Sociology and Legal Studies

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This is the collection for the University of Waterloo's Department of Sociology and Legal Studies.

Research outputs are organized by type (eg. Master Thesis, Article, Conference Paper).

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Active and Marginal Religious Affiliates in Canada: Describing the Difference and the Difference it Makes
(University of Waterloo, 2011-01-19T20:35:55Z) Thiessen, Joel
In 2002, Reginald Bibby surprisingly asserted that a renaissance of religion is, or soon will be taking place in Canada. However, the assertion clashes with the dominant belief based largely on Bibby’s accumulated data about Canadians’ religious beliefs and practices, that Canada is becoming an increasingly secularized society. Based on forty-two in-depth interviews, this dissertation tests the “renaissance thesis” and improves our grasp of how Canadians subjectively understand their religious involvements by comparing the views of active religious affiliates (those who identify with a religious group and attend religious services nearly every week) and marginal religious affiliates (those who identify with a religious group and attend religious services primarily on Christmas or Easter, or for rites of passage such as weddings and funerals). What explains their higher and lower levels of religious involvement, what is the likelihood that marginal affiliates could eventually become active affiliates, and how does this understanding help us to assess the degree of religiosity or secularity in Canada? I argue that active and marginal affiliates are distinct mainly because of their different experiences with the supernatural or their local congregation, and the social influences that either encourage or discourage involvement in a religious group. These conclusions emerge from a close examination and testing of fundamental principles in Rational Choice Theory, a theory currently popular in the sociology of religion and in Bibby’s ongoing analysis of religion in Canada. Contrary to Bibby’s prediction, there is little reason to believe that marginal affiliates will eventually become active affiliates, regardless of changes to the supply of religion in Canada. In general, marginal affiliates appear content with their current levels of religiosity. As a result, I think it is likely that we will witness continued secularization at the individual level in Canada, which if proven correct, could strain Canada’s civic fabric in the future.
Alternative Solutions to Traditional Problems: Contextualizing the Kitchener John School Diversion Program
(University of Waterloo, 2010-09-22T18:23:16Z) Mandur, Amrit Kaur
This thesis is an exploratory study of the Kitchener John School Diversion Program. As a primarily community-based initiative, this program has been developed in response to a particular social problem, street prostitution. The primary focus of the program is to address the problem by targeting the clients of prostitutes. Using a contextual constructionist framework, eight qualitative, semi-structured interviews and three participant observation sessions were conducted to explore and understand how the John School works within the context of its objectives and mandate. Four research questions have been developed to achieve this and focus on (1) how program objectives are implemented within the operation of the diversion program, (2) how stakeholders problematize prostitution and its social actors, (3) what the social conditions and characteristics related to the social construction of prostitution are, as perceived by the social actors, and finally, (4) how the diversion program addresses the problem of prostitution. Through analysis of the data collected, key findings emerge that help to contextualize the diversion program within a broader understanding of its mandates and operations. Specifically, four objectives are identified as the primary goals of the school, being knowledge dissemination, accountability, diversion and change. There are notable discrepancies, however, in terms of how program staff interpret these objectives within the context of their program lectures and materials. Additionally, while strong themes and typifications emerge with respect to how prostitution and its social actors are problematized by the program staff, these themes and typifications have a tendency to conflict with one another when presented to the participants. For example, where prostitution is understood to be a social problem with a number of victims and perpetrators, the participants are frequently typified simultaneously as both victim and villain. In light of these discrepancies, however, it appears that the intended objectives and the actual operation of the diversion program both work towards the same, ultimate goal: change.
An Analysis of How Community Organizations Support Abused Chinese Immigrant Women in the Canadian Context
(University of Waterloo, 2024-01-23) Niu, Mengyao
This thesis explores the assistance provided by community organizations in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, and Vancouver regions to Chinese immigrant women who are victims of domestic violence. Guided by postcolonial feminist insights and through interviews with community service providers, this study examines how the service providers define the needs of these women. In addition, it explores how they act with cultural sensitivity and acknowledge the distinct experiences of racialized immigrant women, while challenging orientalist narratives about ‘minority cultures’ causing domestic violence. My findings reveal the complexity and contradiction in how service providers conceptualize and respond to the women’s needs. Specifically, they blame ‘Chinese culture’ and the ‘women’s foreignness’ for their victimization and reluctance to seek support. They strive to inculcate a ‘non-culturalized’ way of thinking, despite knowing the multidimensional barriers and complex immigrant reality that shape the women’s actions. At the same time, this understanding encourages them to offer additional support, addressing the women’s immigrant- and cultural-specific needs. While doing so, they strategize to reduce the impact of structural constraints on women with limited resources. Their objective is to mitigate the system’s harm and women’s vulnerabilities. However, their understanding of ‘immigrant realities’ is not always accurate. This inadequacy is reflected by their assumption that financial empowerment approaches would also help immigrants. By analyzing the logic of these support services and what they entail, this study reveals a grassroots anti-violence approach that is culturally sensitive and informed by understandings of immigrant women’s distinct experiences, even though this approach can prove insufficient. At the same time, my findings indicate that the practices of anti-violence workers are both informed by and reproduce orientalist, hegemonic assumptions about abused immigrant women.
