Housing in Postwar Canada


Book Description

Between 1945 and 1981 the Canadian population doubled, while the number of dwellings more than tripled. John Miron shows how changes in demographic structure and housing affordability affected postwar household formation and housing demand. He argues that no single explanation adequately reflects the extent of the impact of the demographic trends and the economic changes.




Still Renovating


Book Description

Social housing - public, non-profit, or co-operative - was once a part of Canada's urban success story. After years of neglect and many calls for affordable homes and solutions to homelessness, housing is once again an important issue. In Still Renovating, Greg Suttor tells the story of the rise and fall of Canadian social housing policy. Focusing on the main turning points through the past seven decades, and the forces that shaped policy, this volume makes new use of archival sources and interviews, pays particular attention to institutional momentum, and describes key housing programs. The analysis looks at political change, social policy trends, housing market conditions, and game-changing decisions that altered the approaches of Canadian governments, their provincial partners, and the local agencies they supported. Reinterpreting accounts written in the social housing heyday, Suttor argues that the 1970s shift from low-income public housing to community-based non-profits and co-ops was not the most significant change, highlighting instead the tenfold expansion of activity in the 1960s and the collapse of social housing as a policy priority in the 1990s. As housing and neighbourhood issues continue to flare up in municipal, provincial, and national politics, Still Renovating is a valuable resource on Canada’s distinctive legacy in affordable housing.




War Junk


Book Description

During the Second World War, Canadian factories produced mountains of munitions and supplies, including some 800 ships, 16,000 aircraft, 800,000 vehicles, and over 4.6 billion rounds of ammunition and artillery shells. Although they were crucial to winning the war, these assets turned into peacetime liabilities when hostilities ended in 1945. Drawing on comprehensive archival research, Alex Souchen provides a definitive account of the disposal crisis triggered by Allied victory and shows how policymakers implemented a disposal strategy that facilitated postwar reconstruction. Canadians responded to the unprecedented divestment of public property by reusing and recycling military surpluses to improve their postwar lives. War Junk recounts the complex political, economic, social, and environmental legacies of munitions disposal in Canada by revealing how the tools of war became integral to the making of postwar Canada.




The Housing and Economic Experiences of Immigrants in U.S. and Canadian Cities


Book Description

Since the 1960s, new and more diverse waves of immigrants have changed the demographic composition and the landscapes of North American cities and their suburbs. The Housing and Economic Experiences of Immigrants in U.S. and Canadian Cities is a collection of essays examining how recent immigrants have fared in getting access to jobs and housing in urban centres across the continent. Using a variety of methodologies, contributors from both countries present original research on a range of issues connected to housing and economic experiences. They offer both a broad overview and a series of detailed case studies that highlight the experiences of particular communities. This volume demonstrates that, while the United States and Canada have much in common when it comes to urban development, there are important structural and historical differences between the immigrant experiences in these two countries.




White Unwed Mother


Book Description

"This volume uncovers and substantiates evidence of the mandate in Canada, interrogates social work policies and practices, revisits the semi-incarceral "homes for unwed mothers," and quantifies the mandate through an extensive review of provincial reports; ultimately finding that approximately 300,000 unmarried mothers in Canada were impacted by illegal and unethical adoption practices, human rights abuses, and violence against the maternal body."--




The Changing Social Geography of Canadian Cities


Book Description

The contributors to this volume demonstrate the richness and diversity of the social landscapes and communities in Canadian urban centres, emphasizing changes which occurred in the period from the mid 1960s to the early 1990s. The nineteen non-technical and integrative essays include reviews of the literature, empirical studies, and discussions of policy issues. CONTENTS Introduction * The Social Context and Diversity of Urban Canada -- David F. Ley and Larry S. Bourne Part One - Patterns: People and Place in Urban Canada * Evolving Urban Landscapes -- D.W. Holdsworth * Measuring the Social Ecology of Cities -- W.K.D. Davies and R.A. Murdie * Demography, Living Arrangement, and Residential Geography -- J.R. Miron * Urban Social Behaviour in Time and Space -- D.G. Janelle Part Two - Contexts: Social Structure and Urban Space * Migration, Mobility, and Population Redistribution -- E.G. Moore and M.W. Rosenberg * The Emerging Ethnocultural Mosaic -- S.H. Olson and A.L. Kobayashi * Work, Labour Markets, and Households in Transition -- D. Rose and P. Villeneuve * Housing Markets, Community Development, and Neighbourhood Change -- Larry S. Bourne and T. Bunting Part Three - Places: Selected Locales * Integrating Production and Consumption: Industry, Class, Ethnicity, and the Jews of Toronto -- D. Hiebert * Past Elites and Present Gentry: Neighbourhoods of Privilege in the Inner City -- David F. Ley * From Periphery to Centre: The Changing Geography of the Suburbs -- L.J. Evenden and G.E. Walker * The Social Geography of Small Towns -- J.C. Everitt and A.M. Gill Part Four - Needs: Social Well-being and Public Policy * Social Planning and the Welfare State -- J.T. Lemon * The Meaning of Home, Home Ownership, and Public Policy -- R. Harris and G.J. Pratt * Homelessness -- M.J. Dear and J. Wolch * Geography of Urban Health -- S.M. Taylor * Changing Access to Public and Private Services: Non-family Childcare -- S. Mackenzie and M. Truelove * Cities as a Social Responsibility: Planning and Urban Form -- P.J. Smith and P.W. Moore




