Wither Sanctuary?

 Features of all fifty sanctuary incidents occurring in Canada from 1983 to early 2009 are described and recent trends identified. The duration of sanctuary incidents has increased dramatically, the success rate has declined, and no new incidents have commenced in more than one and a half years. Sanctuary’s apparent decline in its “exposure” form as an effective resistance strategy is likely related to several factors, including less interest among mass media, the federal government’s adoption of a more authoritar­ian approach toward immigration and refugee policy, and the rise of support for a merit-based legal appeal for failed refugee claimants evident in sanctuary discourse.Les caractéristiques des cinquante cas de sanctuaire survenus au Canada de 1983 au début 2009 sont décrites et les tendances récentes identifiées. La durée des cas de sanctuaire a augmenté de façon spectaculaire, leur taux de réussite a diminué, et aucune nouvelle demande d’asile n’est survenue depuis plus d’un an et demi. La baisse apparente de l’efficacité du refuge dans sa forme « médiatisée » comme stratégie de résistance est probablement liée à plusieurs facteurs, dont une baisse de d’intérêt parmi les médias de masse, l’adoption par le gouvernement fédéral d’une approche plus autoritaire à l’ égard de politiques sur l’immigration et les réfugiés ainsi qu’une augmentation, évidente dans le discours entourant la notion du sanctuaire, de l’appui pour le recours juridique fondé sur le mérite pour les demandeurs d’asile déboutés

Sanctuary in Context

Introduction: Sanctuary in Contex

Neo‐Liberalism, Police, and the Governance of Little Urban Things

This article seeks to refine understandings of the governmental logics that comprise and shape urban governance.  Drawing on research using ethnographic methods that explore the business improvement district (BID) and the condominium corporation (condo) it is argued that exclusive focus on urban neo-liberalism neglects an urban ”police.” This latter logic is most famously remarked upon in Michel Foucault’s writings as targeting “little things” in urban spaces.  Both “police” and the ”free rider problem” it confronts predate and are irreducible to neo-liberalism.  Ethnography helps discern this “police” as well as how neo-liberalism relates to it in private urban realms typically hidden from view.  Examining BIDs and condos in this way shows that neo-liberalism and “police” co-exist and combine in the governance of urban residential and commercial life.  This matters because it reveals a more complex picture of urban governance than is sometimes assumed when neo-liberalism is exclusively invoked and one that is necessarily considered when conceiving of alternative governing arrangements

Family Interactions Among African American Prostate Cancer Survivors

Prostate cancer affects African Americans at a higher rate than any other ethnic group in the United States. Prostate cancer does not only affect the man with the disease but also affects those individuals who are closest to him, such as his family and friends. Open communication is valuable in coping with stressors that are affiliated with chronic illnesses. This article focuses on family and friend social support of men with prostate cancer. Data analysis revealed that support from family members and friends plays an important role in how men cope with their treatment and recovery from prostate cancer. Originally published Family and Community Health, Vol. 31, No. 3, July-Sep 200

Governing terrorism through risk: Taking precautions, (un)knowing the future

The events of 9/11 appeared to make good on Ulrich Beck's claim that we are now living in a (global) risk society. Examining what it means to ‘govern through risk’, this article departs from Beck's thesis of risk society and its appropriation in security studies. Arguing that the risk society thesis problematically views risk within a macro-sociological narrative of modernity, this article shows, based on a Foucauldian account of governmentality, that governing terrorism through risk involves a permanent adjustment of traditional forms of risk management in light of the double infinity of catastrophic consequences and the incalculability of the risk of terrorism. Deploying the Foucauldian notion of ‘dispositif’, this article explores precautionary risk and risk analysis as conceptual tools that can shed light on the heterogeneous practices that are defined as the ‘war on terror’

Governing refugees

Practices directed at refugees emerged in the inter-war period. Thousands of Europeans were maintained in camps, selected, and then resettled in the decades that followed. By the 1960s, what had been ad hoc, small scale, temporary international responses in Europe had become routine, distinctive practices directed at crises and millions of people around the world. In the Canadian context, practices of government directed at refugees have only recently arisen. The present thesis focuses on these Canadian practices as a governmental regime. By adopting Foucault's methods of discourse analysis and genealogy, the overarching research question, 'How is the Canadian refugee regime constituted and governed?', is pursued. Research procedures included forty-eight interviews with authorities active in the regime, attendance at a refugee conference, collection of documents, and examination of indices of the humanities and social sciences. The thesis begins by discussing conditions of possibility of the Canadian regime's emergence. It explores the development of the international refugee regime as one of these conditions, and in so doing, suggests the potential relevance of concepts and themes drawn from governmentality studies to understanding international regimes. The rise of an advanced liberal rationality in Canadian selection, determination, and resettlement practices since the 1970s is then discussed. In all three areas, refugees' conduct and fate can be seen gradually becoming governed less by state agents and more by agents at a distance from political authorities. In resettlement during this period, however, an advanced liberal rationality can be seen deferring to a pastoral rationality, thereby suggesting the Canadian regime has been constituted by more than one rationality. Developments consistent with the ascendancy of advanced liberalism or otherwise making the governance of refugees possible are then explored. These include: the 'partnership' as a form of association; refugee studies; psychological knowledge revealing the resettling refugee's soul; economic knowledge identifying the economically risky refugee; knowledge developing early warning systems: and technologies such as the documentation centre. Finally, the thesis argues that while resistance, understood as obstruction to (liberal) governance, is evident during this period, the presence of a pastoral rationality suggests a more complex view is required.Arts, Faculty ofSociology, Department ofGraduat