Sustainability, Hegemony, and Urban Policy in Calgary by Tom Howard BA

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Sustainability, Hegemony, and Urban Policy in Calgary by Tom Howard BA From Risky Business to Common Sense: Sustainability, Hegemony, and Urban Policy in Calgary by Tom Howard B.A. (with distinction), University of Calgary, 2010 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Geography) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) April 2015 © Tom Howard 2015 ABSTRACT Recent years have seen the City of Calgary adopt a suite of sustainability policies in a bid to shift its received trajectory of sprawling urban development towards eco-conscious alternatives. But where sustainable urban development is typically rendered as a consensus-driven project portending mutual benefits for a given locality, the historical adoption of sustainability policies in Calgary has been characterized by waves of conflict and controversy which have allegedly watered down the City’s policy objectives. Rather than evaluating the technical merits of individual policies against ‘best practice’-type standards, this thesis argues that the meanings and implications of particular policy paradigms – such as Calgary’s move towards sustainability – must be found in both the specific institutional configurations in which policies are formed and the political-economic conditions to which they respond. This thesis explores these institutional pressures and conjunctural forces through a historical analysis of several key moments in the emergence and evolution of sustainability-oriented policy in Calgary. Chapter 1 establishes context for this inquiry, while Chapter 2 formulates a theoretical framework by synthesizing neo-Marxian interpretations of local environmental policy and recent innovations in the field of ‘policy mobilities’ with the work of Antonio Gramsci, particularly related to his conception of hegemony. Building upon this edifice, Chapter 3 comprises a historical overview of the City’s first attempts at sustainability-oriented policy, which I argue are best viewed as a ‘fix’ for several tensions and contradictions surrounding Calgary’s hegemonic development model, which I term ‘developer-led suburbanization’. Attempts to reformat and restructure this model through consensual community ‘visioning exercises’ and ‘systems’-based rationalities are considered in Chapter 4, which I explain as a manoeuvre by the City to restore political legitimacy and wrest control over development matters from private sector actors. These narratives converge in my central argument: the historical formation of sustainability policies in Calgary has not been a process of incremental rationalization or evolutionary refinement, but has instead reflected a series of struggles for political leadership within an arrangement that can be best understood through the Gramscian concept of hegemony. ii PREFACE This thesis, including the design, analysis, and presentation of research materials herein, is an original intellectual product of the author. It was approved by the University of British Columbia’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board, certificate number H13-01227. Figures 3.5 and 4.5 are Copyright © The City of Calgary, and reprinted with permission. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ......................................................................................................................................................... ii Preface ......................................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................................ vi List of Figures .............................................................................................................................................. vii Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: Sustainability in the City of Contradictions ................................................................................. 1 1.1 Eco-Politics on the Edge ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Situating Sustainability ..................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 Querying the Boomtown ................................................................................................................ 13 Chapter 2: Sustainability, Hegemony, and Urban Policy ............................................................................ 19 2.1 Sustainability is the Answer! (But What was the Question?) ........................................................ 19 2.2 Local Politics and the ‘Urban Sustainability Fix’ ............................................................................. 20 2.3 Policy on the Fly: Mobile Constructions of Sustainability .............................................................. 28 2.4 Ideology, Intellectuals, and the Vicissitudes of Hegemony ........................................................... 36 2.5 ‘Fixing’ Hegemony, or, Going Green with Gramsci ........................................................................ 45 Chapter 3: Boom Times and Birth Pangs .................................................................................................... 55 3.1 Lineages of Failure ......................................................................................................................... 55 3.2 A Pre-History of Power and Planning in a Prairie Boomtown ........................................................ 58 3.3 A Tale of Two Policies ..................................................................................................................... 