Your search

This dissertation sits at the intersection of critical international political economy and a decolonizing, anti-racist approach to empirical political science. Specifically, I examine how liberal state forms are presupposed by and premised upon illiberal practices of sorting, policing, and defining populations. Rather than view such practices as anomalous to the modern state form, I view them as productive. I depart from the dominant literature in this field of study (postcolonial theory) with a typical focus on discursive and local practices, and instead advance a defense of Marxism rooted in an examination of the material practices of states responding to global political-economic pressures. This analytical and methodological focus stems from an engagement with the theoretical and empirical work conducted through Political Marxism, and through an engagement with the concept of uneven and combined development. I compare instances of racialized nation-building from the nineteenth century, focusing on the ways in which the creation of racialized hierarchies of belonging were seminal to the production of liberal state capacity and legitimacy. I examine the cases of Canada and Argentina to explore how the dispossession and management of indigenous peoples served to foment vast networks of bureaucratic, fiduciary, and coercive state capacities. Such capacities were necessary in the project of constructing competitive liberal economies to respond to pressures generated by an emergent global market in agricultural goods. This work sheds new light on the role of race and racialization in the formation of the nation-state system, while responding to and contesting common assumptions about the legal equality assumed to underpin Western nationalism(s).

The articles reviews the book, "Technology and the Future of Work: The Impact on Labour Markets and Welfare States," by Bent Greve.

Have Indigenous people in Canada been active as wage labourers and union members? If so, what have been the circumstances? When and where and for what reasons have Indigenous people worked for wages and been union members and how have they fared in these roles? In this short paper we examine a wide range of recent studies that have looked at various aspects of these questions.

Indigenous people have worked for wages for more than 150 years in Canada, and before that in what was to become Canada. They have often been members of unions and in some cases actively. They have been known to engage in strike actions even when not represented by a union. However, relations between Indigenous people and unions have often been difficult. In many cases unions have failed to serve the interests of Indigenous wage workers. --Introduction

This article examines the effect of transformational and laisser‐faire leadership on the part of local union leaders and immediate supervisors on the dual commitment of unionised workers. Building on the social information processing perspective, it is suggested that these leadership styles are linked to commitment through the workplace relations climate (WRC). Based on a sample of 834 unionised workers, our results suggest that WRC represents an important mechanism explaining the effect of the immediate supervisor's leadership in unionised settings. Results also show that transformational leadership on the part of union representatives is positively linked to union and organisational commitment. This article contributes to the WRC and dual commitment literatures by going beyond structural and institutional explanations and considering relational and actor‐related variables, such as leadership styles.

In October 2005, Jason Foster, then a staff member of the Alberta Federation of Labour, was walking a picket line outside Lakeside Packers in Brooks, Alberta with the members of local 401. It was a first contract strike. And although the employees of the meat-packing plant—many of whom were immigrants and refugees—had chosen an unlikely partner in the United Food and Commercial Workers local, the newly formed alliance allowed the workers to stand their ground for a three-week strike that ended in the defeat of the notoriously anti-union company, Tyson Foods. It was but one example of a wide range of industries and occupations that local 401 organized over the last twenty years. In this study of UFCW 401, Foster investigates a union that has had remarkable success organizing a group of workers that North American unions often struggle to reach: immigrants, women, and youth. By examining not only the actions and behaviour of the local’s leadership and its members but also the narrative that accompanied the renewal of the union, Foster shows that both were essential components to legitimizing the leadership’s exercise of power and its unconventional organizing forces. -- Publisher's description

This article reviews the book, "Unfree Labour? Struggles of Migrant and Immigrant Workers in Canada," edited by Aziz Choudry and Adrian A. Smith.

Les démarches relatives aux « compétences », qui marquent la gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) depuis quelques décennies, recourent à des référentiels servant à établir les compétences à maîtriser et déployer. Ces outils de gestion s’inscrivent dans un contexte organisationnel évolutif et interactif suscitant des interrogations, particulièrement sur la façon de les déployer afin qu’ils traduisent les compétences valorisées par les parties concernées et celles effectivement déployées.

This chapter explores the relationship between the social organization of migrant workers’ unfreedom through the conditionality of legal status and how the creation and deployment of precarious migrant labour regulates national labour markets. It begins by drawing the connections between neoliberal labour regimes, immigration controls, and the exploitation of migrant workers. It shows how precarious migrant status is linked to precarious employment, and how the categories of “foreigner” and “citizen” are used to justify the unfreedom and hyper-exploitation of migrant workers. Focusing on “low-skilled” occupations within the food services sector in which precarious (low-paid and insecure) jobs predominate, this chapter then describes the “low-skilled” (since October 2014 called “low-wage”) stream of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, its growth, the “public” reaction to foreigners taking Canadian jobs, and the government’s response to this controversy.

