Kate Foster
Biographic Data
| ID | 81305 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kate Foster |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kate |
| FAMILY NAME | Foster |
| SIGNATURE | FOSTER K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Dalhousie University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4573-8212 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 146 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
What’s different about rural families? How rurality shapes gender divisions and relations of care/work in families and communities in Canada
For two decades, researchers in the field of ‘gender divisions of domestic labour’ have attended to diversity by studying families with a range of ethnic and racial identities, sexualities, genders (beyond binaries), marital and socioeconomic statuses, and cultures. But one important facet of diversity insufficiently incorporated into much of this research is place, and more specifically, the size, density, and remoteness of the communities in wh…
The Serial Surreal Mannequin: The Art of Repetition at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme
Mass produced, anonymous, unremarkable: mannequins are designed to be reproduced but largely ignored. Yet at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme in Paris, the department store mannequin took centre stage, most notably in a group installation of sixteen mannequins, each one dressed by a different surrealist. While the sexual objectification and commodification of women in this installation have often been remarked upon, I suggest tha…
Competing Crises? Media Coverage and Framing of Climate Change During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged against the backdrop of the longer-term climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical event in its impacts on news media coverage of clima…
Perceptions of local environment change and ecological habitus
Research shows that people’s perceptions of environmental change are strong predictors of ecologically supportive behaviours and attitudes, but less is known about what causes some people to perceive environmental change more than others. This study considers whether participation in outdoor leisure activities accounts for different perceptions of the local environment. We consider how leisure activities form a broader ‘ecological habitus’ while …
What Are Contemporary Rural Development Policies? A Pan-Canadian Content Analysis of Government Strategies, Plans, and Programs for Rural Areas
Au Canada, des débats de longue date ont lieu sur la manière de concevoir des politiques efficaces pour répondre aux besoins des diverses communautés rurales. Le présent article fait le point sur les politiques rurales canadiennes en procédant à une analyse globale du contenu des stratégies, des plans et des programmes des gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux. Cette analyse révèle que bon nombre des critiques récurrentes concernant les polit…
Lèche-vitrines: Human Identity and the Mannequin in Au Bonheur des Dames
The department store mannequin is often read as representative of commodity or sexual fetishism and, as a result, of woman objectified. This article posits that in Émile Zola’s 'Au Bonheur des Dames' (1883), the mannequin can also highlight such objectification to the woman in the text. Through close readings of the mannequins in 'Au Bonheur des Dames', and their relationships with both shoppers and workers in the store, this article seeks to ana…
Urban Flight and Rural Rights in a Pandemic: Exploring Narratives of Place, Displacement, and "the Right to Be Rural" in the Context of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many preexisting challenges facing rural communities and brought tensions in rural–urban relations closer to the surface. This article offers an explorative contribution to discussions in critical geography by comparing media narratives surrounding urban flight to rural places during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing field sites in rural Michigan (United States), Ontario (Canada), and the “Atlantic bubble” (Ca…
How Important Is a School? Examining the Impact of Remoteness From a School on Canadian Communities’ Attraction and Retention of School-Age Children
Many Canadian communities, especially rural communities, are concerned about youth outmigration as a cause of population decline, which is associated with fewer services and amenities. Proponents of keeping underattended schools open argue that removing a school from the community means that fewer families will want to live there, and that more families will consider leaving. Others view school closures as a rational response to population declin…
Beating Broke by Getting Out? Examining the Relationship Between Personal Debt and Community-Outmigration
Scholarship on young people’s geographical mobilities tells us that young adults move away from their childhood communities for a complex mix of economic “push-pull” reasons, including relationships, aspirations, attachments to place, identity, and belonging. In this abundant research, particularly that which focuses on youth outmigration from rural and peripheral communities, there is surprisingly little attention paid to an issue that is top-of…
Habitat Maintenance and Local Economic Ethics in Rural Atlantic Canada
Inspired by Jane Jacobs's writing on "habitat maintenance," this paper seeks to identify the ethics that sometimes compel rural residents to act in ways that preserve their communities in the long run, despite short-term incentives to do otherwise. Data from focus groups in four rural Atlantic Canadian communities suggest shared ethics around entrepreneurship, market competition, buying local, and subsistence, some of which underlie the rural pra…
Work ethic and degrowth in a changing Atlantic Canada
This article draws on interviews, observations, and surveys from two mixed-methods sociological studies of people's relationships to paid and unpaid work to argue that the concept of the work ethic is a fruitful entrypoint for exploring critical issues of work, leisure and consumption in rural places, and indeed anywhere there are efforts to realize degrowth strategies. Then, I survey some of the major themes about work in a selection of widely-c…
