ABSTRACT Questions of “integration” are normatively assumed to promote particular ideals of the m... more ABSTRACT Questions of “integration” are normatively assumed to promote particular ideals of the multicultural city and lead to a “settlement” culture that bodes well with the hegemonic majority. This paper, however, questions the concept from an alternative perspective – that is, it aims to explore how “integration” is imagined and understood by displaced migrants through the contextual specificities of multiple and peripheral “public spaces” – defined in this paper as the everyday practices of integrative multiplicity. Exploring these questions in Scarborough, a post-war primarily ethno-racialized suburb of Toronto, the unique experiences of migrants, many who have faced histories of trauma and violence suggest that the settlement experience is not devoid of anxiety and pain. Memories of places and communities left behind, sometimes never to be returned to, harness a longing and deeper need for home-making often spilling into the public realm. Understanding public space and its inherent conceptual and political complexity as defined, used, and valued by recent migrants, allows integration to be understood through the dynamics of power relations. The findings reveal how recent migrants not only understand and use the city but also how they reflect upon and envision the city-building process, through their own individual subjectivities of inclusion/place-making and exclusion/displacement. Through such complex spaces of encounter, civic engagement and grounded experiences, the participants frame Scarborough in multiple and metaphorical forms: from a City of Refuge and Peace; City of Memory, Desire, and Imagination; City of Multifariousness; to a City of Civic Engagement and Fluid Resistance. This stands in stark contrast from how the city is framed in dominant discourse and the unsettling debates on how to reform it.
Annals of The Association of American Geographers, Nov 1, 2011
School spaces are imbued with meaning and foster sensibilities of justice, belonging, and identit... more School spaces are imbued with meaning and foster sensibilities of justice, belonging, and identity from an early beginning. Aside from the educational mandate of schools, they are places where the exercise of neighborhood integration and the fostering of civil society are explored. In multicultural societies, publicly funded schools are also institutional places where state ideologies of social cohesion are apparent.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, Mar 1, 2006
In an idealdemocratic society, publicly funded schools serve many purposes. Aside from its educat... more In an idealdemocratic society, publicly funded schools serve many purposes. Aside from its educational mandate, schools are places for neighbourhood integration, social capital formation and the fostering of civil society. For newly arrived immigrants, especially those with young children, schools are important sites of settlement experiences. During the past near decade, however, rapid restructuring of the public education system in Ontario has led to many changes in these ideals. Within the landscape of this wider transformation, this article critically explores how different forms of social capital are produced in schools and accessed by recent immigrants. Based on a spatial-network framework developed earlier this article examines not only how immigrants participate in the daily life of their local institutions; but whether these links are powerful enough to translate into purposeful political effects as well. The outcomes that arise from this neighbourhood-based exercise are crucial in reflecting on a larger ethical question – how do states determine who is and who is not entitled to membership in society?
... Ranu Basu a pages 481-492. ... Esta frustración, que no es rara en regímenes cada vez más ape... more ... Ranu Basu a pages 481-492. ... Esta frustración, que no es rara en regímenes cada vez más apegados a controlarlo todo y adversos a tomar riesgos, requerirá que los investigadores se las ingenien para obtener un repertorio alternativo de habilidades y modos de ver las cosas. ...
Journal of Planning Education and Research, Mar 1, 2002
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to construct a locality-based model of collective action ... more ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to construct a locality-based model of collective action useful for planners in understanding why collective action of any kind arises within the geographical boundaries of a residential terrain and how this in turn affects discretionary components of public service provision. The model is based on the premise that collective action is the cause and consequence of the local externality itself, the perceived needs of the residents, and the underlying power structure or the capacity to organize. The model is then tested in a case study that explores the conditions that led to locally initiated school-based care in 114 public elementary schools in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Policy implications and recommendations for action are presented.
