Bøger af Murray Knuttila

An analysis of how neoliberal policies have radically restructured farming in Western Canada. The establishment of a Western Canadian economy dominated by family farming was part of the government's post-Confederation nation building and industrial development strategy. During this era, Western family farms were established and promoted to serve as a market for Canadian industrial goods and a source of export cash crops, which both played essential roles in the national economy. In Eroding a Way of Life, Murray Knuttila shows how decades of neoliberal policies, state austerity, deregulation, and privatization have fragmented agrarian communities across Western Canada, a process hastened by the advent of the capitalization of machinery and high-input industrial farming. As a result, earning a living on the family farm has become increasingly impossible. As farmers sell off their land to larger producers, rural communities are watching their railroads, schools, churches, post offices, and hospitals close, and many villages and small towns are being reduced to plaques on the highway. Analyzing the history of prairie agriculture through the lenses of class, federal policies, and global capitalism, Knuttila describes the physical, social, and political reordering of the countryside and the resulting human costs paid by farmers, labourers, and families.

The Third Edition of State Theories: Classical, Global and Feminist Perspectives formally introduces a new co-author, Wendee Kubik. Since the first edition of State Theories was published thirteen years ago the capitalist system has undergone major transformations. These changes in the "real world" have been accompanied by major new theoretical developments in how scholars attempt to understand the structure, role, and operation of the state in capitalist societies. The revised text includes three new chapters that update both the historical context and recent theoretical developments in the field of state theories. One new chapter examines the rise and fall of the welfare state in the Fordist and post-Fordist eras as the context for understanding recent developments in pluralist and neo-Marxian theory, the recent debates surrounding the relevance and role of the nation state, and the post-modernist critique of so-called totalizing theories. A second new chapter considers the work of major feminist scholars as it addresses issues relating to relationships of women to class, power, and the gendered nature of the liberal democratic state. A new conclusion points to critical weaknesses in existing approaches, and suggests potential new theoretical and research directions.The Third Edition of State Theories: Classical, Global and Feminist Perspectives formally introduces a new co-author, Wendee Kubik. Since the first edition of State Theories was published thirteen years ago the capitalist system has undergone major transformations. These changes in the "real world" have been accompanied by major new theoretical developments in how scholars attempt to understand the structure, role, and operation of the state in capitalist societies. The revised text includes three new chapters that update both the historical context and recent theoretical developments in the field of state theories. One new chapter examines the rise and fall of the welfare state in the Fordist and post-Fordist eras as the context for understanding recent developments in pluralist and neo-Marxian theory, the recent debates surrounding the relevance and role of the nation state, and the post-modernist critique of so-called totalizing theories. A second new chapter considers the work of major feminist scholars as it addresses issues relating to relationships of women to class, power, and the gendered nature of the liberal democratic state. A new conclusion points to critical weaknesses in existing approaches, and suggests potential new theoretical and research directions.