Thinking About Change

The momentum of institutional, attitudinal, and environmental change in western society has accelerated to such a degree that the processes of social evolution appear to be out of control. In the past, social change has been legitimated in terms of progress towards prosperity and freedom but now the disadvantages produced are as great as the advantages. This book of essays by members of the University League for Social Reform is sharply critical of liberal attitudes to social change. Carefully and deliberately written the essays challenge popularly held notions of change; they are stimulating, provocative, and liberating.

The first three essays, focusing on the socio-psychological realm of politics, explore the contributions of Freud, Marx, and Marcuse to the central question of what constitutes man's humanity. These are followed by an analysis of the FLQ crisis of 1970 from an Aristotelian point of view and an argument in favour of de Tocqueville's theory of institutional viability over Marx's theory of change. Two essays direct attention to some of the problems associated with technological determinism. The final group of essays focuses attention more directly on social change in Canada, offering an analysis of interest groups and their impact on Canadian society, discussing the satisfactions of belonging to a movement-party, delineating the problems of reorienting legal series to the advantage of the less privileged, and outlining the way the game of parliamentary democracy is played in Canada.

The contributors are: Howard Adelman, Mildred Bakan, Barry Cooper, Melvyn Hill, Gerry Hunnius, Alkis Kontos, Bentley Le Baron, William Leiss, James St John, Joan WIlliams, Donald Willmott, and David Shugarman.

David Shugarman is Director of the York University Centre for Practical Ethics, Professor in the Department of Political Science and Master of McLoughlin College at York University.