Institutional spaces like schools provide opportunities for language preservation. They also help... more Institutional spaces like schools provide opportunities for language preservation. They also help redefine integration in community-defined ways. However, many schools offer some resources in the way of ESL classes, but very few international language classes.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. kmbunit@yorku.cawww.researchimpact.c
The spaces of refuge are an intricate tapestry woven across the globe. As of 2016, there are 65.3... more The spaces of refuge are an intricate tapestry woven across the globe. As of 2016, there are 65.3 million people displaced worldwide which include 21.3 million refugees and further 10 million stateless people (UNHCR 2016). The question of transnational borders, justice and human rights are increasingly contested terrains that States must contend with in increasingly complex ways. What then constitutes spaces of refuge in the twenty-first century? What is its institutional basis and socio-political form? Camps, as a space of temporary to long term refuge, hosts many refugees such as Dadaab in Kenya, Zataari camp in Jordan or Mae La in Thailand. In this chapter, however we examine the urban as an intermediary space of refuge. The urban is often a place of convergence for displaced migrants due to the opportunity structures it provides. From Istanbul to Accra, Kolkata to Jordan, 60% of refugees are noted to reside in cities, the Global South often hosting the largest number of refugees. In this chapter, we conceptually and empirically explore two contrasting cities—Istanbul and Kolkata. In 2016, Turkey was noted as the largest host country of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate in the world. Turkey hosted 2.5 million Syrian refugees and over 250,000 refugees of other nationalities mostly living in cities. Similarly, India has historically hosted the largest number of refugees after partition. More recently as of June 2014, India was home to 198,665 refugees. The urban provides a habitat conducive for displaced populations: the infrastructure necessary for shelter and day to day living; informal economy allowing varying livelihoods; the anonymity of living in largely populated cities provides a safeguard against deportation; and the freedom to live outside a camp environment affords a certain kind of flexibility. Yet the challenges in a complex world of poverty, violence and insecurity make the struggle of survival a complicated process of daily negotiations. Using the examples of Istanbul and Kolkata we argue that such contradictions necessitate that we rethink cities of the twenty-first century through the lens of transnational justice and refuge.
This paper explores the possibilities of discovering, sharing, and transforming school-community ... more This paper explores the possibilities of discovering, sharing, and transforming school-community linkages through proactive outreach programs that are of particular relevance to public elementary schools catering to a large refugee and immigrant population. The authors argue that community-school linkages, as currently understood and discussed in the literature, are primarily focused on unidirectional relations, but certainly have the potential of furthering the particular needs of these children and their families in more productive ways. A wealth of untapped opportunities and creative capacities exist in the community that provide the potential for ‘bridging and bonding’ social capital where the response is sensitive to power relations that can arise from hegemonic interactions. School-community linkages are crucial for displaced communities further isolated and stigmatized in underserved and deprived pockets of the city. These are particularly evident in Toronto’s post-war suburbs, such as Scarborough, where the concentration of neighbourhood poverty is well documented, but where the energy and creativity in the production of its social and cultural landscape, and the commitment of its citizens, are less noted. Based on an outreach workshop held in one such school, the potential of a sustainable emancipatory school-community framework is explored. Cet article porte sur les possibilités de découvrir, partager et transformer les liens entre l’école et la communauté par le biais de programmes de communication proactifs qui soient particulièrement pertinents pour les établissements élémentaires publics recevant une large population d’immigrés et de réfugiés. Les auteurs affirment que ces liens, tels qu’ils sont actuellement compris et étudiés dans les publications universitaires, sont avant tout focalisés sur des relations unidimensionnelles, mais qu’ils pourraient certainement servir les besoins particuliers des enfants et de leurs familles de manière plus productive. Dans ces communautés, une abondance d'occasions inexploitées et de capacités créatives sont susceptibles de procurer un capital social «affectif et relationnel», là où il y a une réponse réceptive aux relations de pouvoir qui peuvent naître d'interactions hégémoniques. Les liens école-communauté sont cruciaux pour les populations encore plus isolées et stigmatisées, déplacées dans des secteurs non desservis et défavorisés de la ville. Ceci est particulièrement évident dans les banlieues d’après-guerre de Toronto, telles que Scarborough où la concentration de quartiers pauvres est bien documentée, mais où l’énergie et la créativité dans l’éclosion de son paysage social et culturel et l’engagement des citoyens ne sont pas autant pris en note. Un atelier de communication qui a eu lieu dans une de ces écoles, a permis d’explorer le rôle potentiel d’un cadre école-communauté émancipateur durable.
