This dissertation investigates Cape Breton fiddle music from a popular culture perspective. It introduces a conception of musical groove comprising two interrelated components: a social component wherein individual musical actors retain their own identities and relationships with the music while also uniting collectively in their response to the music, and a sonic component consisting of an acoustical repeating of a rhythmic idea that forms the metrical underpinning for a piece of groove music. Each of these two components is informed and mediated by the other. Cape Breton fiddle music is considered here as a form of groove-based popular music, similar to other groove musics. The two dimensions of the groove are analyzed in turn, revealing aspects of social identity, political and commercial representation, and processes of intercultural syncretism that have resulted in the evolution of the music within the pop culture mainstream. The dissertation is divided into two large sections. The first section concerns the social component of the Cape Breton fiddle groove, considering aspects of cultural representation, social identity, globalization and perceived external threats, and intersections with popular culture. The second section examines the sound of Cape Breton fiddle music as a form of groove-based music by first proposing a general model for the analysis of groove-based musics, and then applying the model to the Cape Breton fiddle context. The social and sonic components of Cape Breton fiddle grooves are treated as mutually reinforcing components of the same cultural product. Explorations of social identity and cultural representation of Cape Breton fiddle music determine those aspects of the sonic dimension of the music with the most social salience. In turn, analyses of the sound of Cape Breton fiddle grooves influence the understanding of the contemporary and historical socio-cultural community. Cape Breton fiddle music is therefore used here as a case study for combining the powerful modes of inquiry from the disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology, leading to a richer and more nuanced understanding of musical traditions and cultures in general.

This dissertation investigates Cape Breton fiddle music from a popular culture perspective. It introduces a conception of musical groove comprising two interrelated components: a social component wherein individual musical actors retain their own identities and relationships with the music while also uniting collectively in their response to the music, and a sonic component consisting of an acoustical repeating of a rhythmic idea that forms the metrical underpinning for a piece of groove music. Each of these two components is informed and mediated by the other. Cape Breton fiddle music is considered here as a form of groove-based popular music, similar to other groove musics. The two dimensions of the groove are analyzed in turn, revealing aspects of social identity, political and commercial representation, and processes of intercultural syncretism that have resulted in the evolution of the music within the pop culture mainstream. The dissertation is divided into two large sections. The first section concerns the social component of the Cape Breton fiddle groove, considering aspects of cultural representation, social identity, globalization and perceived external threats, and intersections with popular culture. The second section examines the sound of Cape Breton fiddle music as a form of groove-based music by first proposing a general model for the analysis of groove-based musics, and then applying the model to the Cape Breton fiddle context. The social and sonic components of Cape Breton fiddle grooves are treated as mutually reinforcing components of the same cultural product. Explorations of social identity and cultural representation of Cape Breton fiddle music determine those aspects of the sonic dimension of the music with the most social salience. In turn, analyses of the sound of Cape Breton fiddle grooves influence the understanding of the contemporary and historical socio-cultural community. Cape Breton fiddle music is therefore used here as a case study for combining the powerful modes of inquiry from the disciplines of music theory and ethnomusicology, leading to a richer and more nuanced understanding of musical traditions and cultures in general.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. The study first takes a comparative view of the cross-border railroad development followed by a consideration of emerging patterns and practices that suggest a broader continental continuity. The evidence demonstrates that this broader continental continuity flows from the application of a certain “railroad logic” or the impact of the essence of railroad operations that for reasons of safety and efficiency required the broad standardization of operating procedures that in many ways rendered place irrelevant.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, urban spaces have become increasingly subject to various methods of surveillance and control, especially by physical means. Yet, while 9/11 acted as a catalyst for rapid increases in security measures, the process of securitization has a much longer history. Accordingly, this research looks at how security has been planned and how this has changed over the last four decades in the context of Canada. The dissertation focuses on three Canadian case studies to explore the evolution of security planning: the October Crisis with an emphasis on Montreal (1970), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver (1997), and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Each case represents a significant moment in Canadian security planning and provides insight into the shifting structure of Canada’s security apparatus. Furthermore, these cases offer a lens into the historical transformations of the Canadian ‘security state’. While the issues and actions associated with these cases cut across local, national, and international scales, the impacts of security measures in each were mostly local and urban. To show how Canadian urban spaces have been transformed and controlled by an evolving security framework, I argue that security planning must be understood as a form of urban planning, although one that remains to be properly acknowledged by the profession or even the academic discipline of planning. Given the democratic claims of liberal planning and its professed concern for the good city, it is therefore significant that the security measures studied in these case studies were implemented without democratic scrutiny but with significant consequences for urban experience. This dissertation tells a story of security planning in Canada, demonstrating how its practices have changed over time in ways that are at odds with liberal political values cherished by mainstream planning.

