Cultural Studies
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The Christmas Imperative
Leisure, Family and Women’s Work
Leslie Bella
”Bella’s analysis of the oppressive and contradictory nature of the Christmas imperative provides a particularly useful starting point for resisting the onslaught. Her book could make a great Christmas present for your friends, mother and sisters.” — Linda Davis, Social Work, McGill The book originated in a theoretical critique of the androcentric bias in leisure theory. The notion of ‘family leisure’ is particularly problematic as it suggests that all family… (more information)
Marketing Place
Cultural Politics, Regionalism and Reading
Ursula A. Kelly
Marketing Place provides a framework for an analysis of the politics of cultural practices and their relationship to the broader social forces which shape our lives. (more information)
RESIST!
A Grassroots Collection of Stories, Poetry, Photos and Analysis from the FTAA Protests in Québec City and Beyond
Edited by Jen Chang, Steve Daniels, Darryl Leroux, Bethany Or, Eloginy Tharmendran, Emmie Tsumura
In late April, tens of thousands of people gathered to protest at the Second People’s Summit of the Americas (the FTAA Summit). RESIST! is a collection of young peoples’ experiences from Quebec City. Surprising in their honesty, these accounts, including poems, photos and essays, look at what happened during the FTAA weekend. The contributors seek answers to explain the treatment of the protesters, marvel at the strength of character of those that they encountered, and celebrate many… (more information)
Aboriginal Oral Traditions
Theory, Practice, Ethics
Edited by Renate Eigenbrod, Renée Hulan
Oral traditions are a distinct way of knowing and the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and transferred from generation to generation. The conference from which these essays were selected created an opportunity for people to come together and exchange information and experiences over three days. The scholarship may be grouped into three broad areas: oral traditions and knowledge of the environment, economy, education and/or health of communities; oral traditions and continuance of… (more information)
Paradise Lost at Sea
Rethinking Cruise Vacations
Ross Klein
Paradise Lost at Sea reveals the hidden realities of a cruise vacation and of an industry that prefers to keep its downsides hidden by taglines that are frequently used in advertising and media campaigns. Cruise authority Ross A. Klein rings the alarm about cruise ship safety and the risk to passengers of sexual assault, onboard crime and injury, and death from accidents at sea. He reveals the industry’s dubious environmental performance and its impact on the efforts of governments and the… (more information)
Glamour
Women, History, Feminism
Carol Dyhouse
How do we understand “Glamour”? Has it empowered women or turned them into objects? Once associated with modernity and the cutting edge, is it entirely bound up with nostalgia and tradition? This unique and fascinating book tells the story of glamour. It explores the changing meanings of the word, its relationship to femininity and fashion, and its place in twentieth century social history. Using a rich variety of sources–from women’s magazines and film to social surveys… (more information)
Discovering Cape Breton Folklore
Richard MacKinnon
For more than two decades, Richard MacKinnon — Canada Research Chair in Intangible Cultural Heritage, Cape Breton University — has researched Cape Breton’s rich cultural heritage: from protest songs to company houses, from co-operative housing to nicknames, from log buildings to cockfighting. In Discovering Cape Breton Folklore, professor MacKinnon revisits some of his research and exposes us to some new. (more information)
Mothering Canada: Interdisciplinary Voices
La maternité au Canada: voix interdisciplinaires
Edited by Shawna Geissler, Lynn Loutzenhiser, Jocelyne Praud, Leesa Striefler
A multidisciplinary, bilingual anthology of mothering research in Canada that illustrates facets of Canadian mothering through different disciplinary lenses including social sciences, literature, and visual arts. The anthology confirms that issues of mothering are prevalent in the Canadian psyche, and in much need of research, communication, and change. ”A wonderfully rich collection of material on what we know and what we still need to know about mothering. Mothering Canada illustrates… (more information)
Reel Power
Hollywood Cinema and American Supremacy
Matthew Alford
Hollywood is often characterized as a stronghold of left-liberal ideals. In Reel Power, Matthew Alford shows that it is in fact deeply complicit in serving the interests of the most regressive US corporate and political forces. Films like Transformers, Terminator: Salvation and Black Hawk Down are constructed with Defense Department assistance as explicit cheerleaders for the US military, but Matthew Alford also emphasizes how so-called ‘radical’ films like Three Kings, Hotel Rwanda… (more information)
