UNews - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Early career researchers at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge secure SSHRC awards

caroline.zentner — Wed, 20 Mar 2019 17:06:39 +0000

A dozen ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers have been awarded more than $600,000 in new funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for diverse projects, including agricultural supply chain management and repatriating Métis music.

These Insight Development Grants, announced earlier this year, are designed to support emerging scholars and research in its early stages, with up to $75,000 available over one or two years.

From the Dhillon School of Business, Drs. Duckjung Shin, Adriane MacDonald, Jocelyn Wiltshire (Calgary campus) and Alireza Tajbakhsh have secured more than $187,000 in funding for their projects.

Shin’s research looks at human resource management as a social system within an organization. He examines the interference between work and life domains, the diminishing power of unions under modern human resource practices, widening status differences within an organization and its societal consequences.

MacDonald’s research will examine the potential of sense-making tools to improve communication and problem-solving in multi-stakeholder partnerships, an approach espoused in the United Nations’ global sustainable development agenda. Engaging multiple stakeholder perspectives in complex problem solving can create new problems and ultimately prevent groups from reaching their goals. MacDonald’s study will focus on how sense-making tools, such as boundary objects, metaphor and storytelling, can help individuals in these partnerships overcome the inherent difficulties of collaborating at knowledge boundaries.

Wiltshire’s research looks at the dark side of leaders’ influence behaviour in the workplace, known as dark political skill. To what extent do manipulative and deceptive leaders contribute to a political workplace climate and impact employee behaviours and well-being? Along with Drs. Kelly Williams-Whitt and Mahfooz Ansari, Wiltshire will conduct a series of surveys and interviews. Their findings will speak to effective managerial and organizational practices that may mitigate or neutralize these harmful consequences.

Tajbakhsh will examine the existing literature on agricultural supply chain management in both crop and livestock sectors in Canada. The agriculture sector is at the nexus of world hunger and climate change. Tajbakhsh’s research will look at successful sustainable practices adopted in Canada and what corporate and government sustainability regulations have influenced agricultural networks in Canada.

Five researchers in the Faculty of Fine Arts — Dr. Dana Cooley (New Media), Dr. Bryn Hughes (Music), Jackson Two Bears (Art), Dr. Amandine Pras (Music) and Dr. Devon Smither (Art) — have secured awards worth nearly $280,000.

Cooley’s project, To Hear a Shadow, is an interactive installation that translates a participant’s EEG (brain activity) data through a Rube Goldbergesque chain of digital and early scientific measuring devices that spin and flutter, turning the signals into light, sound, and movement. Behind a partial wall, a second participant tunes in to the audio transmissions through a specially equipped headset. Proximity sensors respond to the second participant’s movements which affect the colour and intensity of light in the room. The perceptual feedback loop constructed by Shadow draws our attention to the interconnectedness we have with each other and our environment.

Hughes plans to delve into the factors that allow people to activate different musical languages. He wants to determine what musical features contribute most to syntactic violations and why some musical gestures sound wrong in one kind of music but not in another.

Two Bears’ research will explore the ways in which the creative use of digital technologies can support the innovation, transmission and transformation of Indigenous creative and cultural practices, while providing a site for critical dialogue and reflection. Two Bears plans to create an immersive 360-degree video and audio art installation and a multimedia app that will feature mobile media artworks.

Pras' research focuses on the democratization of the 21st century recording studio and the production techniques and creative processes that define it. Her multidisciplinary project includes three complementary case studies — an ethnography on street recording studios in Bamako, Mali, a longitudinal survey in the international Audio Recording Engineer Practicum of the Banff Centre and an experiment that will examine the learning process of a young Malian studio practitioner when attending the Banff Practicum for one semester.

Smither is conducting a study that looks at the marginalization of women artists and artistic realism during the first three decades of the 20th century. Specifically, she will focus on Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and the women artists she collected and supported from 1905 to 1930. The works formed part of the founding collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which opened in 1931.

The other recipients include Drs. Monique Giroux, Canada Research Chair and a professor in Indigenous Studies; Kara Granzow, a professor of sociology; and Julie Young, a professor of geography and Canada Research Chair.