Canadian Social Policy


Book Description

Social policy shapes the daily lives of every Canadian citizen and should reflect the beliefs of a majority of Canadians on just approaches to the promotion of health, safety, and well-being. Too often, those on the front lines—social workers, nurses, and teachers—observe that policies do not work well for the most vulnerable groups in society. In the first part of this new edition of Canadian Social Policy, Westhues and Wharf argue that service deliverers have discretion in how policies are implemented, and the exercise of this discretion is how citizens experience policy—whether or not it is fair and reasonable. They show the reader how social policy is made and they encourage active citizenship to produce policies that are more socially just. New material includes an examination of the reproduction of systemic racism through the implementation of human rights policy and a comparative analysis of the policy-making process in Quebec and English Canada. The second part of the book discusses policy issues currently under debate in Canada. Included are new chapters that explore parental leave policies and housing as a determinant of health. All chapters contain newly updated statistical data and research and policy analysis. A reworked section on the process of policy-making and the addition of questions for critical reflection enhance the suitability of the book as a core resource in social policy courses. The final chapter explores how front-line workers in the human services can advocate for change in organizational policies that will benefit the people supported.




Born at the Right Time


Book Description

It is rare in history for people to link their identity with their generation, and even rarer when children and adolescents actually shape society and influence politics. Both phenomena aptly describe the generation born in the decade following the Second World War. These were the baby boomers, viewed by some as the spoiled, selfish generation that had it all, and by others as a shock wave that made love and peace into tangible ideals. In this book, Doug Owram brings us the untold story of this famous generation as it played out its first twenty-five years in Canadian society. Beginning with Dr Spock's dictate that this particular crop of babies must be treated gently, Owram explores the myth and history surrounding this group, from its beginning at war's end to the close of the 1960s. The baby boomers wielded extraordinary power right from birth, Owram points out, and laid their claim on history while still in diapers. He sees the generation's power and sense of self stemming from three factors: its size, its affluent circumstance, and its connection with the 1960s – the fabulous decade of free love, flower power, women's liberation, drugs, protest marches, and rock 'n' roll. From Davy Crockett hats and Barbie dolls to the civil-rights movement and the sexual revolution, the concerns of this single generation became predominant themes for all of society. Thus, Owram's history of the baby-boomers is in many ways a history of the era. Doug Owram has written extensively on cultural icons, Utopian hopes, and the gap between realities and images – all powerful themes in the story of this idealistic generation. A well-researched, lucid, and humorous book, Born at the Right Time is the first Canadian history of the baby-boomers and the society they helped to shape.




Canadian History: Confederation to the present


Book Description

"In these two volumes, which replace the Reader's Guide to Canadian History, experts provide a select and critical guide to historical writing about pre- and post-Confederation Canada, with an emphasis on the most recent scholarship" -- Cover.




Mass Housing


Book Description

This major work provides the first comprehensive history of one of modernism's most defining and controversial architectural legacies: the 20th-century drive to provide 'homes for the people'. Vast programmes of mass housing – high-rise, low-rise, state-funded, and built in the modernist style – became a truly global phenomenon, leaving a legacy which has suffered waves of disillusionment in the West but which is now seeing a dramatic, 21st-century renaissance in the booming, crowded cities of East Asia. Providing a global approach to the history of Modernist mass-housing production, this authoritative study combines architectural history with the broader social, political, cultural aspects of mass housing – particularly the 'mass' politics of power and state-building throughout the 20th century. Exploring the relationship between built form, ideology, and political intervention, it shows how mass housing not only reflected the transnational ideals of the Modernist project, but also became a central legitimizing pillar of nation-states worldwide. In a compelling narrative which likens the spread of mass housing to a 'Hundred Years War' of successive campaigns and retreats, it traces the history around the globe from Europe via the USA, Soviet Union and a network of international outposts, to its ultimate, optimistic resurgence in China and the East – where it asks: Are we facing a new dawn for mass housing, or another 'great housing failure' in the making?