It's just a social thing’: Drug use, friendship and borderwork among marginalized young people
Spreading Our Wings: International Education as Journeys of Enriched Learning
In the 21st century, the impact of globalization has increased the importance of the internationalization of education (Jiang, 2010; Lam, 2010). Because it is imperative for the success of their gr
Generation and discourse in working life stories
Following Mannheim's () Problem of Generations, many scholars have warned of the analytical and political risks of conflating generation with cohort. Yet the temptation persists, as relying on cohort is a convenient method of dividing a population to study it. This article proposes that cohort is only convenient if the objective is understanding generations as definitive groups of people. It suggests a supplementary objective: understanding gener…
Disaffection rising? Generations and the personal consequences of paid work in contemporary Canada
This article highlights the 'personal consequences' of contemporary employment relations in Canada, characterized by increasing precarity, shifting gender relations in families and in the workforce, the expansion of post-secondary education and an intensifying polarization of wealth. It connects these consequences to perceptions of intergenerational differences and conflict at and around work. Drawing on qualitative, narrative data from 52 interv…
Work, narrative identity and social affiliation
Sociologists of work have been drawn into a conversation over work's significance as a source of identity and social affiliation - 'needs' which, according to late modern theorists, are increasingly fulfilled in multiple other realms. This article enters this exchange by foregrounding the epistemological puzzle of how we can 'know' identity and social affiliation in narratives. As a provisional solution, Jenkins's concepts of identification and c…
At risk of what? Possibilities over probabilities in the study of young lives
This paper draws on a series of 45 interviews with recipients of social assistance between the ages of 16 and 24 to offer a critical assessment of the language of 'risk' and 'resilience.' After briefly tracing the development of this vocabulary and approach in youth research, this paper argues in line with existing critiques (Kelly 2000, te Riele 2006, France 2007) that neither risk nor resilience is an appropriate way of coming to understand you…
Spy Letters of the American Revolution
This Web site was created “to showcase the [twelve] spy letters of the Sir Henry Clinton Collection and to situate them in an educational framework.” By tying together a number of elements, the site is very useful for classroom instruction and for undergraduate research projects. Moreover, scholars and Revolutionary War buffs interested in cryptography, the Culper Gang spy ring, and letters from particular spies such as Benjamin Thompson, Benedic…
Repair work: Surfacing the Geographies of Dead Animals
An artist and a geographer asked the same question: what is a zoological specimen and how can it be used? Considerable attention has been paid to the ‘finished’ form and display of taxidermy specimens inside cabinets, behind glass – in other words to their representation. We challenge the priority given to representation by getting under the skin and behind-the-scenes to show how specimens have been entangled ‘in life’ as well as how we have crea…
Cultural geographies in practice: Some reflections on art-geography as collaboration
Cultural geographies in practice: Some reflections on art-geography as collaboration
At risk of what? Possibilities over probabilities in the study of young lives
This paper draws on a series of 45 interviews with recipients of social assistance between the ages of 16 and 24 to offer a critical assessment of the language of 'risk' and 'resilience.' After briefly tracing the development of this vocabulary and approach in youth research, this paper argues in line with existing critiques (Kelly 2000, te Riele 2006, France 2007) that neither risk nor resilience is an appropriate way of coming to understand you…
Generation and discourse in working life stories
Following Mannheim's () Problem of Generations, many scholars have warned of the analytical and political risks of conflating generation with cohort. Yet the temptation persists, as relying on cohort is a convenient method of dividing a population to study it. This article proposes that cohort is only convenient if the objective is understanding generations as definitive groups of people. It suggests a supplementary objective: understanding gener…
Work, narrative identity and social affiliation
Sociologists of work have been drawn into a conversation over work's significance as a source of identity and social affiliation - 'needs' which, according to late modern theorists, are increasingly fulfilled in multiple other realms. This article enters this exchange by foregrounding the epistemological puzzle of how we can 'know' identity and social affiliation in narratives. As a provisional solution, Jenkins's concepts of identification and c…
Repair work: Surfacing the Geographies of Dead Animals
An artist and a geographer asked the same question: what is a zoological specimen and how can it be used? Considerable attention has been paid to the ‘finished’ form and display of taxidermy specimens inside cabinets, behind glass – in other words to their representation. We challenge the priority given to representation by getting under the skin and behind-the-scenes to show how specimens have been entangled ‘in life’ as well as how we have crea…
Work ethic and degrowth in a changing Atlantic Canada
This article draws on interviews, observations, and surveys from two mixed-methods sociological studies of people's relationships to paid and unpaid work to argue that the concept of the work ethic is a fruitful entrypoint for exploring critical issues of work, leisure and consumption in rural places, and indeed anywhere there are efforts to realize degrowth strategies. Then, I survey some of the major themes about work in a selection of widely-c…