Giroux’s research centres on the repatriation of Métis music. It includes three key elements: understanding what constitutes musical repatriation, creating an inventory of Métis musical belongings housed in archives and private collections, and determining the priorities of Métis communities for the repatriation of these musical belongings. Through consultations with Métis advisory boards, she will create a strategy for musical repatriation, including the possibility of establishing programs to support musical revival and resurgence.

Granzow and Dr. Amber Dean, co-investigator and professor at McMaster ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, seek to understand and contribute to preventing sexualized colonial violence through exploring the enduring relationships between an economy based on resource extraction and the ongoing high rates of sexualized violence against Indigenous women in Alberta.

Young’s research examines the impacts of Canadian refugee deterrence policies. Phase one analyzes how the Canadian government conceptualizes and operationalizes deterrence via the Canada-United States Safe Third Country Agreement, the Mexican visa policy, the Anti-Crime Capacity Building Program and the recent information campaign in U.S. cities. Phase two involves fieldwork in Windsor-Detroit and Leamington to assess the local consequences of these policies.

U of L researcher to examine effects of banking networks

caroline.zentner — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:51:06 +0000

People rely on networks to learn about job prospects, good restaurants and local news. Similarly, banking institutions go to their networks when they need information like determining a borrower’s creditworthiness.

While banks are increasingly connected through their involvement in lending networks, no one has analyzed these networks in any depth. Dr. Yutao Li, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Management professor at its Calgary campus, wants to remedy that situation. Thanks to an Insight Development Grant worth approximately $39,000 from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Li will examine the costs and benefits of banks’ connectivity.

“There’s a trend that we’re now living in a more connected world,” says Li. “We are connected with each other through social networks, but I’m looking at the effect of connection among banks. This has been a hot issue since the financial crisis in 2007,” says Li. “There are good things about being connected and it can be helpful.”

Greater connectivity can have benefits. For example, banks that are more connected can get more information to better evaluate borrowers’ credit risk. Alternatively, connectivity can have a downside, like it did in the financial crisis of 2007-2008 when risk entered the financial system and spread throughout the network. Many banks were affected by the subprime mortgage crisis, which illustrated a trend toward lowered lending standards and mortgage products with a higher risk.

As in social network theory, a bank that is more centrally located in a network should have better access to information, because, as Li predicts, that bank can monitor borrowers more efficiently and produce higher quality financial reporting.

“If they are better connected, are they able to make a better decision in their lending because they are able to collect more information? Will this connection help them weather a financial crisis?” says Li. “I’m not sure what I’m going to find but there are arguments on both sides.”

Using the Dealscan database, which contains extensive and reliable information on the global commercial loan market, Li will first identify North American banks’ lending networks. Then she’ll examine their performance during the 2007-2008 financial crisis and in normal times to gauge how their position in a network affected their performance.

As the first study to investigate banks’ lending networks, Li’s research will provide evidence of banks’ connectivity in the syndicated loan market and build understanding about how that affects a bank’s information acquisition, its lending practices and financial reporting quality. For example, Li will examine banks’ loan-loss provisions, which is an estimate of the uncollectible loans.

“This is a very important item in banks’ financial statements,” she says. “Most people think accounting is just numbers, but there’s a lot of discretion and judgement. Some of the banks have a better ability to predict their future loss. It would be interesting to see whether a bank’s connectivity affects its judgement and ability in making such estimates.”

The study will also look at whether banks in the centre of a network are exposed to greater systematic risk. The results will be valuable to regulators and build their understanding of the effect of a bank’s centrality in a lending network on the financial system and the economy.

“The implication for regulators is to understand whether these connected networks are beneficial or detrimental for the financial system,” says Li.

Dr. Gerald Lobo, an accounting professor at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Houston, is a co-investigator on the project.

U of L humanities researchers secure federal grants

caroline.zentner — Wed, 31 Aug 2016 16:31:45 +0000

Four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge professors have been awarded more than $300,000 in research grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“This year’s SSHRC results reflect a high standard of excellence amongst our humanists and social scientists, of which we can be rightly proud,” says Dr. Claudia Malacrida, associate vice-president research. “These researchers’ projects touch on vital aspects of cultural, civil and social life and each of them richly deserves this recognition.”

Dr. Abdie Kazemipur, a U of L sociology professor, has been awarded more than $138,000 over four years for a research project called After the Ottawa Attack. Kazemipur will examine the integration of Muslims in Canada in the wake of recent terrorist attacks in Canada by Muslim converts. More details about his research project are available on the UNews website.

