<p>Social housing residents’ lived experiences and understandings of their neighbourhood and home are key factors influencing their health and wellbeing, but remain under-examined in the urban redevelopment literature. This thesis investigates the ways in which people living in Toronto’s Regent Park, Canada’s oldest and largest social housing development undergoing “neighbourhood revitalization,” experience their community and respond to neighbourhood stigma. Drawing on Lamont’s (2009) destigmatization practices concept, the aim of this study was to understand “neighbourhood revitalization” as a place destigmatization strategy that may influence the ways in which residents engage in personal destigmatization practices as well as affect their perceived health and wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 15 Regent Park residents and NVivo 9 software was used for data analysis. Findings show that participants utilize various counter-narratives as destigmatization practices that challenge dominant narratives and stereotypical representations of their neighbourhood. However, since re-housing in revitalized buildings, participants’ narratives describing their neighbourhood have changed and may further stigmatize some Regent Park residents. Counter-narratives may be implicitly linked to resiliency and wellbeing, while place destigmatization through revitalization was strongly associated to residents’ perceived improvements in health and wellbeing. The findings of this thesis may contribute to the developing literature on the impacts of urban redevelopment on residents’ health and wellbeing.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>From what <em>specific </em>socio-cultural “positionality” are African-Canadian Muslim females living their realities? What methods do they employ to locate, (re)claim, and/or assert selfhood from these peripheral spaces within the white nation? How does their shared socio-religio-racial and gendered marginality, potentially, act as a site for inciting a sense of camaraderie towards one another? Such queries frame the content of this thesis which commissions qualitative research methods to unearth answers that rely upon the “particular”--by intimately gazing at 13 Black Muslim women’s gendered-racialized experiences in Toronto. Dividing analysis by religious status this work examines the dynamics distinct to 1. convert and 2.“life-long” Muslim participants’ cultivation of a religious/racial identity. The anti-Black <em>and</em> anti-Islamic discrimination punctuating “multicultural” Canada later collapses investigation into a unified survey of the ways African-Canadian Muslim women in general, contend with the oppressive socio-cultural forces attempting to infringe on their humanity. Research concludes that the adverse <em>or</em> hospitable responses of surrounding communities (these are: the ethnic-majority Muslim community; the non-Muslim Black population; Eurocentric secular society at large) to these women, influences how they both place themselves in their environments <em>and </em>interact with their Black-Muslim female fellows. This thesis argues that the persistent ostrasization of African-Canadian Islamic women within the religious and secular-public spheres of society establishes a necessary, defensive solidarity amongst these individuals; specifically, their communions can erect a nurturing platform to challenge or minimize the impact of oppressive forces--particularly protecting against the mental and social violence inflicted by <em>racist-sexist Islamophobic white supremacist powers</em>.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Marketing means much more than mere advertising: trying to sell what manufacturers have decided to produce. It means the honing of product lines to suit ever-shifting consumer tastes. Studying the relationship between production and consumption is central to understanding modern consumer society. Housing is one of the most important consumer products most people will ever buy. Houses not only provide shelter but also are central to their occupants’ identity. At the same time, housing production and consumption are vitally important to the health of the economy. Yet, despite the importance of housing, marketing practices in the speculative homebuilding industry have received no systematic attention in the marketing, consumer culture, or urban studies literatures. This research begins to fill this gap. Using a case study approach, this thesis examines how the marketing practices of builders in the Toronto area, Canada’s largest real estate market, have evolved in response to shifts in consumer demand during the postwar period. The research draws on evidence from North American building and advertising trade journals and builders’ advertisements that appeared in the <em>Toronto Star</em> between 1940 and 2005.</p> <p>This research shows that since the 1950s, the housebuilding industry has moved from a focus on efficiency in production towards a concern with the needs and preferences of the consumer. This consumer focus, however, has not been an uninterrupted trend, as historians of marketing in other industries have argued. Interest in determining and satisfying consumer demand has gained impetus during certain periods and ebbed during others. This cyclicality can be attributed to market cycles and the relationship between supply and demand. The consumer focus in the homebuilding industry has been strongest during buyers’ markets when supply has exceeded demand, periods of heightened competition between builders, and economic downturns.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The goal of this study was to assess how child welfare services are conceptualized and viewed by Canadian young adults with heritage from the Indian Subcontinent. Five second-generation young adults with heritage from the Indian Sub-continent were interviewed about their thoughts, attitudes, and opinions toward the Children’s Aid Societies when they were youths, and also currently. Findings showed that lack of awareness around the function of CAS, observations of negative CAS-community interactions, and overt/subvert whiteness in the system all contributed to participants not trusting CASs during their childhood and teenage years. Participants felt that the CAS systems are designed for the white population and not for children and youth of South Asian descent. Reflecting back on when they were youths, instead of viewing CASs as a source of support or help in times of family trouble, participants indicated that they and their parents would seek support from trusted friends, family, or community members. Now young adults themselves, and envisioning having their own families in the future, participants said that if needed they would access the same friend, family and community supports rather than approaching a CAS. That being said, participants expressed that they would be open to accessing CAS services but that this would be a last resort given their perception that the CAS is not designed for them or their community. Participants expressed a desire to be able to access CAS services, but not until CAS deal with their own whiteness. In addition to being less Eurocentric, participants also recommended a number of changes CAS make so that they better serve communities with Indian Sub Continent heritage, these include increased community engagement, information campaigns, increased presence of workers/foster families from South Asian communities). / Thesis / Master of Social Work (MSW)

