Department Research

Dr. David Johnson and Dr. Andrew Molloy

In October 18-22, 2008, David Johnson and Andrew Molloy attended the 2008 Biennial Conference of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, held in Bridgetown, Barbados. Drs. Johnson and Molloy participated in the executive meeting of the Commonwealth Public Service Training and Development Institutes Network, as well as presenting a conference paper entitled: Public Service Training and Leadership Development Institutes: Building a New Generation of Commonwealth Public Service Professionals".

In June of 2009, David Johnson and Andrew Molloy will be involved in a month of international travel to India, Singapore and Malaysia as part of their on-going research project into the development of a governance network linking together Commonwealth public service management training and development institutes. They will spend a week in India, in New Delhi and Mussorie, meeting with Indian colleagues, a week in Singapore meeting with officials with the Singapore Civil Service College, and then a week in Malaysia, meeting with Malaysian colleagues and attending a Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management conference bringing together the heads of public service training and development institutes.

While at this conference, Johnson and Molloy will present an analytical compendium of managerial leadership programmes from across the Commonwealth. Johnson and Molloy have been ably assisted in the production of this compendium by CBU Political Science student Laura Swain.

David Johnson and Andrew Molloy have an article forthcoming in Canadian Public Administration:

David Johnson, Andrew Molloy, "The Quiet Crisis and the Emergence of La Relève: A Study of Crisis Perception and Executive Leadership within the Canadian Federal Public Service, 1997-2002", in Canadian Public Administration 52:2, 2009.

David Johnson and Andrew Molloy will be presenting a paper entitled, "New Professionals on tap? Building a new generation of municipal and local government public service leaders in Nova Scotia" at the Commonwealth Local Government Research Colloquium," 10-11 May, 2009, Freeport, Bahamas. The Colloquium overlaps with the Commonwealth Local Government Conference, which is taking place between 11-14 of May in Freeport, Bahamas.

David and Johnson and Andrew Molloy will be presenting their "New Professionals" research findings in a workshop for the "Winds of Change," Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) New Professionals Conference, which is taking place between October 26-28, 2009 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

David Johnson

Over the winter of 2009 David Johnson served on the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Adjudication Panel for Standard Research Grant applications in the fields of Political Science and Public Administration. This work culminated in a week of work in Ottawa from March 1-5, 2009, when the nine-member committee of academics from across Canada reviewed 160 files, awarding some $4.2 million to 65 successful applicants.

Tom Urbaniak and Andrew Molloy

Tom Urbaniak and Andrew Molloy are supervising a Service Canada-funded project on "Off-Campus Urban Student Housing Options." The project provides three participants (one project coordinator and two project officers) with experience and job-skills as they develop an initiative to set up a cooperative or other venture for urban (off campus) student housing on one or more neglected properties.

Brian Howe

Professor Brian Howe recently has published a book (with psychologist Katherine Covell) on risk factors and family policies in the prevention of childhood and youth violence. The central argument is that violence in childhood is not spontaneous: that children are raised to become violent in poorly functioning families and child-unfriendly environments. They may be exposed to toxic substances in utero, to maltreatment in infancy, to domestic violence or parental criminality as they grow up. Each of these risk factors is empirically linked with violent behavior, and each reflects a violation of children's rights to protection from maltreatment. Key to reducing risk are policies respecting children's rights and programs of early prevention such as quality child care, health care, parent education and home visitation. This is demonstrated through a comparison of child-friendly policies in the Nordic countries, where violence is relatively low and less friendly policies in the United States, where violence is much higher.

The Failure of Global Capitalism: From Cape Breton to Colombia and Beyond

Terry Gibbs and Garry Leech

(Cape Breton University Press, 2009)

What do Cape Breton and Colombia have in common? Coal, for one thing. Coal mining was the backbone of Cape Breton's industrial economy for more than one hundred years, but the last mine was closed in 2001 when the province's utility company took advantage of neoliberal globalization by importing coal—from Colombia.

Colombia and Cape Breton represent the loss of well-paid, unionized industrial jobs as a result of neoliberal globalization—the economic hegemony that allows multinational corporations in the global North, primarily North America and Europe, to exploit the natural resources and cheap labour of the global South: Latin America, Africa and Asia.

But the commonalities between Cape Breton and Colombia do not end with coal, there are numerous connections directly related to the capitalist system: militant labour struggles, repression, economic insecurity, population displacement, social inequality and environmental devastation.

The Failure of Global Capitalism uses the examples of Cape Breton and Colombia to illustrate the harsh realities suffered by people throughout the global North and the global South under neoliberal globalization, particularly with regard to socio-economic and environmental issues. Ultimately, it exposes the failure of industrial capitalism, and looks toward more sustainable and egalitarian alternatives.

Beyond Bogotá: Diary of a Drug War Journalist in Colombia

Garry Leech

(Beacon Press, 2009)

Garry Leech, independent journalist and lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Cape Breton University, has spent the last eight years working in the most remote and dangerous regions of Colombia, uncovering the unofficial stories of people living in conflict zones. Beyond Bogotá is framed around the eleven hours that Leech was held captive by the FARC, Colombia's largest leftist guerrilla group, in August of 2006. He recalls nearly thirty years of travel and work in Latin America while weaving in a historical context of the region and on-the-ground reporting with each passing hour of his detention.

Drawing on unprecedented access to soldiers, guerrillas, paramilitaries, and peasants in conflict zones and cocaine-producing areas, Leech's documentary memoir is an epic tale of a journalist's search for meaning in the midst of violence and poverty, as well as a humanizing firsthand account that supplies fresh insights into U.S. foreign policy, the role of the media, and the plight of everyday Colombians caught in the midst of a brutal war.

Lee-Anne Broadhead

Lee-Anne Broadhead has continued working on her long-term Critical Remembrance Project, one portion of which investigates the origins of the nuclear age through the lens of critical social theory; she has recently published, "Our Day in Their Shadow: Critical Remembrance, Feminist Science and the Women of the Manhattan Project," Peace and Conflict Studies 15(2, 2009): 38-61. Another aspect of this major research project concerns the role of science and technology in the reproduction and/or transformation of society. In this area, Lee-Anne has co-written two papers, with Dr. Sean Howard, Adjunct Professor in the Department: "The Development of Nanotechnology" Science and Society (Forthcoming) and "Deepening the Debate over 'Sustainable Science': Indigenous Perspectives as a Guide on the Journey" Sustainable Development (Forthcoming).

James Guy

Professor Guy's text is the most enduring text in the history of Canadian Political Science and has been used at universities and colleges across Canada and a number of US universities for a quarter of a century. This latest edition confronts contemporary issues such as the environment, poverty, racism and sexual diversity. It includes the results from Fall 2008 US and Canadian federal elections, and discusses recent controversies such as Canada's peacekeeping role and the growing importance of the European Union. Professor Guy has expanded the section on political parties, interest, and pressure groups, to help students understand and compare Canadian government institutions and the politics we experience with those of other states in the global community.