Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd – förlag

Why is it hard to make and keep friends as an adult? Even if you finally find time to see each other, can you connect more deeply than just catching up over coffee? How many do you count as ride-or-die pals who’ll always show up with effervescent banter and deep conversation — your “chosen family?”Widespread loneliness reflects a world of crappy jobs and unaffordable housing that makes it almost impossible to have close, interwoven friendships. A dwindling social safety net takes a toll on us and on our relationships. Particularly for queer people, friendships can be crucial relations of equality, constancy, and care. Still, we disappoint each other and fall into irreparable conflict.A less lonely world is possible. Through interviews, research, and personal narrative, this book shows how people build tight connections despite living in the austere conditions of colonial capitalism — boldly weaving a new social fabric as this one unravels.

In Decolonizing Trauma Work, Renee Linklater explores healing and wellness in Indigenous communities on Turtle Island. Drawing on a decolonizing approach, which puts the “soul wound” of colonialism at the centre, Linklater engages ten Indigenous health care practitioners in a dialogue regarding Indigenous notions of wellness and wholistic health, critiques of psychiatry and psychiatric diagnoses, and Indigenous approaches to helping people through trauma, depression and experiences of parallel and multiple realities. Through stories and strategies that are grounded in Indigenous worldviews and embedded with cultural knowledge, Linklater offers purposeful and practical methods to help individuals and communities that have experienced trauma. Decolonizing Trauma Work, one of the first books of its kind, is a resource for education and training programs, health care practitioners, healing centres, clinical services and policy initiatives.

For Land and Culture offers the first comprehensive account of a long forgotten and neglected grassroots movement. In the wake of Iran's 1979 revolution, Turkmen peasants collectively occupied their ancestral lands, which had been seized through colonial modernization, land registry and land reform under the Pahlavi monarchy. The book chronicles this movement using theoretical and historical engagement with the modern councils and offers a detailed account of the "land question" in Iran's colonial modernization. The book describes the systematic dispossession of Turkmen communities from some of the most fertile areas in Iran. Vahabzadeh shows how Turkmen land occupation in 1979 led to a sophisticated council system that offered a practical politics of semi-autonomous, democratic self-governance in the face of hostile militias and other forces of the nascent authoritarian Islamic Republic. With social justice as one of its unshakable pillars, the Turkmen council movement took back land as commons and abolished capitalist private ownership of land, providing an alternative to top-down politics until it was defeated by the state through a combination of military terror and assimilation. Although short lived, the radically democratic movement connected with global struggles of Indigenous Peoples and autonomous movements who had broken away from patriarchal state forms and capitalist domination.

In 2019, Regina's Co-op Refinery Complex (CRC), a subsidiary of Federated Co-operative, locked out Unifor Local 594 after collective bargaining negotiations failed. CRC used the transition to a "low carbon" future as the justification for concessions on working conditions and reducing the workers' pension plan. The lockout demonstrates what a "just transition" means to fossil fuel corporations: rollbacks of collective bargaining, worker rights, cooperative spirit and environmental justice. In the name of a new future, Federated Co-operative and the Saskatchewan government trampled all over important worker rights -- the right to strike and picket, occupational health and safety, pensions and collective bargaining. It also highlights the sorry state of co-operative values in Canada. As corporations and governments are poised to make a transition that will be detrimental to workers and communities, this books argues that solidarity between unions and community movements is absolutely necessary to make the transition away from fossil fuels a just one.

When our infrastructures deteriorate, when social benefits are frozen, when our living conditions are precarious, it is because of tax havens. A source of growing inequalities and colossal tax losses, the use of tax havens by large corporations and wealthy individuals explains the increasingly popular austerity policies of governments in the West.With formidable efficacy and clarity, and in the wake of the Paradise Papers leak, Alain Deneault raises the political questions behind of this legalized theft: What are the consequences of tax havens? How do we counter the private sovereignty thus conferred on the powerful? As taxpayers shoulder the social and financial burdens while corporations hide billions in off-shore tax havens, Deneault identifies the urgent need to put an end to this legalized theft.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Effects (FAS/E) are particularly serious problems in many northern communities. Canadian material on this subject is lacking and services are poorly developed. Part of the reason has to do with the relatively recent recognition of FAS/E. However there is also the problem of hinterland location and resulting marginalization of populations in Northern parts of the country. The intent of this book is to provide an informative, practical and critical resource that will be useful to people such as social workers, educators, foster parents, case aides and nurses who provide direct service to those affected by FAS/E. The book challenges program planners and policy makers to recognize the seriousness of the problem and its long term effects. Contributors largely represent actual human service workers as opposed to academics.

