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Despite decades of research and education, sexual and gender-based violence remain distressingly prevalent on university and college campuses globally. The taboos associated with sex, gender inequity, and living in a patriarchal world where misogyny is glorified and criminalised are key socio-cultural determinants driving these forms of violence. Less is known about the ways in which sexual slang or terminology impact how students experience and talk about these events. This paper reports on findings from a participatory action study that explored sexual slang use among female and male undergraduate students (n = 23) with the aim of creating more responsive sexual and gender-based violence policies and practices. The terms identified (n = 59) provide a window into the daily lives of these young people, who display remarkable socio-linguistic adaptation and creativity. They also demonstrate how cultural appropriation, the exclusion of queer students, toxic masculinitycontribute to ongoing incidents of sexual and gender-based violence on campus. These findings contribute new insights into sexual terminology among post-secondary students, particularly in the Canadian context where few studies of this nature exist. They also acknowledge the critical role universities can play in making meaningful structural change to prevent traumatic events from occurring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence, nature, and social make-up of the cultural omnivore has been a topic of consistent scholarly inquiry in recent decades. Studies exist examining these dynamics both across cultural fields (inter-domain) and fully within them (intra-domain). However, even as one of the most culturally salient domains of leisure, sport is often relegated to the side-lines of these debates. This study sets out to analyse the leisure 'following' of professional sports. Using large-scale survey data from Canada, and employing a variety of statistical methods, this paper finds numerous distinct omnivorous categories, as well as a univorous group of professional sports consumers. The results reveal that the omnivorous groups have elevated levels of cultural and economic capital. However, it is two more selective omnivorous profiles, rather than the most omnivorous group, that show the highest concentration of cultural and economic capital. These results shed doubt on the status of intra-domain omnivores by volume as the consumption profile of high status groups. This paper also presents gendered results from these consumption groups in the first large scale investigation of female professional sports following in Canada or elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This paper explores the role of immigrant-serving agencies in facilitating access to dementia services and supports provided by dementia service agencies (particularly the health authority and local chapters of the Alzheimer Society) through their propensity to develop trusting relationships between staff and clients. Design: Our research is a qualitative case study of Punjabi and Korean speakers living in the Lower Mainland of BC, Canada. Data are drawn from interviews with 15 dyads of persons with dementia and their family caregivers (10 Punjabi, 5 Korean), six focus groups (one focus group with each of 8–10 older men, older women, and mixed gender working age adults in each community). We also interviewed 20 managerial and frontline staff of dementia service agencies, i.e. the health authority and the local Alzheimer Society (n = 11) and two immigrant-serving agencies (n = 9), each dedicated to either Punjabi or Korean-speaking clients. We adopted the Candidacy framework for understanding access to dementia services and supports and the concept of trust as guiding precepts in this study. Results: Families of persons with dementia are pivotal to identification of a problem requiring professional help, navigation to appropriate services and acceptance of services offered. However, trust in family members should not be taken for granted, since family dynamics are complex. Alternative sources of trusted support are therefore needed. Immigrant-serving agencies are more often instrumental in establishing trusted relationships between their staff and clients, but they often lack detailed knowledge about heath conditions, their treatment and management, and they lack power to implement statutory care. Conclusions: Partnerships between mainstream mental health/dementia services and the community sector have proven successful in increasing the accessibility of specialized resources, while maximizing their combined trustworthiness, accessibility and effectiveness. Such partnerships should become fundamental components of health service strategy and provision for vulnerable and underserved immigrant older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the intersection between migration, aging and lifelong learning with the aim of expanding our understanding of how lifelong learning enhances older migrants' active aging in a foreign land. Our study also offers insights into the learning activities of older immigrants in general. In 2002, the World Health Organization (WHO) proposed a conceptual framework of active aging, which has greatly influenced aging policies and seniors' everyday practices. Yet, there is a paucity of research that explicates and fully integrates lifelong learning into active aging discourse, and focuses on senior immigrants' lifelong learning in an aging society. Based on interviews, textual materials, and participatory observation in five Chinese seniors' immigrant associations in Toronto, we explore how Chinese senior immigrants' learning has been (re)shaped and practised through re-settling in Canadian society. Five categories of learning are explored, including a) learning language and computer skills, b) learning culture and history, c) learning civic engagement, d) learning leisure, and e) learning health. We argue that 'active learning' can be used as a dynamic conceptual framework that interacts with active aging theory, demonstrating how senior immigrants actively participate in the