À partir de 6 406 textes traitant de l'Accord du lac Meech, publiés d'avril 1987 à juin 1990 dans LA PRESSE et le TORONTO STAR, soit les deux mêmes quotidiens qu'avait choisi Pierre Elliott Trudeau lors de sa première sortie publique, l'auteur tente d'apporter une explication originale au phénomène de l'adoption et du rejet de l'entente constitutionnelle de 1987 : Pourquoi mais surtout comment l'Accord du lac Meech a-t-il été rejeté ? Pour ce faire, il recueille, enregistre, met en page, classe, numérote, lis, sélectionne, analyse, traduit, standardise, regroupe, catégorise et compare les quatre premiers paragraphes des 6 406 textes traitant spécifiquement de l'Accord du lac Meech recueillis dans LA PRESSE et le TORONTO STAR afin d'en mettre au jour les cinq éléments essentiels : le Qui ?, le Quoi ?, le Quand ?, le Pourquoi ? et le Comment ? Basant ses recherches sur un modèle stratégique et trois outils d'analyse, l'auteur entreprend une démarche multidisciplinaire inédite pour étudier les événements majeurs de la politique constitutionnelle canadienne... Analyser le débat entourant l'Accord du lac Meech comme une guerre et l'appréhender comme un match de hockey... Traiter Brian Mulroney et Pierre Elliott Trudeau comme des généraux en campagne puis comme les dirigeants de deux équipes de hockey ! C'est-à-dire que non seulement il utilise un modèle stratégique conçu à partir de l'ouvrage d'un philosophe chinois de la fin du VIe av. J.-C, L'Art de la guerre de Sun Tzu, pour mettre au jour le « plan de match » de chaque équipe, mais il fait également appel à un outil d'analyse analogique pour comprendre le « déroulement des opérations » ainsi que le rôle des principaux « joueurs ». Ce faisant, il tente non seulement de découvrir des explications qui ont, jusqu'à présent, été ignorées par les auteurs qui se sont jusqu'ici penchés sur l'adoption et le rejet de l'Accord du lac Meech, mais surtout comment l'Accord du lac Meech a été rejeté.