The neoliberal university requires high productivity in compressed time frames. Though the neolib... more The neoliberal university requires high productivity in compressed time frames. Though the neoliberal transformation of the university is well documented, the isolating effects and embodied work conditions of such increasing demands are too rarely discussed. In this article, we develop a feminist ethics of care that challenges these working conditions. Our politics foreground collective action and the contention that good scholarship requires time to think, write, read, research, analyze, edit, organize, and resist the growing administrative and professional demands that disrupt these crucial processes of intellectual growth and personal freedom. This collectively written article explores alternatives to the fast-paced, metric-oriented neoliberal university through a slow-moving conversation on ways to slow down and claim time for slow scholarship and collective action informed by feminist politics. We examine temporal regimes of the neoliberal university and their embodied effects....
ABSTRACT Questions of “integration” are normatively assumed to promote particular ideals of the m... more ABSTRACT Questions of “integration” are normatively assumed to promote particular ideals of the multicultural city and lead to a “settlement” culture that bodes well with the hegemonic majority. This paper, however, questions the concept from an alternative perspective – that is, it aims to explore how “integration” is imagined and understood by displaced migrants through the contextual specificities of multiple and peripheral “public spaces” – defined in this paper as the everyday practices of integrative multiplicity. Exploring these questions in Scarborough, a post-war primarily ethno-racialized suburb of Toronto, the unique experiences of migrants, many who have faced histories of trauma and violence suggest that the settlement experience is not devoid of anxiety and pain. Memories of places and communities left behind, sometimes never to be returned to, harness a longing and deeper need for home-making often spilling into the public realm. Understanding public space and its inherent conceptual and political complexity as defined, used, and valued by recent migrants, allows integration to be understood through the dynamics of power relations. The findings reveal how recent migrants not only understand and use the city but also how they reflect upon and envision the city-building process, through their own individual subjectivities of inclusion/place-making and exclusion/displacement. Through such complex spaces of encounter, civic engagement and grounded experiences, the participants frame Scarborough in multiple and metaphorical forms: from a City of Refuge and Peace; City of Memory, Desire, and Imagination; City of Multifariousness; to a City of Civic Engagement and Fluid Resistance. This stands in stark contrast from how the city is framed in dominant discourse and the unsettling debates on how to reform it.
Annals of The Association of American Geographers, Nov 1, 2011
School spaces are imbued with meaning and foster sensibilities of justice, belonging, and identit... more School spaces are imbued with meaning and foster sensibilities of justice, belonging, and identity from an early beginning. Aside from the educational mandate of schools, they are places where the exercise of neighborhood integration and the fostering of civil society are explored. In multicultural societies, publicly funded schools are also institutional places where state ideologies of social cohesion are apparent.
Education, Citizenship and Social Justice, Mar 1, 2006
In an idealdemocratic society, publicly funded schools serve many purposes. Aside from its educat... more In an idealdemocratic society, publicly funded schools serve many purposes. Aside from its educational mandate, schools are places for neighbourhood integration, social capital formation and the fostering of civil society. For newly arrived immigrants, especially those with young children, schools are important sites of settlement experiences. During the past near decade, however, rapid restructuring of the public education system in Ontario has led to many changes in these ideals. Within the landscape of this wider transformation, this article critically explores how different forms of social capital are produced in schools and accessed by recent immigrants. Based on a spatial-network framework developed earlier this article examines not only how immigrants participate in the daily life of their local institutions; but whether these links are powerful enough to translate into purposeful political effects as well. The outcomes that arise from this neighbourhood-based exercise are crucial in reflecting on a larger ethical question – how do states determine who is and who is not entitled to membership in society?
