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Megacity Malaise

Author: Carlo Fanelli

Publisher: Fernwood Publishing

Published: 2016-07-01T00:00:00Z

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 155266838X

“[A] political economist with a gift– due to his not having forgotten his working class background– for bringing complex economic problems down to their real world implications for working people.” - Jeff Noonan Megacity Malaise documents how municipal governance, labour-management relations and public services have been transformed during the postwar period. Carlo Fanelli begins with an analysis of neoliberalism, exposing the underlying social and political causes of urban fiscal crises. Fanelli shows how municipal finances have been eroded to justify the policies of permanent austerity, which has led to a deterioration of public services and demands for concessions from civic workers based on the contention that they are unaffordable. Focusing on the post-amalgamation era at the city of Toronto, Fanelli draws on his experiences as a former city worker and trade unionist to make the case that a new municipal agenda infused with a sense of social and workplace justice is necessary to overcome mounting registers of social inequality. Alternative approaches to public policy must be rooted in a political project that challenges the continued reliance on tax cuts as a cure for nearly all of society’s social ills and municipal governance that rejects the marketization of everyday life.

The Right to an Age-Friendly City

Author: Meghan Joy

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2020-12-03

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0228004683

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A context of aging populations and urbanization has sparked a global movement to make urban spaces age-friendly. The Age-Friendly City program, developed by the World Health Organization, aims to improve local environments for all population groups, promote a positive aging identity, and empower local policy actors to support senior citizens. Despite growing enthusiasm and policy work by local governments worldwide, considerable gaps remain. These lacunae have led scholars and activists alike to align age-friendly city work with the concept of the right to the city. In The Right to an Age-Friendly City Meghan Joy zeroes in on the intricacies of developing an environment that promotes social and spatial justice for the elderly in Toronto. Weaving together the stories, struggles, and victories of local activists, government staff, and frontline service providers, Joy maps this complex policy area and examines the ways in which age-friendly work successfully enhances senior citizens' access to services and support in the local environment, recognizes the diverse needs of senior citizens in the city, and empowers policy actors from local government and the non-profit sector to support senior citizens. A detailed and timely examination, The Right to an Age-Friendly City offers both broad and tangible insights into the intermingled political, economic, cultural, and administrative changes needed to protect the rights of senior citizens to access urban space in Toronto and beyond.

Divided Province

Author: Greg Albo

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2019-02-28

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 0773555684

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No government jurisdiction in Canada has so radically transformed its public policies over the past decades as Ontario, and yet the province has also maintained a striking degree of political stability in its party system. Since the 1990s, neoliberalism has been the point of reference in constructing policy agendas for all of Ontario's political parties. It has guided the strategy for governance of the dominant Liberal Party since 2003, even as it divides the province between workers and employers, north and south, rural and urban, and racialized minorities and the majority population. With a focus on the governments of Mike Harris, Dalton McGuinty, and Kathleen Wynne, Divided Province brings together leading researchers to dissect the province's public policies since the 1990s. Presenting original, state-of-the-art research, the book demonstrates that, although the Conservative government of Mike Harris implemented the sharpest and most profound shift towards the establishment of a neoliberal regime in the province, the subsequent Liberal governments consolidated that neoliberal turn. The essays in this volume explore the consequences of this ideological turn across a spectrum of policies, including health, education, poverty, energy, employment, manufacturing, and how it has impacted workers, women, First Nations, and other distinct communities. The first book to offer a comprehensive critical account of neoliberalism in Ontario, Divided Province overturns conventional readings of the province's politics and suggests that building a more democratic and egalitarian alternative to the current orthodoxy requires nothing less than a radical rupture from existing policies and political alliances. Without such a decisive break, political space may well open up again for the populist right.

Across Boundaries

Author: André Blais

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2021-06-09

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 0228007100

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Why and how does secession happen? How do different levels of government interact with each other? Why do some multilevel governments work better than others? What makes political extremism so virulent in today's society? These are some of the most pressing questions in political science today. These questions and research areas – secession, multilevel government, and political economy – were the focus of the writing and scholarship of Robert (Bob) Andrew Young (1950–2017), Canada Research Chair in Multilevel Governance at the University of Western Ontario and one of Canada's most distinguished political scientists. In Across Boundaries Young's former colleagues and students bring together contributions from his extensive network, which included academics, government officials, and media personalities. These essays speak to Young's legacy while providing new insight into research in multilevel governance, secession, and political economy. Young's body of work is exemplary in its attention to concrete policy issues as well as in the breadth of his interest across many subfields of political science. Across Boundaries honours his distinguished career and gives students, professors, and practitioners further insight into his scholarship.

Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era

Author: Chris Hurl

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-08-31

Total Pages: 351

ISBN-13: 3030721280

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This volume explores the influence of professional service firms on public policy-making from a global perspective. Drawing on cases studies from around the world, researchers from different disciplines—including sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, history, and management studies—examine how professional service firms have generated power in the policy-making process. The chapters further investigate the structure and organization of these firms and their relationship with public agencies. They discuss the impact of strategies, techniques and models promoted by these firms on political decision-making. And they analyze how these firms have contributed to the formation of global policy-pipelines, facilitating the quick diffusion of policy ideas across time and space. Exposing how professional advisors can undermine democratic decision-making, the chapters in this book explore the potential for resistance and regulation of public-private relationships.

Assembling Moral Mobilities

Author: Nicholas A. Scott

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 2020-02

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 1496219414

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In the years since the new mobilities paradigm burst onto the social scientific scene, scholars from various disciplines have analyzed the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of transport, contesting its long-dominant understandings as defined by engineering and economics. Still, the vast majority of mobility studies, and even key works that mention the “good life” and its dependence on the car, fail to consider mobilities in connection with moral theories of the common good. In Assembling Moral Mobilities Nicholas A. Scott presents novel ways of understanding how cycling and driving animate urban space, place, and society and investigates how cycling can learn from the ways in which driving has become invested with moral value. By jointly analyzing how driving and cycling reassembled the “good city” between 1901 and 2017, with a focus on various cities in Canada, in Detroit, and in Oulu, Finland, Scott confronts the popular notion that cycling and driving are merely antagonistic systems and challenges social-scientific research that elides morality and the common good. Instead of pitting bikes against cars, Assembling Moral Mobilities looks at five moral values based on canonical political philosophies of the common good, and argues that both cycling and driving figure into larger, more important “moral assemblages of mobility,” finally concluding that the deeper meta-lesson that proponents of cycling ought to take from driving is to focus on ecological responsibility, equality, and home at the expense of neoliberal capitalism. Scott offers a fresh perspective of mobilities and the city through a multifaceted investigation of cycling informed by historical lessons of automobility.

Canadian Political Economy

Author: Heather Whiteside

Publisher: University of Toronto Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 1487523483

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Engaging with themes of conflict, change, and crisis, this book re-invigorates the distinct interdisciplinary field of Canadian political economy.

Change and Continuity

Author: Mark P. Thomas

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2019-08-28

Total Pages: 424

ISBN-13: 0773558454

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In a period characterized by growing social inequality, precarious work, the legacies of settler colonialism, and the emergence of new social movements, Change and Continuity presents innovative interdisciplinary research as a guide to understanding Canada's political economy and a contribution to progressive social change. Assessing the legacy of the Canadian political economy tradition – a broad body of social science research on power, inequality, and change in society – the essays in this volume offer insight into contemporary issues and chart new directions for future study. Chapters from both emerging and established scholars expand the boundaries of Canadian political economy research, seeking new understandings of the forces that shape society, the ensuing conflicts and contradictions, and the potential for social justice. Engaging with interconnected topics that include shifts in immigration policy, labour market restructuring, settler colonialism, the experiences of people with disabilities, and the revitalization of workers' movements, this collection builds upon and deepens critical analysis of Canadian society and considers its application to contexts beyond Canada. The latest in a series of related volumes on Canadian political economy, Change and Continuity explores the past, present, and potential futures of the discipline in a global context, offering insight into some of the most pressing issues of our time.

The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity

Author: Bryan M. Evans

Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP

Published: 2018-07-23

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 0773554181

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Following the 2008 global financial crisis, Canada appeared to escape the austerity implemented elsewhere, but this was spin hiding the reality. A closer look reveals that the provinces – responsible for delivering essential public and social services such as education and healthcare – shouldered the burden. The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity examines public-sector austerity in the provinces and territories, specifically addressing how austerity was implemented, what forms austerity agendas took (from regressive taxes and new user fees to public-sector layoffs and privatization schemes), and what, if any, political responses resulted. Contributors focus on the period from 2007 to 2015, the global financial crisis and the period of fiscal consolidation that followed, while also providing a longer historical context – austerity is not a new phenomenon. A granular examination of each jurisdiction identifies how changing fiscal conditions have affected the delivery of public services and restructured public finances, highlighting the consequences such changes have had for public-sector workers and users of public services. The first book of its kind in Canada, The Public Sector in an Age of Austerity challenges conventional wisdom by showing that Canada did not escape post-crisis austerity, and that its recovery has been vastly overstated.

Rising Up

Author: Bryan Evans

Publisher: UBC Press

Published: 2021-02-15

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 0774864397

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Rising Up traces the history and international context of living wage movements across Canada. This compassionate and astute collection of essays shines a light on alternatives to a neoliberalized labour market, examining union- and community-based approaches to labour organizing, migrant labour, and media (mis)representations, among other key topics. Canada has one of the highest rates of low-wage work among advanced industrial economies. In a labour market characterized by the ongoing fallout from COVID-19, deepening income inequality, job instability, and diluted union representation, the living wage movement offers a response and solutions.