An Analysis of the Initial Contact Characteristics and Recidivism of Offenders with a Serious Mental Illness
(University of Waterloo, 2011-09-28T19:06:18Z) Hogan, Erin Patricia
This thesis addresses the growing number of inmates with a mental illness in correctional facilities in Canada which continues to attract public attention and concern. Several explanations have been put forward to explain the rise in the number of inmates with a mental illness. These include: the deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill that began in the 1970’s, lack of treatment availability for those released into the community, and criminalization of persons with a mental illness by the justice system. The increasing numbers of persons with a mental illness in the correctional system has led to serious concerns about the capacity of this system to manage, treat, and rehabilitate individuals with a mental illness. Lack of proper treatment, management, rehabilitation and monitored discharge means that inmates with serious mental illness are more likely to come into contact with the criminal justice system more frequently. This thesis examines the incidence seriously mentally ill offenders and their propensity to recontact. Three hundred and ninety eight face-to-face assessments were conducted using the Resident Assessment Instrument-Mental Health 2.0 (RAI-MH) and from total scores from the Level of Service Inventory Ontario Revision (LSI-OR). These assessments were conducted in 14 Ontario Provincial Correctional facilities during the years 2005-2008. Bivariate and multivariate regression analysis was conducted to assess recontact rates for serious mentally disordered and non-mentally disordered offenders. With regards to recontact, no differences were revealed between the seriously mentally ill offender and non-mentally ill offender. This null finding on recontact is very surprising given the current literature on the seriously mentally ill. An additional finding revealed that for offenders with or without a serious mental illness, having a higher score on the scale of criminogenic tendencies (LSI-OR) increased rates for recontact. Another surprising finding is that seriously mentally ill offenders were more likely to commit minor crimes upon release, rather than violent crimes as current literature suggests. A more accurate research tool, as well as a larger sample size, will be required to assess the validity of these results. The implications of the negative outcome with respect to recontact and issues of identifiable risk factors for recidivism for both seriously mentally ill and non-mentally ill inmate populations are discussed in relation to outcomes in terms of both improvements to Corrections policy and theories of criminology. It is important to continue research in this area, to determine the true gravity of the incidence and recontact rates of mentally ill offenders.
“Are you the real police?” “No. We’re the campus police.” An examination of the way Ontario Special Constables govern risk on post-secondary campuses
(University of Waterloo, 2021-06-17) Cook, Katie
This dissertation examines the role of special constables on Ontario post-secondary campuses and where they are positioned in relation to the broad range of state and non-state law enforcement entities in Canada. Through in-depth qualitative interviews with department heads, alongside a detailed survey and focus groups with Ontario campus special constables, my research examines the everyday work and perspectives of a highly understudied group. Under neoliberal governance, there has been a growing reliance on non-state law enforcement entities to adopt roles that have traditionally been filled by police. Alongside this, we have witnessed an increasing demand for risk management due to growing private property ownership. As a result, studies that investigate the work of these groups offer important insight into their experiences and what is needed to ensure they can effectively manage risk in place of the police. Despite this, research examining the perspectives of non-state law enforcement is limited. Furthermore, there are even fewer studies on campus law enforcement and essentially no scholarly attention has been paid to those who work in this role on Canadian post-secondary campuses. This study addresses this gap by offering insight into the background, daily work, and experiences of Ontario campus special constables through a mixed methods design which allows for the production of information on a number of relevant topics from a broad range of participants. Based on my findings, I argue that much like other private policing entities, neoliberal processes have contributed to the role of special constables increasingly overlapping with that of the public police and, as a result, they play an important part in keeping campuses safe. At the same time, my study shows that this development has occurred to an even greater extent with special constables as a result of the general shift toward the professionalization of campus law enforcement, as well as the growing need to manage various risks on campus, particularly in light of increased media portrayal of serious crimes at universities and colleges. Moreover, despite the police-like work special constables are expected to perform on campus, my research indicates that, in line with the experiences of other non-state law enforcement, legitimacy challenges remain an issue. Although these issues appear to occur less often with special constables, students, staff, faculty, and other members of law enforcement are often unaware of the authority granted to special constables and in some cases, this situation has resulted in negative and escalated interactions between parties. Thus, this study contributes to this field of research by offering an explanation and potential solutions to address legitimacy challenges among private law enforcement. Consequently, I argue that institutions should increase awareness surrounding the role and authorities of special constables and that policymakers should take steps to enhance their standardization and training to improve the perception of this group as legitimate members of law enforcement. Additionally, given their ability to fully engage in the community policing model and offer institution-specific support at a lower cost (compared with municipal police), the work of special constables could be used by all post-secondary institutions across Canada to protect the campus community and ensure that all students, regardless of location, background, or school, are afforded the same level of security. This dissertation highlights the way special constables have the ability to manage both actual and perceived risk through the use of community-based policing on campus and therefore are valuable assets to the institutions that employ them. These findings have implications beyond post-secondary campuses in Ontario. They reinforce the importance of effective private law enforcement entities in a time of reduced state involvement under neoliberal governance and high demand for risk management among members of the public as well as the need for further research to ensure optimal performance and public acceptance of them.