Dr. Fangfang Li, a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge psychology professor, has received a grant worth more than $28,000. She and several fellow researchers at the U of L want to ensure the public has access to correct information about child language learning and are organizing a conference that will bring the various academic disciplines involved in child language acquisition research and the public together. The conference, to be hosted on a rotating basis with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary, is planned to be an annual event. Check out the UNews website for more information.

Dr. Gloria Tian, an associate professor of finance at the U of L’s Calgary campus, and two fellow finance professors, will use their Insight Grant worth more than $94,000 to examine partnerships between corporations and the non-profit sector. Visit UNews to learn more about Tian’s project.

Dr. Hillary Rodrigues, a professor of Religious Studies, will investigate a growing component of the ‘spiritual but not religious’ group. The Modern Nondual Spirituality movement centres on the attainment of a key psychological realization where all conceptual dualities, especially those that distinguish the individual from the rest of reality, collapse. The movement hasn’t received much attention from religious scholars and Rodrigues plans to use his grant worth more than $43,000 to correct that situation. Further information on his study is outlined on UNews.

These grants will further knowledge in key areas of research that are of interest not only to ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ, but also to professionals and the public.

$2.5 million SSHRC award to support examination of fossil fuel industry in Western Canada

trevor.kenney — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 17:29:12 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge sociologist Dr. Trevor Harrison and his colleagues from the Alberta-based Parkland Institute are embarking on a six-year research project that will examine the corporations and individuals driving fossil fuel extraction in Western Canada, and their resulting political influence.

Mapping the Power of the Carbon-Extractive Corporate Resource Sector is an initiative that will bring together researchers, civil society organizations and Aboriginal participants to study the oil, gas and coal industries in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) has awarded $2.5 million in partnership grant funding to the project.

The partnership is jointly led by the Parkland Institute (of which Harrison is the director), the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria and the BC and Saskatchewan offices of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). It will bring together a team of 28 academic researchers from 12 universities, civil society organizations and Aboriginal participants. Augmenting the SSHRC award is an additional $2 million in matching contributions from participating universities and community partners.

“Albertans are all too familiar with the influence that the fossil fuel industry exerts over the political process in Alberta and beyond,” says Harrison. “But what has been missing is a comprehensive understanding of which individuals and corporations are applying this political influence, and how. This project will fill that gap.”

The partnership’s work will focus in four key areas:

• A systematic mapping of how the carbon-extractive industry is organized, including what companies are involved, who runs them, how they are owned, and how they connect to broader international corporate networks.
• Analysis of the sector’s influence on public debates and policy making, such as efforts to secure social license, and corporate links to governments, political parties, lobby groups, and private foundations.
• Case studies of contentious flashpoints, including the expansion or development of new mines, pipelines or export facilities.
• Development of an open source, publicly accessible corporate database and training program for citizens and civil society groups, many of whom will contribute and update data.

“How – and indeed, if – Alberta’s carbon resources will be developed is one of the most crucial policy decisions this province faces over the next decade,” Harrison says. “The transparency this project will provide about who is involved in shaping these choices will be critical to ensure that the decision is made in the public sphere, not in corporate boardrooms.”

Parkland Institute is a province-wide, non-partisan public policy research network housed within the Faculty of Arts at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta.

The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council is a federal government agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and training in the humanities and social sciences.

U of L researchers benefit from Canada Foundation for Innovation funding

caroline.zentner — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 17:06:33 +0000

Projects that involve the quest for new cancer-fighting drugs, the preservation of floodplain forests, and the creation of a digital library to support thousand-year-old crosses got a boost today with the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund announcement.

The Honourable Ed Holder, Minister of State (Science and Technology), announced $30 million for research infrastructure in support of projects across the country, which is allowing scientists to expand their knowledge in aquaculture and other areas as diverse as architectural history and chronic pain. At the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, more than $200,000 will go to three research projects.

Drs. Larry Flanagan and Stewart Rood, both biology professors, will receive more than $81,000 to establish an ecosystem-scale flux system to make long-term measurements of water vapour, carbon dioxide and methane fluxes in cottonwood riparian forests. The measurements will help them define how much river water is used by cottonwood trees in the extensive floodplain forests that line southern Alberta rivers. River waters are facing increased demands from a growing population, more economic development and for agricultural irrigation. Flanagan and Rood want to determine how much water needs to be left in southern Alberta rivers to sustain a healthy aquatic and riparian ecosystem.

