Lisa Barnoff

Contradictory Tensions in Anti-Oppression Practice in Feminist Social Services:

The implementation of an anti-oppression approach in feminist agencies must deal with contradictory tensions within the model. Feminists imagine anti-oppression as a model of practice that deals with all structures of oppression. At the same time, feminist members of marginalized communities perceive that their particular form of oppression is not attended to in the model. The authors contend that one must understand anti-oppression practice within the historical and social conditions that create inequity and offer implications for practice.

Listening to the Voices of Lesbians Diagnosed with Cancer

Abstract This paper focuses on the operations of heterosexism and strategies to counter it in a particular service context: the context of psychosocial support services for women with cancer. The paper draws on findings from a participatory, qualitative study set in Ontario, Canada in which 26 lesbians were interviewed about their experiences of cancer diagnosis, treatment, health care and social support, and their feelings and perceptions about shifts in identity, body, sexuality and relationships. This paper focuses on findings related to the changes research participants perceived as necessary in the provision and organization of cancer support services, in order to increase access and ensure equity for lesbians with cancer and their families.

“Essential cogs in the innovation machine”: The discourse of innovation in Ontario educational reform

In this article we explore a Canadian example of how the language of innovation reproduces discourses of neoliberalism in postsecondary education policy documents. How innovation is defined and used in postsecondary education is explored through the analysis of international and regional policy documents. Through our research we ask how has the global discourse of innovation been incorporated into the transformation of postsecondary education in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. Further we ask the question, what does innovation signify in the policies and directives of postsecondary institutions in Ontario? As well, does innovation reproduce neoliberal discourses of profitability, uncertainty and the knowledge economy when it is situated in policies that affect postsecondary governance? We argue that innovation is a discursive practice with specific and profound impacts on the language of higher education. By focusing on the province of Ontario, we were able to explore how documents produced by the government and its related agencies about higher education encourage innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship in an attempt to increase productivity. Although this discourse of innovation is rooted in historic processes of liberalism, specific policy initiatives, such as the Strategic Mandate Agreements discussed in this article, bring the discourse of innovation into sharp focus and underline a preoccupation with the priorities of neoliberal governance. We call for a broader discussion about the meaning and purpose of the discourses of innovation, creativity, productivity, and entrepreneurship in higher education. Without this type of interrogation these discourses function as an episteme that is assumed to have a widespread, a priori value, which may obscure the dramatic transformations, such as the move to tailor education solely to the market economy, the rise of reductive outcome measures for student and faculty evaluation, the commercialization of knowledge, the pursuit of efficiencies in the postsecondary sector, and the corporatization of governance that are occurring within higher education.

A social work re-reading of students as consumers

Abstract The concept of student as consumer highlights significant shifts in what Canadian students pay for their education and how this transition has shaped their relationship with learning as well as their overall expectations for, and participation in, the project of higher learning. Consumerism in social work education reflects broader trends towards academic capitalism in Canadian universities and is a result of neoliberal ideology reshaping higher education. In this paper, we explore student and faculty participants’ reflections on the impact of consumerism on progressive social work education, exploring how participants use the term to make sense of their experiences and how doing so reshapes progressive social work education itself.