Asylum and the Politics of Irregularization: Refugee Claimants and Toronto’s Everyday Places
(University of Waterloo, 2018-06-25) Connoy, Laura
While Canada is touted as having a universal healthcare system, not all of its residents have access to it, particularly precarious status noncitizens such as refugee claimants. As a signatory of international refugee accords, Canada is obligated to ensure that refugee claimants within its borders receive access to healthcare. However, from June 2012 to April 2016, refugee claimants received restricted access to healthcare coverage offered through the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP). While the underlying goal of this move was to regulate refugee claimants within and outside of the country, it had a major unintended consequence; within everyday healthcare places like hospitals, walk-in clinics, and doctor’s offices, many refugee claimants were denied access to healthcare services regardless of actual levels of coverage. This was due to the relations and encounters between various elements and actors, which produced inconsistent, unpredictable, and contradictory experiences. In this dissertation, I analyze this program and resulting everyday experiences through the lens of irregularization, a regulatory assemblage that problematizes the presence of persons/groups within space and attributes an identity of irregularity, referred to here as an irregular status, that reflects one’s constructed abnormal or problematic presence within space. I build this argument in relation to existing critical migration scholarship, particularly scholarship that engages with borders, (non)citizenship, and humanitarianism. Through these important critical lenses, we are made aware of how identities and subject positions are created and how migrant and refugee populations are regulated locally, nationally, and transnationally. To ground this argument empirically, I provide a policy and discourse analysis of relevant media, position papers, and policy documents to shed light on the tense socio-political context during this time and the everyday workings and implications of irregularization. In addition to this analysis, I also conducted semi-structured interviews in order to highlight the voices of key actors on the ground within the city of Toronto: doctors, lawyers, executive directors, program managers, Ministry officials, City officials, and refugee claimants. This methodology helps to demonstrate how the assemblage of irregularization is constituted and operates, and how borders, (non)citizenship, and humanitarianism can be conceived of as irregularizing assemblages that problematize presence within space, produce insecurity and anxiety, and affects the well-being of refugee claimants in Canada. In addition to a focus on regulation, I also analyze the friction that constitutes the assemblage of irregularization. During this time from 2012 to 2016, the city of Toronto witnessed demonstrations, campaigns, and occupations to draw public attention to the IFHP cuts and the experiences of refugee claimants, in addition to less visible acts that established ‘common’ spaces which prioritize the health of refugee claimants and others present within the city. Drawing on critical citizenship scholarship, I analyze these challenges through the concept of acts of liberating irregularity, being the visible and less visible deeds or conducts that are enacted through solidarity and performativity to assert the presence of refugee claimants and the right to healthcare. While these acts were not necessarily transformative, they were important in addressing the healthcare needs of refugee claimants, and offering a subtle resistance to the irregularizing assemblages of borders, citizenship, and humanitarianism. In this critical analysis of the politics of irregularization, this dissertation contributes to the sociology of migration as it relates to regulation and resistance, and offers a timely and unique analysis of Canada’s refugee healthcare system as defined by the IFHP.
At the Intersection of Sexual Minority and Transgender or Gender Diverse (SM-TGD) Identity and Mental Illness
(University of Waterloo, 2020-05-22) Livingstone, Bridget
Sexual minority and transgender or gender diverse (SM-TGD) persons experience disproportionately high rates of mental illness, substance misuse, and suicide, which are often exacerbated by experiences of social exclusion and marginalization. While healthcare institutions are increasingly aiming to provide affirming mental health care to this population, many mental health services and practitioners remain unresponsive to SM-TGD individuals’ unique identities, needs, and experiences. Despite the fact that mental illness and access to adequate care are pressing concerns for this population, the ways that SM-TGD persons understand mental illness and their experiences navigating the healthcare system have not been adequately studied. Based on data from 12 qualitative interviews conducted in southern Ontario, this study explores the ways that SM-TGD individuals make sense of and contextualize their experiences of mental illness. This study also discusses some of the barriers to care often encountered by this population, and points to the ways that informal barriers such as microaggressions are as impactful as structural barriers, such as wait times. In doing so, this study aims to unveil the complex subjectivities that emerge when exploring the intersection of marginalized identities and experiences of mental illness.
Attitudes Toward Homosexuality: American and Canadian Patterns, 1981-2000
(University of Waterloo, 2007-05-23T15:54:40Z) Crowell, Mark
Previous research has determined that Canadians often exhibit more tolerant attitudes toward homosexuality than Americans, yet few studies have attempted to uncover why this pattern persists. Using World Values Surveys data, this study compares attitudes toward homosexuality between Canadians and Americans from 1981 to 2000. The study re-examines directly Reginald Bibby’s (2004) assertion that divergent levels of religious commitment, rather than other socio-demographic, cultural and socio-structural factors, largely account for attitudinal differences between the two neighbouring nations. Consistent with previous research, the findings suggest that differences in gender, marital status, age, education, home language, community size, region, and many indicators of religious involvement and religiosity assist in predicting attitudes toward homosexuality. Overall, the findings support Bibby’s theory that religious differences between Americans and Canadians largely explain more tolerant attitudes among Canadian citizens. Particular attention is also paid to factors outside of religion that may influence attitudes, but which are not directly observable in quantifiable data analysis.
