Abstract

Health, Governance, and Citizenship in Canadian Urban Centres: An Interdisciplinary and Team-Based Research Project

Judith McKenzie, Karen Murray, and Michael Orsini

We are a team of researchers exploring how the evolution of organizational, fiscal, and regulatory relationships between and among state and extra-state institutions and groups is shaping the boundaries of citizenship through health services provided at the local level. Focusing on the years from 1984 to 2002, the project will concentrate on four socially- and economically-marginalized urban neighbourhoods with high degrees of social diversity: Britannia (Vancouver), Parkdale (Toronto), Lowertown (Ottawa), and Little Burgundy (Montreal). The roundtable will introduce the four analytical approaches employed in the project: governance and citizenship (Karen Murray, Principal Investigator), political economy and feminism (Caroline Andrew, Co-applicant), models of community care (Judith McKenzie, Co-applicant), and narrative (Michael Orsini, Co-applicant).

Bios

Judith McKenzie, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Guelph (Co-applicant).
McKenzie worked as an urban planner for a municipality in the Ottawa area, for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and for an engineering and planning consulting firm in Markham. Among other publications, she has authored Pauline Jewett: A Passion for Canada (McGill-Queen's University Press, 1999) and Environmental Politics in Canada (Oxford University Press, 2002). She is a member of the Canadian Institute of Planners and is currently researching social housing and mental health policy in Canada.

K. MURRAY, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of New Brunswick (Principal Investigator)
Murray's work draws on a variety of analytical strategies including governmentality, feminist analysis, and theories of citizenship. She has published in the journal Canadian Public Administration, has a forthcoming publication that deals with provincial government reforms, and is the Principal Investigator of the Health, Governance, and Citizenship Project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Medical Research Fund of New Brunswick.

M. ORSINI, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, York University (Glendon College), and Senior Research Associate with Carleton University's Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development (Co-Applicant)
Orsini has published in the Canadian Journal of Political Science, co-authored a discussion paper (with Susan Phillips) for the Canadian Policy Research Networks, and is preparing a book manuscript entitled Accidental Activists: HIV, Hepatitis C, and the Mobilization of Tainted Blood Recipients in Canada. Orsini is Principal Investigator of a $90,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research grant: "From Silence to Voice: A Qualitative Glimpse into the Lives of People with Hepatitis C."

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