POL S 298
Topics in Political Science
Winter 2024
Topics
- Introduction to communication policy research
- How does communication policy and law shape our societies?
- Introducing power, persuasion, and participation
- Perspectives on law and policy: Natural law; Positivist legal theory; Indigenous legal systems; legal pluralism
- Whom do law and policy serve?
- Frameworks, theories and models of public policy analysis
- Reviewing basic concepts in the study of public policy in Canada
- Multiple levels of policy making: Global to local
- Institutional influences on policy making
- Introducing the Canadian legal system: Common and civil law
- Canadian policy institutions: CRTC, ISED, and Canadian Heritage
- Introducing digital citizenship
- Building on the policy process model and initiating policy action
- Shaping policy: Public opinion, narratives, frames and frameworks
- Stakeholders, rights-holders and policy advocates
Readings
- Bannerman, S. (2020). Canadian Communication Policy and Law. Canadian Scholars
- Picard, R. G. (2020). Media and Communications Policy Making: Processes, Dynamics and International Variations. Palgrave MacMillan
- Wernick, M. (2021). "Power in the capital" (pp. 13-35) in Governing Canada: A guide to the tradecraft of politics. On Point Press
- Miljan, L. (2022). Chapter 1: “Basic concepts in the study of public policy” (pp.2-25) in Public Policy in Canada: An Introduction. Don Mills: Oxford University Press
- Gasher, M., Skinner, D., and Coulter, N. (2020). “Chapter 7: The Formation of Public Policy” (pp.170-191) in Media & communication in Canada: Networks, culture, technology, audiences (Ninth Edition), Oxford University Press
- Lalancette, M. and Raynauld, V. (2020). “Online mobilization: Tweeting truth to power in an era of revised patterns of mobilization in Canada” (pp.223-244) in T.A. Small and H.J. Jansen, Digital politics in Canada: Promises and realities, University of Toronto Press
- Wilkinson, S. (2020). Four phases of Internet policy development: Risks to the public interest, Journal of Information Policy, 10: 184-209
- Anstis, S., Barnett, S., Deibert, R., Gill, L., Penney, J., Reid, R.J., & Senft, A. (2020). Citizen Lab: Submission to the Government of Canada on the Renewal of the Responsible Business Conduct Strategy
- Flew, T. and Smith, R. (2021). Selections from “Truth and misinformation in the post-truth era” (pp.214-222) in New media: An introduction (Fourth Canadian Edition), Oxford University Press
- Parsons, C. (2020). “Electronic surveillance: The growth of digitally enabled surveillance and the atrophy of accountability in law enforcement and security agencies” (pp.112-135) in T.A. Small and H.J. Jansen, Digital politics in Canada: Promises and realities, University of Toronto Press
- Selman, B., Fauteaux, B., and deWaard, A. (2022). From copyright cartels to commons and care: A public infrastructure model for Canadian music communities, Partnership: The Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 71(1): 1-23
- Flew, T. and Smith, R. (2021). Selections from “Internet law, policy and governance” (pp.290-297) in New media: An Introduction (Fourth Canadian Edition), Oxford University Press
- Middleton, C. (2017). An introduction to telecommunications policy in Canada, Australian Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, 5(4): 97-124
- Armstrong, R. (2016). “Introduction” (pp. 3-19) in Broadcasting Policy in Canada (2nd Ed). University of Toronto Press
- CRTC. (2019). Offering cultural diversity on TV and radio
- Flew, T. and Smith, R. (2021). Selections from “Internet law, policy and governance” (pp.273-290) in New media: An Introduction (Fourth Canadian Edition), Oxford University Press
- Internet Society. (2016). Internet governance: Why the multistakeholder approach works
- First Nations Information Governance Centre (FNIGC) (2016). “Pathways to First Nations’ data and information sovereignty” (pp.139-155) in T. Kukutai and J. Taylor (Eds.), Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda, Canberra: Australian National University Press
- Duncan, J., Luscombe, A., & Walby, K. (2023). Governing through transparency: Investigating the new access to information regime in Canada, The Information Society, 39(1), 45-61
- Deibert, R. (2020). “Introduction” (pp.1-34) in Reset: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society, Toronto: Anansi Press
Fall 2023
Readings
- W.E.B. Du Bois, “The Souls of White Folk” from Darkwater (1920), pp. 29-55
- Frantz Fanon, “Conclusion” from The Wretched of the Earth (1961), pp. 235-240
- Silvia Federici, “Wages against Housework” (1975), pp. 1-8
- Herbert Marcuse, “Introduction – The Paralysis of Criticism”, “New Forms of Social Control” in One-Dimensional Man (1964), pp. xxxix-20
- Rainer Forst, “Noumenal Alienation: Rousseau, Kant, and Marx on the Dialectics of Self- Determination” (2017), pp. 523-551
- John Medearis, Selections from “Introduction” and “Contesting the Welfare State” from Why Democracy is Oppositional (2015), pp. 1-4, 10, 169-202
- James Tully, “Life Sustains Life, I” and selections from “Life Sustains Life, II” from Nature and Value (2020), pp. 163-180, 196-202
- Steven Vogel, “Marx and Alienation from Nature” (1988), pp. 367-387
- Leroy Little Bear, “Jagged Worldviews Colliding” (2000) from Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision, pp. 77-85
- Is the experience of colonization described by Little Bear a problem of alienation? Why? Why not?
- Leanne Simpson, “Looking after Gdoo-naaganinaa: Precolonial Nishnaabeg Diplomatic and Treaty Relationships” (2008), pp. 29-42
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- POL S 298 LEC-A02: Topics in Political Science · Reading-list link; contents not retrieved ↗2026
- 2023-Fall-POL-S-298-LECTURE-A1 ↗2023
- 2024-Winter-POL-S-298-LECTURE-B2 ↗2024
- Additional readings are supplied through the course LMS. Partial automated extraction.
- Partial automated extraction.