A Behind-the-Scenes Examination of the Kitchener Mental Health Court: The Diversion of Persons with Mental Disorders
(University of Waterloo, 2008-08-26T13:53:00Z) Leroux, Carlie Luciana
In this thesis I investigate how the Canadian criminal justice system handles persons with mental disorders who come into conflict with the law. Through an in-depth examination of the Kitchener Mental Health Court this research explores the legal concept of diversion. Diversion is a voluntary option for individuals accused of minor offences. Its main objective is to function as a positive intervention. Offenders who participate in diversionary programs avoid a criminal record but are still held accountable for their criminal behavior. Diversion programs lessen the burden on the criminal justice system by decreasing the volume of caseloads in the courts via diverting individuals away from incarceration through alternative measures. The goal of this study is to uncover the processes involved in diverting offenders away from incarceration and into appropriate mental health treatment. Two theoretical frameworks applicable to mental health courts include the medical model and therapeutic jurisprudence. The thesis explores the philosophies of mental health courts, the principles of sentencing, and the role of community support agencies in the location and provision of mental health treatment. This research includes a six-month observational study of the Kitchener Mental Health Court setting and five in-depth interviews with the Crown prosecutor, defense attorney, Canadian Mental Health Association Court Coordinator, Salvation Army representative, and a mother of one of the accused. The findings from this research suggest that mental health courts strongly adhere to the treatment ideology contained in the medical model and therapeutic jurisprudence. The Kitchener Mental Health Court demonstrates this through its empathetic, treatment-oriented approach towards offenders, language, and commitment to locate appropriate health care. This research also reveals the crucial role community support agencies play in directing individuals towards the necessary health care. But most especially, the evidence points to the role community support agencies play as key facilitators in the legal processes of mental health courts.
Beyond Academia: Examining the Versatile Career Paths of PhDs
(University of Waterloo, 2020-05-14) Etmanski, Brittany
This dissertation employs a mixed-methods approach to examine the career transitions of Canadian PhDs. Moving beyond dichotomous definitions of PhD outcomes (as “academic” or “non-academic”) this research aims to identify and explore the expansive career opportunities available to PhDs outside of academia. It draws upon the confidential version of Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey as accessed through the South Western Research Data Centre (SWORDC), and national-scale primary data collected between April 2018-April 2019. The results are informed by human capital, credentialist and field theories. The quantitative analysis of Chapter 2 examined the job quality and experiences associated with PhDs from numerous disciplines in three main employment sectors. Using Statistics Canada’s 2013 National Graduates Survey (NGS), the results showed that PhDs were most strongly represented in the private and academic sectors. Social science and law graduates were most likely to be employed within the public sector. In comparison, those from the physical and life sciences as well as hard sciences were most likely to be employed in the private sector. Relating to job quality, those employed in the public sector were most likely to be employed part time. Furthermore, PhDs employed in non-academic sectors were more likely to be overqualified. This finding suggests that PhDs may be less certain of how to market their skills to a non-academic audience, or it may point to a lack of non-academic opportunities for PhDs. The quantitative analysis of Chapter 3 considered how measures of technical competency (e.g., publications, funding, research assistantships, sessional positions) may affect candidates’ ability to secure initial employment within academia. Employing primary survey data gathered from social science PhDs across Canada, the results suggested that publications, as a measure of technical competence, are a strong predictor of reporting an initial career within academia. However, certain socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, race, parental education) were better predictors of securing academic employment than measures related to respondents’ technical competency (e.g., research assistantships, sessional appointments). These results may indicate two things. First, the decreased likelihood of females and certain visible minorities may indicate weaker practices of affirmative action occurring within institutions. Second, that highly-educated parents may provide mentorship that is more aligned with their children’s goal of obtaining an academic appointment. Finally, the qualitative analysis of Chapter 4 draws on field theory to examine the strength of the connections forged between social science PhD programs and employment sectors beyond academia. To determine social science PhDs career preparedness, the research examined: (1) Whether career opportunities presented and promoted to social science PhDs have evolved alongside market demand; and (2) Whether institutional initiatives have promoted stronger academia-industry connections. Drawing on 28 interviews with PhDs from 5 social science disciplines, the results suggested that academic career norms are perpetuated at the department level. Though institutions—more generally—have broadened the career preparation offered to PhDs, ties to industry remain weak. To forge new norms strengthening academia-industry links, some participants reflected on the benefit associated with an internship opportunity during the PhD program. Future research would benefit from examining whether work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities for PhD students are associated with a greater level of work-readiness in employment sectors beyond academia.
