Bruce J Smardon
Professor Emeritus
Email: bsmardon@yorku.ca
Two articles in Studies in Political Economy provide a reinterpretation of the political economy of Canadian development through rethinking the role of Fordism and post-Fordism over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A larger book on the political economy of federal R&D and innovation policy, called Asleep at the Switch, was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014 and covers the long history of federal promotion of greater R&D and original innovation in Canadian industry. It draws on the work on Canadian political economy outlined in the two articles. It won the Donald Smiley Prize in 2015 for the best book on Canadian government and politics.
A chapter in an edited volume was published in 2018 in D. Bonham (ed.) Becoming 150: 150 Years of Canadian Business History. It critically examined the claim, often made in the literature on technological change and in justifications for free trade policies, that R&D and original innovation are central to dynamic capitalism. By looking at how transferred technologies and tariff protection were at the core of the advanced form of capitalism that developed in Canada, this contention is challenged in the Canadian case.
Degrees
PhD Political Science, York UniversityMA Economics, York University
BA Economics, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Member of the 2018 Canadian Political Science Association Smiley Prize Jury
College Academic Success Leader 2017-2018, McLaughlin College, York University
College Academic Life Coordinator 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, McLaughlin College, York University
Research Interests
- Shortlisted - 2015 Donald Smiley Prize, Canadian Political Science Association - 2015
- 2015 Donald Smiley Prize for the best book published in 2014 in English or French on Canadian Politics and Government - 2015
“Asleep at the Switch: The Political Economy of Federal Research and Development Policy since 1960”, (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014).
"Dependent Technological Change: The Long Arc of Canadian Innovation and Political Economic Development", H. Whiteside (ed.) Canadian Political Economy, forthcoming (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019/2020).
"The Federal Welfare State and the Politics of Retrenchment in Canada", R. Blake and J. Keshen (eds.) Social Welfare Policy in Canada, (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1995).
“Shifting Terrains of Accumulation: Canadian Industry in Three Eras of Development”, Studies in Political Economy, No. 87, (Spring 2011), pp. 143-172.
“Rethinking Canadian Economic Development: The Political Economy of Canadian Fordism, 1880-1914”, Studies in Political Economy, No. 85, (Spring 2010), pp. 179-208.
"Radical Democracy and the Limits of Liberalism", Studies in Political Economy, No. 37, (Spring 1992), pp. 129-146.
"The Federal Welfare State and the Politics of Retrenchment in Canada", Journal of Canadian Studies, No. 26, (Summer 1991), pp. 122-141.
“Importing Growth: Canadian Manufacturing Development, Transferred Technology, and Tariff Protection,” Becoming 150: 150 Years of Canadian Business History, CBHA/ACHA, Commemorative Volume of Proceedings, March 2018, pp. 128-142.
Accepted for publication in the Carleton Library Series - The CLS is a distinguished and longstanding MQUP book series which publishes leading new scholarship and classic works in Canadian economics, geography, history, politics, public policy, society and culture.
Nominated by McGill-Queen’s Press for the Donald Smiley Award, Canadian Political Science Association.
Two articles in Studies in Political Economy provide a reinterpretation of the political economy of Canadian development through rethinking the role of Fordism and post-Fordism over the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A larger book on the political economy of federal R&D and innovation policy, called Asleep at the Switch, was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2014 and covers the long history of federal promotion of greater R&D and original innovation in Canadian industry. It draws on the work on Canadian political economy outlined in the two articles. It won the Donald Smiley Prize in 2015 for the best book on Canadian government and politics.
A chapter in an edited volume was published in 2018 in D. Bonham (ed.) Becoming 150: 150 Years of Canadian Business History. It critically examined the claim, often made in the literature on technological change and in justifications for free trade policies, that R&D and original innovation are central to dynamic capitalism. By looking at how transferred technologies and tariff protection were at the core of the advanced form of capitalism that developed in Canada, this contention is challenged in the Canadian case.
Degrees
PhD Political Science, York UniversityMA Economics, York University
BA Economics, McGill University
Professional Leadership
Member of the 2018 Canadian Political Science Association Smiley Prize Jury
College Academic Success Leader 2017-2018, McLaughlin College, York University
College Academic Life Coordinator 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17, McLaughlin College, York University
Research Interests
Awards
- Shortlisted - 2015 Donald Smiley Prize, Canadian Political Science Association - 2015
- 2015 Donald Smiley Prize for the best book published in 2014 in English or French on Canadian Politics and Government - 2015
All Publications
"Dependent Technological Change: The Long Arc of Canadian Innovation and Political Economic Development", H. Whiteside (ed.) Canadian Political Economy, forthcoming (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019/2020).
"The Federal Welfare State and the Politics of Retrenchment in Canada", R. Blake and J. Keshen (eds.) Social Welfare Policy in Canada, (Toronto: Copp Clark, 1995).
“Asleep at the Switch: The Political Economy of Federal Research and Development Policy since 1960”, (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014).
“Shifting Terrains of Accumulation: Canadian Industry in Three Eras of Development”, Studies in Political Economy, No. 87, (Spring 2011), pp. 143-172.
“Rethinking Canadian Economic Development: The Political Economy of Canadian Fordism, 1880-1914”, Studies in Political Economy, No. 85, (Spring 2010), pp. 179-208.
"Radical Democracy and the Limits of Liberalism", Studies in Political Economy, No. 37, (Spring 1992), pp. 129-146.
"The Federal Welfare State and the Politics of Retrenchment in Canada", Journal of Canadian Studies, No. 26, (Summer 1991), pp. 122-141.
“Importing Growth: Canadian Manufacturing Development, Transferred Technology, and Tariff Protection,” Becoming 150: 150 Years of Canadian Business History, CBHA/ACHA, Commemorative Volume of Proceedings, March 2018, pp. 128-142.
Accepted for publication in the Carleton Library Series - The CLS is a distinguished and longstanding MQUP book series which publishes leading new scholarship and classic works in Canadian economics, geography, history, politics, public policy, society and culture.
Nominated by McGill-Queen’s Press for the Donald Smiley Award, Canadian Political Science Association.