“Proper management of river water resources is of fundamental importance to our citizens because most of Canada’s municipal areas are located along rivers. Effective management of river flows to allow removal of water for agricultural and industrial activities, while still leaving enough water to sustain our aquatic and riparian ecosystems is a high priority for all citizens,” says Flanagan.

Dr. Roy Golsteyn, a biochemistry professor and cancer researcher, will receive slightly more than $91,000 for laboratory infrastructure for his Prairie to Pharmacy research program dedicated to investigating the cancer-fighting properties of prairie plants such as the buffalo bean. The plant has shown promising signs of medicinal properties and, this summer, Golsteyn and his team identified six other prairie plants to investigate for anti-cancer effects.

“The award includes a new cancer cell imaging system that will watch hundreds of cells around the clock as they are treated with prairie plant extracts,” says Golsteyn. “It will be great for training students as they will have access to leading-edge equipment.”

Combined with gifts-in-kind from suppliers and a commitment from the province for matching funding, the award could total $250,000. Golsteyn says early support from the U of L allowed his lab to reach the level necessary to be selected for a national award. Now, the new equipment will help attract international research companies to work with Golsteyn and his team. Local donors, whether organizations or private individuals, who would like to help advance Golsteyn’s work are always welcome.

Dr. Daniel Paul O’Donnell, an English professor with expertise in Digital Humanities and Old and Middle English language and literature, will continue research on the Visionary Cross Project thanks to an infrastructure support award worth slightly more than $28,000. The award was the only one of its kind in Canada this year under the Canada Foundation for Innovation’s John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF) competition in association with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). This is the third award the project has earned this year. O’Donnell has also been awarded a four-year, $233,000 Insight award from SSHRC and a one-year $9,000 allotment from the Graphics, Animation and New Media (GRAND) National Centre of Excellence.

Dr. Daniel Paul O'Donnell, right, and James Graham scan a fragment from the Ruthwell Cross in April, 2012. (c)Visionary Cross Project, 2012, CC-BY.

“These funds will be used in the development of a digital library to support the cultural and textual heritage and multidisciplinary research on objects belonging to the Visionary Cross tradition in Anglo-Saxon England,” says O’Donnell.

The Visionary Cross Project focuses on the Ruthwell and Bewcastle stone crosses in Northern England and Scotland, the Brussels reliquary cross in Belgium, and the ‘Dream of the Rood’ and ‘Elene’ poems from the Anglo-Saxon Vercelli Book manuscript in Italy. These objects are all more than a thousand years old and are closely related to each other. The crosses have carved panels that depict scriptural scenes, and are bordered by inscriptions in Latin, Runic and Old English. These inscriptions have similar wording to that found in the Vercelli book.

Combining technology such as 3D modeling and gaming, the Visionary Cross Project will give scholars the chance to study these artifacts in a unique way and advance knowledge in the Digital Humanities and Anglo-Saxon studies. U of L professors Wendy Osborn and James Graham were co-applicants on the grants. Osborn will be responsible for developing the digital library, including metadata, cataloguing and organization of 2D and 3D data for user-centered retrieval. Graham is developing online and interactive virtual environments.The Visionary Cross team has been collecting digital representations of these objects over the last eight years.

“We would like to bring these diverse and informally catalogued collections together to form an organized, multimedia Digital Library accessible to all and able to be expanded in the future,” says O’Donnell.

Understanding the Asian roots of modern Buddhism

trevor.kenney — Mon, 23 Feb 2015 19:05:18 +0000

From its 2,500-year-old roots in eastern India, Buddhism has evolved into the fastest-growing philosophical religion in the West, one that has sparked diverse groups of practitioners — including many celebrities — spawned countless books, and is often glamourized in Hollywood films. Dr. John Harding wants to know why.

Dr. John Harding's interest in Buddhism goes back to his time as an undergraduate student.

More specifically, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Religious Studies associate professor would like to better understand the forces that have shaped Buddhism since it crossed continents from Asia into Europe and North America 150 years ago. He hopes to debunk the common misconception of modern Buddhism, particularly as it is practised in Canada, as primarily influenced by the West, and demonstrate that Asian reform movements prominently contributed to Buddhism’s global transformation.