Bridging the Soft-Skills Gap between Canadian Post-Secondary Education and Employment through Work-Integrated Learning: A Case Study on Arts Students
(University of Waterloo, 2023-06-20) Dreesha, Mrittika
Post-secondary institutions in Canada are currently under the microscope as the unemployment rate among new graduates continue to rise. Contemporary sociologists have suggested that work-integrated learning (WIL) can be a powerful tool to reverse the rising trends in unemployment rate by helping students develop soft-skills, gain relevant work experience, and apply classroom knowledge in real-world situations (Martin & Rouleau, 2020). Researchers have also highlighted that although WIL programs can be an effective pedagogical approach in all fields of study, there is a heightened importance for Arts students to participate in WIL (Li, 2016) as this specific group tends to encounter greater barriers in terms of finding employment (Yamamoto, 2014; Zeid et al., 2015). Despite the importance of WIL, there is a lack of Canadian qualitative research that documents the perspectives of Ontario Arts students regarding WIL programs. This is highly imperative as Arts degree-holders are often under-or-unemployed post-graduation (Zeid et al., 2015), particularly in Ontario which has one of the highest unemployment rates among graduates. To bridge this critical gap within the landscape of higher education literature on WIL, I have conducted a qualitative case study entailing 50 semi-structured interviews of Arts students from world’s largest co-op institution—the University of Waterloo, which serves as a strong exemplar of WIL as a successful education model on both national and global levels (University of Waterloo, 2023b). Using NVivo software data analysis techniques, I have answered four research questions which involved investigating the perceptions of WIL among Arts students, the key benefits and transferable soft-skills gained through WIL in Arts programs, the common challenges associated with WIL in Arts disciplines, and the WIL-related policies/practices that Arts students recommend to post-secondary institutions. Grounding this project on human capital theory, situated learning theory, and credentialism, the main findings reveal that when the value of WIL experience for Arts versus non-Arts programs are compared, students who are pursuing non-conventional Arts majors such as Accounting, Finance, and Economics consider the importance of WIL to be same or similar for all fields, whereas students from traditional Arts programs such as Sociology, Psychology, and History predict that WIL experience can be a higher economic investment and a larger evidence of competencies for Arts degree-holders as they are more likely to experience greater difficulties in the job market due to Arts professions being stigmatized. Furthermore, the non co-op students voiced their concerns regarding insufficient exposure and awareness of WIL in post-secondary institutions which resulted in their lack of participation, whereas the co-op students expressed that there are limited field-specific WIL placements and low departmental/faculty support which made their process of seeking and securing co-op positions challenging. Both groups of students perceive that there is a shortage of WIL opportunities within the Faculty of Arts, and thus, they emphasized on the increasing need to make WIL accessible for all Arts students which can contribute towards their human capital growth, graduate employability, and ultimately improve their school-to-work transition while bridging the soft-skills gap between post-secondary education and employment.
Canadian Border Security: Examining Border Services Officer and Traveller Knowledge Concerning Interaction Narratives and Technologization Within the Windsor Borderland
(University of Waterloo, 2019-07-04) Lalonde, Patrick C.
Through contrasting institutional discourses with frontline official and non-official knowledge gleaned from interaction narratives from past social interactions and supplied by border services officers (BSOs) and members of travelling publics circulating at ports of entry in the Windsor, Ontario, Canada borderland, this thesis accomplishes the work of considering border security and mobility governance as an everyday practice (Côté-Boucher, Infantino, and Salter 2014). While previous literature has expertly documented the governmentality of modern borders, its privileging of institutional forms of knowledge means findings are inherently limited in that they ignore subjugated forms of knowledge (Foucault 1972), the role of diverse publics in shaping the field of (in)security, and renders invisible the presence of (in)security in everyday life (Vaughan-Williams and Stevens 2016:43). To this end, this thesis is unique in considering – for the first time – interaction narratives supplied by BSOs and members of travelling publics circulating regularly within a geographically specific borderland. This thesis is also unique in considering how knowledge generated by such narratives potentially challenges institutional discourses supplied by Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). Lastly, this thesis is also unique in examining how border technologization and digitization potentially influence frontline social interactions between officers and publics, generate additional knowledge concerning the nature of digitized borders, and function to establish a gulf between institutional discourses and localized frontline practices. This thesis employs a multi-method approach, utilizing: 1) a content analysis and discourse analysis of various primary and secondary institutional documents, 2) content and thematic analyses performed on transcripts generated from in-depth, semi-structured interviews performed with 10 BSOs working in the Windsor borderland, and 3) content and thematic analyses performed on transcripts generated from in-depth, semi-structured interviews performed with 30 members of travelling publics, the vast majority of whom resided in the Windsor borderland at the time interviews were conducted. Combined, official and non-official knowledge generated from interaction narratives provided by participants provides several critiques in terms of analyzing institutional knowledge generated by CBSA. Findings generated through interaction narratives indicate: 1) officers have experienced a shift in “lifeworld” (Habermas 1981) alongside shifts in agency mandates