Navigating the Shifting Sands of Social Work Terrain: Social Work Practice in Postmodern Conditions

In an effort to inform social work education, this article reports on part of a study examining the factors that hinder or facilitate involvement in social justice efforts. Based on a case example of Canadian international development nongovernmental organizations, the article presents the findings of an analysis of organizational documents. I argue that international development organizations' conceptions of involvement reproduce inequitable North-South power relations through a perpetuation of colonial discourses of the South. This perpetuation of inequitable power relations is evident in three main themes: the tragic South; the hero/victim binary; and the ideal of one world. The implications of these findings for social work education are outlined.     

“NEW” PUBLIC INVESTMENT AND/OR PUBLIC CAPITAL MAINTENANCE FOR GROWTH? THE CANADIAN EXPERIENCE

The article revisits the relationship between growth and public productive expenditures by investigating the growth impact of "new" public investment along with maintenance expenditures in public capital. We sketch out the importance of these components of public capital expenditures for growth and then use survey data from Canada to assess the impact of these variables on Canadian growth. We find evidence that the Canadian economy would benefit from a fall in total public capital expenditures and from a reallocation between new public investment and maintenance expenditures. We also identify the growth impact of the associated sectoral public capital expenditures. (JEL E22 , E62 , H21 , H54 )     

Calm,cool, and collected: Canadian multiculturalism (domestic globalism) through a Cold War lens

The Canadian government adopted a multicultural policy in 1971, complicating the binary of ‘two founding peoples’ by acknowledging the diversity of its settler populations. This redefinition took place against the backdrop of the Cold War in which Canada was a strategically located junior partner in the Western alliance. This article draws parallels between photographic representations of Canadian diversity and the photographic culture of the Cold War as complementary programmes of nation-building and national defence. The study focuses mainly on the activities of the Still Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada in its coincident evolution from a government information agency to a proto-museum with a mandate to collect and circulate Canadian contemporary photography. A curious mixture of communitarian ideals, countercultural impulses, and institutional ambitions is displayed across a number of documentary projects. The power of photography as a silent language is put into question by a modest compilation of words and images that situates both global and local uncertainties in a Winnipeg grocery store.     

Canadian Fossil Capitalism,Corporate Strategy,and Post‐Carbon Futures

This study investigates the relationship between the carbon extractive sector in Canada and renewable energy development. Specifically, it examines the strategies employed by Canadian carbon‐capital firms to shape and control alternative energy and considers if we are witnessing signs of “transition capture” as some oil, gas, and coal firms invest in a gradual shift toward “climate capitalism.” I investigate first, investments by large Canada‐based fossil fuel companies in renewable energy and second, interlocking directorate relations between the fossil fuel sector and the renewables industry. Findings suggest the possibility of a long‐term strategic orientation toward a climate capitalist model of development by some carbon‐capital firms; however, this alignment remains highly tentative, with evidence pointing to an industry that is largely without plans for energy transition.     

Dancing Across Borders: ‘Exotic Dancers,’ Trafficking,and Canadian Immigration Policy

This article analyzes a Canadian immigration program that authorizes issuance of temporary work visas to ‘exotic dancers.’ In response to public criticism that the government was thereby implicated in the transnational trafficking of women into sexual exploitation, Citizenship and Immigration Canada retained the visa program de jure but eliminated it de facto. Using a legal and discursive analysis that focuses on the production of female labor migrants variously as workers, as criminals and as bearers of human rights, the article argues that the incoherence of Canadian policy can only be rendered intelligible when refracted through these different lenses. The article concludes by considering policy options available to the state in addressing the issue.     

The North American Free Trade Agreement and Women

This article discusses some of the effects of NAFTA on women workers in Canada and Mexico. The main purpose is to show that NAFTA represents a continuation of the capitalist dynamic, which is characterized by the enormous mobility of capital across countries and regions, and which privileges the search for profit. Through an analysis of the labour conditions in Canadian and Mexican manufacturing, the article reveals how this new capitalist period has produced de-industrialization in developed countries while depressing labour conditions in both developed and developing countries. The study indicates that women workers most affected in this process are those working in industries (especially the clothing industry) that seek to reduce their costs of production in order to remain competitive in national and international markets. In addition, those working in regions important to transnational industries, such as the Mexican Free Zones where maquiladoras abound are also seriously affected.     

The Inadmissible “Other”: Discourses of Ableism and Colonialism in Canadian Immigration

This article reports on a critical discourse analysis study exploring how ableism, racism, and neocolonialism play out in Canadian immigration policies. Situated within critical social work theory as well as postcolonial and anticolonial theoretical frameworks, the study focused on Canadian immigration policies in relation to people with disabilities from the global South, an area that has not received sufficient attention in social work research and practice. Findings indicate that discourses concerning risk and protection are central in determining the admissibility and inadmissibility of immigration applicants and reinforce ableism, racism, and neocolonialism. The article concludes with implications for social work practice and research.     