lifelong learning project for participation and integration in Canada. This paper provides insights to the understanding of culturally sensitive policy-making on integration, health, and lifelong learning of older immigrants in Canada and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The internationalization of universities and the aging of the global population are two current issues that converge and challenge undergraduate gerontology curriculum development in Canada. One response to this challenge is to envision an intercultural gerontology curriculum. What might this curriculum encompass? How might it be taught? An exploratory study was undertaken to address these two questions. This paper presents findings from this study based primarily on interviews with university-based stakeholders from Canada, the United States, and Europe. Thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in five themes: multiple perspectives on cultural diversity; the dynamic nature of cultural diversity and aging; flow of an intercultural curriculum; institutional culture and intercultural curricula; and principles and practice for intercultural gerontology. Framed by principles of gerontology theory and educational approaches, this paper focuses on the principles and practice suggested by study participants. Scaffolding learning, active learning strategies, experiential learning opportunities, teacher modelling, and internet-based learning are discussed as key to intercultural learning. An appendix includes a list of resources that may be useful to developing an intercultural gerontology curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the knowledge of an Indigenous Worldview as a meta collective of the values, beliefs, protocols of Indigenous cultures worldwide. The worldview is applied to the Canadian context which includes 600+ Indigenous cultures and languages. A description of the key concepts of Oneness, a spiritual foundation and relationship are coupled with concepts about family, education, life cycles, gender, and language. Application of these concepts are described, including the application to current research. It is essential that professionals and academics working with Indigenous Peoples understand that Western/European worldviews do not apply. Indigenous scholars and leaders in Canada have used the concept of the Indigenous worldview to lead the reclamation of original Indigenous Nations and languages. The term provides an information base from which differentiation of Indigenous values and protocols and beliefs can be made from Western/European forms. In order to achieve reconciliation between Indigenous Peoples and Western nations, knowledge of the Indigenous worldview is essential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of immigrant women with visual impairment in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) of Canada. Conceptually, the paper draws from feminist disability theory and critical scholarship on blindness to consider the discursive and material processes shaping women’s experiences across different socio-cultural contexts. Empirically, the paper draws from in-depth interviews with seven women. The analysis is organized around three themes. The first explores women’s understandings of visual impairment. The second examines the ways in which women’s experiences of visual impairment are shaped by meanings and attitudes that circulate within their cultural communities, and the extent to which immigration might challenge or reinforce these meanings. The third examines the shifting barriers and opportunities women face with respect to social and economic participation. We close by identifying the conceptual implications of our research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The recognition of medical professionalism as a complex social construct makes context, geographical location and culture important considerations in any discussion of professional behaviour. Medical students, medical educators and practitioners are now much more on the move globally, exposing them to cultural and social attitudes, values and beliefs that may differ from their own traditional perceptions of professionalism. Aims and Methods: This paper uses the model of the intercultural development continuum and the concept of 'cultural fit' to discuss what might transpire when a student, teacher or doctor is faced with a new cultural environment. Using our own experiences as medical educators working abroad and supported by evidence in the literature, we have developed four anecdotal scenarios to highlight some of the challenges that different cultural contexts bring to our current (Western) understanding of professionalism. Results and Conclusions: The scenarios highlight some of the potentially different regional and/or cultural perspectives and nuances of professional behaviours, attitudes or values that many of us either take for granted or find difficult, depending on our training and socio-cultural upbringing. With this paper, we hope to start a long overdue conversation about global professionalism amongst medical educators, identify potential areas for research and highlight a need for medical schools to embrace a 'global' approach to how professionalism is embedded in their curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use narrative analysis to consider how the discursive resources that come with living ‘in between’ countries and cultures unfold in personal stories. We do this by presenting a close analysis of two transcripts drawn from a study about the vulnerability to HIV faced by Chinese immigrants to Canada. Our goal is to illustrate the application of narrative analysis and highlight the contributions it can make to conceptualising how transnationalism becomes consequential in accounts of intimate life. In narrative terms, transnationalism lends each life situation dual or multiple interpretive frameworks. Migrants from China to Canada situate their personal stories in relation to social and cultural norms and features of both nations. Yet, as our analysis makes apparent, ‘Canada’ and ‘China’ do not carry singular or consistent meanings in migrants’ stories. Attention to the role of stories in self-making allows us to better understand why transnational contexts appear as they do in narrative accounts, and responds to calls for more accurate mappings of the interface between transnationalism and the subject. Attention to how stories are ‘put together’ shows that transnational discursive resources are assembled in ways that bolster, and also undermine, entitlements to safe and equitable intimate relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores the experiences of a culturally and linguistically diverse group of immigrant adult students as they attended a 12-week employment preparation course for newcomers to Canada. The main aim of the course was to equip the immigrants with knowledge and skills, including English for employment purposes, which are necessary to be competitive in the labour market. Using ethnographic methods, mainly participant observation with audio recording, to collect data, this paper analyses the communicative strategies that this group of multilingual speakers and their Canadian teachers deployed to discursively construct a ‘heterotopia’ defined here as ‘intensely affective spaces that redefine the experiential feeling of being and becoming’. Analysis of transcribed audio recordings reveals that despite differences in communication conventions and sociocultural backgrounds, the research participants from Congo, Haiti, India, Bangladesh, Jordan and the Philippines managed to establish a socially cohesive team that emphasises shared relational identity and in-group membership. The findings show how they creatively mobilised previously acquired pragmatic strategies and resources from their L1 to suit the demands of the ongoing interaction in English. It is suggested that language teaching in the context of preparing immigrants for labour market integration entails a pedagogical approach that foregrounds the affordances of English not only as the language of employment but perhaps more importantly as the ‘language of comity’. It is therefore suggested that the teaching of the host country's language should focus less on grammatical correctness and focus more on providing the adult learners with opportunities to activate existing pragmatic resources and strategies which have to do with establishing rapport and friendly relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of, and thoughts on, interprofessional learning and care of first year health science students at a large Canadian university within a broad socioeconomic context. We apply discourse analysis to survey data collected to evaluate an introductory interprofessional event involving first year students from a variety of health professions. Follow-up focus-group interviews were conducted to gain greater understanding of student issues and concerns emerging from the survey, providing a second source of data. A significant paper entitled, 'Education, enterprise culture and the entrepreneurial self: A Foucauldian perspective' by Peters (2001) provides an historical and theoretical framework for this paper. Peters notes the changing nature of professionalism and global crises in public institutions under neoliberalism as governments divest themselves of social responsibility, shifting it onto individuals through increased privatization and focus on entrepreneurialism. In exploring the thoughts and experiences of students through the historical lens of a shifting professional discourse and changing cultural and political environment, a unique view of professionalism and this interprofessional project comes to light. Reflective of the paradigm shift that Peters documents, there was evidence of students 'internalizing' responsibility for a sustainable health care system through acquisition of interprofessional knowledge and behaviours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a core element in Richard Florida's popular theory on growth to be able to attract the creative class to a geographical area. But Florida is not very specific on which kind of amenities are important for attracting and keeping the creative class. The purpose of this paper is to analyse which kind of cultural activities the creative class is actually using. Which kind of cultural activities does the creative class use more intensively than other groups in society? This paper presents new empirical results on preferences for leisure and culture. Richard Florida's theory can be, and has been, criticised - especially on the issue of causality. The analyses presented in this paper show that being part of the creative class has an independent and significant role in explaining preferences for leisure and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines state power and cultural marginalisation among Aboriginal women in a relatively remote area of north-western British Columbia, Canada. In this paper, I argue that intersecting state powers explain intra-generational ‘ethnic mobility’, that is, shifts in individual ethnic identity among Aboriginal women in this area. In order to understand these shifting identities I have used the idea of ‘structural violence’ (Farmer 2003, 8) to describe how power inequalities between people and the state affect impoverished and marginalised people in different ways, and how decisions made by others constrain their survival strategies . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Explanations of immigrant health that ascribe to culture a fundamental causal role neglect the broader structural and contextual factors with which culture intersects. Based on a qualitative study of Indian immigrants’ vulnerability to HIV in Canada, this paper presents a contextualised understanding of these individuals’ understanding of, perceptions about, and responses to the HIV risk in their post-immigration lives. The study reveals that although culture – both traditional values and the norms of the diaspora community – appears to have constrained Indian immigrants’ capacities to respond to the risk, this effect can be properly understood only by situating such constraint in the context of the settlement process that has shaped participants’ living conditions, including their relationship with the diasporic community in Canada. We argue that HIV vulnerability should be conceptualised as a health inequality associated with broader systems of power relations (eg socio-economic marginalisation, gender inequality, discrimination, and racism). This more holistic conceptualisation of the intersection of culture, integration, and HIV vulnerability will facilitate exploration of HIV prevention strategies, through which interconnected inequalities of gender, race, and access to knowledge and resources can be challenged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines how children and families of diverse ethnic backgrounds perceive, understand and treat symptoms related to functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGIDs). It is questioned how different ways of dealing with medical uncertainty (symptoms, diagnosis) may influence treatment pathways. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 children of 38 family groups of immigrant and non-immigrant backgrounds. The analysis takes into account (a) the perceived symptoms; (b) the meaning attributed to them; and (c) the actions taken to relieve them. The social and cultural contexts that permeate these symptoms, meanings and actions were also examined. It is found that, in light of diagnostic and therapeutic uncertainty, non-immigrant families are more likely to consult health professionals. Immigrant families more readily rely upon home remedies, family support and, for some, religious beliefs to temper the uncertainty linked to abdominal pain. Furthermore, non-immigrant children lead a greater quest for legitimacy of their pain at home while most immigrant families place stomach aches in the range of normality. Intracultural variations nuance these findings, as well as family dynamics. It is concluded that different courses of action and family dynamics reveal that uncertainty is dealt with in multiple ways. Family support, the network, and trust in a child's expression of distress are key elements in order to tolerate uncertainty. Lastly, the medical encounter is described as a space permeated with relational uncertainty given the different registers of expression inherent within a cosmopolitan milieu. Narrative practices being an essential dynamic of this encounter, it is questioned whether families’ voices are equally heard in these clinical spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Whereas the autism prevalence rate has been very closely monitored in the United States, the same has not been observed in many other countries. This may be attributed to the fact that each culture views and defines autism differently. Using field notes and semi-structured interviews with family members with an individual with autism, teachers, and professionals in Canada, Nicaragua, and Korea, this paper illustrates how autism is socially differently constructed in these distinctively different cultures. Observing and experiencing what autism means in different cultures urge us to accept and appreciate individual differences or ‘differ-bilities’ in the diverse twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite recent critiques of contemporary obesity discourses that link 'modern Western lifestyles' to an 'obesity epidemic', the population's weight remains a central concern of current dietary guidelines. Food choices that are considered beneficial to maintaining a certain weight are understood to play a key role in one's health. This concern reflects medico-moral assumptions about the properties of food and what people should eat. However, the impact of obesity discourses on different individuals and social groups is rarely considered, although there is some evidence that people do generate, reflect and resist the norms and standards set for them, including those that relate to food/weight. In this paper, we will examine the perspectives on fatness and food choice amongst Black and White women and men living in Vancouver and Halifax, Canada. With this examination, we will challenge conventional assumptions about the singular 'modern Western lifestyle' that leads to obesity concerns by teasing out some of the social, cultural and political contexts within which people conceptualise issues regarding weight and make their food choices. By examining the experiences of both women and men we will also provide important insights into the gendered ways in which people engage with obesity discourses and the injunction to 'eat healthily' as a form of weight management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1980s, Canadian legalized gambling has undergone a massive growth, resulting in numerous social problems such as crime, political corruption, and, most importantly, pathological gambling. When it comes to theorizing gambling in Canada, pathological gambling has been the centre of the attention for two related reasons: (1) the increasing concern with individual and social harms resulting from it; and (2) priority given by grant-giving institutions to 'useful' scholarly efforts related to it. A major drawback, however, has been that these explanations often overlook the impact of broader social conditions on gambling behaviour and, instead, provide politically and ideologically conservative, microlevel analyses that point to the individual gamblers as the source of the problem. These theories, therefore, present partial accounts of an enduring and growing, socially produced problem. The argument of this paper is that Canadians' gambling behaviour, and its consequences, must be understood primarily as a social problem and within the nexus of (a) the Canadian state's pro-gambling policies (prompted by the need to generate revenues); (b) the gap between commonly shared Canadian cultural values - monetary success - and legitimate means of achieving them; and (c) capitalist processes of profit-making and commodification. Only then can we have a better understanding of a persistent and growing problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research on which this paper is based explores the ways in which identity is negotiated among South Asian women living in Canada. Based on face-to-face interviews of 40 