Comme le nombre d'immigrants Iraniens a augmenté au Canada au cours des dernières décennies, les nouvelles recherches sont nécessaires sur cette population. Étant donné que la transmission des langues immigrantes est une composante du processus d'établissement des immigrants et que les immigrants iraniens ont rarement fait l'objet d'études canadiennes, le but de cette recherche est d'étudier le profil linguistique des immigrants Iraniens à Montréal par rapport à Toronto. En utilisant les données du questionnaire long du recensement canadien de 2001, 2006 et 2011, nous avons étudié l'influence des facteurs sociodémographiques, familiaux et migratoires sur la langue que les immigrants Iraniens parlent le plus souvent à la maison à Montréal et à Toronto. Pour ce faire, nous avons procédé à différentes analyses descriptives pour déterminer si les immigrants Iraniens sont plus susceptibles de parler en langue non officielle (langue ancestrale) à la maison ou en langues officielles. Dans le but d'approfondir le profil linguistique des immigrants Iraniens à la maison, j'étends mes recherches en effectuant des régressions logistiques. Les résultats montrent que les immigrantes iraniennes par rapport à leurs homologues masculins, immigrants légalement mariés, les iraniens qui ont immigré au Canada à l'âge de 15 ans et plus ainsi que les immigrants iraniens arrivés au Canada après 1980 parlaient dans une langue non officielle à la maison plus que les langues officielles à Montréal ainsi qu’à Toronto. / As the number of Iranian immigrants has increased in Canada in recent decades, more research is necessary on this population. Given that immigrant-language transmission is one component of immigrant settlement process and also, Iranian immigrants have rarely been the subject of Canadian studies, thus, the purpose of this research is to study the home language profile of Iranian immigrants in Montreal compared to Toronto. Using the data of long form census questionnaire 2001, 2006 and 2011, we have studied the influence of socio-demographic, familial and migratory factors on language Iranian immigrants spoke most often at home in Montreal and Toronto. In doing so, we have carried out various descriptive analyzes to discover if Iranian immigrants are more likely to speak in nonofficial language (heritage language) at home or in official languages. For the purpose of further investigation of home language profile of Iranian immigrants I expand my research by running logistic regressions. The results show that Iranian female immigrants compared to their male counterparts, legally married immigrants, those Iranians who have immigrated to Canada at the age of 15 years old and over as well as Iranian immigrants who have arrived in Canada after 1980 spoke in non-official language at home more than official languages in both Montreal and Toronto.

This thesis follows the development of the Ukrainian identity in Toronto since World War II. It explores the formation of collective memory by the Third Wave of Ukrainian immigration who arrived in Toronto in the early 1950s and the crystallization of a particular Ukrainian identity within this community. In particular, it looks at the role of the Ukrainian schooling system as an important institution shaping the community’s understanding of Ukrainian identity. It also discusses the challenges to that identity since the arrival of the Fourth Wave of Ukrainian immigration which began in 1991. It charts the intra-group tensions which arose in the community due to different understandings of what it means to be Ukrainian and describes how competing Ukrainian identities found within the Fourth Wave of immigration have shifted the dynamic in the Ukrainian community, explaining low involvement of Fourth Wave members within community institutions such as the Ukrainian school.

This thesis follows the development of the Ukrainian identity in Toronto since World War II. It explores the formation of collective memory by the Third Wave of Ukrainian immigration who arrived in Toronto in the early 1950s and the crystallization of a particular Ukrainian identity within this community. In particular, it looks at the role of the Ukrainian schooling system as an important institution shaping the community’s understanding of Ukrainian identity. It also discusses the challenges to that identity since the arrival of the Fourth Wave of Ukrainian immigration which began in 1991. It charts the intra-group tensions which arose in the community due to different understandings of what it means to be Ukrainian and describes how competing Ukrainian identities found within the Fourth Wave of immigration have shifted the dynamic in the Ukrainian community, explaining low involvement of Fourth Wave members within community institutions such as the Ukrainian school.

This thesis considers Michel Foucault’s understanding of friendship as a way of life and its relationship to anarchist models of affinity based organizing. I argue that Foucault’s interviews on friendship, his understanding of power structures as simultaneously individualizing and totalizing, and his notion of the care of the self all help us to rethink what friendship means today. Further, friendship can be a guide towards experimental and aesthetic forms of political resistance. Friendship for Foucault is not utopian, however, and I examine its use as a technique of police surveillance and intelligence gathering in the context of the G20 protests in Toronto in 2010. If friendship can play an important role in the regime of what Foucault termed governmentality, it can also be a site of struggle whereby an alternative vision for politics is elaborated. I argue that this has particular resonance with anarchism, and that while friendship has the danger to becoming an invisible form of power, anarchism responds to this by proposing a culture of solidarity. Overall, I argue that Foucault offers an original account of friendship that fundamentally shifts our understanding of the relationship between friendship and politics. / Graduate

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