Our North America: Social and Political Issues Beyond NAFTA

ISBN-13: 9781409438731 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 352 str.

Julian Castro-Rea

Opis

What we call "North America" today is a human space that has been constructed over the centuries, perceived from time immemorial by its original inhabitants as a unified whole, and named Turtle Island. What is North America today? Is it more than the sum of its parts? Does it qualify as a distinct global region? Is it just a market or also something else? This book explores several neglected aspects of the key relationships between Canada, Mexico and the United States. Studies of societal relations in North America have typically been limited to trade, investment and intergovernmental relations. In contrast, the authors in this book address other vital issues which bind this global region together, including Indigenous peoples, security, migration, civil societies, democracy, identities and culture. Via a thorough examination of these issues, the historical, sociological, economic, and political aspects of regional linkages are highlighted. Rather than dealing with each country in isolation, each chapter in this collection considers North America as a single unit of analysis, therefore systematically addressing the regional dynamic as a whole, and engaging the country-specific differences in a truly comparative way. By providing the analytical tools needed, this important book makes sense of the different aspects of the complex societies of contemporary North America.

Recenzje

'The authors have admirably different approaches to what North America means and how closely it should be integrated as a region. They focus on what the region North America means for Mexicans and Canadians with an innovative and insightful focus on culture, security, power and people.' Marjorie Griffin Cohen, Simon Fraser University, Canada

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction, Julián Castro-Rea; Part I The First North America, Then and Now: Indigeneity and transnational routes and roads in North America, Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez. Part II North American Integration: Development and Challenges: The uncertain politics of North American economic integration, Greg Anderson; The security and prosperity partnership: made in North America integration or co-operation?, Jimena Jiménez; The security and prosperity partnership: the short history of a strategic bargain, Janine Brodie. Part III Migration: A dialectical understanding of the vulnerability of international migrants, Jorge A. Bustamante. Part IV The Democratic Deficit: Canada and North American integration - bringing in civil society?, Laura Macdonald; Making room for democracy: three moments in the struggle against trade and investment regimes in the Americas, John W. Foster. Part V Identities in Flux: Slippery borders: negotiating North American hybrid identities, Victoria Ruétalo; Our North America: a continent of cultural change, James Lull. Part VI Intergovernmental Relations: Canada-US relations: the contemporary imbalance, Tom Keating; Saying 'No' to North America: Canadian and Mexican perspectives, Athanasios Hristoulas; A critique of Mexico-US relations: beyond the contemporary impasse, Raymond A. Morrow. Part VII Conclusions: North America: a trilateral, bilateral, or unilateral space?, Stephen Clarkson; Our North America? From the Mexican standpoint, not yet, Lorenzo Meyer; Bibliography; Index.

O autorze

Julián Castro-Rea is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Alberta, Canada