first- and second-generation women, the study provides an examination of cultural retention and transmission, with a specific focus on mate selection, dating and marriage. The ways in which diasporic identities are constructed is dependent upon how 'traditional' culture is incorporated and how the group itself is inserted into the country of settlement. The research illustrates that traditions around marriage are an important part of immigrant identity construction and brings attention to the intersections of various social identities which structure the lives of immigrant women. Marriage practices and gender norms play a central part in how the immigrant experience unfolds and how identities are constructed across social boundaries which intersect and impact on one another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper documents efforts in Canada, France, Finland, Germany, Hispanoamerica, Israel, Japan, The Netherlands, and Taiwan to disseminate the Model of Human Occupation (MOHO). We aim to characterize the challenges involved, the strategies used, and the impact of these efforts in diverse cultural and social conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A common aim of health and human service programmes is to improve the health status of marginalized groups. One such group is new migrants. This paper summarizes the results of a three-year study of a health and empowerment initiative undertaken with a low-income migrant community in Aotearoa/New Zealand (A/NZ), with subsequent interviews with community workers engaged with such communities in A/NZ and Canada, a country known for its open migration policies and programmes aimed at assisting new migrant communities. Subtle dynamics of identity, culture and power are demonstrated to play key roles in shaping new women migrant's empowerment experiences. The paradoxical nature of these dynamics has implications for those workers and agencies engaged in programs seeking to improve the capacities of such groups to act in empowered ways on conditions that influence their health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continuing professional development has been identified as an important tool for advancing the competence of social workers, yet outcomes of professional development are conventionally evaluated using methods that cannot provide trustworthy information about program effectiveness. This paper suggests that innovations in social research can be applied to strengthen the evaluation of educational outcomes from continuing professional development. The benefits of designing a mixed-method evaluation of educational interventions are explored by reviewing the experience of implementing a cultural competence continuing professional development workshop series in Toronto, Canada. Review of the process demonstrates that the combination of methods results in a richer data set that can answer questions about both the process of the learning experience, and the effect that training has on professional practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the significance of sport as a form of Canadian culture and to consider how this unique sport culture is being treated by the tourism industry. It is argued that there are four major ways that sport has shaped Canadian culture. The first is its association with specific sports, with ice hockey being particularly ingrained in Canada's heritage. The second is the centrally controlled sport hierarchy found in Canada which fosters a national territorial affiliation. The third consists of sporting successes, such as Canada's narrow victory in the 1972 hockey challenge series with the Soviet Union. Finally, sporting heroes, such as Wayne Gretzky, have provided important cultural icons in terms of national identity. The tourism industry has responded to this sport dimension of Canada's national identity by strategically incorporating sport culture into destination images used in promotion. Current marketing strategies also include support for the hosting of sporting events and promotion of active sport opportunities on its travel information web page. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folklore is the artistic expression of belief. The various forms of folklore change and adapt to reflect changing circumstances and changing views of the world. When Ukrainians came to Canada, they brought their folklore, ballads included, with them. In the new land, ballads helped voice the struggles of the Ukrainian Pioneers. Examining a collection of ballads made approximately sixty years after Ukrainians began arriving on the Prairies shows that the ballads performed in Canada spoke of real problems, problems attested in both folk sources and historical records. These include the physical hardship of life on an acreage, male absence as they went to work on the railroad, and the tension between women and their daughters-in-laws, who were left to struggle on their own. Ukrainian girls attracted to non-Ukrainians were seen as problematic, as were men seeking solace in alcohol and infidelity. And there were many other Canadian issues for which traditional ballads provided a powerful means of expression. The ballad tradition was modified through selection, i.e., only relevant songs continued to be performed. It was also changed internally and individual ballad texts were altered by the addition of new terminology and new ideas. This is especially true when attitudes in Canada differed from those in Ukraine. A very important change in attitude applies to magic. While the use of magic is treated ambiguously in ballads performed in Ukraine, it is routinely condemned in those performed in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author presents a response to insights about his paper on policy development for health care decision making in critical-care settings. Topics covered include the importance of enabling the maintenance of trust among parties in decision making, the capacity of health professional organizations in developing authoritarian policy statements for critical care and the use of the scope of customary critical care practices plus as part of a dispute resolution process.