This thesis explores the complexities of Muskoka’s past between 1850 and 1914. Through the lenses of class-consciousness and popular notions of ethnicity and race, Muskoka’s geographical and social landscape were redefined during this period by the government, the area’s industries, visitors, and local inhabitants. It was not until the early twentieth century that the nature-tourism industry was able to standardize a regional identity for the district; this identity has remained prevalent through to the twenty-first century. As the title of Edward Roper’s 1883 booklet "Muskoka; the Picturesque Playground of Canada" suggests, the area became closely associated with leisure and recreation. However, this Muskoka identity misrepresented the district’s terrain and populace, and our contemporary understanding of the region has consequently been compromised. In order to better recognize Muskoka’s diverse social and geographical landscape, this thesis explores several historical viewpoints and questions the manner in which the district was promoted.

This thesis explores the complexities of Muskoka’s past between 1850 and 1914. Through the lenses of class-consciousness and popular notions of ethnicity and race, Muskoka’s geographical and social landscape were redefined during this period by the government, the area’s industries, visitors, and local inhabitants. It was not until the early twentieth century that the nature-tourism industry was able to standardize a regional identity for the district; this identity has remained prevalent through to the twenty-first century. As the title of Edward Roper’s 1883 booklet "Muskoka; the Picturesque Playground of Canada" suggests, the area became closely associated with leisure and recreation. However, this Muskoka identity misrepresented the district’s terrain and populace, and our contemporary understanding of the region has consequently been compromised. In order to better recognize Muskoka’s diverse social and geographical landscape, this thesis explores several historical viewpoints and questions the manner in which the district was promoted.

The last quarter of the nineteenth century is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of railroad building. More track was laid in this period in North America than in any other period. The building of railroads was considered synonymous with nation building and economic progress. Railway workers were the single largest occupational group in the period and among the first workers to be employed by large-scale, corporately owned and bureaucratically managed organizations. While there is a rich historiography regarding the institutional and everyday lives of railway workers and the corporations that employed them, the unit of analysis has been primarily bounded by the nation. These national narratives leave out the north-south connections created by railroads that cut across geo-political boundaries and thus dramatically increasing the flows of people, goods and services between nations on the North American continent. Does the story change if viewed from a continental rather than national perspective? Railroad Crossings tells the story of the people and places along the route of the Grand Trunk Railroad of Canada between Montreal, Quebec and Portland, Maine and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad (and later of the Southern Pacific) between Benson, Arizona and Guaymas, Sonora. The study first takes a comparative view of the cross-border railroad development followed by a consideration of emerging patterns and practices that suggest a broader continental continuity. The evidence demonstrates that this broader continental continuity flows from the application of a certain “railroad logic” or the impact of the essence of railroad operations that for reasons of safety and efficiency required the broad standardization of operating procedures that in many ways rendered place irrelevant.

