a critically honed sense of emplacement, or a sense of creative residency in its fullest reach. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The current legal and political practice of human rights invokes entitlements to freely chosen work, to decent working conditions, and to form and join labor unions. Despite the importance of these rights, they remain under-explored in the philosophical literature on human rights. This article offers a systematic and constructive discussion of them. First, it surveys the content and current relevance of the labor rights stated in the most important documents of the human rights practice. Second, it gives a moral defense of these rights arguing that their support involves an appropriate response to important human interests and to the human dignity of workers. Finally, it explores central normative issues about the relation between labor rights and human dignity. It responds to some objections about the importance of work, explains why labor human rights may not exhaust the demands of dignity regarding labor and arbitrates a common tension between independence and solidarity within our practical affirmation of human dignity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that Marxist political economy is a useful framework for understanding contemporary conditions of cultural work. Drawing on Karl Marx's foundational concepts, labour process theory, and a case study of freelance writers, I argue that the debate over autonomy and control in cultural work ignores exploitation in labour-capital relationships, which is a crucial process shaping cultural work. To demonstrate the benefits of this approach, I discuss two methods media firms use to extract surplus value from freelance writers: exploitation of unpaid labour time and exploitation of intellectual property through aggressive copyright regimes. I argue that a Marxist perspective can uncover the dynamics that are transforming cultural industries and workers' experiences. From this perspective, cultural work is understood as a site of struggle [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada is in critical need of skilled and professional workers to sustain and build our economy. Due to an aging population and a declining birth rate, by 2011 immigrants will account for all new growth in the labor force. The need is felt particularly in the field of accounting where, over the past ten years there has occurred an enormous increase in accounting standards to protect the public from corporate fraud and many changes to standards in a move toward global harmonization of accounting standards. International post-secondary students (IPSS) are a great resource, since they already have Canadian credentials (a degree from an accredited Canadian post secondary institution) and exposure to Canadian culture. Yet many IPSSs struggle to find jobs in their field. A coordinated plan to assist IPSSs attain Canadian professional accounting designations would not only benefit our economy, but also stimulate our post secondary education system since it would encourage more international students to come to Canada for education. My experience as a professor, academic advisor for accounting students and organizer of accounting career fairs has opened my eyes to the continued challenges facing IPSSs when seeking a Chartered Accounting (CA) designation. For this reason I embarked on a study interviewing IPSSs and Canadian Post-secondary students (CPSSs) planning to become Canadian CA.s. This study examines the challenges that IPSS's face in their efforts to become CA.s in BC, recent improvements in recruiting practices of CA firms and in the immigration process and then provides recommendations to CA firms and IPSSs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I theorize the connections between privileged social identities and women's sense of safety and belonging in a diverse urban environment, Toronto. Based on qualitative research with a small group of women who grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, and later chose to live in the city, this article is a preliminary investigation into the factors that make it possible for some women to feel ‘in place’ in the city. I suggest that confidence, a sense of belonging, and the ability to distance oneself from violence are all related to privileges such as whiteness and middle-classness. In the Canadian context, these identities function as the invisible norm, allowing women to feel at home in an ethnically and economically diverse city. Moreover, the ability to move into and through urban space may function in a reciprocal manner to reinforce privileged identities. I argue that it is important to examine interlocking systems of privilege and oppression in terms of both women's affective experiences of urban space, and the gendered constitution of urban spaces. This approach serves to problematize and complicate the concept of appropriation of urban space through an examination of the salience of privilege. I conclude by suggesting that this article may serve to open dialogue about the relationship of privileged identities to marginalized identities in the city, in order to add complexity to feminist research on women's everyday lives in the city. Women are not merely objects in space where they experience restrictions and obligations; they also actively produce, define and reclaim space. (Koskela, 1997, p. 305) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the export assistance of small and medium-sized firms in the California EnviroTech industry. Provision of public sector assistance; Recommendation to increase the effectiveness of export assistance programs; Advantage of a single industry study for providing sector export assistance.

Determines how the concept of 'equal access for minors' is being implemented in public libraries in Canada. Common barriers to access to information and services in Canadian libraries; Documents issued by the Canadian Library Association that reflect the ideas of the American Library Association; Factors considered to investigate the status of intellectual freedom for children in Canada.

Examines three issues in copyright under the North American Free Trade Agreement which raise important questions for those wanting to engage in the discourse of national cultural protection versus the free flow of international trade. Issues on moral rights; Proposed protection for `performers' rights/neighboring rights': Parallel importation.

Bales, Kevin, and Becky Cornell. Slavery Today. Toronto: Groundwood/Anansi, 1998. 144 pp. $11.00 pb. ISBN 978-0-88899-773-9. Print. Groundwork Guides. Caplan, Gerald. The Betrayal of Africa. Toronto: Groundwood/Anansi, 2008. 144 pp. [...]

Abstract Discursive social movement, political economy and institutional approaches tend to dominate studies of large urban centres and, in particular, efforts to assess the prospects for progressive public policies in [...]