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Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social institutions > Family & relationships > Sexual relations
Exploring pressing questions around Canadian citizenship, Canada in
Question delves into contemporary issues that come into play in
identifying what it means to be Canadian. Beginning with an update
on the status of Canadian citizenship, Peter MacKinnon acknowledges
that with the exception of Indigenous peoples, most Canadians
migrated to Canada in the last 400 years. In surveying the status
of citizenship, the author addresses the impact of these newcomers
on Indigenous peoples, and the subsequent impression that the
following influx of new immigrants and migrants has had on
citizenship. MacKinnon investigates the ties that bind Canadians to
their country and to their fellow citizens, and how these ties are
often challenged by global influences, such as identity politics
and social media. Shedding light on the connection between economic
opportunity and citizenship, and on the institutional context in
which differences must be accommodated, Canada in Question examines
current circumstances and new challenges, and looks to the unique
future of Canadian citizenship.
Coloniality and Racial (In)Justice in the University examines the
disruption and remaking of the university at a moment in history
when white supremacist politics have erupted across North America,
as have anti-racist and anti-colonial movements. Situating the
university at the heart of these momentous developments, this
collection debunks the popular claim that the university is well on
its way to overcoming its histories of racial exclusion. Written by
faculty and students located at various levels within the
institutional hierarchy, this book demonstrates how the shadows of
settler colonialism and racial division are reiterated in "newer"
neoliberal practices. Drawing on critical race and Indigenous
theory, the chapters challenge Eurocentric knowledge, institutional
whiteness, and structural discrimination that are the bedrock of
the institution. The authors also analyse their own experiences to
show how Indigenous dispossession, racial violence, administrative
prejudice, and imperialist militarization shape classroom
interactions within the university.
Teaching about Sex and Sexualities in Higher Education argues that
much more can be done in teaching about sex and sexuality in higher
education. This edited collection provides key information on
professional training and support, and acts as a crucial resource
on sex, sexuality, and related issues. With a focus on diversity,
this book features expert contributors who discuss key concepts,
debates, and current issues across disciplines to help educators
improve curriculum content. This collection aims to provide
adequate and appropriate sex education training and opportunities
to educators so that they may explore complex personal and
emotional issues, build skills, and develop the confidence
necessary to help others in their respective fields.
How much sex should a person have? With whom? What do we make of
people who choose not to have sex at all? As present as these
questions are today, they were subjects of intense debate in the
early American republic. In this richly textured history, Kara
French investigates ideas about, and practices of, sexual restraint
to better understand the sexual dimensions of American identity in
the antebellum United States. French considers three groups of
Americans-Shakers, Catholic priests and nuns, and followers of
sexual reformer Sylvester Graham-whose sexual abstinence provoked
almost as much social, moral, and political concern as the idea of
sexual excess. Examining private diaries and letters, visual
culture and material artifacts, and a range of published works,
French reveals how people practicing sexual restraint became
objects of fascination, ridicule, and even violence in
nineteenth-century American culture. Against Sex makes clear that
in assessing the history of sexuality, an expansive view of sexual
practice that includes abstinence and restraint can shed important
new light on histories of society, culture, and politics.
With its implications for health care, the economy, and an
assortment of other policy areas, population aging is one of the
most pressing issues facing governments and society today, and
confronting its complex reality is becoming increasingly urgent,
particularly in the age of COVID-19. In The Four Lenses of
Population Aging, Patrik Marier looks at how Canada's ten provinces
are preparing for an aging society. Focusing on a wide range of
administrative and policy challenges, this analysis explores
multiple actions from the development of strategic plans to the
expansion of long-term care capacity. To enhance this analysis,
Marier adopts four lenses: the intergenerational, the medical, the
social gerontological, and the organizational. By comparing the
unique insights and contributions of each lens, Marier draws
attention to the vital lessons and possible solutions to the
challenges of an aging society. Drawing on over a hundred
interviews with senior civil servants and thousands of policy
documents, The Four Lenses of Population Aging is a significant
contribution to public administration, provincial politics, and
comparative public policy literatures, and a timely resource for
policymakers and general readers seeking an informed perspective on
a timely and important issue.
In Animals as Legal Beings, Maneesha Deckha critically examines how
Canadian law and, by extension, other legal orders around the
world, participate in the social construction of the human-animal
divide and the abject rendering of animals as property. Through a
rigorous but cogent analysis, Deckha calls for replacing the
exploitative property classification for animals with a new
transformative legal status or subjectivity called "beingness." In
developing a new legal subjectivity for animals, one oriented
toward respecting animals for who they are rather than their
proximity to idealized versions of humanness, Animals as Legal
Beings seeks to bring critical animal theorizations and animal law
closer together. Throughout, Deckha draws upon the feminist animal
care tradition, as well as feminist theories of embodiment and
relationality, postcolonial theory, and critical animal studies.