This thesis explores the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the period between 1919 and 1950. This dissertation is an exploration of the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the formative period of the specialty’s history. Part I argues that an ethos of elitism and exclusionism structured the cultural landscape of the specialty and was reflected in the membership policy of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and the Harvey Cushing Society, which screened for certain moral and professional values. The meetings of the societies opened with surgical performances designed to encourage particular technical practices, to negotiate and standardize procedures, and to demonstrate the prowess of the neurosurgeon. In theatrical performances at these meetings the neurosurgeons also created a distinctive type of masculinity, which was inflected with a feminine resonance. Part II outlines the extraordinary professional success of the neurosurgeons in the 1930s and 1940s when they assumed leadership of neurological institutes. Wilder Penfield’s effort to build such an institute in Montreal led him to challenge the authority of clinical neurologists by claiming therapeutic superiority and by engineering a public debate about the future of these related specialties. Jurisdictional disputes between neurosurgeons and neurologists played out in animated rhetorical performances at the meetings of professional societies and illustrate the divergent ways in which these specialists envisioned medical specialization. Neurosurgeons cleaved neurology along therapeutic lines, while neurologists, attempting to regain conditions lost to neurosurgeons and psychiatrists, sought authority over all organic and functional disorders. Part III charts the neurosurgeons’ growing authority in popular culture. Although popular representations testify to an increasing glamorization of brain surgeons over the first half of the twentieth century, these narratives reveal culturally contingent tensions. The ideal cure for brain tumors was portrayed as medical, not surgical, while the public expressed an ambivalent reaction to the violence to both body and mind that brain surgery appeared to threaten.

This thesis explores the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the period between 1919 and 1950. This dissertation is an exploration of the ways in which American and Canadian neurosurgeons fashioned their professional identity in the formative period of the specialty’s history. Part I argues that an ethos of elitism and exclusionism structured the cultural landscape of the specialty and was reflected in the membership policy of the Society of Neurological Surgeons and the Harvey Cushing Society, which screened for certain moral and professional values. The meetings of the societies opened with surgical performances designed to encourage particular technical practices, to negotiate and standardize procedures, and to demonstrate the prowess of the neurosurgeon. In theatrical performances at these meetings the neurosurgeons also created a distinctive type of masculinity, which was inflected with a feminine resonance. Part II outlines the extraordinary professional success of the neurosurgeons in the 1930s and 1940s when they assumed leadership of neurological institutes. Wilder Penfield’s effort to build such an institute in Montreal led him to challenge the authority of clinical neurologists by claiming therapeutic superiority and by engineering a public debate about the future of these related specialties. Jurisdictional disputes between neurosurgeons and neurologists played out in animated rhetorical performances at the meetings of professional societies and illustrate the divergent ways in which these specialists envisioned medical specialization. Neurosurgeons cleaved neurology along therapeutic lines, while neurologists, attempting to regain conditions lost to neurosurgeons and psychiatrists, sought authority over all organic and functional disorders. Part III charts the neurosurgeons’ growing authority in popular culture. Although popular representations testify to an increasing glamorization of brain surgeons over the first half of the twentieth century, these narratives reveal culturally contingent tensions. The ideal cure for brain tumors was portrayed as medical, not surgical, while the public expressed an ambivalent reaction to the violence to both body and mind that brain surgery appeared to threaten.

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, urban spaces have become increasingly subject to various methods of surveillance and control, especially by physical means. Yet, while 9/11 acted as a catalyst for rapid increases in security measures, the process of securitization has a much longer history. Accordingly, this research looks at how security has been planned and how this has changed over the last four decades in the context of Canada. The dissertation focuses on three Canadian case studies to explore the evolution of security planning: the October Crisis with an emphasis on Montreal (1970), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vancouver (1997), and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Each case represents a significant moment in Canadian security planning and provides insight into the shifting structure of Canada’s security apparatus. Furthermore, these cases offer a lens into the historical transformations of the Canadian ‘security state’. While the issues and actions associated with these cases cut across local, national, and international scales, the impacts of security measures in each were mostly local and urban. To show how Canadian urban spaces have been transformed and controlled by an evolving security framework, I argue that security planning must be understood as a form of urban planning, although one that remains to be properly acknowledged by the profession or even the academic discipline of planning. Given the democratic claims of liberal planning and its professed concern for the good city, it is therefore significant that the security measures studied in these case studies were implemented without democratic scrutiny but with significant consequences for urban experience. This dissertation tells a story of security planning in Canada, demonstrating how its practices have changed over time in ways that are at odds with liberal political values cherished by mainstream planning.