toward a neoliberal risk-management model of mobility governance; 2) officers receive very little formal training in terms of frontline interactions; 3) officer training displays a systematic bias toward constructing all interactions as “security moments” designed to fulfill a security mandate, ultimately leaving officers ill-trained in terms of the “facilitation” (CBSA 2018e:8), non-securitized, humanitarian side of border work; 4) despite being couched by CBSA institutional discourses as being professional, courteous, law-abiding, and thorough, much evidence exists to suggest BSOs act in ways differing substantially from this knowledge, including: officers not performing full primary inspections on travellers, Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms violations in terms of officers routinely asking travellers about their mobility while outside of Canada, and a variety of negative frontline interactions including: a) aggressive or unnecessary questioning by officers, b) officers presenting a rude or unfriendly demeanor, c) harassment by officers about purchases made abroad, d) officers unfairly or incorrectly applying policies, e) unnecessary examinations, and f) enforcement actions resulting in the seizure of purchased goods; 5) officers are often forced to develop shared ad hoc best practices in terms of social interactions on the frontline, where there is a real danger of BSOs “parroting” the poor practices of just one or two veteran officers; 6) the existence of a substantial gulf between national policy and training modules and the localized and geographically-specific practices occurring at disparate ports of entry across Canada. Findings generated in terms of the technologization of contemporary borders suggest border security and mobility governance practices are best understood as forms of simulation (Baudrillard 1981) and cyborg work (Bogard 1996), whereby digitized subjects (Goriunova 2019) – which are not at all representative of human subjects – are taken as irrefutable copies or “dividuals” (Deleuze 1992) by border officers, and ultimately become the unit of analysis under neoliberal risk-management schemes in making decisions possible and rendering the personal narratives and performativity of embodied subjects (travellers) effectively irrelevant. Despite CBSA institutional documents couching technologization in terms of improving efficiency at the border, augmenting officer decision-making, and enhancing security provision, official and non-official knowledge gleaned from interaction narratives generated from perceptions related to past social interactions serves to provide a serious critique of these discourses. This includes knowledge concerning perceived deficits related to border technologization, including: 1) discussions of data errors causing travel problems (duplicated NEXUS card numbers, mistaken warrants in the CPIC database, false travel histories in customs databases, and so forth); 2) the advertised benefits of the NEXUS trusted traveller program (efficiency crossing borders) as being either non-existent or irrelevant; 3) the use of Automated Border Clearance (ABC) kiosks / Primary Inspection Kiosks (PIKs) at major Canadian international airports as serving to produce superficial and robotic frontline social interactions guided exclusively by computer-generated risk codes; and 4) the apparent negative effects of technologization in terms of eroding the ability of officers to make informed decisions on the basis of anything other than information provided by computerized databases. Combined, findings generated by comparing institutional knowledge with official and non-official interaction narrative knowledge are subsequently considered through the lens of simulation, human and mobility rights, bureaucratic secrecy, and potential policy change. Additionally, slippage between nationalized institutional discourses and localized frontline practices are explained through the lens of neoliberal systems of power and governance. Finally, avenues for future research are discussed in concluding the thesis.
Canadian Religion in Global Perspective
(2022-01-04) Wilkins-Laflamme, Sarah
The goal of this report is to provide a concise high-quality descriptive portrait of key religiosity indicators in 81 countries from 2017-2020 European Values Survey (EVS) and World Values Survey (WVS) data, with a special focus on Canada. Between 2017-2020, the EVS and the WVS ran their 2017 and 7th waves respectively in 81 countries. Adults 18 years or older living in private residences in each country were selected using simple and multistage random sampling techniques (slight variation in sampling procedures between each country). These respondents were administered the master survey questionnaire face-to-face, over the phone or online. The survey questionnaire was administered in the language of choice of the respondent, for languages found among 5% or more of European national populations, and among 15% or more of other national populations. Table A.1 in Appendix A of this report contains the year of data collection, survey and sample size for each of the 81 countries included in the EVS 2017 and WVS7. For the EVS 2017 and WVS7, a series of questions were asked on religious beliefs, behaviours and belonging, notably on the following key indicators included in this report: salience of religion in life, frequency of religious service attendance and prayer, belief in God and life after death, and religious affiliation. Canada took part in the 2020 WVS: a rare occasion for data collection on key religiosity indicators in the country, and to compare the Canadian situation with many other countries in a large cross-national dataset. A special thank you to the Canadian WVS principal investigator Guy Lachapelle from Concordia University and Léger for the Canadian WVS 2020 data collection.
Cemeteries & the Control of Bodies
(University of Waterloo, 2006) Horn, Zachary
There has been a substantial change in cemetery administration over the last century. Where once cemeteries were predominantly run by religious organizations, now they are mostly run by local municipalities. This thesis examines the change in cemetery administration, using the cemeteries in the city of Hamilton, Ontario as a case study, drawing on material taken from an inventory of Hamilton cemeteries. The Ontario Cemetery Act of 1913 is examined to see how it helped to consolidate municipal power over cemeteries.

