Military workfare : the soldier and social citizenship in Canada / Deborah Cowen.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Paying particular attention to the rise of neoliberalism and the emergence of civilian workfare, Military Workfare looks to the institution of the military to unsettle established ideas about the past and raise new questions about our collective future.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This revised doctoral dissertation in geography comes, the author notes, out of Marxist, feminist, regulation, and governmentality scholarship. Some will find that to be a red flag warning them off, but others will at least appreciate Cowen's frankness. Her volume looks at Canadian citizenship and its relationship to welfare and warfare. In what ways can studying soldiers help readers better understand social citizenship and obligation in neoliberal times? This is an interesting question, and Cowen (geography, Toronto) provides good material on how the Canadian Forces tried to adjust its recruiting efforts to the late-Cold War and post-Cold War eras. For example, she usefully notes how quality of life concerns began to matter much more in keeping soldiers in the military. There is some very useful material here, but the ideologically anti-military, anti-capitalist, anti-American stance makes this work hard going for all but true believers in jargon. Historians may also find that Cowen's historical sources--textbooks--are less than complete, and this makes for a book with more errors in fact and military terminology than one expects from a university press. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. L. Granatstein emeritus, Canadian War Museum