“The more we looked into the history…the more clear it becomes that a lot of the characteristics of modern Buddhism that are viewed as Westernized actually started in Asia,” says Harding, who also chairs the Religious Studies department and coordinates the Asian Studies minor program. “We need to look at all of the global linkages, and introduce a little more theoretical sophistication to how we explore Buddhism in the West.”

It’s an area Harding has been investigating since 2013 with colleagues at McGill and St. Mary’s universities as part of a five-year research project funded by a $258,000 grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. He recently presented on the topic at a U of L PUBlic Professor Series lecture called Buddha’s World Tour: Global Buddhism in the Modern Era. As he explains, today’s version of Buddhism is viewed as being a reflection of Western social values: egalitarian, female friendly, based in meditation and socially engaged. At the same time, there is a perception of traditional Asian Buddhism as hierarchical, sexist, ritualistic and withdrawn from society.

In fact, he says, this shift to what many Westerners call the “new Buddhism” evolved organically in countries such as Sri Lanka, Japan, China, Taiwan and Vietnam. Typically, these changes occurred in response to pressures such as Western colonialism and aggressive Christian missionization. Monks travelling between the different Asian countries observed these changes and started their own Buddhist reform movements at home. What eventually emerged, Harding says, was a radically different form of Buddhism that, with the growth of population movement and global communication, began to spread worldwide.

Harding’s interest in the subject goes back to his time as an undergraduate student at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Puget Sound in Washington in the early 1990s, when he completed his thesis on changes in Buddhism in Japan in the late 1800s. At that time, he says, reformers were responding to domestic criticism that the religion wasn’t relevant in the modern world. From that point on, through his graduate studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Pennsylvania and since joining the U of L in 2003, he has studied extensively and published widely on the development of modern Buddhism worldwide.

“I find it quite fascinating that our culture and surroundings can be significantly shaped by forces and influences we know almost nothing about…I’m particularly interested in different perspectives that shape how people think about their own life and their world and how it’s unfolding,” says Harding, who often seeks to involve undergraduate and graduate students in this research.

Harding and his research colleagues are now one-third of the way through their latest research project with the support of the SSHRC grant. In the last five years, the three colleagues have published two books that analyze the dramatic growth of Buddhism in Canada in global and historical contexts, Wild Geese and Flowers on the Rock. Going forward, Harding says he hopes their research results help improve the scholarship in the nascent fields of Global Buddhism and of Buddhism in the West by setting the historical record straight on the hows and whys behind the new Buddhism. As well, he says, a clearer understanding of the origins of modern Buddhism will help us better understand Canada’s cultural mosaic. Finally, practitioners of Buddhism in Canada may be interested to learn about the cross-cultural exchange between Asia and the West that helped form Buddhism as we know it today

“There is an impression that Buddhism in the West has become a bit of a quick fix for a fast food culture, and many people’s understanding of it is quite shallow,” he says. “In fact, there are many variations of the tradition influencing culture at multiple levels, and if one of the concerns is authenticity, this study can reflect how Asia played a role in the modernization of Buddhism.”

McDaniel among Alberta Venture's 50 Most Influential People

trevor.kenney — Fri, 04 Jul 2014 16:06:29 +0000

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge sociologist’s research into labour shortages in Canada led to some myth-busting that earned her a spot on Alberta Venture’s 50 Most Influential People for 2014.

Dr. Susan McDaniel was the principal investigator in a study that showed Canada is not facing a broad labour shortage.

Dr. Susan McDaniel, director of the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy and Canada Research Chair in Global Population and Life Course, was the principal investigator in a study that showed Canada is not facing a broad labour shortage, although some industries and regions are experiencing skills shortages.

The research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, has received national attention and challenged accepted notions about labour shortages.

The article on McDaniel can be found at the Alberta Venture website.

McDaniel joins several other people with U of L connections who have made the list in previous years. In 2013, Dr. David Naylor (Physics and Astronomy) and Dr. Robert Sutherland (Neuroscience) were among the 50 most influential. President Emeritus Dr. Howard Tennant and U of L alumnus Ryan Johnson (Geography) were named in Alberta Venture’s 2012 most influential list.