In addition to secularization theory, relevant concepts are also applied from the works of Talcott Parsons, Max Weber and Michel Foucault. The analysis suggests that the laicization of cemeteries is part of ongoing rationalizing trends in the larger society. The connection between cemeteries and changes in how we think about human bodies and death is also investigated. Rationalization is linked to a marginalization of the meaning of death as death itself moves from a religious understanding to the control of professionals and bureaucracies like hospitals and funeral homes.
Changes in Canadian Identity Attitudes Over a Twenty Year Period: 1981-2001
(University of Waterloo, 2010-10-01T20:01:07Z) Luke, Alison
This project examines attitude change between 1981 and 2001 for a population of young, well educated Canadians, employing evaluation, potency and activity (EPA) semantic differential ratings of approximately 800 social identities. This comprises my larger data set. I also employ a smaller subset of 102 social identities drawn from the larger data set to explore changes across three points in time (1981, 1995, and 2001) for 102 social identities, supplementing my analysis across two points in time (1981 and 2001) for 800 social identities. The objectives for this dissertation are: (1) to assess stability of attitudes for social identities over time; (2) to identify and describe patterns of change in identity attitudes and to connect observed changes in identity attitudes to historical events, and to social and cultural change in Canadian society; (3) to explore the extent to which identities that cluster together in EPA space define social institutions; and (4) to explore how changes in identity attitudes affect role expectations over time. Despite significant shifts in attitudes for a number of identities, approximately 80% of identity attitudes remained stable over time, confirming findings from past research that cultural sentiments are slow to change. Observed changes could be connected to social and cultural structure. Specifically, dramatic changes occurred for religious and sexual preference/orientation identities. Numerous religious identities decreased on evaluation for male respondents between 1981 and 1995 and then were restored to earlier levels by 2001. Female respondents were not as forgiving and 1995 decreases in evaluation were sustained. These changes are connected to increased secularization and earlier sexual scandals in religious institutions. Sexual preference/orientation identities increased significantly on evaluation for both males and females. However, increases for females were more dramatic and occurred across all three points in time while changes in attitudes for males occurred between 1981 and 1995 and then changed little between 1995 and 2001. These changes can be connected to numerous factors, including the increased visibility of gay/lesbian culture in mainstream media and the absence of a strong anti-gay counter movement. Although social identities clustered in interesting ways, cluster analysis was not very successful in defining social institutions. Computer simulations revealed how role and behaviour expectations change with changes in identity attitudes. For example, there is obvious increase in evaluation between 1981 and 2001 for the behavior of a police officer toward a homosexual. This dissertation concludes by addressing methodological issues such as sample size and generalizability. It is suggested that the corpus of identities should be continually updated to include identities that are emerging from pop culture. Finally, four areas of future research are suggested: (1) a continual monitoring of cultural sentiments; (2) a more detailed focus on individual social institutions; (3) a confirmation of computer predictions with qualitative interview data; and (4) identifying the implications of this research for trend analysis. Practical implications of this dissertation research include the use of computer simulations of identity-role processes in the areas of education and policy research.
Chasing Leisure: A Hermeneutic of Late Modernity
(University of Waterloo, 2015-06-29) Svenson, Stephen Robert
This dissertation addresses shortcomings in the sociological study of leisure through providing a new conceptual approach for understanding human action and meaning making. It reformulates leisure as the leisure imaginary, the sphere in which the individualized person works out problems of identity and community. The leisure imaginary takes the Heidegerrian starting point that our being is a being before death and that it is our fundamental preoccupation with death that gives life its sense of urgency. In late modernity, however, our coping mechanisms for dealing with our fear and anxiety over death have been compromised which has left people disembedded and individualized. It is the thesis of this dissertation that leisure imaginaries have arisen to fill the gap left by institutions like religion and the family that formerly provided ontological security and ontological exigence. The leisure imaginary, then, is a response not only to our being before death but to the conditions of late modernity, the anxieties and preoccupations of our time, our social imaginary or lifeworld. It is argued that the leisure imaginary allows for a stronger interpretive understanding of the late modern conditions that people encounter and their responses to these conditions. The different permutations of the leisure imaginary exemplify different ethically oriented narratives of re-embedding in the pursuit of a meaningful life. In addition, and in contrast to academic treatments of leisure today, this work argues for the value of contemplative or philosophical leisure and the need to preserve, and recreate as needed, a space for this vocation.
City Life, Anxiety and the Problem of the Neighbour: A Theoretical Exploration of the Grey Zone
(University of Waterloo, 2011-01-24T19:59:55Z) Howard, Amelia Lauren Ruby
This thesis is a theoretical exploration of the problem of the neighbour as an encounter with the Grey Zone. I look at various materials that can be formulated as expressions of the anxiety over the unknown that can come out in confrontation with problematic neighbours. Using an interpretive lense that recognizes the fundamental ambiguity in any speech (Blum 2010, Bonner 1997, 1998) I attempt to show how such talk is grounded in the problem of anxiety in the face of the unknown. I begin with an analysis of city life and problem neighbours in general, I then move to a theoretical discussion of the problem that Žižek’s formulation of the Neighbour as Other and Raffel’s discussion of a shared world brings out. I then look at the problem of a specific kind of bad neighbour, a methadone clinic can have in terms of the experience of parenting, and how this is articulated in some theoretical writings on city life. I then turn to an analysis of the proverbial fence as a solution to the Neighbour, followed by an analysis of the Russell Williams case as a call to revisit the problem of the Neighbour in relation to the Grey Zone. Though seemingly disconnected, all the cases I deal with can be understood as part of a conversation on the relation of health, neighbourliness and anxiety in the city to the problem of an encounter with the unknown.