The explosive and dramatic growth of poverty in Winnipeg, and strategies for combating poverty, are the subject of this collection. Some of the chapters discuss the severity and the consequences of poverty; others describe policy solutions, with a particular emphasis on community-based solutions. Included are chapters on: the growth and incidence of poverty in Winnipeg; the impact of poverty on, and community economic development strategies being developed by, Winnipeg’s Aboriginal community; community-based schooling as a response to inner city poverty; the experience with workfare in Manitoba; the importance of the minimum wage in combating poverty; and a wide range of small but innovative and exciting community development alternatives which are proving their worth in Winnipeg’s inner city. While the focus is on Winnipeg, and particularly Winnipeg’s inner city, where poverty levels are astonishingly high and still rising, the patterns analyzed and the policy alternatives offered are applicable to communities across Canada.

Ten years after the publication of Creating Choices, a remarkable report on women’s imprisonment in Canada, this book sets out to reflect on attempts to reform prison. In a series of critical essays, the contributors stimulate reflection and discussion. They explore the effects of punishment and penality on women’s lives, the impact of feminist reforms on the lives of women in prison and the systemic barriers which limit change in the context of both provincial and federal prisons. Each of the authors has a personal and sometimes intimate knowledge of the recent history of women’s prisons in Canada. Taking Creating Choices as a starting point, these essays question the role of prisons in our society, the importance of taking account of gender and its intersection with race and class, and the problems of both weak feminist models and the co-optation of feminist ideals and Aboriginal spirituality by correctional systems.

This book addresses questions of anti-racism and its connections with difference in a variety of educational settings and schooling practices. The focus is on systems, structures and relations of domination, and particularly the racist, classist and sexist construction of reality that serve as dominant paradigms for viewing and interpreting lives and historical realities. The contributors contend that anti-racist concerns with difference matter only if they contribute to an understanding of difference within contexts of social domination.

This book brings violence in sport to life through athletes’ own stories of abuse. The authors scrutinize the values underlying sport by examining the contradictory experiences of Canada’s elite athletes. Values such as competition, compulsory heterosexuality and patriotism are analyzed for their effects on athletes, coaches and the culture of sport. The authors recommend revamping these values in order to create a more ethical and caring sport scene for all. They describe changes that have been made by sports organizations and point to further steps that need to be taken by all who participate in organized sport.

Historically, social work and psychology professions have pressured and coerced Aboriginal peoples to follow the euro-centric ways of society. The needs of Aboriginal peoples have not been successfully addressed by helping profession due to a limited attempt to incorporate Aboriginal perspectives and practices of helping. Michael Hart briefly discusses colonization from an Aboriginal perspective, ontological imperialism, social work’s role in colonial oppression, and the dynamic of resistance. Seeking Mino-Pimatisiwin encourages Aboriginal concepts, values and perspectives to be effectively incorporated by helpers trained in counselling, supporting, and teaching disciplines.Micheal Hart uses his own personal and professional experiences and that of other Aboriginal helpers. Throughout the book he outlines ways of adopting an Aboriginal Approach to helping. The closing chapter examines one such approach, the sharing circle, and how it can be used to guide practice with individuals, families, and groups in several contexts.

Abuse of women by intimate partners is a significant problem in Canadian society. The critical issues facing abused women include the resources, such as shelters, and support groups available to assist them in being safe. This book considers the many aspects of supporting and providing safety for women who experience abuse.The authors focus on the impact of government policies, such as the criminal justice response and child protection services, on a woman’s ability to safely leave an abusive relationship. The experiences of women who have used these safety resources are shared in this book. A further chapter discusses the issues raised by the experiences of women abused by lesbian partners.Future challenges faced by abused women and the services and policies designed to protect them, concludes the book. Each chapter presents the results of recent Canadian research and documents the voices of women who share their experiences of having been abused by an intimate partner.