Alberta Venture magazine creates the 50 Most Influential People list to acknowledge Albertans from all walks of life who have had uncommon influence on the province and beyond in the past year.

The complete list of Alberta’s 50 Most Influential People for 2014 can be found here.

McDaniel's SSHRC study reveals no evidence of labour shortage

trevor.kenney — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 16:45:33 +0000

There is no evidence of a national labour shortage at present or into the foreseeable future, and furthermore, there are large groups of underutilized populations who could join the workforce or be more fully employed.

Dr. Susan McDaniel and her team have found that not only is a labour shortage a fallacy but certain segments of the population are severely underutilized.

The results of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant, of which the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Dr. Susan McDaniel was the principal investigator, reveal that Canada is not confronting a broad labour shortage, nor is a shortage anticipated in the near future, as some have been predicting.

“The research literature clearly finds that there is no national labour shortage,” says McDaniel, Canada Research Chair in Global Population and Life Course as well as the Prentice Research Chair in Global Population and Economy. “There are skills shortages in some industries and regions, but the literature points to a mismatch of skills rather than a shortage. Reviewed research confirms that hiring difficulties that some employers have are due to normal cycles of the labour market for their specific industry and not a national skilled labour shortage.”

McDaniel’s team consisted of researchers with collective expertise in demographic change, immigration and skills development from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta and ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary. The team distilled 219 peer-reviewed articles and reports for inclusion in this study, dating from 2000 to 2013. The articles focused on: gaps in labour/skills demand and supply, aging workforce, employment patterns of aging Canadians, the role of immigration and shifting immigration policies and the role of shifting skills development.

Their findings also identified large groups of populations, such as youth, Aboriginals, disabled persons and unemployed older workers, who are being underutilized in the workforce. As well, highly skilled immigrants are being severely underutilized in the workforce in their fields of expertise due to unrecognized experience and credentials.

“Canada’s immigration irony is that we attract highly-skilled workers but then fail to utilize, or underutilize, the important skills they bring,” says McDaniel. “As a result, immigrants are not actually meeting the needs of the Canadian labour market.”

The study is of key importance to Canadian policy makers as it creates a knowledge base from which labour market/skills development policies and immigration policy planning can draw.

Following are the seven key findings from the SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis project.

1. There is no evidence of a national labour shortage at present or into the foreseeable future. The labour force is predicted instead to grow until 2031 but at a slower rate of growth.

2. First edge of the baby boom (people now age 65-67) are working longer, so there is less shrinkage in the labour force than originally predicted

3. Last edge of the baby boom (people born 1966) are only 47 years old in 2013, so have about 20 more productive years before leaving the workforce

4. There are pockets of skill shortages and mismatches in specific industry sectors and in specific geographic areas

5. There are large groups of underutilized populations who could join the workforce or be more fully employed, particularly youth, Aboriginals, disabled persons and unemployed older workers

6. Highly-skilled immigrants are being severely underutilized in the workforce in their fields of expertise due to unrecognized experience and credentials

7. Temporary foreign workers support the Canadian economy in lower paying jobs, particularly in the hospitality, food and beverage industries, as well as in higher paying jobs. However they do not receive the same levels of employment security, equity and supports Canadian employees in the same roles do.

McDaniel examining possible Canadian labour shortage and skills crisis

trevor.kenney — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 19:13:58 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher Dr. Susan McDaniel is examining whether or not an approaching labour shortage or skills crisis looms in Canada.

Dr. Susan McDaniel is the Canada Research Chair In Global Population & Life Course and a professor of sociology.

McDaniel, Canada Research Chair in Global Population and Life Course as well as the Prentice Research Chair in Global Population and Economy, has been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Knowledge Synthesis Grant to examine scholarly evidence relating to the commonly voiced belief that Canada is experiencing, and will continue to experience, nationwide labour and skills shortages.

The findings of this critical study will undoubtedly feed into important policy decisions made by Canadian governments for years to come.

McDaniel, the project’s principal investigator, is working with other Alberta researchers (Dr. Lloyd Wong of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and Dr. Bonnie Watt-Malcolm of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta) in conducting a synthesis of the existing peer-reviewed literature, in order to answer a number of questions about the realities and the mythologies surrounding Canada’s aging workforce and labour and skills shortages.

The team is examining journal articles focusing on demographic change, immigration and skills development in Canada, in order to answer a number of key questions.

