Inside the Local Campaign reveals what goes on in constituency campaigns during a Canadian election. It brings to light the key roles of candidates and their supporters on the ground in an election, and demonstrates that local electioneering matters.For decades, the media has focused primarily on the national campaign and party leaders, and the practice of canvassing for votes by candidates and their supporters has been seen as more tradition than science. But things have ...

Changes in technology and media consumption are transforming the way people communicate about politics. Are they also changing the way politicians communicate to the public? Political Communication in Canada examines the way political parties, politicians, interest groups, the media, and citizens are using new tactics, tools, and channels to disseminate information, and also investigates the implications of these changes. Drawing on recent examples, contributors review such things...

Political Elites in Canada offers a timely look at Canadian politics and how power brokers are adapting to a fast-paced digital media environment. Elite power structures are changing worldwide, and the rise and fall of political influencers permeates national headlines. In many areas, traditional elites are losing authority over prevailing social, economic, and political structures. Communication between and among elites and citizens is having dramatic implications for political i...

A powerful investigation into the chances for humanity's future from the author of the bestseller The World Without Us.In his bestselling book The World Without Us, Alan Weisman considered how the Earth could heal and even refill empty niches if relieved of humanity's constant pressures. Behind that groundbreaking thought experiment was his hope that we would be inspired to find a way to add humans back to this vision of a restored, healthy planet...

Library of Science Book Club selectionDiscover magazine What to Read” selectionA really great book.” -IRA FLATOW, Science FridayOne of the finest science writers I’ve ever read.” -Los Angeles TimesEllard has a knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom.” -New York Times Book Review[Ellard] mak[es] ev...

Digital Media has transformed the way Canadians socialize and interact, conduct business, experience culture, fight political battles, and acquire knowledge. Traditional media, including newspapers and conventional TV networks, remain the primary link to Canada's political sphere but are under concerted attack. YouTube, blogs, online broadcasting, Facebook, and Twitter have opened new and exciting avenues of expression but offer little of the same "nation-building glue" as traditional medi...

In the summer of 1764, Sir William Johnson (Superintendent of Indian Affairs) and over two thousand chiefs representing twenty-four First Nations met on the shores of the Niagara River to negotiate the Treaty of Niagara — an agreement between the British Crown and the Indigenous peoples. This treaty, symbolized by the Covenant Chain Wampum, is seen by many Indigenous peoples as the birth of modern Canada, despite the fact that it has been mostly ignored by successive Canadian governments s...

Since the 1990s, Canadian policy prescriptions for immigration, multiculturalism, and employment equity have equated globalization with global markets. This interpretation has transformed men and women of various ethnic backgrounds into trade-enhancing commodities who must justify their skills and talents in the language of business. This particular neo-liberal reading of globalization and public policy has resulted in a trend the authors call selling diversity.Using gender, race/e...

Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities.How did the United States become the world's largest consumer of energy? David Nye shows that this is less a question about the development of technology than it is a question about the development of culture. In Consuming Power, Nye uses energy as a touchstone to examine the lives of ordinary people engaged in normal activities. He looks at how these activ...

A business history of the software industry from the days of custom programming to the age of mass-market software and video games.From its first glimmerings in the 1950s, the software industry has evolved to become the fourth largest industrial sector of the US economy. Starting with a handful of software contractors who produced specialized programs for the few existing machines, the industry grew to include producers of corporate software packages and then maker...

We live in an age of awesome technological potential. From nanotechnology to synthetic organisms, new technologies stand to revolutionize whole domains of human experience. But with awesome potential comes awesome risk: drones can deliver a bomb as readily as they can a new smartphone; makers and hackers can 3D-print guns as well as tools; and supercomputers can short-circuit Wall Street just as easily as they can manage your portfolio.One thing these technologies can't do is answe...

The rate at which technology is changing our world--not just on a global level like space travel and instant worldwide communications but on the level of what we choose to wear, where we live, and what we eat--is staggeringly fast and getting faster all the time. The rate of change has become so fast that a concept that started off sounding like science fiction has become a widely expected outcome in the near future - a singularity referred to as The Spike.At that point of singulari...