Synopses & Reviews
The book is divided into three sections: "Reflections on Innis" provides a historical reassessment of Innis, "Gaps and Silences" considers the limitations of both Innis's thought and his interpreters, and "Innis and Cultural Theory" offers speculations on his influence on cultural analysis. The interpretations offered reflect the changing landscape of intellectual life as boundaries between traditional disciplines blur and new interdisciplinary fields emerge. Harold Innis in the New Century is a valuable resource for scholars and students of Canadian studies, communication studies, cultural studies, economic history, and political science. Contributors include Charles R. Acland (Calgary), Alison Beale (Simon Fraser), Jody Berland (York), James Bickerton (St Francis Xavier), William J. Buxton (Concordia), James Carey (Columbia), Ray Charron (Concordia), Cheryl Dahl (University College of the Fraser Valley), Michael Dorland (Carleton), Kevin Dowler (York), Donald Fisher (UBC), Sarah Fortin (McGill), Alain-G. Gagnon (McGill), Jane Jenson (Montréal), Heather Menzies (Carleton), Richard Noble (Winnipeg), Daniel Salée (Concordia), Liora Salter (Osgoode Hall), Kim Sawchuk (Concordia), Irene Spry (professor emerita, Ottawa), Judith Stamps (Victoria), and Andrew Werwick (Trent).
Review
"Harold Innis in the New Century crackles with interdisciplinary tensions in a very stimulating way, and almost every piece in the collection has an eye on a context for Innis's ideas that is in some way a little different -- from the Whig tradition and the Scottish Enlightenment to cybernetics and aesthetics. The diversity is truly impressive. What other modern or 'amodern' or 'antimodern' author could generate such diverse yet consistently engrossed responses from a generation of generally postmodern communications experts?" Doug Long, Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario
Synopsis
A collection of original essays that moves beyond the prevalent view of Harold Innis as a technological determinist, Harold Innis in the New Century brings his innovative ideas to bear upon a variety of contemporary issues, such as postmodernism, liberalism, gender, and cultural policy.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-418) and index.
Table of Contents
Innis's conception of freedom / Richard Noble -- Innis in the Canadian dialectical tradition / Judith Stamps -- "The expected tradition" : Innis, state rationality, and the governmentalization of communication / Michael Dorland -- Innis 'in' Chicago : hope as the sire of discovery / James W. Carey -- Economic history and economic theory : Innis's insights / Irene M. Spry -- The public role of the intellectual / Liora Salter and Cheryl Dahl -- Harold Innis and the Canadian Social Science Research Council : an experiment in boundary work / Donald Fisher -- Monopoles du savoir ou critique culturelle journalistique? Innis et Victor Barbeau discutent la presse, le nationalisme, et les pratiques intellectuelles / Micháele Martin and William J. Buxton -- From silence to communication? what Innisians might learn by analysing gender relations / Jane Jenson -- Innis and Quebec : the paradigm that would not be / Daniel Salâee -- Innis in Quebec : conjectures and conjunctures / Alain-G. Gagnon and Sara Fortin -- Too long in exile : Innis and maritime political economy / James Bickerton -- Histories of place and power : Innis in Canadian cultural studies / Charles R. Acland -- No future : Innis, time sense, and postmodernity / Andrew Wernick -- Space at the margins : critical theory and colonial space after Innis -- Postmodern themes in Innis's works / Ray Charron -- The bias of space revisited : the Internet and the information highway through women's eyes / Heather Manzies -- early Innis and the post-Massey era in Canadian culture / Kevin Dowler -- The dilettante's dilemma : speaking for the arts in Canadian cultural policy / Alison Beale -- An index of power : Innis, aesthetics, and technology / Kim Sawchuk.