Research Projects
The research cluster on rural work is involved with a number of projects:
- a study of front line work in rural nursing homes, looking especially at how new systems associated with health care restructuring fail to account for the nature of social relations in rural communities and in rural nursing homes. These homes account for a large number of new jobs for women in rural communities, and the health care system, especially through what some call “tick box care”, is capitalizing on traditional gender and community ideologies to get the maximum work out of these women for literally minimum pay. [Complete]
- a detailed examination of the auto parts industry in its rural guise, which in some locations is clearly a greenfield strategy. But there is also a long history of auto parts in some communities, much of that older industry unionized because of its earlier direct links to the major US automakers. Now the industry is dominated by specialized parts manufacturers – Linamar, Magna, Dana, Delphi - but also literally hundreds of smaller manufacturers making highly specialized parts that build on the advantages mentioned above. [Complete]
- a project with CAW women at the CAMI plant in Ingersoll, and with a women’s training centre in Woodstock on a range of issues relating to rural women’s employment. Of particular concern are women leaving the supposedly good jobs they sometimes manage to get hired for at CAMI. We’re examining how women are often not prepared for work in a male-dominated facility.
- a study of the issues pertaining to young rural women’s economic independence – something clearly related to their chances in the local labour market
- the first study of women migrant agricultural workers from both Mexico and the Caribbean in Ontario. Most migrant farm workers are men, and the issues that face women both in terms of getting here and what they find when they are here are very different. We’re looking at specific policy options that could improve women migrant’s working and personal lives, such as greater access to gender-sensitive health care.
- an investigation into immigration into rural communities in terms of the close relationship between immigration and job prospects. This policy-related project, “Diverse workplaces, homogeneous towns”, considers what prevents and what would persuade immigrants to actually move into rural communities, rather than commuting from more ethnically diverse urban areas.
Overall the research reported on in this site tries to promote a nuanced critique of the “rural advantage” that exposes its regressive roots and deleterious effects. As a group of critical researchers we work to contest the exploitation of vulnerable rural workers, and to develop some elements of alternatives that can empower workers and assist in their struggles.
