Mobilizations, Protests and Engagements: Canadian Perspectives on Social Movements

This book addresses many questions in evaluating social movements and is the first in a series being developed by The Centre for Canadian Studies at Mount Allison University. What lessons can we learn from protest movements and social mobilizations of the past? Do newer movements differ from those of the past in process or outcomes? How have globalization and international events changed and shaped the way Canadian social movements operate? How effective are (and have been) social movements as agents of change: is there validity to the critique that social movement actors somehow lack legitimacy as the self-appointed ‘voice’ of communities they claim to represent? Are the stated democratic values espoused by these movements borne out in their internal processes and practices? Contributors from the fields of history, political science, education, sociology and women’s studies–covering 80 years of social movement activism in Canada–seek to address these questions.

Marie Hammond-Callaghan is an assistant professor in the Women’s Studies Program and the History Department at Mount Allison University. She received her PhD from the National University of Ireland, Dublin, in
2004. Her research focuses on contemporary women’s peace groups in Ireland and Canada.

Matthew Hayday is an assistant professor in the Department of History at
the University of Guelph. His main areas of research deal with issues of publicpolicy, English-French relations, federalism and identity politics in Canada. He is the author of Bilingual Today, United Tomorrow: Offi cial Languages in Education and Canadian Federalism and a number of articles on language policy, commemoration and Canadian political history.