The purpose of this research project was to analyze the dialectic of co-optation/domestication and resistance as manifested in the experience of racialized Canadian trade unionists. The seven research participants are racialized rank-and-file members, elected or appointed leaders, retired trade unionists, as well as staff of trade unions and other labour organizations. In spite of the struggle of racialized peoples for racial justice or firm anti-racism policies and programmes in their labour unions, there is a dearth of research on the racialized trade union members against racism, the actual condition under which they struggle, the particular ways that union institutional structures domesticate these struggles, and/or the countervailing actions by racialized members to realize anti-racist organizational goals. While the overt and vulgar forms of racism is no longer the dominant mode of expression in today’s labour movement, its systemic and institutional presence is just as debilitating for racial trade union members. This research has uncovered the manner in which the electoral process and machinery, elected and appointed political positions, staff jobs and formal constituency groups, and affirmative action or equity representational structures in labour unions and other labour organizations are used as sites of domestication or co-optation of some racialized trade unionists by the White-led labour bureaucratic structures and the forces in defense of whiteness. However, racialized trade union members also participate in struggles to resist racist domination. Among some of tools used to advance anti-racism are the creation of support networks, transgressive challenges to the entrenched leadership through elections, formation of constituency advocacy outside of the structure of the union and discrete forms of resistance. The participants in the research shared their stories of the way that race and gender condition the experiences of racialized women in the labour movement. The racialized interviewees were critical of the inadequacy of labour education programmes in dealing effectively with racism and offer solutions to make them relevant to the racial justice agenda. This study of race, resistance and co-optation in the labour movement has made contributions to the fields of critical race theory, labour and critical race feminism and labour studies.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est d'offrir une ethnographie d'une sous-culture artistique, celle des souffleurs de verre qui fabriquent des pipes destinées à la consommation de cannabis (Glass Pipe Art Movement). En me basant sur les concepts de sous-culture/contre-culture, de marginalité, de communauté virtuelle et de cooptation, je tente de comprendre comment cette culture artistique a pu se propager et quels changements potentiels touchent les pipe makers suite à la légalisation du cannabis au Canada. La recherche est fondée sur une enquête de terrain d'un peu plus de trois mois menée auprès de quinze pipe makers dispersés au Canada (Colombie-Britannique, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec) et aux États-Unis (Eugene, Oregon). Mon observation a également été participante, vu que j'ai eu l'occasion d'être initié au soufflage de verre. La réflexion s'est concentrée sur le Glass Pipe Art Movement comme un mouvement artistique innovant à partir de la pratique du lampworking et associé à l'émergence d'un nouvel art world (Becker, 1982), qui est contraint de rester dans une zone grise en raison de l'illégalité de la consommation de cannabis. L'analyse s'est déployée en trois grands axes : l'identification sous/contre culturelle des artistes et leur marginalité revendiquée; le rôle des médias alternatifs dans la constitution de cet art world ; et enfin la cooptation commerciale de cette pratique à l'heure de la légalisation du cannabis. La réflexion finale porte sur la tension formulée par les pipe makers entre la légalisation de leur production et la perte d'authenticité potentielle de leur sous-culture. / The purpose of this dissertation is to offer an ethnographic study of an artistic subculture, the Glass Pipe Art Movement, featuring glass blowers who produce glass pipes to smoke cannabis. Using the concepts of subculture/counterculture, marginality, virtual community, and co-optation, I try to understand how this artistic culture has spread and what potential changes will affect pipe makers as a result of the legalization of cannabis in Canada. The research is based on a fieldwork that spanned just over three months conducted with fifteen pipe makers scattered across Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec) and the United States (Eugene, Oregon). I also used participant observation, as I had the opportunity to be introduced to glassblowing. My analysis focuses on the Glass Pipe Art Movement as an innovative art movement based on the practice of lampworking and associated with the emergence of a new art world (Becker, 1982), which is confined to a gray area given the illegality of cannabis use. The analysis unfolds along three main axis: the subcultural/countercultural identification of the artists and their self-proclaimed marginality; the role of alternative media in the constitution of this art world; and finally the commercial co-option of this practice with the legalization of cannabis. The final reflection concerns the tension expressed by pipe makers between the legalization of their production and the potential loss of authenticity of their subculture.

Community art is a multidisciplinary practice that was engendered by two main perspectives on art; a functionalist approach and an ‘art as essential to humanity’ approach. These differing ideological positions led to the construction of polarizing dichotomies that divided the field of practice and stagnated the community art discourse. This thesis re-visions community art as transformative community art (T.C.A.) to integrate a diverse range of practice into a distinct, recognizable field, transcend the binaries inherited from its founding fields, and identify the field as an innovative artistic movement and radical practice for social change. In this thesis T.C.A. is employed as a framework for theorizing practice. Threats to T.C.A. from funding structures, cooptation, and institutionalisation are explored and strategies of resistance identified. The concept of T.C.A. is mobilized to identify areas for future work; raising questions and ideas that can contribute to advancing a more complex, nuanced, and productive discourse.

Community art is a multidisciplinary practice that was engendered by two main perspectives on art; a functionalist approach and an ‘art as essential to humanity’ approach. These differing ideological positions led to the construction of polarizing dichotomies that divided the field of practice and stagnated the community art discourse. This thesis re-visions community art as transformative community art (T.C.A.) to integrate a diverse range of practice into a distinct, recognizable field, transcend the binaries inherited from its founding fields, and identify the field as an innovative artistic movement and radical practice for social change. In this thesis T.C.A. is employed as a framework for theorizing practice. Threats to T.C.A. from funding structures, cooptation, and institutionalisation are explored and strategies of resistance identified. The concept of T.C.A. is mobilized to identify areas for future work; raising questions and ideas that can contribute to advancing a more complex, nuanced, and productive discourse.