Her argument is critical of the liberal legal view of animals and
directed at a legal subjectivity for animals attentive to their
embodied vulnerability, and desirous of an animal-friendly cultural
shift in the core foundations of anthropocentric legal systems.
Theoretically informed yet accessibly presented, Animals as Legal
Beings makes a significant contribution to an array of
interdisciplinary debates and is an innovative and astute argument
for a meaningful more-than-human turn in law and policy.
Why is 'love' taken for granted as a part of human experience? And
why is sexual or romantic love in particular so important to us?
This book aims to find out, tracing the intellectual history of
sexual love, from the ancient Greeks to the modern day. Erotic Love
in Sociology, Philosophy and Literature shows how discourses of
love have intersected with social and cultural trends, as well as
with personal events and experiences. Beginning with the queering
of love in Greek antiquity, it looks at how sexual love has been
sung about, fictionalized and theorized as a cornerstone of the
formation of Western culture. From the courtly love of
twelfth-century troubadours and the rise of affective individualism
in the eighteenth century, to the way the novel helped catalyze and
crystallize the hopes and contradictions of love and marriage,
these are decisive episodes in the history of romantic love.
Lastly, the book deals with how sociologists and feminist theorists
have made sense of the liberalization of sexuality over the last
fifty years, especially given the post-romantic pragmatism of
commercialized dating practices. Arguing against the
over-rationalism of intimate life, Erotic Love in Sociology,
Philosophy and Literature recognizes the need to liberate love from
patriarchal, racist and homophobic prejudices, and highlights the
value of literary and sociological traditions to emphasize how they
dignify the rhapsodies and the sufferings of love.
At what age do girls gain the maturity to make sexual choices? This
question provokes especially vexed debates in India, where early
marriage is a widespread practice. India has served as a focal
problem site in NGO campaigns and intergovernmental conferences
setting age standards for sexual maturity. Over the last century,
the country shifted the legal age of marriage from twelve, among
the lowest in the world, to eighteen, at the high end of the global
spectrum. Ashwini Tambe illuminates the ideas that shaped such
shifts: how the concept of adolescence as a sheltered phase led to
delaying both marriage and legal adulthood; how the imperative of
population control influenced laws on marriage age; and how
imperial moral hierarchies between nations provoked defensive
postures within India. Tambe's transnational feminist approach to
legal history shows how intergovernmental debates influenced Indian
laws and how expert discourses in India changed UN terminology
about girls. Ultimately, the well-meaning focus on child marriage
became tethered less to the well-being of girls themselves and more
to parents' interests, population control targets, and the
preservation of national reputation.
Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories opens up new
and exciting perspectives on how systems of state surveillance
developed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taking a
transnational approach, the book challenges us to rethink the
presumed novelty of contemporary surveillance practices, while
developing critical analyses of the ways in which state
surveillance has profoundly shaped the emergence of contemporary
societies. Contributors engage with a range of surveillance
practices, including medical and disease surveillance, systems of
documentation and identification, and policing and security. These
approaches enable us to understand how surveillance has underpinned
the emergence of modern states, sustained systems of state
security, enabled practices of colonial rule, perpetuated racist
and gendered forms of identification and classification, regulated
and policed migration, shaped the eugenically inflected
medicalization of disability and sexuality, and contained dissent.
While surveillance is thus bound up with complex relations of
power, it is also contested. Emerging from the book is a sense of
how state actors understood and legitimized their own surveillance
practices, as well as how these practices have been implemented in
different times and places. At the same time, contributors explore
the myriad ways in which these systems of surveillance have been
resisted, challenged, and subverted.
Making Surveillance States: Transnational Histories opens up new
and exciting perspectives on how systems of state surveillance
developed over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Taking a
transnational approach, the book challenges us to rethink the
presumed novelty of contemporary surveillance practices, while
developing critical analyses of the ways in which state
surveillance has profoundly shaped the emergence of contemporary
societies. Contributors engage with a range of surveillance
practices, including medical and disease surveillance, systems of
documentation and identification, and policing and security. These
approaches enable us to understand how surveillance has underpinned
the emergence of modern states, sustained systems of state
security, enabled practices of colonial rule, perpetuated racist
and gendered forms of identification and classification, regulated
and policed migration, shaped the eugenically inflected
medicalization of disability and sexuality, and contained dissent.
While surveillance is thus bound up with complex relations of
power, it is also contested. Emerging from the book is a sense of
how state actors understood and legitimized their own surveillance
practices, as well as how these practices have been implemented in
different times and places. At the same time, contributors explore
the myriad ways in which these systems of surveillance have been
resisted, challenged, and subverted.
