institute for social research

York University  

Over 40 years of excellence in conducting applied and academic social research
York University
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON Canada
M3J 1P3

Telephone: 416-736-5061
Toll-free: 1-888-847-0148
Fax: 416-736-5749
E-mail: isrnews@yorku.ca

Social Science Research Roundtable

Organized by the Research and Ethics Committee
of the Department of Social Science

Tuesday March 11, 2014

12-2 pm, Ross S701

Co-chairs:
Denielle Elliott (Health & Society) and Mark Peacock (BUSO)

Presentations:

Claudio Colaguori (Assoc. Prof., Equity Studies/Criminology):
"Food InSecurities in the Urban West: The Corporate Colonization of the Mouth and Backlash Movements Against It."

Les Jacobs (Prof. Law & Society/Institute for Social Research):
"The Growing Income Inequality Gap In Canada: A National Survey"

Tanja Juric (Assist Prof, Law & Society):
"Politics of Post-Race and Post-Secular Discourses in Socially Diverse Societies"

Miriam Smith (Prof. Law & Society):
"The Human Rights Maturity Model: Benchmarking Rights in the Canadian Workplace"


Claudio Colaguori is Associate Professor cross appointed to The Department of Equity Studies and the Department of Social Science. His teaching and research is framed by Critical Theory. Two recent books deal with conflict and social control and are entitled: Agon Culture: Competition, Conflict and the Problem of Domination and Security, Life and Death: Governmentality and Biopower in the Post 9/11 Era.

The title of my presentation on current research is:

"Food InSecurities in the Urban West: The Corporate Colonization of the Mouth and Backlash Movements Against It."

The talk is about consumer culture influences on eating behaviour, the health consequences of nutritional deficiencies and the difficulties of researching public eating habits. I also discuss the critical theoretical models at our disposal that help make sense of the power relations between corporate interests and the pursuit of individual health.


Lesley Jacobs is Professor of Law & Society and Political Science and Director of the Institute for Social Research. His many books include Pursuing Equal Opportunities (Cambridge University Press, 2004); Rights and Deprivation (Oxford University Press, ebook edition 2012); Balancing Competing Human Rights in a Diverse Society (Irwin Law, 2012); and Linking Global Trade and Human Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

This talk reports findings from a January 2014 national Survey conducted by York's Institute for Social Research in partnership with the Toronto Star on what Canadians think about the growing income inequality in Canada, its causes, and what we should do about it. The survey involved telephone interviews with 1800 Canadians. The presentation situated this research within a broader set of survey research conducted internationally over the past year about the growing income inequality in OECD countries.


Miriam Smith is Professor in the Law & Society program. Her research focuses on public policy, social movements and human rights. Among other works, she is the editor of Group Politics and Social Movements in Canada (forthcoming 2014) and Political Institutions and Lesbian and Gay Rights in the United States and Canada (2008).

"The Human Rights Maturity Model: Benchmarking Rights in the Canadian Workplace", focuses on Smith's current research on the relationship between human rights and neoliberalism and, specifically, on the recent evolution of Canadian human rights policies at the federal level. She uses the example of the Human Rights Maturity Model that was developed by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, to explore the shift to a culture of auditing and benchmarking of workplace rights.


Tanja Juric is Assistant Professor in the Law & Society program. Her teaching and research is in the area of social diversity and law, with a particular interest in exploring how political subjectivity and citizenship is informed and/or problematized by religious, cultural and racial or ethnic identity.

"Politics of Post-Race and Post-Secular Discourses in Socially Diverse Societies" examines the neoliberal influences in post-race and post-secular discourses. In particular, it asks what happens to social diversity and cultural identity in post-race and post-secular discourses.


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