Rural Studies Program Hosts
Sociologist as Visiting Scholar

October 22, 2003

Well-known Canadian sociologist and author Gordon Laxer will be on campus as rural studies visiting scholar Oct. 30. He will give a talk titled "Not for Sale: Decommodifying Public Life and Nature" at 7 p.m. in the OVC Lifetime Learning Centre cafeteria.

Laxer is director of the Parkland Institute, a research network based at the University of Alberta. He has taken part in debates on globalization and the United States, Canadian economic sovereignty, developing an accommodation with Quebec, and opposing the dismantling of public services.

"There are certain lines that can't be crossed with the public, and health care and public education seem to be two of them," says lecture organizer Jennifer Sumner, a post-doctoral researcher in Guelph's rural studies program. "(Laxer) will add to the public discussion of what's important to us as people."

Laxer is the principal investigator of the Globalism Project, a $1.9-million, five-year collaboration involving 19 researchers in Canada, Mexico, Australia and Norway. His book Open for Business: The Roots of Foreign Ownership in Canada received the 1992 John Porter Award from the Canadian Association of Sociology and Anthropology.