The article reviews and comments on the books, "Contemporary Slavery: Popular Rhetoric and Political Practice," edited by Annie Bunting and Joel Quirk, "Modern Slavery: The Margins of Freedom," by Julia O'Connell Davidson, and "The Poverty of Work: Selling Servant, Slave and Temporary Labor on the Free Market," by David Van Arsdale.

This article reviews the book, "Equality on Trial: Gender and Rights in the Modern American Workplace" by Katherine Turk.

The global agricultural industry is increasingly supported by transnational migrant labour. The experience of this precarious workforce in receiving states has been the focus of intensified scrutiny by policy-makers and academics at the global and national scale. Drawing on field research we examine how the International Organization for Migration was involved in the development of a transnational labour migration corridor from Guatemala to Canada, and how the organisation’s activities are associated with new forms of migration governance. This story, while unique in some ways, illustrates the increased complexity of the international management of migration. For instance, destination states such as Canada continue to play key roles in the management and recruitment of temporary labour migration but other actors have also entered the picture. This development, as this case illustrates, places migrant workers in increasingly vulnerable positions, while states can disclaim responsibility for their plight.

This article reviews the book, "The Second Line of Defense: American Women and World War I" by Lynn Dumenil.

This institutional ethnographic study explores the coordinated processes that organize Black female child protection workers’ (re)construction of their role as carers in the Ontario child protection system. This examination occurs within the backdrop of colonialism and shifting and unequal power relations in Canada. Absent from social work research is an understanding of the complex sequences of actions in every day child protection activities that authorize colonial ideologies and practices and the impact of Black female child protection workers’ negotiation of this context on their well-being. This study’s informant sample includes 9 Black female child protection workers currently employed at a child protection institution in Ontario. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and textual analysis. The findings revealed colonialism in the child protection system is maintained through institutional patterns of exclusion and acts of dissimulation in the institutional discourse and practice. In response, Black female child protection workers resist colonial practices through their injection of acts of caring into their work. At the same time, their constant experiences of structural violence lead to institutional trauma. This research highlights a contradiction within the social work framework; the overt espousal of human rights and social justice as ethical priorities, while covertly maintaining colonialism in the child protection system, specifically towards Black female child protection workers and their communities. The findings advance social work knowledge by offering a way to identify the existence and the impact of the colonial context on Black female child protection workers as well as map out the sequences of actions or inactions that embed colonial ideologies and practices in the child protection system.

This article reviews the book, "Writers' Rights: Freelance Journalism in a Digital Age" by Nicole Cohen.

En contexte de réadaptation au travail, l'action concertée (concertation) serait déterminante pour le succes du retour au travail. Or, un débat théorique entoure toujours le concept de concertation ?, qui peut étre rapproché (ou non) de la négociation ?. De plus, aucune étude n'a encore exploré les processus de prises de décisions collectives a partir d'échanges entre les multiples parties prenantes a un programme de réadaptation au travail. Cet article vise a proposer des définitions opérationnelles distinguant la concertation de la négociation, puis a les tester en contexte de réadaptation au travail. D'abord, des définitions de l'action concertée ?, de la concertation et de la négociation sont comparées, afin d'en venir a distinguer ces deux derniers concepts, notamment par la présence de conflit(s) et des relations (de coopération/ collaboration) entre les parties. Les définitions proposées sont, ensuite, testées empiriquement a partir de données issues d'une étude de cas multiples (N=6) qui explore les processus de prises de décisions entre les parties prenantes a un programme de réadaptation au travail. Les données de l'étude montrent l'importance de comprendre la concertation et la négociation comme des types de processus de prises de décisions complexes et dynamiques. L'étude permet aussi de distinguer la concertation et la négociation a l'aide des définitions proposées en contexte de réadaptation au travail. Le recours a ces définitions pourrait engendrer d'importantes retombées, notamment sur le plan des pratiques en réadaptation au travail. Ces définitions pourraient, en effet, permettre de mieux cibler des stratégies a privilégier pour atteindre des décisions favorables au retour durable et en bonne santé des travailleurs en incapacité, selon le type de prise de décisions anticipé. Ceci dit, d'autres études devront venir approfondir la connaissance des processus de prises de décisions collectives (incluant la concertation et la négociation) en contexte de réadaptation au travail, ainsi que leurs liens possibles avec le succes ou l'échec du retour au travail.