Disaffection rising? Generations and the personal consequences of paid work in contemporary Canada
This article highlights the 'personal consequences' of contemporary employment relations in Canada, characterized by increasing precarity, shifting gender relations in families and in the workforce, the expansion of post-secondary education and an intensifying polarization of wealth. It connects these consequences to perceptions of intergenerational differences and conflict at and around work. Drawing on qualitative, narrative data from 52 interv…
Urban Flight and Rural Rights in a Pandemic: Exploring Narratives of Place, Displacement, and "the Right to Be Rural" in the Context of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many preexisting challenges facing rural communities and brought tensions in rural–urban relations closer to the surface. This article offers an explorative contribution to discussions in critical geography by comparing media narratives surrounding urban flight to rural places during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing field sites in rural Michigan (United States), Ontario (Canada), and the “Atlantic bubble” (Ca…
Perceptions of local environment change and ecological habitus
Research shows that people’s perceptions of environmental change are strong predictors of ecologically supportive behaviours and attitudes, but less is known about what causes some people to perceive environmental change more than others. This study considers whether participation in outdoor leisure activities accounts for different perceptions of the local environment. We consider how leisure activities form a broader ‘ecological habitus’ while …
What Are Contemporary Rural Development Policies? A Pan-Canadian Content Analysis of Government Strategies, Plans, and Programs for Rural Areas
Au Canada, des débats de longue date ont lieu sur la manière de concevoir des politiques efficaces pour répondre aux besoins des diverses communautés rurales. Le présent article fait le point sur les politiques rurales canadiennes en procédant à une analyse globale du contenu des stratégies, des plans et des programmes des gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux. Cette analyse révèle que bon nombre des critiques récurrentes concernant les polit…
Cultural geographies in practice: Some reflections on art-geography as collaboration
Repair work: Surfacing the Geographies of Dead Animals
An artist and a geographer asked the same question: what is a zoological specimen and how can it be used? Considerable attention has been paid to the ‘finished’ form and display of taxidermy specimens inside cabinets, behind glass – in other words to their representation. We challenge the priority given to representation by getting under the skin and behind-the-scenes to show how specimens have been entangled ‘in life’ as well as how we have crea…
Spy Letters of the American Revolution
This Web site was created “to showcase the [twelve] spy letters of the Sir Henry Clinton Collection and to situate them in an educational framework.” By tying together a number of elements, the site is very useful for classroom instruction and for undergraduate research projects. Moreover, scholars and Revolutionary War buffs interested in cryptography, the Culper Gang spy ring, and letters from particular spies such as Benjamin Thompson, Benedic…
At risk of what? Possibilities over probabilities in the study of young lives
This paper draws on a series of 45 interviews with recipients of social assistance between the ages of 16 and 24 to offer a critical assessment of the language of 'risk' and 'resilience.' After briefly tracing the development of this vocabulary and approach in youth research, this paper argues in line with existing critiques (Kelly 2000, te Riele 2006, France 2007) that neither risk nor resilience is an appropriate way of coming to understand you…
Work, narrative identity and social affiliation
Sociologists of work have been drawn into a conversation over work's significance as a source of identity and social affiliation - 'needs' which, according to late modern theorists, are increasingly fulfilled in multiple other realms. This article enters this exchange by foregrounding the epistemological puzzle of how we can 'know' identity and social affiliation in narratives. As a provisional solution, Jenkins's concepts of identification and c…
It's just a social thing’: Drug use, friendship and borderwork among marginalized young people
Spreading Our Wings: International Education as Journeys of Enriched Learning
In the 21st century, the impact of globalization has increased the importance of the internationalization of education (Jiang, 2010; Lam, 2010). Because it is imperative for the success of their gr
Generation and discourse in working life stories
Following Mannheim's () Problem of Generations, many scholars have warned of the analytical and political risks of conflating generation with cohort. Yet the temptation persists, as relying on cohort is a convenient method of dividing a population to study it. This article proposes that cohort is only convenient if the objective is understanding generations as definitive groups of people. It suggests a supplementary objective: understanding gener…
Disaffection rising? Generations and the personal consequences of paid work in contemporary Canada
This article highlights the 'personal consequences' of contemporary employment relations in Canada, characterized by increasing precarity, shifting gender relations in families and in the workforce, the expansion of post-secondary education and an intensifying polarization of wealth. It connects these consequences to perceptions of intergenerational differences and conflict at and around work. Drawing on qualitative, narrative data from 52 interv…
Work ethic and degrowth in a changing Atlantic Canada
