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The article reviews the book, "Respectable Citizens: Gender, Family, and Unemployment in Ontario's Great Depression," by Lara Campbell.

This article considers the significance of indigenous economic systems in contemporary society. It argues that indigenous economic systems have to be taken into account much more systematically than thus far in considerations of indigenous governance. The article contends that indigenous economic systems need to play a more central role in envisioning and shaping meaningful, comprehensive, and sustainable systems of contemporary indigenous self-governance. If indigenous economies are not taken into account, there is a serious danger of losing the very identities that constitute indigenous peoples. ...The article consists of three sections. The first section discusses definitions and contemporary significance of subsistence and indigenous economies. It questions the prevailing narrow, economistic analyses and interpretations of subsistence. Although economic development projects such as resource extraction may improve fiscal independence and strengthen the economic base of indigenous communities, they also present serious threats to indigenous economies.The second section examines the relationship between subsistence and wage labor, particularly from the perspective of women. It also considers the “war on subsistence” waged by the development and modernization theories, which continue to contribute to views of subsistence as “primitive” and “pre-modern.” The third section takes a closer look at the often glossed over roles of indigenous women in subsistence activities. It questions the conventional binary economic roles of man-the-hunter versus woman-the-gatherer and argues for a broader lens when assessing economic roles and divisions of labor along gendered lines. The article concludes with an examination of indigenous economic systems and the concept of the social economy as a foundation for contemporary indigenous governance. --From Introduction

Healing Together : The Labor-Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente, by Thomas A. Kochan, Adrienne E. Eaton, Robert B. McKersie, and Paul S. Adler, is reviewed.

Cette étude examine le cas du Mouvement Desjardins dans le secteur financier au Québec. À partir d’un sondage téléphonique auprès de 576 employées syndiquées du Mouvement Desjardins, les principaux résultats de cette recherche quantitative font valoir une plus grande remise en question du syndicalisme par les professionnelles, les personnes développant de faibles sociabilités au travail et celles qui sont insatisfaites de leur salaire. En contrepartie, les conditions de travail défavorables et les actions syndicales proactives et démocratiques renforcent l’adhésion syndicale des femmes.Le cadre de la recherche sollicite quatre approches théoriques afin de dégager les principaux éléments du rapport d’emploi pouvant affecter l’adhésion syndicale. Tout en considérant les approches matérialiste et instrumentale, le principal apport théorique de cet article prescrit une jonction entre les nouvelles identités professionnelles des femmes, sources d’effritement du syndicalisme, et les actions syndicales, sources de renforcement du syndicalisme.En s’insérant dans les débats actuels sur l’avenir du syndicalisme, cet article se penche sur le rapport identitaire des femmes syndiquées à l’égard du syndicalisme. En abordant la crise du syndicalisme par la difficulté de représenter la main-d’oeuvre professionnelle dans le secteur des services, cette étude vise à saisir l’arrimage entre les nouvelles identités professionnelles des femmes et l’adhésion syndicale.

The article reviews the book, "Travail et citoyenneté : quel avenir ?," edited by Michel Coutu and Gregor Murray.

Cet article contribue au renouvellement de la réflexion sur la citoyenneté au travail en s’appuyant sur la théorie de la citoyenneté sociale de Linda Bosniak pour étudier deux groupes de travailleurs (concepteurs de jeux vidéo et artistes interprètes) incombant à une même figure emblématique du travail contemporain, soit le travail du savoir très qualifié, mobile et organisé sous la forme de projets. À l’heure où le travail du savoir prend de plus en plus d’importance dans les économies développées, il importe de prendre acte de ce qu’il occupe une position très différente de la dépendance économique du citoyen industriel dont la compétence est substituable. À la différence de la division industrielle entre la conception et l’exécution, le travail y mobilise la personne entière du travailleur plutôt que sa seule force de travail, dans un processus créatif d’innovation sur un marché très compétitif où l’apport créateur du travailleur est un atout déterminant. Les auteures y étudient l’état contemporain de la représentation des intérêts chez des travailleurs du savoir et de leur participation à la régulation de leur travail, à la fois localement et à l’échelle sociale, à l’aide de deux études de cas où des travailleurs très qualifiés transitent constamment entre des projets à courte durée déterminée plutôt que de jouir d’une relation d’emploi stable à long terme. Confrontés à des problèmes et à des enjeux collectifs, ces travailleurs déploient des moyens originaux de participer à la régulation de leur travail, hors du syndicalisme. La discussion met finalement en évidence l’émergence non seulement de nouveaux modes de représentation mais d’un nouveau citoyen au travail, à la recherche de droits et d’avantages différents du citoyen industriel de l’ère fordiste et ceci, dans un espace plus large que celui de l’entreprise.