“Plus Ça Change…”: Graduates’ Views of Canadian Females’ Opportunities after 50 Years of Change

New‐Left Feminism emerged on Canadian campuses in 1967. While prior to that date some Canadian women had been concerned with their limited circumstances, by and large, university students expressed little visible support for their cause. In this article, I will show that prior to the debut of New‐Left Feminism, while they may not have been vocal, the 1967 graduates of Glendon College, York University, located in Toronto, Canada, were well aware of the barriers faced by Canadian women. In the intervening half‐century, although many impediments to the full social participation of Canadian women were removed, Glendon graduates of 2017 continued to recognize the existence of limits on female Canadians. Indeed, in some areas, these recent graduates saw more barriers than their counterparts 50 years earlier. This can be attributed, in part, to the attention currently given in curricula to the lives of Canadian women, large numbers of female faculty, a public discourse that includes sexuality and issues of interest to women, and the “relative deprivation” of Canadian females.     

Are equalization payments making Canadians better off? A two-dimensional dominance answer

This article provides a robust normative appraisal of the Canadian equalization transfers system. The two-dimensional dominance criteria introduced by Atkinson and Bourguignon (RES, 1982) are used to compare the distributions of private and public goods before and after equalization payments. Because the distribution before equalization is not observable, it is simulated on the basis of various scenarios that specify both its financing by the federal government and its utilization by provincial governments. The main result of the paper is that, for most scenarios, equalization transfers have an ambiguous normative impact on the distribution of well-being among Canadians and that, for some scenarios, equalization transfers actually worsen this distribution of well-being.     

Academic Hiring Networks and Institutional Prestige: A Case Study of Canadian Sociology

This article examines the academic job market for Canadian sociology through its PhD exchange network. Using an original data set of employed faculty members in 2015 (N = 1,157), I map the hiring relationships between institutions and analyze the observed network structure. My findings show that institutional prestige is a likely organizing force within this network, reflective of a disproportionate number of faculty coming from a few centralized high‐status institutions, as well as predominantly downward flows in hiring patterns. However, further investigation is needed to understand the role of prestige in Canadian higher education, which has been previously characterized as having a flat social structure. This requires attention toward the interrelationships between institutional prestige, scholarly competence, and department size situated within a segmented academic field in Canada. Overall, this study aims to encourage collective self‐reflection and motivate discourse about status‐based inequalities in our own discipline.     

The Canadian Tamil Diaspora and the Politics of Multiculturalism

This article explores Tamil diasporic engagement in Toronto, at the turn of the Sri Lankan struggle in 2009, to foreground the contested and transnational character of Canadian multiculturalism. It asks whether Canadian multicultural discourse provides a space for social and political identity-making within the Tamil-Canadian Diaspora. The article then sketches the way multiculturalism informed Tamil-Canadian identity-making amongst young and older Tamil-Canadians prior to these events. It explores how diasporic identity was then crystallized in 2009 through media and political responses within the mainstream and the Diaspora itself. The article argues that security discourses dramatically prefigured the terms of engagement for Tamil-Canadians during the final months of the civil war in Sri Lanka. It concludes by drawing attention to the transformative possibilities of multiculturalism and the way the diasporic lens that this case study uses may contribute to this discussion.     

Blood donation and institutional trust: risk, policy rhetoric, and the men who have sex with men lifetime deferral policy in Canada

This article examines the process of rebuilding institutional trust in the Canadian blood system in the aftermath of the tainted blood scandal. Our focus is the policy of lifetime deferral from donating blood for men who have sex with men. Drawing on findings from interviews with representatives of Health Canada's Expert Advisory Committee on Blood Regulation, the National Liaison Committee, Canadian Blood Services, and blood consumer groups, we demonstrate how claims making about rights, discrimination, science, and risk contribute to policy continuity. We also examine the link between policy continuity and the management of reputational risk.     

The worldwide market for skilled migrants: can Australia compete?

"The purpose of this article is to...[analyze] the relative importance of internal and external factors on the demand for skilled immigration visas to Australia. Our objectives are to determine how the size of the pool of potential migrants is influenced by factors such as relative economic conditions and U.S. and Canadian immigration policies and to determine what implications these factors have on the relative quality (skill level) of potential migrants to Australia. Our results indicate that the demand for skilled immigration visas to Australia is related to the number of immigrants accepted by the United States and Canada as well as employment possibilities in Australia. We do not find a relationship between U.S. and Canadian policy and the relative quality of the applicant pool."     

Don Juan: A Universal Theme in Ukrainian Drama

This article uses the University of Calgary Gorbachev Foundation Public Policy Project (UCGF99) as a case study for exploring the challenges of international participation in promoting reform of the content and context of public policy in postcommunist Russia. Drawing on evidence from a series of interviews with Russian and Canadian participants, it focuses on how cultural and power issues played out in UCGF99’s work. Because public policy stands at the juncture between state and society, public policy reform is an ideal rubric for exploring how values accompany aid and the way that the culture of the receiving society shapes the implementation of that aid. The interviews reveal an inherent tension between the ideal of egalitarian co-operation and the reality that the work done by the partnership was dedicated, ultimately, to the “reform” of one side by the other. They also highlight the extent to which reform is a process of translation: as concepts and international models make the transition to another society, their own cultural specificity becomes apparent, as does the challenge of translating them in a manner meaningful to the society undergoing “transition.” This article focuses on two related questions of translation: how issues of language, culture and power played out in the “consultant” structure of UCGF99 partnerships, and the concrete challenges of transforming Russian political culture using Canadian models.     