64 3.4 Growth Collapsed, Hegemony Emergent ....................................................................................... 68 3.5 Conservative Eighties, Revolutionary Nineties .............................................................................. 74 3.6 Roads to Reform............................................................................................................................. 81 3.7 Suburbanizing Sustainability .......................................................................................................... 86 3.8 Sustainability Policies and Their (Dis)contents .............................................................................. 96 Chapter 4: Greening the Growth Machine ............................................................................................... 104 4.1 Postmillennial Moves: The Return of Growth and Revival of Sustainability................................ 104 4.2 Cities on the Move, Policies on the Make .................................................................................... 108 4.3 A Pangloss for the Prairies ........................................................................................................... 115 4.4 Imagining Urban Sustainability, Governing Civil Society.............................................................. 121 iv 4.5 Consolidating the Vision............................................................................................................... 130 4.6 “Where Do We Grow From Here?” .............................................................................................. 135 4.7 Translations and Recuperations ................................................................................................... 142 4.8 Recombinant Sustainability.......................................................................................................... 148 Chapter 5: Sustainability Between Two Worlds ....................................................................................... 154 5.1 Urban Policy Amidst an Interregnum ........................................................................................... 154 5.2 Reflections on Method ................................................................................................................. 156 5.3 The Uses of Hegemony and the Problem of Monday Morning ................................................... 159 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................. 162 Appendix A: List of Interviews .................................................................................................................. 179 v LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Calgary’s municipal debt, 1980-88 .............................................................................................. 75 Table 3.2 City budgets in an austere age, 1991-1995 ................................................................................. 80 Table 4.1 City of Calgary growth projections versus actual growth rates, 1995-2003 ............................. 105 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Political-economic pressures and the urban sustainability fix .................................................. 24 Figure 2.2 The sustainability fix reconfigured ............................................................................................. 47 Figure 2.3 Hegemonic projects and the sustainability fix ..........................................................................
Recommended publications
  • Alberta Hansard
    Province of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Alberta Hansard Tuesday afternoon, April 20, 2021 Day 100 The Honourable Nathan M. Cooper, Speaker Legislative Assembly of Alberta The 30th Legislature Second Session Cooper, Hon. Nathan M., Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills (UC), Speaker Pitt, Angela D., Airdrie-East (UC), Deputy Speaker and Chair of Committees Milliken, Nicholas, Calgary-Currie (UC), Deputy Chair of Committees Aheer, Hon. Leela Sharon, Chestermere-Strathmore (UC) Nally, Hon. Dale, Morinville-St. Albert (UC), Allard, Tracy L., Grande Prairie (UC) Deputy Government House Leader Amery, Mickey K., Calgary-Cross (UC) Neudorf, Nathan T., Lethbridge-East (UC) Armstrong-Homeniuk, Jackie, Nicolaides, Hon. Demetrios, Calgary-Bow (UC) Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville (UC) Nielsen, Christian E., Edmonton-Decore (NDP) Barnes, Drew, Cypress-Medicine Hat (UC) Nixon, Hon. Jason, Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre (UC), Bilous, Deron, Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview (NDP) Government House Leader Carson, Jonathon, Edmonton-West Henday (NDP) Nixon, Jeremy P., Calgary-Klein (UC) Ceci, Joe, Calgary-Buffalo (NDP) Notley, Rachel, Edmonton-Strathcona (NDP), Copping, Hon. Jason C., Calgary-Varsity (UC) Leader of the Official Opposition Dach, Lorne, Edmonton-McClung (NDP), Orr, Ronald, Lacombe-Ponoka (UC) Official Opposition Deputy Whip Pancholi, Rakhi, Edmonton-Whitemud (NDP) Dang, Thomas, Edmonton-South (NDP), Official Opposition Deputy House Leader Panda, Hon. Prasad, Calgary-Edgemont (UC) Deol, Jasvir, Edmonton-Meadows (NDP) Phillips, Shannon, Lethbridge-West (NDP) Dreeshen, Hon. Devin, Innisfail-Sylvan Lake (UC) Pon, Hon. Josephine, Calgary-Beddington (UC) Eggen, David, Edmonton-North West (NDP), Rehn, Pat, Lesser Slave Lake (Ind) Official Opposition Whip Reid, Roger W., Livingstone-Macleod (UC) Ellis, Mike, Calgary-West (UC), Renaud, Marie F., St.