This book is not about feminism. Rather, feminism is the basis of the discussion, an example of how understanding oppression must consider a number of barriers. Euro-Canadian feminists rarely address the circumstances that are unique to First Nations’ women, instead working with the assumption that all women are a part of a similar struggle. Ouellette attempts to confront these barriers. Throughout interviews with a number of women, she highlights the following four questions. To what extent do Aboriginal women understand, experience and articulate their oppression? To what extent do colonized women perceive racism as the source of their oppression? To what extent do Aboriginal women view male domination within their own Aboriginal societies as the source of the oppression? How do Aboriginal women articulate racism and gender oppression?The author argues that there will always be a dichotomy between European and Aboriginal thought. This book makes an important contribution toward a greater understanding of Aboriginal thought and an Aboriginal perspective on society.The Fourth World theory is an integrate part of the “Circle of Life” philosophy of Aboriginal people. In keeping with oral traditions, these teachings are passed on at gatherings and in private conversations. They compromise a distinctly Aboriginal worldview.

For Atlantic Canadians the much vaunted “New World Order,” with its free-trade/privitazion mantra, has been anything but good. In fact by all accounts to date, it has brought nothing but social torment for all but the very rich and very powerful.In this revealing new book, Thom Workman traces the impact that the new order has had on working people, the working poor, people on social assistance and the elderly. The impact of the new order on health care, education, the environment and the Atlantic Canadian economy in general has been little short of devastating. For all of us who have been continually bombarded with the “good times” ideology, this book will bring a measure of truth. Workman challenges us to release ourselves from the mystifying clutches of this new ideology. As the corporate elite forges ahead in their quest for ever-increasing profits, the masses of people who are the victims of the drive for profits must ally to struggle for an economic and political order that puts human needs ahead of corporate greed.

Being Heard examines, from their own perspectives and experiences, the lives of young women sexually exploited through prostitution. Putting their voices in the centre of its analysis, the book tries to help us more fully understand the experiences of girls exploited through prostitution, the complex issues of sex trade work and the ways to best respond to the issues. Beginning with a discussion of what little we know about youth prostitution, subsequent chapters address young women’s experiences with community and government programs, issues of self-identity, health and safety concerns, experiences of violence, factors that push young women into and may draw them out of sex trade work, and the effectiveness of Canadian legislation in coming to the aid of young prostitutes.The book is based on a four-year research project undertaken with Prairie women involved in sex trade work as youth and those who provide programming for them.

These days almost anyone is bound to be depressed by the litany of economic woes we are told are besieging Canada. At the same time, mainstream economists, politicians and business leaders claim that workers’ wages must fall, the social safety net must be stripped away, taxes must be cut and environmental regulations must be relaxed. “There Is No Alternative” if Canada is to be competitive.But is this the case? If we are to even begin to respond to this new economic mantra we have to know what makes our economy tick. In Inside Capitalism, Paul Phillips introduces us to political economic analysis–why firms behave as they do, why we have such a high level of economic monopoly, who benefits from the economic structure of capitalism. In so doing, he not only shows that traditional economic analysis is mainly ideology, but we can clearly see that the dismal prospects that average Canadians face are not the result of immutable economic laws but of the political and economic power that business has amassed with the aid of successive governments and the Bank of Canada.

Social work, with few exceptions, has neglected to give serious consideration to the consequences of environmental devastation and the changes which a shift toward ecological sustainability will demand. If it is to remain viable, social work must become a positive pro-active force in the creation of a socially just and sustainable community. Coates critiques the assumptions, values and beliefs of the dominant world view which supports most economic and social activity. He reviews and critiques social work’s major theoretical frameworks and introduces and articulates a new world view, which provides a solid theoretical foundation for both social work education and a professional practice.Here is a new vision for social work, which is inclusive and holistic, and replaces the current self-centred and anti-collectivist paradigm with a mutually beneficial community-focused one.

This book argues that law is a political resource that carries with it both opportunities and dangers for social activists. As such, activist groups must carefully navigate the contradictions within law to evaluate the strategic and tactical issues raised by law and legal institutions. Perils and Possibilities provides a guide to these issues and explores the types of questions activist groups need to ask themselves before embarking on a campaign of legal mobilization. In addition to a brief exploration of some overarching theoretical questions, Byron Sheldrick examines in a concrete and practical fashion the contradictions of rights discourse, strategic questions posed by the process of going to court and the importance of the administrative boards and tribunals for the politics of social activists. Set in the Canadian context, the book also makes use of experiences drawn from the USA and Britain.

