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."
Fragments of culture often become commodities when the tourism and heritage business showcases local artistic and cultural practice. And frequently, this industry develops without the consent of those whose culture is commercialized. What does this say about appropriation, social responsibility, and intercultural relationships? And what happens when communities become more involved in this cultural marketplace?
Incorporating Culture examines how Indigenous artists and entrepreneurs are cultivating more equitable relationships with the companies that reproduce their designs on everyday objects, slowly modifying a capitalist market to make room for Indigenous values and principles.
Moving beyond an interpretation of cultural commodification as necessarily exploitative, Solen Roth discusses how communities can treat culture as a resource in a way that nurtures rather than depletes it. She deftly illustrates the processes by which Indigenous people have been asserting control over the Northwest Coast art industry by reshaping it to reflect local models of property, relationships, and economics.
Solen Roth is a cultural anthropologist currently working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Université de Montréal School of Design. She has published in the Journal of Material Culture and Collaborative Anthropologies, and contributed to Jennifer Kramer’s Ḱesu’: The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer. From 2010 to 2016, she co-chaired the Commodification of Cultural Heritage working group for the Intellectual Property Issues in Cultural Heritage research project at Simon Fraser University.
Incorporating Culture: How Indigenous People are Reshapingthe Northwest Coast Art Industry takes a fresh look at Northwest Coast art through the exploration of economic, legal, and social issues.
[Incorporating Culture] will resonate with those interested in the confluence of Indigenous artware and tourist souvenir markets throughout the world. [...] All readers will benefit from time spent with this well-told story of cultural adaptation and change, particularly because it refutes notions of Indigenous erasure and, instead, emphasises Indigenous resiliency.