    [Show full text]
  • REPORT on the Agenda 6 Consultations / Lobbyist Update 7
    JANUARY 18, 2019// VOL.3 ISSUE 2 THE INSIDE THIS ISSUE: News Briefs 2 Who’s Doing Business With Government? 2 2019 Election Candidate Update 3-6 REPORT On the Agenda 6 Consultations / Lobbyist Update 7 THE CLOCK IS SET The Spring Sitting of the Legislature is scheduled to begin March 18th, with a Speech from the Throne. Whether the house will sit beyond that date – and if so, for scheduled for the weekend of February 15 - 17 in Edmonton. how long – or even arrive at that date before an election is Expect both parties to approach the end of February with called remains a matter of much debate. some strong economic messaging, ahead of the government’s According to the newly released legislative calendar, a scheduled third-quarter fiscal update. It’s expected to be less 12-week session would run until the first week of June and rosy than the last. It’s possible the NDP could look to release include three constituency breaks. This will of course be that information sooner than later – ahead of the Family Day interrupted by an election, which must occur between May 1 long weekend perhaps – in the hope that it gets lost by the and March 31. torrent of economic and political news coming at month’s end. Those making election projections have much to consider. If judging by precedent alone, this coming session marks a This includes the National Energy Board’s February 22 later start than normal for the NDP. With the exception of TMX review deadline, key federal by-elections that will its inaugural Throne Speech in June 2015 following their impact the federal election, and the provincial government’s historic election, government has delivered the speech in handling of expressions of interests for oil refinery projects – and around the onset of March, rather than the middle – and the deadline for which is February 8.
    [Show full text]
  • Cities for People, Not for Profit
    CITIES FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PROFIT The worldwide financial crisis has sent shock waves of accelerated economic restructuring, regulatory reorganization, and sociopolitical conflict through cities around the world. It has also given new impetus to the struggles of urban social movements emphasizing the injustice, destructiveness, and unsustainability of capitalist forms of urbanization. This book contributes analyses intended to be useful for efforts to roll back contemporary profit-based forms of urbanization, and to promote alternative, radically democratic, and sustainable forms of urbanism. The contributors provide cutting-edge analyses of contemporary urban restructuring, including the issues of neoliberalization, gentrification, colonization, “creative” cities, architecture and political power, sub-prime mortgage foreclosures, and the ongoing struggles of “right to the city” movements. At the same time, the book explores the diverse interpretive frameworks – critical and otherwise – that are currently being used in academic discourse, in political struggles, and in everyday life to decipher contemporary urban transformations and contestations. The slogan, “cities for people, not for profit,” sets into stark relief what the contributors view as a central political question involved in efforts, at once theoretical and practical, to address the global urban crises of our time. Drawing upon European and North American scholarship in sociology, politics, geography, urban planning, and urban design, the book provides useful insights and perspectives for citizens, activists, and intellectuals interested in exploring alternatives to contemporary forms of capitalist urbanization. Neil Brenner is Professor of Urban Theory at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. He formerly served as Professor of Sociology and Metropolitan Studies at New York University.
    [Show full text]
  • The Housing Crisis and the Rise of the Real Estate State
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Publications and Research CUNY Graduate Center 2019 The Housing Crisis and the Rise of the Real Estate State Samuel Stein CUNY Graduate Center How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_pubs/552 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Mary and Andrew Bennetts, Flickr Hudson Yards in New York City. Cost to taxpayers in the form of bond offerings, tax breaks, and direct subsidies = $5.6 billion, dwarfing the incentives offered to Amazon in the failed incentives package to locate its second headquarters in Long Island City, New York. NLFXXX10.1177/1095796019864098New Labor ForumStein 864098research-article2019 New Labor Forum 1 –8 The Housing Crisis and the Rise Copyright © 2019, The Murphy Institute, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies of the Real Estate State Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI:https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796019864098 10.1177/1095796019864098 journals.sagepub.com/home/nlf Samuel Stein1 Keywords urban planning, housing, gentrification, real estate, organizing Around the world, more and more money is equity firms like Blackstone—now the world’s being invested in real estate, the business of largest landlord.4 building, buying, and renting land and property. Global real estate is now worth $217 trillion, In 2016, a record 37 percent of thirty-six times the value of all the gold ever home sales were made to absentee mined.