This article draws on interviews, observations, and surveys from two mixed-methods sociological studies of people's relationships to paid and unpaid work to argue that the concept of the work ethic is a fruitful entrypoint for exploring critical issues of work, leisure and consumption in rural places, and indeed anywhere there are efforts to realize degrowth strategies. Then, I survey some of the major themes about work in a selection of widely-c…
Habitat Maintenance and Local Economic Ethics in Rural Atlantic Canada
Inspired by Jane Jacobs's writing on "habitat maintenance," this paper seeks to identify the ethics that sometimes compel rural residents to act in ways that preserve their communities in the long run, despite short-term incentives to do otherwise. Data from focus groups in four rural Atlantic Canadian communities suggest shared ethics around entrepreneurship, market competition, buying local, and subsistence, some of which underlie the rural pra…
How Important Is a School? Examining the Impact of Remoteness From a School on Canadian Communities’ Attraction and Retention of School-Age Children
Many Canadian communities, especially rural communities, are concerned about youth outmigration as a cause of population decline, which is associated with fewer services and amenities. Proponents of keeping underattended schools open argue that removing a school from the community means that fewer families will want to live there, and that more families will consider leaving. Others view school closures as a rational response to population declin…
Beating Broke by Getting Out? Examining the Relationship Between Personal Debt and Community-Outmigration
Scholarship on young people’s geographical mobilities tells us that young adults move away from their childhood communities for a complex mix of economic “push-pull” reasons, including relationships, aspirations, attachments to place, identity, and belonging. In this abundant research, particularly that which focuses on youth outmigration from rural and peripheral communities, there is surprisingly little attention paid to an issue that is top-of…
Lèche-vitrines: Human Identity and the Mannequin in Au Bonheur des Dames
The department store mannequin is often read as representative of commodity or sexual fetishism and, as a result, of woman objectified. This article posits that in Émile Zola’s 'Au Bonheur des Dames' (1883), the mannequin can also highlight such objectification to the woman in the text. Through close readings of the mannequins in 'Au Bonheur des Dames', and their relationships with both shoppers and workers in the store, this article seeks to ana…
Urban Flight and Rural Rights in a Pandemic: Exploring Narratives of Place, Displacement, and "the Right to Be Rural" in the Context of Covid-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated many preexisting challenges facing rural communities and brought tensions in rural–urban relations closer to the surface. This article offers an explorative contribution to discussions in critical geography by comparing media narratives surrounding urban flight to rural places during the COVID-19 pandemic. Comparing field sites in rural Michigan (United States), Ontario (Canada), and the “Atlantic bubble” (Ca…
Competing Crises? Media Coverage and Framing of Climate Change During the Covid-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged against the backdrop of the longer-term climate change crisis and increasing global awareness of the imperative for climate action, disrupting the post-Paris trajectory of climate policy and media coverage of climate change. We examine news media coverage from Canadian legacy newspapers and answer three questions. First, did the COVID-19 pandemic work as a critical event in its impacts on news media coverage of clima…
Perceptions of local environment change and ecological habitus
Research shows that people’s perceptions of environmental change are strong predictors of ecologically supportive behaviours and attitudes, but less is known about what causes some people to perceive environmental change more than others. This study considers whether participation in outdoor leisure activities accounts for different perceptions of the local environment. We consider how leisure activities form a broader ‘ecological habitus’ while …
What Are Contemporary Rural Development Policies? A Pan-Canadian Content Analysis of Government Strategies, Plans, and Programs for Rural Areas
Au Canada, des débats de longue date ont lieu sur la manière de concevoir des politiques efficaces pour répondre aux besoins des diverses communautés rurales. Le présent article fait le point sur les politiques rurales canadiennes en procédant à une analyse globale du contenu des stratégies, des plans et des programmes des gouvernements provinciaux et territoriaux. Cette analyse révèle que bon nombre des critiques récurrentes concernant les polit…
The Serial Surreal Mannequin: The Art of Repetition at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme
Mass produced, anonymous, unremarkable: mannequins are designed to be reproduced but largely ignored. Yet at the 1938 Exposition internationale du surréalisme in Paris, the department store mannequin took centre stage, most notably in a group installation of sixteen mannequins, each one dressed by a different surrealist. While the sexual objectification and commodification of women in this installation have often been remarked upon, I suggest tha…
What’s different about rural families? How rurality shapes gender divisions and relations of care/work in families and communities in Canada
For two decades, researchers in the field of ‘gender divisions of domestic labour’ have attended to diversity by studying families with a range of ethnic and racial identities, sexualities, genders (beyond binaries), marital and socioeconomic statuses, and cultures. But one important facet of diversity insufficiently incorporated into much of this research is place, and more specifically, the size, density, and remoteness of the communities in wh…
Sociology (14 works) · Psychology (9 works) · Political science (8 works) · Rural development and sustainability (7 works) · Geography (6 works) · Social Psychology (6 works) · Law (5 works) · Social science (5 works) · Art (4 works) · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics (4 works)