Turbulent Times, Transformational Possibilities?: Gender and Politics Today and Tomorrow

by Fiona MacDonald (Editor), Alexandra Dobrowolsky (Editor)

Overview

In Canada and elsewhere, recent political, economic, and social shifts have brought gender to the forefront of politics as never before, from gender-based analyses and "feminist budgets" to the #MeToo, Idle No More, and Black Lives Matter movements. Detailing these gendered and turbulent political times, this book features state-of-the art scholarship from diverse contributors that encompasses both contemporary challenges as well as avenues for change now and into the future. This collection represents a complex treatment of both gender and politics, in which gender is examined in light of other collective identities and their intersections and politics refers to both institutional and movement and countermovement politics.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781487588328
Publisher:	University of Toronto Press
Publication date:	05/06/2020
Pages:	432
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Fiona MacDonald is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of the Fraser Valley.
Alexandra Dobrowolsky is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Saint Mary’s University.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Transforming and Transformational Gender Politics in Turbulent Times
Fiona MacDonald and Alexandra Dobrowolsky

Part I. Transforming Institutions and Ideas: Turbulent Times and Ongoing Struggles

1. A Diverse, Feminist "Open Door" Canada? Trudeau-Styled Equality, Liberalisms, and Feminisms
Alexandra Dobrowolsky

2. Feminist Government or Governance Feminism? Exploring Feminist Policy Analysis in the Trudeau Era
Stephanie Paterson and Francesca Scala

3. Gender-Sensitivity under Trudeau: Facebook Feminism or Real Change?
Jeanette Ashe

4. Feminism, Public Dialogue, and Sexual Assault Law
Elaine Craig

5. Transforming the Gender Divide? Deconstructing Femininity and Masculinity in Indigenous Politics
Gina Starblanket

6. How Gender Became a Defence Issue: A Feminist Perspective on Canadian Defence Policy
Maya Eichler

7. Free Mining Body Land and the Social Reproduction of Indigenous Life
Isabel Altamirano-Jimenez

8. The Promises and Perils of Hashtag Feminism
Tamara A. Small

9. Women and Children First! Childhood, Feminisms, and the Co-Emancipatory Model
Toby Rollo

Part II. Non-Institutional and Intersectional Politics: Feminisms, Allies, Affect, and Anger

10. Gender and Feminist Mobilizations in Quebec: Changes Within and Outside the Movement
Pascale Dufour and Geneviève Pagé

11. The Intersectional Politics of Black Lives Matter
Debra Thompson

12. Pinkwashing Pride Parades: The Politics of Police in LGBTQ Spaces in Canada
Alexa DeGagne

13. Refusing Extraction: Environmental Reproductive Justice Across the Pacific
Sarah Wiebe

14. Erasure at the "Tipping Point"? Transfeminist Politics and Challenges for Representation: from Turtle Island to the Global South/s
Chamindra Weerawardhana

15. Rethinking Disability, Citizenship, and Intersectionality
Stacy Clifford Simplican

16. Engendering Fatness and "Obesity": Affect, Emotions, and the Governance of Weight in a Neoliberal Age
Michael Orsini

17. The "Alt" Right, Toxic Masculinity, and Violence
John Grant and Fiona MacDonald

What People are Saying About This

Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant

"Rich, diverse, and topical, this volume brings together leading experts to discuss contemporary themes in women, gender, and politics literature, and is an important and fresh collection contributing to our understanding of the possibilities for transformation in turbulent times."

Nadine Changfoot

"Turbulent Times will transform the teaching of gender and politics in political science by expanding the understanding of gender to represent more than the binary of woman and man to include non-binary categories such as transgender as well as the intersectional experiences of gendered persons that include race, sexuality, size, Indigeneity, disability, and the relationship of Indigenous feminism with the land. This book is so needed and timely."

Sarah Childs

“This is the book to read if you want to understand contemporary feminist politics in Canada.. Intersectional in its approach, Turbulent Times, challenges any simple reading of the feminist politics associated with Justin Trudeau's premiership. With expansive and critical conceptualizations of gender, identity, politics, and power, this book is very much for those beyond Canada who want to read considered reflections on how feminist politics can and must act in ways that are to the benefit of diverse, and especially, marginalized women. Engaging and accessible, this volume offers a great introduction to feminist political analysis, one that illuminates the many ways in which real world politics and political science require significant re-gendering.”

Matt James

"Wonderfully conceived and executed, this book tackles head-on the weakness of Canadian political science when it comes to understanding the full range of processes that bestow pervasive inequalities in who gets what, when, and how. But rather than restating old critiques, the editors and contributors walk their talk with an inspiring collection that engages relationally with matters of difference, scholarship, and praxis across both institutional and non-institutional spaces. An essential resource for all scholars of Canadian politics."

Yasmeen Abu-Laban

"Fiona MacDonald and Alexandra Dobrowolsky have produced an informative collection of original pieces that speak to the challenges of our age and the promises held by the discourses and practices of a diversity of feminisms. Contributors provide insightful commentary on the turbulence and transformative possibilities in institutions, intersectional politics, international relations and a range of social movements from Black Lives Matter to the alt-right. This is Canadian political science at its innovative best."

Editorial Reviews

"Fiona MacDonald and Alexandra Dobrowolsky have produced an informative collection of original pieces that speak to the challenges of our age and the promises held by the discourses and practices of a diversity of feminisms. Contributors provide insightful commentary on the turbulence and transformative possibilities in institutions, intersectional politics, international relations and a range of social movements from Black Lives Matter to the alt-right. This is Canadian political science at its innovative best."

—Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Professor and Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Citizenship and Human Rights, Department of Political Science, The University of Alberta

"Rich, diverse, and topical, this volume brings together leading experts to discuss contemporary themes in women, gender, and politics literature, and is an important and fresh collection contributing to our understanding of the possibilities for transformation in turbulent times."

—Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant, Associate Professor of Canadian Politics, Gender & Politics, Department of Political Science, Queen’s University

"Turbulent Times will transform the teaching of gender and politics in political science by expanding the understanding of gender to represent more than the binary of woman and man to include non-binary categories such as transgender as well as the intersectional experiences of gendered persons that include race, sexuality, size, Indigeneity, disability, and the relationship of Indigenous feminism with the land. This book is so needed and timely."

—Nadine Changfoot, Trent University
"This is the book to read if you want to understand contemporary feminist politics in Canada.. Intersectional in its approach, Turbulent Times, challenges any simple reading of the feminist politics associated with Justin Trudeau’s premiership. With expansive and critical conceptualizations of gender, identity, politics, and power, this book is very much for those beyond Canada who want to read considered reflections on how feminist politics can and must act in ways that are to the benefit of diverse, and especially, marginalized women. Engaging and accessible, this volume offers a great introduction to feminist political analysis, one that illuminates the many ways in which real world politics and political science require significant re-gendering."—Sarah Childs, University of London

"Wonderfully conceived and executed, this book tackles head-on the weakness of Canadian political science when it comes to understanding the full range of processes that bestow pervasive inequalities in who gets what, when, and how. But rather than restating old critiques, the editors and contributors walk their talk with an inspiring collection that engages relationally with matters of difference, scholarship, and praxis across both institutional and non-institutional spaces. An essential resource for all scholars of Canadian politics."

—Matt James, University of Victoria

From the Publisher