    [Show full text]
  • The Digital Nexus: Identity, Agency, and Political Engagement Edited by Raphael Foshay Thethe Digitaldigital Nexusnexus
    The Digital Nexus Cultural Dialectics Series editor: Raphael Foshay The difference between subject and object slices through subject as well as through object. —Theodor W. Adorno Cultural Dialectics provides an open arena in which to debate questions of culture and dialectic—their practices, their theoretical forms, and their relations to one another and to other spheres and modes of inquiry. Approaches that draw on any of the following are especially encouraged: continental philosophy, psychoanalysis, the Frankfurt and Birmingham schools of cultural theory, deconstruction, gender theory, postcoloniality, and interdisciplinarity. Series Titles Northern Love: An Exploration of Canadian Masculinity Paul Nonnekes Making Game: An Essay on Hunting, Familiar Things, and the Strangeness of Being Who One Is Peter L. Atkinson Valences of Interdisciplinarity: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy Edited by Raphael Foshay Imperfection Patrick Grant The Undiscovered Country: Essays in Canadian Intellectual Culture Ian Angus The Letters of Vincent van Gogh: A Critical Study Patrick Grant “My Own Portrait in Writing”: Self-Fashioning in the Letters of Vincent van Gogh Patrick Grant Speaking Power to Truth: Digital Discourse and the Public Intellectual Edited by Michael Keren and Richard Hawkins The Digital Nexus: Identity, Agency, and Political Engagement Edited by Raphael Foshay TheThe DigitalDigital NexusNexus Identity, Agency, and Political Engagement edited by RAFAEL FOSHAY Copyright © 2016 Raphael Foshay Published by AU Press, Athabasca University 1200, 10011 – 109 Street, Edmonton, AB T5J 3S8 ISBN 978-1-77199-129-2 (print) 978-1-77199-130-8 (pdf) 978-1-77199-131-5 (epub) doi: 10.15215/aupress/9781771991292.01 A volume in Cultural Dialectics series: ISSN 1915-836X (print) 1915-8378 (digital) Cover design by Marvin Harder Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens The appendix, “Do Machines Have Rights? Ethics in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” is a reprint of Paul Kellogg’s interview of David J.
    [Show full text]
  • AB Today – Daily Report October 15, 2020
    AB Today – Daily Report October 15, 2020 Quotation of the day “There will be tough decisions in the short term so we can sustain services ​ into the future.” Finance Minister Travis Toews indicates cuts are coming in the 2021 budget. ​ ​ Today in AB Written by Catherine Griwkowsky On the schedule The house will reconvene Tuesday, October 20, for the fall session. In the legislature Justice Minister Kaycee Madu met with the Métis Settlements General Council in the legislature ​ ​ ​ ​ on Tuesday to discuss policing as part of the government’s ongoing review. Next spring’s budget will include cuts, finance minister teases Finance Minister Travis Toews warned “tough decisions” are ahead as he invited public ​ ​ feedback ahead of budget 2021. To reduce spending, the finance minister said he is looking at creating “efficiencies” in the public sector. “It’s clear the status quo is not sustainable, but this is also a great opportunity to reset our course, not only for the next fiscal plan, but for future generations of Albertans,” Toews told reporters. “There will be tough decisions in the short term so we can sustain services into the future.” While the UCP ran on a promise of balanced budgets, the pandemic — and ensuing oil price collapse and economic challenges — has thrown those plans for a loop. “The four-year fiscal plan we introduced with Budget 2019 was working,” Toews said. “Since that time, Alberta has been hit by a very serious triple black swan event.” The deficit is on track to hit a record high of $24.2 billion in 2020-21, with debt forecast to hit $99.6 billion by March 31, 2021.
