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Divided
Populism, Polarization, and Power in the New Saskatchewan
Divided looks at the last fifteen years in Saskatchewan, during which time the Saskatchewan Party government sought to reforge the province’s image into the New Saskatchewan: brash, materialistic, highly competitive and aggressively partisan. In the process, a climate of polarization and hyper-partisanship swept the province into a near-perpetual state of anger and social division. These actions are not without consequences. In Divided, diverse voices describe the impact on their lives and communities when simmering wedge issues burst open on social media and in public spaces. The collection dives deep into the long set-up to this moment, from the colonial past to the four decades of neoliberal economics that have widened social and economic gaps across all sectors. Divided positions Saskatchewan as a fascinating case study of the global trends of division and provides testament to the resiliency of a vision of social solidarity against all odds.
Contributors
JoAnn Jaffe
JoAnn Jaffe is a professor of sociology and social studies at the University of Regina and part-time organic crop and livestock farmer. She teaches and researches in the areas of development, rural societies, environment, gender, and social theory, and she has conducted research in the Caribbean, North America, Central America, East Africa and Israel/Palestine. A longtime activist, she has often collaborated or worked in partnership with non-academic or community groups, as well as pursued a more academic research program. Her recent research and publishing have been collaborative studies on the intersectional impacts of co-operatives in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda; social practices related to food production and food security in Ethiopia; and the restructuring of rural life and agriculture in Saskatchewan. Jaffe was a review editor for the Global Volume of the UN International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science, and Technology for Development (IAASTD), co-editor and author of Farm Communities at the Crossroads (UR Press) and Contesting Fundamentalisms (Fernwood), and editor of the journal Prairie Forum.
Patricia W. Elliot
Patricia W. Elliott is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Regina and First Nations University of Canada, specializing in investigative journalism. As a faculty advisor to the Institute for Investigative Journalism at Concordia, she has helped pioneer collaborative journalism in Canada, including helping to coordinate local and national reporting for The Price of Oil, a multi-award-winning series on oil industry emissions, and Clean Water, Broken Promises, an investigation into the impacts of colonialism on drinking water in Indigenous communities. In addition to numerous works of journalism, she co-edited Free Knowledge: Confronting the Commodification of Human Discovery (UR Press 2015) and authored The White Umbrella: A Woman’s Struggle for Freedom in Burma (Friends Press 2005). She is also involved in community-engaged scholarship and has often worked alongside community members in pursuit of decolonization and social justice. She grew up in Estevan, Saskatchewan.
Cora Sellers
Cora Sellers has worked in the area of community development/advocacy in Regina, specifically focusing on Indigenous social/economic issues for twenty years. She is currently senior director of housing for the Regina YWCA. Sellers contributed to Beyond Homelessness: Solutions to Homelessness in Canada, edited by James Hughes in 2018, authoring a chapter titled “The Community Hub.” As an interracially adopted Inuit woman growing up and living in Regina, she has a unique, painful and honest perspective on the polarization that exists in our province, having lived between worlds. In her daily work, she has witnessed the effects of colonization, including the polarized divide that leads to the poverty, violence, homelessness, addictions and mental health issues that Indigenous people valiantly struggle against every day.