“We’re looking at whether the notion that an impending labour shortage is true or not true, and, in fact, it’s not true. There are labour shortages in certain pockets of the economy, there are cyclical labour shortages, but across the country there are not labour shortages, and the same thing applies to skills shortages. That’s what we’re finding as we move forward.”

The team will present its findings in a policy forum in Ottawa (Feb. 11-12) and anticipates publishing the knowledge synthesis later in 2014.

Vice-President (Research) Dr. Dan Weeks says the U of L is uniquely positioned to conduct important policy work, due to the capacity that exists within the Prentice Institute and because of world-class researchers such as McDaniel.

“Susan brings a wealth of experience in policy-relevant research to the project,” says Weeks. “She has advised governments around the world on policy and is widely published and cited as a leading authority on challenges related to demographically aging societies, among other areas of sociological inquiry. This work is absolutely critical as our communities grapple with how to manage significantly-changing demographics.”

The Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy is a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty institute dedicated to researching the long-term global impacts of demographic, economic and social issues related to changes in world population patterns. Launched in 2009, the Prentice Institute collaborates with researchers in Canada and elsewhere to address some of the most difficult challenges of the next generation.

McDaniel study seeks to understand supply and demand of migrant care workers

trevor.kenney — Mon, 02 Dec 2013 21:19:12 +0000

A ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researcher is exploring whether the reliance of migrant care workers in immigrant-receiving countries like Canada, Japan, the United States and South Korea, is driven by global and regional income inequalities.

The U of L’s Dr. Susan McDaniel, as part of a $2.85 million Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Partnership Grant on Gender, Migration and the Work of Care, centered at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, is leading a team of researchers that is exploring the demographic, economic and policy factors that affect the global supply and demand of migrant care workers, as well as the “care deficits” that result from this migration of women out of countries in East Asia.

Dr. Susan McDaniel will lead one of eight teams involved in this national research project.

“We are interested in the supply and demand of care,” explains Dr. McDaniel, Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Global Population and Life Course, as well as Prentice Research Chair in Global Population and Economy. “We’re looking at income inequalities in various countries and what that means for the potential supply of caregivers, because there are an increasing number of people at the bottom end of the income distribution.”

In countries in the Asia Pacific region, that traditionally supply immigrant or temporary-workers, governments have been encouraging the out-migration of care workers. Economic globalization and neoliberal economic policies have increased unemployment and underemployment, encouraging some care workers to migrate for work.

“The question that we’re asking is, how does the demographic and economic structure of the various countries play into the supply and demand for care? The standard line is that when you have an aging population, you’re going to have a greater demand for care and therefore more care workers,” says McDaniel. “But we suspect that may not be the case, that it may not be demand that is creating care migration. In a country like Japan, which has a very elderly population, there’s not a huge demand for caregivers because family care is still a priority. So there’s not an automatic relationship.”

McDaniel’s team is one of eight groups of researchers involved with the project. The teams are comprised of top academic researchers partnering with international institutes, policy-makers and labour and advocacy organizations.

The project headed by McDaniel will benefit from her affiliation with the U of L’s Prentice Institute, her Canada Research Chair program, partnerships Employment and Social Development Canada as well as the SSHRC-funded Strategic Cluster in Population Change and Life Course.

McDaniel’s team includes the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s Dr. Glenda Bonifacio (Women and Gender Studies) and other researchers from across Canada and southern Asia as well as several graduate students and post-doctoral fellows associated with the Prentice Institute.

Vice-President (Research) Dr. Dan Weeks says he is not surprised that U of L researchers have been included in this important project, saying the capacity that exists at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ for this type of research is significant and growing.

“The Prentice Institute and its researchers are sought after because of the relevance and breadth of their expertise. The knowledge that will be gained by McDaniel and her team will have lasting value for global communities,” says Weeks.

The Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy, a multi-disciplinary, cross-faculty institute dedicated to researching the long-term global impacts of demographic, economic and social issues related to changes in the world population patterns. The Institute was launched in 2009. The Prentice Institute collaborates with researchers in Canada and elsewhere to address some of the most difficult challenges of the next generation and beyond.

The study will continue over a five-year period. McDaniel will present initial findings as a keynote speaker at a conference on Transnational Aging at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Southern California in January 2014.

UNews - Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

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