Rethinking Rufus is the first book-length study of sexual violence
against enslaved men. Scholars have extensively documented the
widespread sexual exploitation and abuse suffered by enslaved
women, with comparatively little attention paid to the stories of
men. However, a careful reading of extant sources reveals that
sexual assault of enslaved men also occurred systematically and in
a wide variety of forms, including physical assault, sexual
coercion, and other intimate violations. To tell the story of men
such as Rufus?who was coerced into a sexual union with an enslaved
woman, Rose, whose resistance of this union is widely
celebrated?historian Thomas A. Foster interrogates a range of
sources on slavery: early American newspapers, court records,
enslavers' journals, abolitionist literature, the testimony of
formerly enslaved people collected in autobiographies and in
interviews, and various forms of artistic representation. Foster's
sustained examination of how black men were sexually violated by
both white men and white women makes an important contribution to
our understanding of masculinity, sexuality, the lived experience
of enslaved men, and the general power dynamics fostered by the
institution of slavery. Rethinking Rufus illuminates how the
conditions of slavery gave rise to a variety of forms of sexual
assault and exploitation that affected all members of the
community.
Rethinking Rufus is the first book-length study of sexual violence
against enslaved men. Scholars have extensively documented the
widespread sexual exploitation and abuse suffered by enslaved
women, with comparatively little attention paid to the stories of
men. However, a careful reading of extant sources reveals that
sexual assault of enslaved men also occurred systematically and in
a wide variety of forms, including physical assault, sexual
coercion, and other intimate violations. To tell the story of men
such as Rufus?who was coerced into a sexual union with an enslaved
woman, Rose, whose resistance of this union is widely
celebrated?historian Thomas A. Foster interrogates a range of
sources on slavery: early American newspapers, court records,
enslavers' journals, abolitionist literature, the testimony of
formerly enslaved people collected in autobiographies and in
interviews, and various forms of artistic representation. Foster's
sustained examination of how black men were sexually violated by
both white men and white women makes an important contribution to
our understanding of masculinity, sexuality, the lived experience
of enslaved men, and the general power dynamics fostered by the
institution of slavery. Rethinking Rufus illuminates how the
conditions of slavery gave rise to a variety of forms of sexual
assault and exploitation that affected all members of the
community.
One of the great transformations presently sweeping the Muslim
world involves not just political and economic change but the
reshaping of young Muslims' styles of romance, courtship, and
marriage. Nancy J. Smith-Hefner takes up the personal lives and
sexual attitudes of educated Muslim Javanese youth in the city of
Yogyakarta to explore the dramatic social and ethical changes
taking place in Indonesian society. Drawing on more than 250
interviews over a fifteen-year period, her vivid, well-crafted
ethnography is full of insights into the real-life struggles of
young Muslims and framed by a deep understanding of Indonesia's
wider debates on gender and youth culture. The changes among Muslim
youth reflect an ongoing if at times unsteady attempt to balance
varied ideals, ethical concerns, and aspirations. On the one hand,
growing numbers of young people show a deep and pervasive desire
for a more active role in their Islamic faith. On the other, even
as they seek a more self-conscious and scripture-based profession
of faith, many educated youth aspire to personal relationships
similar to those seen among youth elsewhere-a greater measure of
informality, openness, and intimacy than was typical for their
parents' and grandparents' generations. Young women in particular
seek freedom for self-expression, employment, and social
fulfillment outside of the home. Smith-Hefner pays particular
attention to their shifting roles and perspectives because it is
young women who have been most dramatically affected by the
upheavals transforming this Muslim-majority country. Although
deeply personal, the changing aspirations of young Muslims have
immense implications for social and public life throughout
Indonesia. The fruit of a longitudinal study begun shortly after
the fall of the authoritarian New Order government and the return
to democracy in 1998-1999, the book reflects Smith-Hefner's nearly
forty years of anthropological engagement with the island of Java
and her continuing exploration into what it means to be both
"modern" and Muslim. The culture of the new Muslim youth, the
author shows, through all its nuances and variations, reflects the
inexorable abandonment of traditions and practices deemed
incompatible with authentic Islam and an ongoing and profound
Islamization of intimacies.
Civil War soldiers enjoyed unprecedented access to obscene
materials of all sorts, including mass-produced erotic fiction,
cartes de visite, playing cards, and stereographs. A perfect storm
of antebellum legal, technological, and commercial developments,
coupled with the concentration of men fed into armies, created a
demand for, and a deluge of, pornography in the military camps.
Illicit materials entered in haversacks, through the mail, or from
sutlers; soldiers found pornography discarded on the ground, and
civilians discovered it in abandoned camps. Though few examples
survived the war, these materials raised sharp concerns among
reformers and lawmakers, who launched campaigns to combat it. By
the war's end, a victorious, resurgent American nation-state sought
to assert its moral authority by redefining human relations of the
most intimate sort, including the regulation of sex and
reproduction-most evident in the Comstock laws, a federal law and a
series of state measures outlawing pornography, contraception, and
abortion. With this book, Judith Giesberg has written the first
serious study of the erotica and pornography that
nineteenth-century American soldiers read and shared and links them
to the postwar reaction to pornography and to debates about the
future of sex and marriage.
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