Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble

Off Our Rockers and Into Trouble
Author: Alison Acker
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9781894898102

When the Raging Grannies sprang up in 1987 in Victoria, B.C., they didn't realise they would be starting a worldwide movement. But that is what happened. They just wanted to protest, but in a different way. And they do. Their weapons? Satire and song. Wearing outrageous hats and warbling witty lyrics, they poke fun at the powerful people who are wreaking havoc with their grandchildren's world. But in spite of their lighthearted approach, their purpose is extremely serious. The Grannies have challenged nuclear-armed ships, forestry companies, arms manufacturers, multinational corporations, pharmaceutical giants, manufacturers of war toys, the World Trade Organization, and every level of government, from municipal councils to the American presidency. For their messages of peace and justice, Grannies have been arrested, jailed, pepper-sprayed and even hosed by the U.S. navy. They have also been praised by Ralph Nader, Peter Gzowski, David Suzuki and Pete Seeger, invited to perform far and wide, and hailed as role models. This is an amusing book, showing how groups of older women around the world take on the powers that be, win the occasional battle, and have a wonderful time doing it

A Song to Save the Salish Sea

A Song to Save the Salish Sea
Author: Mark Pedelty
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2016-10-03
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0253023165

On the coast of Washington and British Columbia sit the misty forests and towering mountains of Cascadia. With archipelagos surrounding its shores and tidal surges of the Salish Sea trundling through the interior, this bioregion has long attracted loggers, fishing fleets, and land developers, each generation seeking successively harder to reach resources as old-growth stands, salmon stocks, and other natural endowments are depleted. Alongside encroaching developers and industrialists is the presence of a rich environmental movement that has historically built community through musical activism. From the Wobblies' Little Red Songbook (1909) to Woody Guthrie's Columbia River Songs (1941) on through to the Raging Grannies' formation in 1987, Cascadia's ecology has inspired legions of songwriters and musicians to advocate for preservation through music. In this book, Mark Pedelty explores Cascadia's vibrant eco-musical community in order to understand how environmentalist music imagines, and perhaps even creates, a more sustainable conception of place. Highlighting the music and environmental work of such various groups as Dana Lyons, the Raging Grannies, Idle No More, Towers and Trees, and Irthlingz, among others, Pedelty examines the divergent strategies—musical, organizational, and technological—used by each musical group to reach different audiences and to mobilize action. He concludes with a discussion of "applied ecomusicology," considering ways this book might be of use to activists and musicians at the community level.

Everybody Wants to Change the World

Everybody Wants to Change the World
Author: Tony Campolo
Publisher: Gospel Light Publications
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2006-09-05
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780830742837

Everybody Wants to Change the World is for those who want to make a practical difference in people's lives in their own communities. As Jesus taught on reaching out to the poor, the widowed, the sick and many others, so are we to bring the tangible love of Christ into the world. Tony Campolo and Gordon Aeschilman offer readers a broad range of ideas and resources for serving people and sharing the gospel from people who work to serve others every day.

The Changing Nature of Eco/Feminism

The Changing Nature of Eco/Feminism
Author: Niamh Moore
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2015-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0774826304

In the summer of 1993, activists set up a peace camp blocking a logging road into an extensive area of temperate rainforest in Clayoquot Sound that was slated for clear-cutting. Twenty-odd years later, Clayoquot holds a prominent place in environmental discourse, yet it is not generally associated with feminist or eco/feminist movements. The Changing Nature of Eco/Feminism argues that Clayoquot offers a potent site for examining a whole range of feminist issues. Through a careful study of eco/feminist activism against clear-cut logging practices in British Columbia, the book explores how a transnational eco/feminist practice insisted on an account of logging situated in histories of colonialism, holding the Canadian state to account for its deforestation practices. Moore demonstrates that the sheer vitality of eco/feminist politics at the Peace Camp in the summer of 1993 confounded dominant narratives of contemporary feminism and has re-imagined eco/feminist politics for new times.

Storying Later Life

Storying Later Life
Author: Gary Kenyon
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2010-12-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199842671

In its brief but vigorous history, gerontology has spawned a broadening range of specializations. One of the newest of such specializations is narrative gerontology, so named for its emphasis on the biographical, or inside, dimensions of the experience of aging. Telling stories about our world, our relationships, and ourselves is fundamental to how we make meaning. Everything from our history to our religion and our memories to our emotions is linked to the tales we tell ourselves, and others, about where we have come from and where we are going. They are central to who we are. The biographical side of human life is every bit as critical to fathom as the biological side, if we seek a more balanced, positive, and optimistic perspective on what aging is about; if we would honor the dignity and complexity, the humanity and uniqueness of the lives of older persons, no matter what their health or economic standing. In this respect, a narrative approach is particularly suited to the exploration of such topics as meaning, spirituality, and wisdom, and the connections they share. This volume reflects a selection of new directions and insights, and constitutes a general broadening and deepening of narrative gerontology, exploring its implications for theory and research in the field of aging, and for the quality of life of older adults themselves. Such deepening indicates a greater refinement of thought, method, and intervention. The evolution of narrative gerontology is also evidenced by a significant increase in the number of faculty and graduate students engaged in research in this area, as well as by increasing collaboration among researchers, practitioners, and administrators in applying narrative insights to contexts such as long term care - indeed, healthcare in general. These initiatives have given rise to the phrase, "narrative care as core care".

