This volume focuses on the reshaping of ethnicity in Berlin and Toronto that resulted from the economic stagnation, industrial restructuring, and return to conservative government in Canada and the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1980s. It addresses a broad range of issues crystalizing around ethnicity, inequality, and the state. It approaches these problems using such diverse methods as systems theory, questionnaires, interviews, various quantitative measures, and historical analysis. Ethnicity is discussed as it functions at the workplace, in the family, in neighborhoods, in immigrant and other organizations, and in the immigrants' relation to the state through its mediating bureaucracies.

The chapters in this books seeks to answer the questions: to what extent does racism continue to inform and and structure how are institutions operate today? What is the social meaning of "race" in contemporary Canadian society, and what is the most effective way to combat racism in all its forms? The contributores analyze the conditions that give rise to racism, the extent to which racism permeates social institutions, how groups of people have organized against racism, and the ways racism is linked to class, gender and ethnicity.

Now in its third edition, Understanding Social Inequality examines the full scope of inequality in Canada today. The text's two-part structure introduces theories of class, gender, age, ethnicity, and race before examining case studies and examples demonstrating the consequences of inequality.This allows students to form their own conclusions about why social inequality remains prevalent and the potential actions that can be taken to eradicate it.

In distinguishing themselves from Americans, Canadians have long used the language of metaphor to describe their society as a mosaic and the United States as a melting pot. To undertake this difficult challenge of comparing the cultural myths and realities of Canada and the United States, the C.D. Howe Institute drew on the expertise of two of Canada's most esteemed sociologists, Jeffrey G. Reitz and Raymond Breton, both of whom are professors of sociology at the University of Toronto. Their study, the result of an exhaustive review of the available public opinion data, helps bring a picture of Canadians and Americans into clearer focus. Topics covered are: Canadian beliefs about the mosaic and the melting pot; attitudes toward the retention of minority cultures; the extent of cultural retention; and prejudice and discrimination.

Social Inequality in Canada brings a comparative perspective to the question of the uniqueness of Canadian society. Do Canadians believe they can succeed on the basis of their own abilities? And how do they compare with Americans, Germans, Italians, Australians and Russians? There is much debate as to how Canadians differ from or resemble citizens of other countries, particularly the United States.

Canada’s history, since its birth as a nation one hundred and fifty years ago, is one of immigration, nation-building, and contested racial and ethnic relations. In Immigration, Racial and Ethnic Studies in 150 Years of Canada: Retrospects and Prospects scholars provide a wide-ranging overview of this history with a core theme being one of enduring racial and ethnic conflict and inequality. The volume is organized around four themes where in each theme selected racial and ethnic issues are examined critically. Part 1 focuses on the history of Canadian immigration and nation-building while Part 2 looks at situating contemporary Canada in terms of the debates in the literature on ethnicity and race. Part 3 revisits specific racial and ethnic studies in Canada and finally in Part 4 a state-of-the-art is provided on immigration and racial and ethnic studies while providing prospects for the future. Contributors are: Victor Armony, David Este, Augie Fleras, Peter R. Grant, Shibao Guo, Abdolmohammad Kazemipur, Anne-Marie Livingstone, Adina Madularea, Ayesha Mian Akram, Nilum Panesar, Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Paul Pritchard, Howard Ramos, Daniel W. Robertson, Vic Satzewich, Morton Weinfeld, Rima Wilkes, Lori Wilkinson, Elke Winter, Nelson Wiseman, Lloyd Wong, and Henry Yu.

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.