    [Show full text]
  • Progress Alberta
    Progressives in Alberta Public opinion on policy, political leaders, and the province’s political identity Conducted for Progress Alberta Report prepared by David Coletto, PhD Methodology This study was commissioned by Progress Alberta to explore the political attitudes of Albertans on a range of current policy areas. It also seeks to understand how Albertans see themselves from an ideological perspective. The survey informing this study was conducted online with 1,000 Albertans aged 18 and older from December 2 to 7, 2015. A random sample of panelists was invited to complete the survey from a large representative panel of Albertans recruited and managed by Research Now, one of the world’s leading providers of online research samples. The Marketing Research and Intelligence Association policy limits statements about margins of sampling error for most online surveys. The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Alberta's population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding. 2 Sample Composition The sample of Albertans interviewed for this study is representative of the Alberta population aged 18 and older. It is also representative of those who voted in the 2015 Alberta Provincial Election as the distribution of party supporters closely matches the actual results of the election. Proportion of Subgroup Unweighted Count
    [Show full text]
  • REGULAR MEETING of COUNCIL to BE HELD in the TOWN of VULCAN COUNCIL CHAMBERS on MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021 COMMENCING at 7:00 PM Page
    AGENDA FOR THE REGULAR MEETING OF COUNCIL TO BE HELD IN THE TOWN OF VULCAN COUNCIL CHAMBERS ON MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021 COMMENCING AT 7:00 PM Page 1. Call to Order 2. Adoption of Agenda 2.1 Additional Items 3. Adoption of Previous Minutes 3.1 Regular Council Meeting Minutes - February 22, 2021 3 - 8 REGULAR MEETING OF COUNCIL - 22 Feb 2021 - Minutes - Pdf 4. Correspondence and Information Items 4.1 SouthGrow Regional Economic Development 9 - 12 SouthGrow Report February 2021 4.2 City of Lethbridge - Mayor Chris Spearman 13 - 16 Letter to Premier_Protection for Rocky Mountains_Coal Policy 4.3 Minister of Municipal Affairs - Budget 2021 17 - 18 Budget 2021 Letter to Chief Elected Officials 4.4 Westlock County - Proposed Changes to AER Directive 067 19 - 20 AER Direction 067 ltr 2021-02-23 4.5 Letters to Minister of Justice & Solicitor General 21 - 24 Crowsnest Pass- Letter of Request concerning RCMP Vauxhall - Policing Concerns 4.6 Alberta Utilities Commission 25 - 27 Notice of Applications Enterprise Solar Project 4.7 Vulcan County - Recreation Funding 29 - 30 Recreation Funding to Town of Vulcan 5. Current Business 5.1 Installation of Art at Tourism Centre 31 - 35 Installation of Art at Tourism Centre - Pdf 5.2 Pool Borrowing 37 - 38 Pool Borrowing - Pdf 5.3 Commercial Development Incentive Application PL-12.21.01 39 - 46 Page 1 of 88 Commercial Development Incentive Application PL-12.21.01 - Pdf 5.4 1st Avenue South Road Maintenance Agreement 47 - 57 1st Avenue South Road Maintenance Agreement - Pdf 6. Committee Reports 6.1 Mayors & Reeves of Southwest Alberta 59 - 61 Mayors & Reeves Board Minutes February 05, 2021 6.2 Marquis Foundation 63 - 64 Board Meeting Draft Minutes February 23, 2021 7.
    [Show full text]
  • April 10, 2020 the Honourable Jason Kenney the Honourable Kaycee
    Office of the Mayor Don Iveson City of Edmonton Mayor 2nd Floor, City Hall 1 Sir Winston Churchill Square Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2R7 edmonton.ca April 10, 2020 The Honourable Jason Kenney The Honourable Kaycee Madu Premier of Alberta Minister of Municipal Affairs 307 Legislature Building 132 Legislature Building 10800 - 97 Avenue NW 10800 - 97 Avenue NW Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6 Edmonton, AB T5K 2B6 Dear Premier Kenney and Minister Madu: In light of the economic challenges we are all facing together as a result of the current global pandemic, the City of Edmonton is working diligently to ensure public health and safety is our top priority. At the same time, we are seeking to reduce costs for ratepayers and taxpayers while hearing from and responding to our business community regarding their immediate and long-term needs. We are also very attuned to the need to reduce red tape, internally and for business, as my letter dated April 3, 2020 outlines. Following our conversations on infrastructure stimulus and further to your announcement yesterday, I am writing today to share with you the City of Edmonton’s shovel-ready priority projects for 2020 and 2021. Combined, these lists include more than $2.1 billion in stimulus projects that create up to 10,490 jobs and directly benefit Edmontonians. Shovel-ready priority projects for 2020 include: ● Residential/commercial infill redevelopment that supports Edmonton’s goals of building a more efficient city, $10-100 million (60-600 jobs) ● Flood mitigation projects to prevent flooding of homes and businesses,
    [Show full text]
  • The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements
    Excerpt • Temple University Press 1 Bouazizi’s Refusal and Ours Critical Reflections on the Great Refusal and Contemporary Social Movements Peter N. Funke, Andrew T. Lamas, and Todd Wolfson The Dignity Revolution: A Spark of Refusal n December 17, 2010, in a small rural town in Tunisia, an interaction that happens a thousand times a day in our world—the encounter Obetween repression’s disrespect and humanity’s dignity—became a flashpoint, igniting a global wave of resistance. On this particular day, a police officer confiscated the produce of twenty-six-year-old street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi and allegedly spit in his face and hit him. Humiliated and in search of self-respect, Bouazizi attempted to report the incident to the municipal government; however, he was refused an audience. Soon there- after, Bouazizi doused himself in flammable liquid and set himself on fire. Within hours of his self-immolation, protests started in Bouazizi’s home- town of Sidi Bouzid and then steadily expanded across Tunisia. The protests gave way to labor strikes and, for a few weeks, Tunisians were unified in their demand for significant governmental reforms. During this heightened period of unrest, police and the military responded by violently clamping down on the protests, which led to multiple injuries and deaths. And as is often the case, state violence intensified the situation, resulting in mounting pressure on the government. The protests reached their apex on January 14, 2011, and Tunisian president Ben Ali fled the country, ending his twenty- three years of rule; however, the demonstrations continued until free elec- tions were declared in March 2011.