... Ranu Basu a pages 481-492. ... Esta frustración, que no es rara en regímenes cada vez más ape... more ... Ranu Basu a pages 481-492. ... Esta frustración, que no es rara en regímenes cada vez más apegados a controlarlo todo y adversos a tomar riesgos, requerirá que los investigadores se las ingenien para obtener un repertorio alternativo de habilidades y modos de ver las cosas. ...
Journal of Planning Education and Research, Mar 1, 2002
ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to construct a locality-based model of collective action ... more ABSTRACT The purpose of this article is to construct a locality-based model of collective action useful for planners in understanding why collective action of any kind arises within the geographical boundaries of a residential terrain and how this in turn affects discretionary components of public service provision. The model is based on the premise that collective action is the cause and consequence of the local externality itself, the perceived needs of the residents, and the underlying power structure or the capacity to organize. The model is then tested in a case study that explores the conditions that led to locally initiated school-based care in 114 public elementary schools in Scarborough, Ontario, Canada. Policy implications and recommendations for action are presented.
Institutional spaces like schools provide opportunities for language preservation. They also help... more Institutional spaces like schools provide opportunities for language preservation. They also help redefine integration in community-defined ways. However, many schools offer some resources in the way of ESL classes, but very few international language classes.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. kmbunit@yorku.cawww.researchimpact.c
The spaces of refuge are an intricate tapestry woven across the globe. As of 2016, there are 65.3... more The spaces of refuge are an intricate tapestry woven across the globe. As of 2016, there are 65.3 million people displaced worldwide which include 21.3 million refugees and further 10 million stateless people (UNHCR 2016). The question of transnational borders, justice and human rights are increasingly contested terrains that States must contend with in increasingly complex ways. What then constitutes spaces of refuge in the twenty-first century? What is its institutional basis and socio-political form? Camps, as a space of temporary to long term refuge, hosts many refugees such as Dadaab in Kenya, Zataari camp in Jordan or Mae La in Thailand. In this chapter, however we examine the urban as an intermediary space of refuge. The urban is often a place of convergence for displaced migrants due to the opportunity structures it provides. From Istanbul to Accra, Kolkata to Jordan, 60% of refugees are noted to reside in cities, the Global South often hosting the largest number of refugees. In this chapter, we conceptually and empirically explore two contrasting cities—Istanbul and Kolkata. In 2016, Turkey was noted as the largest host country of refugees under UNHCR’s mandate in the world. Turkey hosted 2.5 million Syrian refugees and over 250,000 refugees of other nationalities mostly living in cities. Similarly, India has historically hosted the largest number of refugees after partition. More recently as of June 2014, India was home to 198,665 refugees. The urban provides a habitat conducive for displaced populations: the infrastructure necessary for shelter and day to day living; informal economy allowing varying livelihoods; the anonymity of living in largely populated cities provides a safeguard against deportation; and the freedom to live outside a camp environment affords a certain kind of flexibility. Yet the challenges in a complex world of poverty, violence and insecurity make the struggle of survival a complicated process of daily negotiations. Using the examples of Istanbul and Kolkata we argue that such contradictions necessitate that we rethink cities of the twenty-first century through the lens of transnational justice and refuge.
