Research
Perceptions of Change in Atlantic Canadian Cities
How residents of Atlantic Canada perceive change, and whether or not they are open to it, is a question of pressing social and policy importance. The region has been experiencing some of the most profound economic, social, cultural, physical, and environmental changes in recent Canadian history. However, the ability to systematically examine those changes and public perceptions toward them has been hampered by a lack of data on the region.
Political Views and Practices in Atlantic Canada
This research looks at how people living in Atlantic Canada participate in political life, as well as their opinions on a number of current issues in Canadian federal and provincial politics. At a time of great political change, this project seeks to offer new insight into Atlantic Canadians' political attitudes, practices, and their perceptions of political change in recent years. By studying political views and practices together, this study aims to provide a rich understanding of current politics in the region.
The project seeks to understand the role of hockey and hockey arenas in promoting social and cultural diversity and inclusion. The research seeks to determine to what extent hockey arenas are promote intercultural engagement across immigrant, racial, ethnic, gender and other groups. The research examines arenas in Halifax, Toronto and Calgary, and looks at a range of levels of hockey, from peewee to professional.
Atlantic Canadian Immigration Trends
This project is a collaboration between Yoko Yoshida and Howard Ramos at Dalhousie University. It looks at immigrant profiles to Atlantic Canada and their economic outcomes using administrative data from the Longitudinal Immigration Database. The project also examines issues of immigrant retention and integration across immigration pathways.
Neighbourhood Income Inequality in Halifax
Halifax is often seen as a city that has less income inequality across its neighbourhoods than other Canadian cities, however, income inequalities do persist. This project examines income inequality in Halifax using Census data and tax records to track and map the socio-spatial patterning of income in the municipality's neighbourhoods between 1980 and 2015. Trends are compared to other major cities. The project is a collaboration among the Neighbourhood Change Research Partnership, the Perceptions of Change Project, and United Way Halifax.
Are Social Movements Still Relevant?
This site contains appendix material for an article published as part of the SD Clark Symposium in 2018 by Howard Ramos at Dalhousie University. The site contains a list of definitions coded and source material used for the definitions.
Most studies of neighbourhood-level change focus on one or a few dimensions at a time. Far fewer researchers examine multi-dimensional change and those who do tend to focus on one neighbourhood or area of a city at a time and use sophisticated research methodology that is inaccessible to those without specialized skills. This project develops a "simple" index of change, which systematically measures the economic, social and cultural, and physical dimensions simultaneously to assess what parts of the cities are changing most relative to others. The project explores considerations in constructing indexes and how to create them so that they are relevant to NGOs, policy makers and the general public.
Increasingly academics, policy makers and activists claim that the lines between mainstream and protest politics are increasingly blurring. To see whether this is the case, this project examines the relationship between state funding and Indigenous, environmental and women's organizations between the 1960s and present. The goal of the project is to build a public digital archive of funding of these organizations looking at funds from the federal government, the provinces of British Columbia and Nova Scotia, and various municipalities. It is the first systematic examination of the state funding for advocacy organization in Canada.
Atlantic Canadians' Opinion on Cultural Difference
Atlantic Canada is facing a demographic crisis in that it is experiencing mass outmigration and a rapidly ageing population. The region is stereotyped as being averse to change, unwelcome to outsiders, and stuck in their ways, however polling in the region states just the opposite. Using Statistics Canada's General Social Survey cycle 27, this project aims to understand Atlantic Canadians' attitudes towards cultural difference to find out which is true. Specifically, attitudes towards institutions that promote diversity, towards people with different backgrounds, and the discrimination experienced over the span of five years in the region are examined.
Women's Civic and Political Engagement in Atlantic Canada
This project uses Statistics Canada's General Social Survey (GSS) - Cycle 27 on Social Identity data to look at women's political and civic engagement in Atlantic Canada. The project uses data through the Atlantic Research Data Centre at Dalhousie University. It aims to compare men and women's civic and political engagement to see what accounts for differences among genders and regions.
Geographic Determinants of Canadian Political Participation
This is a collaboration between Kathleen MacNabb and Howard Ramos, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University. The analysis uses micro data from Statistics Canada General Social Survey to compare rates of political participation among Canadian cities. We examine the demographic differences among cities to account for inter-city variation of political participation.