Dark Matter
Art and Politics in the Age of Enterprise
Gregory Sholette
Art is big business, with some artists able to command huge sums of money for their works, while the vast majority are ignored or dismissed by critics. This book shows that these marginalised artists, the ‘dark matter’ of the art world, are essential to the survival of the mainstream and that they frequently organize in opposition to it. Gregory Sholette, a politically engaged artist, argues that imagination and creativity in the art world originate thrive in the non-commercial sector… (more information)
Random Acts of Culture
Reclaiming Art and Community in the 21st Centure
Clarke Mackey
In our society, cultural activity – or “the arts” – usually refers to the high culture of the elites and popular mass culture. Clarke Mackey argues for a third category that is as old as human society itself but seldom discussed: vernacular culture. Vernacular culture comprises all those creative, non-instrumental activities that people engage in daily – activities that provide meaning in life: conversations between friends, social gatherings and rituals, play and participatory… (more information)
Politics of Postcolonialism
Empire, Nation and Resistance
Rumina Sethi
In a period of vast global restructuring, unrestricted capital has eroded the traditional distinctions between nations and nationhood. In The Politics of Postcolonialism, Rumina Sethi devises a new form of postcolonial studies that makes sense of these dramatic changes. Returning to the origins of the discipline, Sethi identifies it as a tool for political protest and activism among people of the third world. Using a sophisticated mix of spatial theory and local politics, she examines the uneven… (more information)
Toxic Genre
The Iraqi War Films
Martin Baker
Over the last five years, a cycle of films has emerged addressing the ongoing Iraq conflict. Some became well-known and one of them, The Hurt Locker, won a string of Oscars. But many others disappeared into obscurity. What is it about these films that led Variety to dub them a ‘toxic genre’? Martin Barker analyses the production and reception of these recent Iraq war films. Among the issues he examines are the borrowing of soldiers’ YouTube styles of self-representation to… (more information)
Cultures of Militarization
Special Issue of TOPIA
Edited by Jody Berland, Blake Fitzpatrick
This special issue of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studiesaddresses the ubiquity of militarization, a presence that is woven into the very fabric of civic culture. Militarization is not just something that happens in war zones; when our government invests billions of dollars in war planes, prisons and the “digital economy,” while starving resources in social justice, education, the environment and culture, we are living the consequences of global militarization. To talk about… (more information)
Men & Women and Tools
Bridging the Divide
Marcia Braundy
Although there have been many equity initiatives to encourage women to train and work in the trades, Canadian women still represent less than 3 percent of tradesworkers. Why does this disparity continue to exist? In Men & Women and Tools, Marcia Braundy — herself a tradesperson — explores this issue by focusing on male resistance to the inclusion of women in technical work. Early in her research, Braundy conducted an interview with several male and female tradespeople. Finding this… (more information)
Out of Left Field
Social Inequality and Sports
Gamal Abdel-Shehid , Nathan Kalman-Lamb
High-performance sport, like other social and cultural formations, is a site of social, economic and racial inequalities emerging from larger histories of colonialism and capitalism. In this introductory text, the authors explore the nature of historical and contemporary social inequality in high-performance sport, both globally and locally — understanding high-performance sport as a model that is emulated on other sports fields. In addition, the authors examine the enduring appeal of high… (more information)
Bert
The Life and Times of A.L. Lloyd
Dave Arthur
Folk singer and folk music collector, writer, painter, journalist, art critic, whalerman, sheep station roustabout, Marxist, and much more–this is the story of A. L. (Bert) Lloyd’s extraordinary life. A. L. Lloyd played a key part in the folk music revival of the 1950s and 60s, but that is only part of his story. Dave Arthur documents how Lloyd became a member of the Communist Party, forceful antifascist, trade unionist and an important part of left-wing culture from the early 1930s… (more information)