The article reviews the book, "The Dirt: Industrial Disease and Conflict at St. Lawrence, Newfoundland," by Rick Rennie.

The article reviews the book, "The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal," by Sean Mills.

The American trade union movement constitutes a social democratic bloc within U.S. politics. Often successful in expanding the welfare state, American unions have almost always failed to win legislation advancing their institutional strength and political legitimacy. This has been particularly true during the prosperous postwar era (1947-1979) when a depoliticalized form of collective bargaining stood at the centre of the U.S. system of industrial accommodation and conflict. But today that system is ineffectual, forcing the trade unions to return to a system of state-centred, corporatist bargaining reminiscent of that which sustained the unions during the era of the late New Deal and World War II. But this 21~ century system is a weak and tenuous version of corporatism, largely and dangerously confined to local government and those industries dependent on the state for revenue and regulation.

The article reviews the book, "Managing the Canadian Mosaic in Wartime: Shaping Citizenship Policy, 1939-1945," by Ivana Caccia.

The article reviews the book, "A Woman of Valour: The Biography of Marie-Louise Bouchard Labelle," by Claire Trépanier, with translation by Louise Matha.

The article reviews the book, "The Technological Imperative in Canada: An Intellectual History," by R. Douglas Francis.

Using Statistics Canada’s Workplace and Employee Survey (WES) data for 2003 and 2004, this research note addresses an important component of labour market retention by investigating whether the presence of workplace child care and elder care programs influences employees’ decision to quit. The key findings are as follows: (a) workplace elder care support is almost non-existent in Canada; (b) employees are more likely to remain with an organization that offers workplace child care support programs; and (c) those employees who actually use the workplace child care support are even more likely to stay with the organization. We suggest that future research should assess whether the particular support programs themselves ‘cause’ employees to stay, or whether there are other factors (within organizations offering these support programs) that account for the retention.

Changes in Japanese Employment Practices: Beyond the Japanese Model, by Arjan Keizer, is reviewed

There has been an increase in the number of incoming temporary migrant workers to Canada over the past decade. In this article, I critically assess recent changes in the law governing temporary migration to Canada by using theoretical tools from the fields of sociology, geography, and legal geography. A multidisciplinary framework to understand Canada's labour migration policies is provided. Within the socio-historical context of migrant labour regulation in Canada, I argue that political and regulatory developments function to further entrench segregation and exclusion of foreign workers by maintaining a subclass of flexible labour. Specifically, I show that Canada's current temporary migration regime retains the country's historical role as an ethnocratic settler state in which the regulation of migrant workers creates inherent boundaries. These boundaries demarcate racially identified space(s) on the basis of the economic and political logic underlying temporary migration.

Review of: "Les jeunesses au travail : regards croisés France-Québec," edited by Christian Papinot and Mircea Vultur.

The article reviews the book ,"Working for Justice: The L.A. Model of Organizing and Advocacy," edited by Ruth Milkman, Joshua Bloom, and Victor Narro.

The article reviews the book, "The West and Beyond: New Perspectives on an Imagined Region," edited by Alvin Finkel, Sarah Carter, and Peter Fortna.