Gender and Women's Studies, Second Edition

Gender and Women's Studies, Second Edition
Author: Margaret Hobbs
Publisher: Canadian Scholars
Total Pages: 784
Release: 2018-05-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0889615918

Now in its second edition, Gender and Women’s Studies: Critical Terrain provides students with an essential introduction to key issues, approaches, and concerns of the field. This comprehensive anthology celebrates a diversity of influential feminist thought on a broad range of topics using analyses sensitive to the intersections of gender, race, class, ability, age, and sexuality. Featuring both contemporary and classic pieces, the carefully selected and edited readings centre Indigenous, racialized, disabled, and queer voices. With over sixty percent new content, this thoroughly updated second edition contains infographics, original activist artwork, and a new section on gender, migration, and citizenship. The editors have also added chapters on issues surrounding sex work as labour, the politics of veiling, trans and queer identities, Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization, masculinity, online activism, and contemporary social justice movements including Black Lives Matter and Idle No More. The multidisciplinary focus and the unique combination of scholarly articles, interviews, fact sheets, reports, blog posts, poetry, artwork, and personal narratives reflect the vitality of the field and keep the collection engaging and varied. Concerned with the past, present, and future of gender identity, gendered representation, feminism, and activism, this anthology is an indispensable resource for students in gender and women’s studies classrooms across Canada and the United States.

The Social, Aesthetic, and Medical Implications of Performing Shame

The Social, Aesthetic, and Medical Implications of Performing Shame
Author: Marlene Goldman
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2023-06-19
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1000880117

Performing Shame shows how simulations of shame by North American writers and artists have the power to resist its withering influence. Chapter 1 analyses the projects’ key terms: shame, performance, and empathy. Chapter 2 probes the book’s key terms in light of a real-world study of an "empathy device" that aims to teach the public what it feels like to be disabled. Chapter 3 analyses how theatre intervenes in the practice of medicine via standardized patient actors who engage in role play to enhance medical students’ empathy for patients coping with shame. Chapter 4 moves from the clinic to the street to examine how The Raging Grannies’ public performances contest ageist constructions of older women’s bodies and desires. Chapter 5 shifts further from the bedside to the book by exploring Alison Bechdel’s graphic novel Fun Home, which challenges the shame projected onto homosexuals. Bringing the study full circle, the final chapter offers close readings of the stories of Alice Munro; like empathy devices, her texts restage scenes of shame to undo its malevolent spell. This book will be of interest to scholars in theatre and performance studies, health humanities, gender studies, queer studies, literary studies, disability studies, and affect studies.

Fair Share

Fair Share
Author: Gary Alan Fine
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 247
Release: 2023-01-23
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0226823822

A deeply researched ethnographic portrait of progressive senior activists in Chicago who demonstrate how a tiny public wields collective power to advocate for broad social change. If you've ever been to a protest or been involved in a movement for social change, you have likely experienced a local culture, one with slogans, jargon, and shared commitments. Though one might think of a cohort of youthful organizers when imagining protest culture, this powerful ethnography from esteemed sociologist Gary Alan Fine explores the world of senior citizens on the front lines of progressive protests. While seniors are a notoriously important—and historically conservative—political cohort, the group Fine calls “Chicago Seniors Together” is a decidedly leftist organization, inspired by the model of Saul Alinsky. The group advocates for social issues, such as affordable housing and healthcare, that affect all sectors of society but take on a particular urgency in the lives of seniors. Seniors connect and mobilize around their distinct experiences but do so in service of concerns that extend beyond themselves. Not only do these seniors experience social issues as seniors—but they use their age as a dramatic visual in advocating for political change. In Fair Share, Fine brings readers into the vital world of an overlooked political group, describing how a “tiny public” mobilizes its demands for broad social change. In investigating this process, he shows that senior citizen activists are particularly savvy about using age to their advantage in social movements. After all, what could be more attention-grabbing than a group of passionate older people determinedly shuffling through snowy streets with canes, in wheelchairs, and holding walkers to demand healthcare equity, risking their own health in the process?

Feminist Spirituality

Feminist Spirituality
Author: Chris A. Klassen
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2009
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780739127940

This anthology addresses the experiences of third-wave feminists in the construction and reformulation of spirituality. It is a useful resource for any course on women and/or feminism and religion.

Canada’s Rights Revolution

Canada’s Rights Revolution
Author: Dominique Clément
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2009-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0774858435

In the first major study of postwar social movement organizations in Canada, Dominique Clément provides a history of the human rights movement as seen through the eyes of two generations of activists. Drawing on newly acquired archival sources, extensive interviews, and materials released through access to information applications, Clément explores the history of four organizations that emerged in the sixties and evolved into powerful lobbies for human rights despite bitter internal disputes and intense rivalries. This book offers a unique perspective on infamous human rights controversies and argues that the idea of human rights has historically been highly statist while grassroots activism has been at the heart of the most profound human rights advances.