Sandcastles of hope? Civil society organizations and the working conditions of migrant farmworkers in North America

This research explores whether civil society organizations (CSOs) can contribute to more effectively regulating the working conditions of temporary migrant farmworkers in North America. This dissertation unfolds in five parts. The first part of the dissertation sets out the background context. The context includes the political economy of agriculture and temporary migrant labour more broadly. It also includes the political economy of the legal regulations that govern immigration and work relations. The second part of the research builds an analytical model for studying the operation of CSOs active in working with the migrant farmworker population. The purpose of the analytical framework is to make sense of real-world examples by providing categories for analysis and a means to get at the channels of influence that CSOs utilize to achieve their aims. To this end, the model incorporates the insights from three significant bodies of literature—regulatory studies, labour studies, and economic sociology. The third part of the dissertation suggests some key strategic issues that CSOs should consider when intervening to assist migrant farmworkers, and also proposes a series of hypotheses about how CSOs can participate in the regulatory process. The fourth part probes and extends these hypotheses by empirically investigating the operation of three CSOs that are currently active in assisting migrant farm workers in North America: the Agricultural Workers Alliance (Canada), Global Workers’ Justice Alliance (USA), and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (USA). The fifth and final part draws together lessons from the empirical work and concluded that CSOs can fill gaps left by the waning power of actors, such as trade unions and labour inspectorates, as well as act in ways that these traditional actors can not.

Plant species, biomass and environmental characteristics of relevés along the North America Arctic bioclimate gradient

Question: How do interactions between the physical environment and biotic properties of vegetation influence the formation of small patterned-ground features along the Arctic bioclimate gradient? Location: At 68° to 78°N: six locations along the Dalton Highway in arctic Alaska and three in Canada (Banks Island, Prince Patrick Island and Ellef Ringnes Island). Methods: We analysed floristic and structural vegetation, biomass and abiotic data (soil chemical and physical parameters, the n-factor [a soil thermal index] and spectral information [NDVI, LAI]) on 147 microhabitat releves of zonalpatterned-ground features. Using mapping, table analysis (JUICE) and ordination techniques (NMDS). Results: Table analysis using JUICE and the phi-coefficient to identify diagnostic species revealed clear groups of diagnostic plant taxa in four of the five zonal vegetation complexes. Plant communities and zonal complexes were generally well separated in the NMDS ordination. The Alaska and Canada communities were spatially separated in the ordination because of different glacial histories and location in separate floristic provinces, but there was no single controlling environmental gradient. Vegetation structure, particularly that of bryophytes and total biomass, strongly affected thermal properties of the soils. Patterned-ground complexes with the largest thermal differential between the patterned-ground features and the surrounding vegetation exhibited the clearest patterned-ground morphologies.

In defense of the independence of the judiciary : speech of Hon. Josiah W. Bailey of North Carolina in the Senate of the United States, July 12 and 13, 1937.

"Not printed at government expense."

The Across North America Tracer Experiment (ANATEX) model evaluation study /

Mode of access: Internet.

Journal of a tour in the "Indian territory," : performed by order of the Domestic Committee of the Board of Missions of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in the spring of 1844, by their secretary and general agent.

Disbound Original Held in Oak Street Library Facility.

The German church on the American frontier; a study in the rise of religion among the Germans of the West,

Bibliography: p. [517]-531.

Report of Frank Farrington, President, district number twelve, United Mine Workers of America /

Mode of access: Internet.

A plea for the supremacy of Christ as the king and head of his own church in two sermons, preached in the Presbyterian Church, (Old School) Madison, Wis., March 18, 1860 /

These sermons are a response to the exclusion of slaveowners from communion. The author states why he opposes this practice and interprets New Testament passages on slavery.

Indian water rights [microform] : hearings before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Ninety-fourth Congress, second session ... June 22 and 23, 1976.

Reuse of record except for individual research requires license from Congressional Information Service, Inc.

Choice recipes : contributed by the Women's Society of the Fairmount Presbyterian Church.

Includes household hints; sample menus; recipes for French, Swedish, German, Chinese, and Italian dishes; sample recipes: Frozen cheese salad, Chicken chow mein, Buster Brown cake.

Centenary history of the Presbyterian Church in New South Wales,

Mode of access: Internet.

Improvement of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act [microform] : hearing before the Select Committee on Indian Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundredth Congress, second session, on S. 2250 to ensure that federal lands are managed in a manner that does not impair the exercise of traditional American Indian religion, May 18, 1988, Washington, DC.

CIS Microfiche Accession Numbers: CIS 89 S411-4