Not Ethnic Enough: The Cultural Identity Imperative in International Adoptions from China to Canada

Based on a qualitative research of adoptions from China to Canada, this article analyses changing attitudes and approaches to racial and ethnic differences in adoptive kinship in the last few decades. I argue that culture celebration labour over children adopted from China is shaped by the contemporary Canadian culturalist ethos, the Orientalist imagination, and the Asian model minority stereotype. The cultural identity imperative, a core component of multicultural governmentality, perceives culture as an object, demands non‐white Canadian subjects with rooted belongings, and operates in ways that sanctions and incorporates, as it depoliticises and subordinates.     

Newspaper Coverage of People with Disabilities in Canada and Israel: an international comparison

In this research study we compared how three Canadian and three Israeli newspapers wrote about people with disabilities over a 3-month period. The comparison included structural variables, such as the length of the articles, where they appeared, whether photographs were used, etc. We also examined content variables, such as who the main character was, the details used to describe this individual or group, and what governmental agencies, service providers and problems were mentioned. Finally, we looked at whether the article was progressive, traditional or mixed in its perspective. Our findings showed a number of significant differences between Canada and Israel. Equally noteworthy, however, were the considerable similarities, such as frequent problems with finances and services, and most of the articles being traditional in focus. The paper concludes with an analysis of the newspaper business and the implications of this for altering the image of disabled people in the media.     

Does receiving an earnings supplement affect union formation? Estimating effects for program participants using propensity score matching

This article demonstrates a novel application of propensity score matching techniques: to estimate nonexperimental impacts on program participants within the context of an experimental research design. The author examines the relationship between program participation, defined as qualifying for an earnings supplement by working full-time, and marital union formation among low-income mothers in two Canadian provinces. The author finds that receipt of an earnings supplement substantially increased union formation in one province but not the other. A subgroup analysis based on propensities of program participation revealed that the positive effect on unions was concentrated among relatively disadvantaged participants. The techniques demonstrated in the article are broadly applicable to studies in which take-up is less than 100% among those randomly assigned to a program group.     

Mexican Seasonal Migration to Canada and Development: A Community-based Comparison

The article explores development and migration. Based on a comparison of investment‐related behaviour of participants of the Canadian Mexican Seasonal Workers Programme from eleven Mexican villages, the article explores the impact of the nature of the migrants' community of origin on development. Contrary to the findings reported by the “new economics of labour migration” theorists, it was found that migrants from the least endowed communities, not from the best endowed communities, are likely to invest in agricultural land. This pattern is related to variable prices of land and the composition of the participants of the Canadian guest worker programme, most of whom are poor. The article draws attention to the importance of considering composition of migrant workers in an analysis of the impact of migration on community development. Development is analysed in the article from both the “growth” and the “quality of living” perspectives and it is found that regardless of the perspective used, the nature of the community does not affect the impact of migration on development.     

FAMILY SIZE IDEALS OF CANADIANS: A METHODOLOGICAL NOTE*

A partir de données recueillies par le sondage d'opinion Canadian Gallup sur le nombre d'enfants par famille considéré comme idéal, cet article suggère que la moyenne de 4.2 enfants par famille, statistique de 1960 fréquemment citée, est faussement exagérée. L'auteur compare les données du sondage de 1960 à celle d'un sondage antérieur (1957). Elle compare aussi les données de récents sondages canadien et américain sur la dimension idéale de la famille. Using data from Canadian Gallup Poll questions on the number of children considered ideal, this paper suggests that the frequently cited 1960 figure of 4.2 children is erroneously inflated. The discussion compares responses in 1960 to responses of an earlier 1957 poll. Comparisons are also made between American and Canadian responses to recent questions on ideal family size.     

Social constructions of fatness: legal proceedings in Canada as a case in point

This article uses reports of cases of Canadian legal processes to explore social constructions of fatness as disability, as well as illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame. The review of cases in Canadian human rights, civil, administrative, and employment law suggests that fatness has been constructed as a disability in Canadian law. This has led to favourable outcomes for fat persons seeking redress for discrimination. Illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame also surface as recurrent themes. To consider all four themes, a concept of mythopoeia – myth-making process – is introduced. This adds to models of social construction by focusing on where ‘un-reality’ is constructed in a non-hierarchical view of marginal identities. Fatness constructions/mythopoeia of disability, illness, cultural aesthetic, and blame overlap as well as diverge. This suggests that fatness may be an incomplete fit with current classifications in human rights law.