Law’s power to criminalize–to turn a person into a criminal–is formidable. Traditional legal doctrine argues that law dispenses justice in an impartial and unbiased fashion. Critical legal theorists claim that law reproduces gender, race and class inequalities. The Power to Criminalize offers an analysis that acknowledges the tensions between these two views of law. Drawing from crown attorneys’ files on violent crime cases and interviews with defence lawyers, the authors reveal the complex ways in which discourses of masculinity, femininity, race, class and social space inform the strategies used to litigate these cases. This analysis raises questions about the prospects of challenging law to realize a more just society.

It has often been the perception that Northern states admit immigrants out of generosity, offering security and shelter to people forced from their own countries because of political and economic circumstances. This collection–based on case studies with immigrants–quickly dispels this myth. Immigrants are admitted to serve economic or demographic interests. They also serve to pay back the receiving countries’ own historical and political indebtedness. It is the North that both produces and regulates the migration flows, and it is the North that reaps the benefits. Northern migrants to the South, generally, improve their careers and livelihood, whereas migrants from the East and West regress.How does Canadian society fare when placed within a global background? The immigrant case studies in this book–Ghanaian women learning English, migrant women sex-workers in our cities, foreign-trained professionals, East Asian women and sexual harassment, and Canadian aid workers in the South–all contribute to perform a reality check for the notion of Canada as a “caring and sharing” country.

“Empowerment is the word. I’ve been forced to break out of my own circle and see more. I have a direction now in my community, more involvement in activism.”–student evaluating the Henson College Certificate in Community Development.This course was designed to sharpen social analysis and develop skills in leaders of low-income and marginalized communities in Nova Scotia. Taught by two experienced community workers and funded by two major Canadian foundations, it graduated 50 students over four years. Many joined the program’s advisory committee and helped the course evolve further. Grassroots Leaders Building Skills includes the complete course, with agendas for 25 three-hour sessions, detailed directions for facilitators and spiral-bound handouts for photocopying. Many sessions can stand alone as workshops on topics such as diversity, ideology, community development and building strategies for social change. Plans are included for adapting the sessions to middle class participants, post-secondary classroom settings, or as a series of intensive workshops. Introductory essays explore the theories behind the program and its pedagogy, the logistical organization and the experience of graduates. This powerful course is a valuable resource to anyone teaching social analysis and community organization skills.

This comprehensive and up-to-date glossary provides the definitions needed to navigate the labyrinth of terms and phrases used in development literature. Unlike traditional dictionaries, this guide places definitions within the historical context of the literature. Mason has also included information on development institutions and on many of the journals and publications that have emerged in the development field.

How do our consumption decisions affect ecosystems? Can we rely on governments to maintain environmental wellbeing? Do rural peoples “see” the environment differently from urban residents? Is sustainability possible? We are confronted with personal and political decisions every day that affect the environment, yet, we often do not know how to assess, much less understand, our individual role in them. In Consuming Sustainability, the authors examine several contemporary environmental controversies in Canada to illustrate how a critical perspective can aid in understanding the complex social, economic and political issues that characterize our relationship to the environment, and of the potential for change within them. Key concepts in environmental social science are introduced and used to clarify environmental and ecological controversies and to address broader questions regarding structure, human agency, activism and the potential for sustainability in Canada and the world.

The central concern of Inference and Persuasion is logic and how becoming better informed about logic ultimately brings more autonomy to thinkers. Part one considers the relationships between reasoning, thought and the world. Becoming clearer about the nature of reasoning, the book stresses, helps to free us. But the logic one chooses must be defended as much as any other body of belief. Unlike standard critical thinking texts, Inference and Persuasion investigates the problems involved in such justifications. Part two is devoted to a consideration of standard logics, including Aristotle’s and modern mathematical, as well as lesser known logics such John Dewey’s and Hegel’s. The goal is to show that the problems of logic are alive and well, not long-settled. Part three discusses how logic and belief relate to one another and offers a non-traditional perspective on the traditional fallacies. The final section considers logic within the context of various academic disciplines. A key point is to show that the ways in which we reason about the world presuppose much about that world.

