Political Science - Student Works
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- ItemThe patriation of Canada’s constitution by Pierre Trudeau(2022) MacPherson, IsaacThis article explores the events leading up to Constitution Act, 1982, in relation to the patriation of Canada's Constitution. Pierre Trudeau had been determined, ever since 1968, to remove the Canadian Constitution from Westminster and bring it home to Ottawa. It was viewed as a final step in the century-long journey towards Canadian independence from Britain. Shortly after coming to power, however, Trudeau found it increasingly difficult to alleviate the federal-provincial struggles that halted patriation. The failure of the Victoria Conference in 1971 eventually ceased any serious constitutional negotiations between Trudeau and the provinces for nearly a decade. However, the February 1980 victory that granted Trudeau a majority government renewed his confidence, and constitutional talks resumed. They culiminated in the Ottawa Conference held in November, 1981, which was successful in producing an agreement between 9 out of 10 provincial delegates and the federal government. Québec under René Lévesque was the only participant who declined to sign on to Canadian patriation after they had been excluded from a night of negotiations, known as the Night of Long Knives. So while Trudeau had achieved patriation, it was done at the cost of further alienating Québec. Ultimately, Trudeau pursued patriation to strengthen national unity. While this was successful to a degree, it failed with regard to Québec.
- ItemUniversal design at MacEwan(2020) Hildebrandt, Shawn; Hills, Melissa; Overend, AlissaThis executive summary reports on highlights and thematic takeaways from interviews conducted at MacEwan University over July and August of 2019 on the subject of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL differs from the system of accommodation for students with disabilities as it exists now. In the system of accommodation, supports like alternative textbook formats and time and a half for exam writing are given to a particular student in order to support them in the learning environment. Whereas in UDL, the learning environment itself is changed to fit all students, and all of the learning supports that exist as accommodation are extended to everyone’s access if they need it. And so the accommodation system is a part of UDL, is included within it, but does not map on to it entirely. We interviewed 9 people who work in an administrative capacity at MacEwan in a variety of roles relevant to the discussion of student learning. Some of the participants also work as faculty in a teaching capacity or have worked as faculty during some part of their careers. The main theme arising from the interviews is the lack of an overarching, institutionally-guided UDL framework at MacEwan. Conditioned from the main theme, arose the following subthemes: the inconsistent understanding of UDL amongst both faculty and staff; the attitudes of students with existing accommodations as a barrier to UDL; the ambiguity of what UDL means for mental health issues; and the necessity of UDL “champions” to promote UDL.
- ItemApplied political philosophy: combatting the dangers of transhumanism by placing human dignity in the battle over bioethics and human enhancement in America(2018) Mailloux, Cole; Murphy, GaelanThe desire for human enhancement dates back to the initial conception of human civilization. For thousands of years we have continuously attempted to enhance physical and mental capabilities through various means, sometimes with inconclusive, comic, or even tragic results. The industrial and technological revolutions alleviated many of our social and individual health requirements, but also intensified our desire for enhancement. However, up until this point in human history, most biomedical advances, whether successful or not, merely attempted to restore things that were perceived to be deficient, such as vision, hearing, or mobility. Inventions that have attempted to improve on nature, such as anabolic steroids or Ritalin, have been relatively modest, incremental, or detrimental to overall long-term human health. Regardless, recent scientific and technological developments in areas such as biotechnology, information technology, and nanotechnology, humanity appears to be on the cusp of an enhancement revolution (Masci, 2016, para 3). If, or more likely when it comes, this societal transformation will be prompted by continuous efforts to aid people with disabilities and heal those who are diseased. While biomedicine is constantly making rapid progress in new restorative and therapeutic technologies, these could in turn have immense implications for human enhancement.
- ItemDemocracy in the information age: the new political enigma(2018) Tuttle, Devin; Boucher, Jean-ChristopheThe introduction of the Internet to the toolkit of political campaigns has cardinally altered the landscape of democratic elections. As the Internet has expanded so has the level of information it brings alongside, where the amount of data produced in 2017 outweighs the entirety of human societies. Prior to the Age of Information, society has been limited in their capacity to access information, now we are purview to information glut; with unprecedented information comes unprecedented consequences. Data has provided a means for institutions to accumulate, calculate, and nudge human interaction based on predictive analytical techniques where this compendium of information, produced through the Internet, has reduced citizens into analytical nodes. But what is the long run impact of a future predicated on predictive analytics, where individuals are compiled into grand data sets and outcomes are the result of scaled data operations? This paper seeks to rectify this question. When applied to the democratic process, how will political campaigns utilize this technology to advance their campaigns? What is the impact of Big Data and predictive analytics on individual autonomy and how does this contribute to an increasingly fragmented society?
- ItemDemocracy in the information age: the death of consciousness(2018) Tuttle, Devin; Boucher, Jean-ChristopheThe Information Age has produced a society where data has become the principal commodity; where citizens are valued by the information they can provide to institutions. When applied to the democratic process, how will political campaigns utilize this technology to advance their campaigns? What is the impact of Big Data and predictive analytics on individual autonomy and how does this contribute to an increasingly fragmented society? The 2008 United States Presidential election instituted a new norm of political practice. The early stages of predictive analytics, provided by user generated data, enabled the campaign to isolate subsets of potential voters and persuade them into active participants. As the norm of quantitative campaigning became increasingly entrenched, the 2016 Trump campaign would demonstrate the current apex of its application. Utilizing sophisticated Big Data analytics, with support from Cambridge-Analytica and the Giles-Parscale agency, the Trump campaign created individual behavioral profiles of over 215 million voters. Who they would then strategically target to mobilize or de-mobilize the population in fault line States. The advent of the Internet enabled the development of mass scale data operations; when applied to quantitative marketing techniques, it allows for legacy institutions to strategically manipulate individuals to their preferred outcome. The predictive analytical techniques, that have been embedded throughout democratic societies are directly contributing to an increasingly fragmented society. As legacy institutions obtain more data they will increase their capacity to manipulate populations; changing the nature of political consciousness and contributing to an increasingly fragmented polis.