    [Show full text]
  • Resistance, Rebellion and Revolt!
    OCIALiT SCHOLARS CONFERENCE Resistance, Rebellion and Revolt! April 18, 19 & 20, 1986 The 4th Annual Boro of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, 199 Chambers Street, New York City FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 7-10 pm 9:30 am-lO pm 9:30 am-6 pm Resistance, Rebellion and Revolt! A broad range of academics and social activists have gathered for a 4th Annual Socialist Scholars Conference on Friday through Sunday, April 18-20 at the Boro of Manhattan Community College. This year's theme of Resistance, Rebellion and Revolt focuses upon a century of mass workers movements: 100th Anniversary of the Haymarket Riots, 75th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (which helped galvanize the women's working-class movement here in New York City), the 50th Anniversary of the great sit-down strikes which helped found the CIO, the 50th Anniversary of the Spanish Civil War, and the 30th Anniversary of the Hungarian Revolt. This year we are commemorating the millions who have fought and died in the real socialist struggle, the continual revolt from below. CHILDCARE AVAILABLE Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Sunday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Children must toilet trained and at least three years old. ROOM N312 The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York Ph.D. Program in Sociology I Box 375 Graduate Center: 33 West 42 Street, New York, N.Y. 10036-8099 212 790-4320 To Our Fellow Participants: Socialism, in the multifaceted forms it has adopted, has inspired a vast number of social movements in a wide range of countries.
    [Show full text]
  • “YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS” Abraham (“Abe”) Edel
    MATERIAL FOR “YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS” Abraham (“Abe”) Edel (6 December 1908 – 22 June 2007) “Twenty-Seven Uses of Science in Ethics,” 7/2/67 Abraham Edel, In Memoriam, by Peter Hare and Guy Stroh Abraham Edel, 1908-2007 Abraham Edel was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 6, 1908. Raised in Yorkton, Canada with his older brother Leon who would become a biographer of Henry James, Edel studied Classics and Philosophy at McGill University, earning a BA in 1927 and an MA in 1928. He continued his education at Oxford where, as he recalled, “W.D. Ross and H.A. Prichard were lecturing in ethics, H.W.B. Joseph on Plato, and the influence of G. E. Moore and Bertrand Russell extended from Cambridge. Controversy on moral theory was high. The same was true of epistemology, where Prichard posed realistic epistemology against Harold Joachim who was defending Bradley and Bosanquet against the metaphysical realism of Cook Wilson.” He received a BA in Litterae Humaniores from Oxford in 1930. In that year he moved to New York City for doctoral studies at Columbia University, and in 1931 began teaching at City College, first as an assistant to Morris Raphael Cohen. F.J.E. Woodbridge directed his Columbia dissertation, Aristotle’s Theory of the Infinite (1934). This monograph and two subsequent books on Aristotle were influenced by Woodbridge’s interpretation of Aristotle as a philosophical naturalist. Although his dissertation concerned ancient Greek philosophy, he was much impressed by research in the social sciences at Columbia, and the teaching of Cohen at City College showed him how philosophical issues lay at the root of the disciplines of psychology, sociology, history, as well as the natural sciences.
    [Show full text]