Military Workfare: The Soldier and Social Citizenship in Canada (Studies in Comparative Political Economy and Public Policy) - Hardcover

Cowen, Deborah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802092330 ISBN 13: 9780802092335

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 2008

Synopsis

Despite the centrality of war in social and political thought, the military remains marginal in academic and public conceptions of citizenship, and the soldier seems to be thought of as a peripheral or even exceptional player. Military Workfare draws on five decades of restricted archival material and critical theories on war and politics to examine how a military model of work, discipline, domestic space, and the social self has redefined citizenship in the wake of the Second World War. It is also a study of the complex, often concealed ways in which organized violence continues to shape national belonging.

What does the military have to do with welfare? Could war-work be at the centre of social rights in both historic and contemporary contexts? Deborah Cowen undertakes such important questions with the citizenship of the soldier front and centre in the debate. Connecting global geopolitics to intimate struggles over entitlement and identity at home, she challenges our assumptions about the national geographies of citizenship, proposing that the soldier has, in fact, long been the model citizen of the social state. Paying particular attention to the rise of neoliberalism and the emergence of civilian workfare, Military Workfare looks to the institution of the military to unsettle established ideas about the past and raise new questions about our collective future.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

'In this illuminating and original work, Deborah Cowen skillfully unfolds the pivotal connections between mass war and modern citizenship and offers intriguing insights into the new and complex relationships between the war on terror, the rebirth of national militarism, the masculine warrior, and neo-liberal workfare. Military Workfare is a must read for students of contemporary public policy and citizenship politics in Canada.'-Janine Brodie, Canada Research Chair in Political Economy and Social Governance, University of Alberta

About the Author:

Deborah Cowen is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Toronto.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0802092330
• ISBN 13: 9780802092335
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320