For decades, emancipatory struggles have been deeply influenced by the slogan “Change the world without taking power.” Amid growing social inequalities and the return of right-wing authoritarianism, however, many now recognize the limits of disengaging from government and the state. From the Streets to the State chronicles many diverse and exciting projects to not only take state power but to fundamentally change it. A blend of scholars and activists explore issues like the nonsectarian relationships between new radical left parties, egalitarian social movements, and labor movements in Greece, Germany, Spain, Portugal, and Turkey. Contributors discuss municipal campaigns based in popular assemblies, solidarity economies, and independent political organizations fighting for racial, gender, and economic justice in cities such as Jackson, Vancouver, and Newcastle. This volume also studies the lessons learned from the Pink Tide in Latin America as well as the social movements of racialized and gendered workers transforming human rights across the United States. Finally, the book offers case studies from around the world surveying the role of state workers and public sector unions in radically democratizing public administration through coalitions between the providers and users of public services. -- Publisher's description. Contents: Part 1: Changing the World...and Ourselves: The Radical Left and the Problems of State Power. From the streets to the state : a critical introduction / Paul Christopher Gray -- Democratizing the party and the state : transcending the limits of the left / Leo Panitch. Part 2: Confronting Leviathan: Parties, Social Movements, and the Capitalist State. Building "parties of a new type" : a comparative analysis of new radical left parties In Western Europe / Xavier Lafrance and Catarina Príncipe -- Watching over the right to turn left : the limits of state autonomy in pink tide Venezuela and Ecuador / Thomas Chiasson-LeBel -- Casting shadows : Chokwe Lumumba and the struggle for racial justice and economic democracy in Jackson, Mississippi / Kali Akuno -- The radical democracy of the People's Democratic Party : transforming the Turkish state / Erdem Yörük -- Toward a radical politics of rights : lessons about legal leveraging and its limitations / Michael McCann and George I. Lovell. Part 3: In, against, and beyond the Behemoth: Projects for “Democratic Administration.” Market failures, failing states : challenges for democratization projects / Greg Albo -- Forging a "social knowledge economy" : transformative collaborations between radical left governments, state workers, and solidarity economies / Hilary Wainwright -- Femocratic administration and the politics of transformation / Tammy Findlay -- Beyond service, beyond coercion? : prisoner co-ops and the path to democratic administration / Greg McElligott.

The article reviews the book, "Agir ensemble. Penser la démocratie sydicale," by Christian Nadeau.

Le but de cet article est de comprendre la dynamique de mediation en associant ses antecedents, ses differentes manifestations et un resultat : l'accord. Théoriquement, en proposant une approche synthétique qui integre des elements contextuels, comme la presence de tiers ou les caracteristiques des mediateurs, cette recherche realise une contribution academique importante, d'autant que ces elements sont demeures ignores par la litterature. Empiriquement, le choix du contexte français est porteur d'enseignements manageriaux importants. Lorsque le nouveau gouvernement redefinit les fondements du droit du travail en donnant un nouveau rôle a la branche professionnelle, mieux comprendre comment l'action d'un mediateur valorise l'emergence d'un accord nous apparaît fructueux pour tous les partenaires. De meme, ce travail permet de valoriser la complexity du rôle tenu par le mediateur pour l'obtention d'un accord.

Thousands of Russian anarchist immigrants, organized by the Union of Russian Workers (URW), took part in a surging union movement and strike wave that broke out across North America in the 1910s. However, they have received scant attention from historians, and no account of the URW exists. My dissertation fills in this gap by detailing the activity of the URW against the background of the rising labor movement, and it considers the question of anarchism's relationship to the working class. Historians have traditionally situated anarchism outside of the labor movement, yet the Russian anarchists in North America joined both radical and mainstream unions, and URW leaders recruited migrants explicitly by appealing to their class interests as foreign workers exploited by American capitalism. The study highlights the anarchists’ involvement in labor organizing, and it centers their perspectives to help narrate a history of the period. It first traces a history of the international anarchist movement along with migration patterns to North America in order to contextualize the research and shed light on the origins of the URW and why their story matters. Utilizing anarchist publications, local English-language newspapers, government surveillance files, and archival materials, the study finds that URW members made a wide array of contributions to the emerging industrial union movement in the United States and developed a critique of American capitalism that ranged beyond the immediate strikes. It argues that alongside the Industrial Workers of the World, the URW helped to push labor to the left and prepare the ground for the rise of major industrial unions with socialist leanings in the 1930s. Simultaneously, the study shows how the URW harnessed its strength in North America to make substantial material contributions to the anarchist movement in Russia, in the lead up to the 1917 revolution, while developing an anti-Bolshevik critique also echoed by subsequent movements on the left. By locating Russian anarchism and the URW in the labor movement, this study challenges historiographical claims which deny anarchism's working-class character. Thus, it contributes to a growing body of newer research which finds the anarchist movement rooted in labor and working-class organizing.