Fisheries are among the most globalized economic sectors in the world. Relying largely on wild resources and employing millions of people and feeding many millions more, fisheries provide a unique vantage point from which to view contemporary globalization, which is co-occurring with a major ecological revolution triggered by resource degradation and associated with the development of intensive aquaculture. Globalization is intensifying the export orientation and use of joint ventures between rich and poor countries in fisheries. International organizations such as the IMF are pressuring many debtor countries to exchange access to their fishery resources for access to foreign exchange, constraining their ability to limit external ownership and the export of resources, and threatening local fishery employment and food self-sufficiency. Changing Tides brings together contributions from researchers and community workers from 13 countries of the world. Juxtaposing academic case studies with accounts from activists and fisheries workers, this book points the ways in which globalization and associated resource degradation, privatization and the concentration of ownership and control in fisheries are jeopardizing the lives and livelihoods of women fish workers and their families.

The media-enhanced moral panic surrounding youth has continued unabated over the past two decades. Its form and substance varies, but the politics of blaming and exploiting children underlies it all. Despite the reality that rates for most youth crime have gone down, the public condemnation of youth, especially through the news media, continue unabated, and the position of children and youth in our societies is still as precarious as ever. Put bluntly, the lives of too many children and youth are fraught with potential danger. Not only are they the victims of excessive legal scrutiny and scapegoats for panic-driven public policy, but they also go off to war proportionately more than adults and they work at unskilled jobs for no benefits and insultingly low wages. Children and youth live outside the protections of human rights. STILL Blaming Children, an expanded and updated version of Blaming Children, shows how “getting tough” on young offenders ignores the reality of their lives and the reality of their misconduct. The book ends by describing more humane and mindful alternatives for youth offenders, based on the human rights our children deserve.

In Their Own Voices is an examination of the urban Aboriginal experience, based on the voices of Aboriginal people. It is set in Winnipeg’s inner city, but has implications for urban Aboriginal people across Canada. While not glossing over the problems that confront urban Aboriginal people, the book focuses primarily on innovative community-based solutions being created and run by and for urban Aboriginal people. Separate chapters examine Aboriginal involvement in community development, adult education and the mainstream political process. The concluding chapter, based on in-depth interviews with 26 experienced, Aboriginal community development workers, describes a well-defined and very sophisticated form of Aboriginal community development that is holistic and is rooted in traditional Aboriginal values of community and sharing. Out of their often harsh urban experience, Aboriginal people are defining and creating their own, innovative community-building strategies. In cities with significant Aboriginal populations, these strategies are the basis of a better future, for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike.

The book dissects issues facing refugees, immigrants, and other racialized minorities, both in Canada and globally, through a critical, anti-racist lens. It also investigates racist crimes, and public reaction to them, against the long-established African- Nova Scotian community. It moves beyond traditional theories by advancing an anti-racist framework toward migration and refugee studies using African refugees’ lived, and living, experiences in Canada. Based on theoretical, empirical, and qualitative accounts of resettlement challenges individuals have experienced, the book analyzes socio-racial constructs used in the post-colonial North to exclude, contain, and forcibly repatriate refugees.This work looks at recent migration and refugee initiatives and shows how they breach international human rights and refugee law. Canadian legislation and international human-rights law prohibit discrimination in any form; yet implicit and explicit violations of key refugee protection principles continue. Ighodaro asks, “Does Canada have the political will to stand against racism and bring human-rights violators to justice?” The book strives to move Canadian society toward equality for all citizens, including immigrants and refugees, and to reject the collective denial of racism.

Growing worldwide interest in community economic development has led to a blossoming of “how to” manuals,as well as analyses of co-operatives, development corporations, gender, financing, etc. Yet in all this discussion very little is said about the basic objective of CED: Is it designed to fill holes left by capitalism or is it intended to replace it? There is equally little on a theory of CED. This book draws on several disciplines–particularly economics, sociology and political studies–to assess the state of CED theory and to identify implicit issues for building that theory. It emphasizes the necessity to draw theoretical insights from each discipline, in the process howing the efficacy of interdisciplinary approaches. It concludes with a discussion of both future theoretical directions and of what existing theory has to say about achieving a transformative CED.