This paper explores the possibilities of discovering, sharing, and transforming school-community ... more This paper explores the possibilities of discovering, sharing, and transforming school-community linkages through proactive outreach programs that are of particular relevance to public elementary schools catering to a large refugee and immigrant population. The authors argue that community-school linkages, as currently understood and discussed in the literature, are primarily focused on unidirectional relations, but certainly have the potential of furthering the particular needs of these children and their families in more productive ways. A wealth of untapped opportunities and creative capacities exist in the community that provide the potential for ‘bridging and bonding’ social capital where the response is sensitive to power relations that can arise from hegemonic interactions. School-community linkages are crucial for displaced communities further isolated and stigmatized in underserved and deprived pockets of the city. These are particularly evident in Toronto’s post-war suburbs, such as Scarborough, where the concentration of neighbourhood poverty is well documented, but where the energy and creativity in the production of its social and cultural landscape, and the commitment of its citizens, are less noted. Based on an outreach workshop held in one such school, the potential of a sustainable emancipatory school-community framework is explored. Cet article porte sur les possibilités de découvrir, partager et transformer les liens entre l’école et la communauté par le biais de programmes de communication proactifs qui soient particulièrement pertinents pour les établissements élémentaires publics recevant une large population d’immigrés et de réfugiés. Les auteurs affirment que ces liens, tels qu’ils sont actuellement compris et étudiés dans les publications universitaires, sont avant tout focalisés sur des relations unidimensionnelles, mais qu’ils pourraient certainement servir les besoins particuliers des enfants et de leurs familles de manière plus productive. Dans ces communautés, une abondance d'occasions inexploitées et de capacités créatives sont susceptibles de procurer un capital social «affectif et relationnel», là où il y a une réponse réceptive aux relations de pouvoir qui peuvent naître d'interactions hégémoniques. Les liens école-communauté sont cruciaux pour les populations encore plus isolées et stigmatisées, déplacées dans des secteurs non desservis et défavorisés de la ville. Ceci est particulièrement évident dans les banlieues d’après-guerre de Toronto, telles que Scarborough où la concentration de quartiers pauvres est bien documentée, mais où l’énergie et la créativité dans l’éclosion de son paysage social et culturel et l’engagement des citoyens ne sont pas autant pris en note. Un atelier de communication qui a eu lieu dans une de ces écoles, a permis d’explorer le rôle potentiel d’un cadre école-communauté émancipateur durable.
The neoliberal university requires high productivity in compressed time frames. Though the neolib... more The neoliberal university requires high productivity in compressed time frames. Though the neoliberal transformation of the university is well documented, the isolating effects and embodied work conditions of such increasing demands are too rarely discussed. In this article, we develop a feminist ethics of care that challenges these working conditions. Our politics foreground collective action and the contention that good scholarship requires time to think, write, read, research, analyze, edit, organize, and resist the growing administrative and professional demands that disrupt these crucial processes of intellectual growth and personal freedom. This collectively written article explores alternatives to the fast-paced, metric-oriented neoliberal university through a slow-moving conversation on ways to slow down and claim time for slow scholarship and collective action informed by feminist politics. We examine temporal regimes of the neoliberal university and their embodied effects....
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto, Toronto ON, 2019
To unsettle means to disturb, unnerve, and upset, but could also mean to offer pause for thinking... more To unsettle means to disturb, unnerve, and upset, but could also mean to offer pause for thinking otherwise about an issue, or an idea. This catalogue seeks to explore and unsettle the site of Scarborough, (part of Toronto, ON Canada) offering subtle and not so subtle gestures of reversal, of questioning, of disturbance, inviting readers to pause and think about the space and place they occupy. The exhibition was a culmination of a longer project that artists participated in, involving The Guild Park and Gardens in Scarborough where the artists completed a number of site-specific interventions during the early summer 2017, and a followup exhibition at Doris McCarthy. This catalogue is a record of those events, while it also provides some historical and contemporary socio-political background to which the works responded.
Participating Artists: Lori Blondeau, Duorama (Ed Johnson & Paul Couillard) Basil AlZeri, Terrance Houle, Lisa Myers.
Writers: Elwood Jimmy, Ranu Basu, Shawn Micallef and Bojana Videkanic.
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Participating Artists: Lori Blondeau, Duorama (Ed Johnson & Paul Couillard) Basil AlZeri, Terrance Houle, Lisa Myers.
Writers: Elwood Jimmy, Ranu Basu, Shawn Micallef and Bojana Videkanic.