The Global Labour Speaker Series returns for 2018 with a panel discussion on “Precarity and the Nonprofit Sector: Views from Social Work” on Jan. 24 featuring John Shields, Ryerson University; Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard; and Lynn Eakin, policy analyst.
It will take place from 1 to 3pm in Ross S802, York University, and is co-sponsored by the School of Social Work.
The panel will focus on professional precarity dealing with precarious lives in social work and the nonprofit sector.
Shields is a tenured full professor with more than 25 years of university teaching and research experience in the areas of public administration and public policy, Canadian politics, the political economy of labour market and welfare state restructuring, immigrant settlement and integration policy and practices, and nonprofit sector studies. He has served on various advisory bodies including most recently for the Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN). Shields has published extensively, including the co-authoring of five books and more than 40 articles and papers and an extensive number of policy papers and conference presentations. His most recent research explores issues related to the marketization of the nonprofit sector, immigration and settlement, public administration reform, labour market restructuring with a focus on precarious work and immigrant populations, and knowledge transfer in support of public policy and advocacy. He has recently published a co-edited a book on Precarious Employment: Causes, Consequences and Remedies (Fernwood 2017).
Bernard was appointed to the Senate on Nov. 10, 2016 and is a highly regarded social worker, educator, researcher, community activist and advocate of social change. In 2016, she was appointed special advisor on diversity and inclusiveness at Dalhousie University and is the first African Nova Scotian to hold a tenure track position. Bernard is a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers who has also served as an expert witness in human rights cases and has received many honours for her work, including the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada. She is the chair of the Standing Senate Committee on Human Rights (RIDR), and a member of the Standing Senate Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology (SOCI). She is also vice-chair of the Canada-Africa Parliamentary Association.
Eakin has an MSW from the University of Toronto and has been providing consulting services to the non-profit sector since 1989. Initially she provided services that included assistance with restructuring, mergers and service partnerships. She also provided rescue management services for organizations in difficulty. Her experiences with these types of assignments lead her, by the end of the 1990s, to shift the focus of her work to respond to what she saw as a growing crisis in the financing and regulation of non-profit community organizations. One of the founding members of Ontario Nonprofit Network (ONN), Eakin is currently involved in better positioning the sector to address the cross-cutting policy issues it faces. She continues to engage in sector research and is involved with ONN in identifying, developing and advocating for systemic reforms to improve the ability of the sector to undertake its important work.
Refreshments will be served, and all are welcome. The Global Labour Speaker Series is organized by the Global Labour Research Centre at York University and is co-sponsored by Department of Sociology, Department of Social Science, Osgoode Hall Law School, and the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy.
Send your RSVP through EventBrite, and find more information on the Facebook event page.