Community-Based Programming for Women in Conflict with the Law: The Perceptions of Staff and Volunteers
(University of Waterloo, 2011-04-11T15:26:27Z) Pavao, Jennifer
There is a marked absence in the Canadian literature about what types of programs and programming characteristics are available to women in conflict with the law when they return to the community after a period of incarceration. There is a need to document the programming options available as well as the characteristics of these programs and their perceived ability to help assist women in conflict with the law find a place in the community. This research is based on a case study conducted with Elizabeth Fry Toronto. The results of this study are based on eight semi-structured interviews that were conducted with the staff and volunteers at this agency. Drawing on the sociological perspectives of multiple marginalities, pathways to crime, stigma and impression management, this study explores the following: (1) the key program elements that are perceived to assist with women’s reintegration back into the community; (2) the ways in which the program elements represent characteristics of successful programs as identified in the literature; and, (3) the challenges Elizabeth Fry Toronto faces in delivering or implementing key program strategies. Findings provide support for the categories and themes of the three sociological perspectives. Also, the results of this research are consistent with what the existing literature identifies as innovative and effective program responses for female offenders in the community. Finally, this study finds that Elizabeth Fry Toronto faces four challenges in assisting women offenders find a place in the community after a period of incarceration: issues surrounding housing arrangements, fiscal restraints, potential clients are unaware of the services available to them, and the perceptions of society regarding women offenders. The results from this study can be used to improve policy and practice as well as add a much needed Canadian perspective to the characteristics and programming options available to women in conflict in the law in the community. This study can possibly inform policy makers with the knowledge, perspectives and theories needed to improve the social conditions for women offenders both in prison and in the community. The findings from this case study illustrate successful program elements, from the perspective of those who work with these women, and the challenges faced by clients and the organization for one community-based agency.
Constituting Restorative Justice: A Case Study Exploring Volunteers’ Experiences of Meaning
(University of Waterloo, 2018-08-31) Smoot-Enns, Rebekah
Restorative Justice (RJ), a model for responding to crime that focuses on addressing harm and restoring the relationships between victim, offender, and community, has gained legitimacy as an effective alternative to lengthy court procedures. As other researchers and RJ theorists have noted, core to restorative justice programing is the inclusion of community members, whether as facilitators in victim-offender conferences, as supporters for offenders in re-entry support circles, or as representatives of community harm in larger sentencing circles. Relying on community volunteers to implement RJ processes has the potential to ensure a core RJ value of increased community involvement in responding to harm and offers a practical mode of supporting this unique response to crime. Despite the value placed on volunteer involvement, the experience of the volunteers who engage with these programs is a significantly understudied aspect of the RJ movement. This research explores the volunteer experience at one of the longest operating RJ programs in North America. Drawing on 16 interviews with volunteers and staff, as well as 35 hours of observation, this research looks at how volunteers frame meaning within RJ and the insights their experience provide about the nature of RJ more broadly. This study traces how volunteer experiences highlight the process by which community members find meaning within RJ through witnessing and sharing narrative of impact, the allure of an RJ when conceived of as an alternative to other models of conflict resolution, and the embedded power relations within the RJ process. As such, it re-centers major debates of the RJ field within the experience of community facilitators and provides significant insights into how RJ is constituted within the volunteer experience.
Constructing Crime: Understanding the Roles, Functions and Claims-Making Activities of Media Relations Officers in Ontario
(University of Waterloo, 2019-02-22) Buffone, Sonya
Despite a growing body of prior research, little attention has been paid to media relations officers (MROs) and how media releases are constructed for the public. This research begins to address this gap by examining the roles and claims-making capacity and activities of police MROs throughout the province of Ontario. Using a sequential qualitative-dominant mixed methods research design, survey data from 19 police services informed the semi-structured interviews conducted with MROs, corporate communication specialists, and civilians (N=26). The findings suggest risk management has a significant influence on how MROs report on crime, inform the public of risk, but also, to educate the public in their role as risk managers. Specifically, crime is constructed so that the likelihood that “something will happen” is emphasized and the public is strongly encouraged to adopt measures to manage their own safety (responsiblization strategies). Thus, I argue that claims-making activities are used by police as a tool of legitimation that is shaped by two dominant discursive frames: (1) As primary definers, constructing crime in terms of risk and promoting citizen risk management; and (2) Projecting positive images of the police to the public. Thus, as legitimation agents, MROs play a key role in justifying and attaining support for the organizational ideals and goals police services value.

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