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YorkSpace is York University's Institutional Repository. It supports York University's Senate Policy on Open Access by providing York community members with a place to preserve their research online in an institutional context.

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    They Deserve Better. The Long-term Care Experience in Canada and Scandinavia
    (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2009) Armstrong, Pat; Banerjee, Albert; Szebehely, Marta; Armstrong, Hugh; Daly, Tamara; Lafrance, Stirling
    “They Deserve Better.” These words of one worker capture the essential message we heard in researching this book, words that can apply equally to residents and to those who are employed in long-term residential care. Long-term residential care has long been a crucial part of Canada’s care system and it is becoming increasingly so as more people live into old age and with severe disabilities. Even though the emphasis in recent years has been on care at home, many will still need residential care. Yet not much policy or research focuses on long-term residential care, and even less starts from the perspectives of the mainly female workers or recognizes the critical relationship between the quality of working conditions and the quality of care. This book seeks to fill this gap by beginning with the perspective of those who are employed in long-term residential care in Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Ontario and starts with the assumption that the conditions of work are the conditions for care. By comparing our results with those from a parallel study in four Nordic countries, we show both that the way we organize the work too often leads to poor conditions for care and that there are choices to be made in organizing, funding and delivering care. Both Canada and the Nordic countries have lots of room for improvement but by comparison, the Canadian system is over-burdened, under-funded, and short-staffed. In short, this sector is neglected. They Deserve Better examines the consequences of this neglect for both workers and residents and clearly demonstrates that there are alternatives.
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    Exercising Choice in Long-term Residential Care
    (CCPA, 2017) Armstong, Pat; Daly, Tamara; Armstrong, Pat; Daly, Tamara
    Expanding choice has long been a central feature of health care reforms, with a focus on choices for individual patients and residents. However, choices are structured by factors often beyond the control of individuals or even particular care homes and by the extent to which staff or unpaid providers can build relationships that provide the basis for appropriate decision-making. Moreover, there is a fundamental tension between the need for routine, for evidence-informed decision making and for safety on the one hand and on the other, responding to individual choices and events that disrupt routines on a regular basis. Based on our team research on long-term residential care in six high income countries, Exercising Choice in Long-Term Residential Care identifies conditions that set the context for exercising meaningful choices for residents, staff, families and managers in long-term residential care. We start from the assumption that there will be events and choices that do not conform to routine patterns. And we assume that the conditions of work are the conditions of care.
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    Colonize me Happy: Redefining the English conception of felicity through land dispossession in The Female American by Unca Eliza Winkfield
    (2025) Santarsia, Patrick
    Historian Joanna Innes argues that the eighteenth-century marked the formation of a polite lexicon: words which could hold complex meanings but could still be used colloquially and were neither too formal nor too slangy (Innes, “Happiness Contested” 92). ‘Happiness,’ furthers Innes, is a part of the eighteenth-century European polite lexicon because the word could be used in a variety of contexts with variable meaning: “connoting a mundane conception of the good life, the goal of spiritual striving, or (by definition) what any good government must seek for the nation and its people” (Innes, “Happiness Contested” 88). Despite happiness being a major focus for Europeans in the period, historian Rebecca Earle notes that colonies were excluded from any attempt to measure a nation’s happiness, since colonies were seen merely as points of resource-extraction for the metropolis (Earle 185). Differing from this contemporarily agreed upon view of happiness is The Female American by Unca Eliza Winkfield which reserves happiness for descriptions of European ideals and identity within Indigenous land. Contrary to Innes and Earle, The Female American expands and intertwines happiness from individual, religious, and governmental levels, suggesting that the novel’s all-encompassing definition of felicity can only be achieved through the dispossession of Indigenous land. Despite framing happiness as attainable only outside of England, The Female American stresses only British people and culture are capable of achieving felicity. By denying that emotion to Indigenous people, The Female American ultimately attempts to homogenize the varied interests of different institutions and social values into happiness, wherein Indigenous land is a container into which European values and structures should be inserted for the primary benefit of English identity.
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    Desires for In Situ Adaptation Versus Out-Migration? The Impact of Flooding and Cyclones on Polder Communities in the Bangladesh Delta
    (Wiley, 2025-12-08) Stone, Emily; Holloway, Rebecca; Moore, Brendan; Steckler, Michael; Stojanov, Robert
    In Bangladesh's delta, rural communities have long held lives inseparable from seasonal flooding, adapting their homes and livelihoods to the annual monsoon. However, land subsidence, changing seasons, severe storms, increased salinity, and rising sea levels are threatening local livelihoods. The objective of this paper is to understand rural residents' perceptions of climate impacts and adaptation measures, focusing on their mobility choices. Through 15 qualitative, semi-structured interviews with 22 representatives from two embanked polder localities in southwest Bangladesh, we explored the following questions: (i) How do local residents perceive recent climate and environmental changes? (ii) How are local residents coping with these changes and what external assistance do they require to maintain their livelihoods; and (iii) How do local residents perceive migration or partial migration as a potential adaptation strategy? While these communities report an increased frequency of extreme climate events and severe flooding, our findings also reveal a lack of external assistance for adaptation solutions. Moreover, most families are either unwilling or unable to completely migrate out of affected areas. Therefore, increased support—the provision of fresh drinking water, money to recoup lost income and assistance rebuilding or reinforcing homes—is essential for building adaptive capacity and increasing local resilience in the face of climate shocks.
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    Roots and Wings of The Children Silent Odyssey: The Integration of Child and Youth Migrants in the Attica, Greece
    (Taylor & Francis, 2025-07-16) Hrdinová, Lucie Michaela; Stojanov, Robert
    Although the integration processes of migrants as such are often discussed, aspects of migration and integration of children and youth have not received much attention. This study examines the multifaceted process of integration of refugee and migrant children and youth in the Attica region of Greece. The main aim of the study is to analyze the current difficulties within the migration of children, and the means of their integration. To achieve the objective, qualitative research was conducted. The paper explains how different factors of a social, educational, and psychological nature converge in their experiences of integration. The results of the study highlight the crucial role of NGOs in facilitating non-formal education that supports children’s integration, however, the government funding of NGOs’ programs for immigrants is problematic. Because the majority of migrant respondents stated that they do not feel integrated at all in Greek society, the Greek government should support the integration process of migrant and refugee children and youth by providing them with better access to language learning, schooling, psychological support, and social services. We have found that other aspects, such as education, finances, or family reunification currently represent more significant factors for migrants’ decision to stay or leave Greece.