About BC Books Online
BC Books Online was created for anyone interested in BC-published books, and with librarians especially in mind. We'd like to make it easy for library staff to learn about books from BC publishers - both new releases and backlist titles - so you can inform your patrons and keep your collections up to date.
Our site features print books and ebooks - both new releases and backlist titles - all of which are available to order through regular trade channels. Browse our subject categories to find books of interest or create and export lists by category to cross-reference with your library's current collection.
A quick tip: When reviewing the "Browse by Category" listings, please note that these are based on standardized BISAC Subject Codes supplied by the books' publishers. You will find additional selections, grouped by theme or region, in our "BC Reading Lists."
Description
Given the pressures of integration and assimilation, how are people within communities able to make decisions about their own environment, whether individually or collectively? Governing Ourselves? explores issues of influence and power within local institutions and decision-making processes using numerous illustrations from municipalities across Canada. It shows how communities large and small, from Toronto to Iqaluit, have distinctive political cultures and therefore respond differently to changing global and domestic environments. Case studies illuminate historical and contemporary challenges to local governance. This book covers topics including government structures and institutions and intergovernmental relations and reaches more broadly into geography, urban planning, environmental studies, public administration, and sociology.
Contributor Notes
Mary Louise McAllister is an associate professor in the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo.
Awards
- Winner, Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Editorial Reviews
By asking the question, ‘are we governing ourselves?’, McAllister delves into theses muddy waters in an admirably honest manner ... McAllister’s book is a useful teaching and scholarly resource for grappling with the democratic and administrative uncertainty that remains a large dimension of Canada’s public sector.
— Local Government Studies, vol. 32, no. 4, Autumn 2004
Highly recommended.
— Choice, June 2005
