Financial order and world politics: crisis, change and continuity

Many insist that the world economy today is in the grip of the most severe financial crisis since 1931. Although the origins of this crisis are in dispute, the extent and scale of the changes prompted by it are becoming clear. Among these changes are a recalibration of the relationship between public and private authority, a reconfiguration of the regulatory responsibilities and capacities of the state with respect to the financial system, and a rebalancing of relations of power among states. While the financial crisis has generated points of stress along all of these axes of change, we should be wary of expecting an entirely new global financial order to emerge from the carnage. The complex links between financial order and world politics suggest that this financial crisis will result in an evolutionary rather than a revolutionary transformation in the world's financial order.     

COMMUNITIES ON THE EDGE: AN ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY OF RESOURCE-DEPENDENT COMMUNITIES IN CANADA

Our impressions of Canadian resource-dependent communities are often still influenced by the classic works of Innis, Robinson, Lucas, Siemens, and others. Although this research has proven to be valuable, it has also established several generalizations regarding these settings, including the perceptions that community labour forces and economic structures are relatively homogenous, that nonresource sectors play an insignificant role in the communities, and that these communities are found primarily in isolated northern regions. These generalizations are now beginning to be questioned, given the rapid economic and social changes taking place in these communities and the recent theoretical and empirical contributions of geographers and other social scientists. This paper summarizes this classic research, then challenges these generalizations by discussing recent applications of the concepts of economic restructuring and labour-market segmentation theory to the context of resource-dependent communities. To further illustrate these characteristics, the paper then presents an empirical analysis of 220 Canadian resource-dependent communities across six resource sectors, focusing specifically on their labour-market characteristics and the relationship between resource dependence and spatial isolation. Nos impressions des communautés mono-industrielles canadiennes spécialisées dans la production des ressources sont souvent encore influencées, entre autres, par les études classiques de Innis, Robinson, Lucas, et Siemens. Bien que cette recherche ait prouvé sa valeur, elle a aussi servi àétablir plusieurs généralisations concernant ces milieux, incluant les notions que la main d'oeuvre et les structures économiques de ces communautés sont relativement homogènes, que les secteurs non-reliés à l'exploration des ressources n'y jouent qu'un rôle peu significatif, et que ces communautés se retrouventsurtout dans les régions isolées du nord. Ces généralisations sont maintenant soumises à une remise en question, compte tenu des changements économiques et sociaux rapides dont ces communautés font l'objet et des récentes contributions théoriques et empiriques de géographes et d'autres chercheurs en sciences sociales. Cet article résume cette recherche classique et conteste ces généralisations en commentant les récentes applications du concept de restructuration économique etde la théorie de la segmentation du marché d'emploi associés au contexte des communautés dépendentes de l'extraction de ressources. Afin d'illustrer ces caractéristiques, l'article présente une analyse empirique portant sur 220 communautés canadiennes et sur six secteurs de ressources, etse concentre plus spécifiquement sur les caractéristiques de leur marché de la main-d'oeuvre et sur les liens existant entre la condition de dépendance à une ressource et l'isolation spatiale.     

The Politics of Citizenship in 1940s Britain: The British Nationality Act

The article examines the enactment of the British NationalityAct, 1948. The legislation created a legal status—Citizenshipof the UK and Colonies—that included Britons and ‘colonial’British subjects under a single definition of British citizenship,and entrenched their right to enter the UK. Between 1948 and1962, some 500, 000 non-white British subjects entered underthe legislation, despite documented evidence of elite suspicionof non-white Commonwealth migration. The article argues thatthis apparent contradiction can only be understood by examiningthe legislation in the context of past migration patterns andBritain's international position in 1948. The legislation wasonly marginally related to migration; it was rather an attemptto maintain a uniform definition of subjecthood in the faceof Canada's unilateral introduction of its own citizenship,and it was an affirmation of Britain's place as head of a Commonwealthstructure founded on the relationship between the UK and theOld Dominions. ^* For comments on earlier drafts, I owe my thanks to John Dorwin,Katie Goebs, Iain McLean, and Desmond King.