Friday, October 30^th 10:45  – 12:15

Session Room: Loft 2

1) Kristin Hissong, King’s College, London
Rethinking well-being: nationalism, memory, and the capability approach

The role of memory in identity and nation building is paramount; narrative, the bridge that connects the individual to the collective among and between generations, cannot be formed, internalised, nor maintained without memory. This putting together of knowledge is sustained, shared, and given significance in and by society; therefore, one’s encompassing groups of belonging are constructed through narratives that are formed by the groups’ collective memories. Considering the role of memory through an adaptive ethno-symbolist approach, the nation is a sum of its memories (and myths and symbols) that undergo the same selectivity when constructing identity. This selection, and exclusion, of memories leads to a collection of individuals and a gathering of collectives that necessitates self-awareness of its existence; as a result, the nation can be said to be a product of both remembering and forgetting.

Like identity, memory can be manipulated to reshape past events and be commissioned for future agendas. Therefore, the ethics of memory is important to human rights and the concept of well-being. This research designs memory capability, using Amartya Sen’s capability approach, as a powerful opportunity for bridging diverse communities of belonging and constructing narrative for peace-building. Drawing upon the case of Morocco’s Jewish minority and their role in the various nationalist narratives present in the French Protectorate era, primary data in the form of semi-structured interviews explores the power of memory to reconcile heterogeneous communities by acknowledging and giving common space to diverse collectives’ memories. Indeed, because memory is flexible and transformative, memory can play a key role in transitions toward peace and the maintenance of well-being.

2) Grant Peters, Parliament of Canada
Lillian Freiman, Women, and Nationalism in early 20th Century Canada

Prominent feminist, philanthropist, community leader, and Zionist (revisionist and cultural), Lillian Freiman was a major catalyst in the promotion of Jewish nationalism and the generation of a distinct Canadian-Jewish identity. Her work was most prominent between 1910 and her death in 1940, and, centered out of Ottawa, she influenced policy and bureaucratic structures at a time characterized by aggressive anti-Semitism in Canada.

Through her efforts in the general community and through Hadassah-WIZO, the Canadian Jewish community became more united than ever. She created a unique sense of Canadian-Jewish nationalism, which percolated into the Canadian-Jewish community through the agency of women. Hadassah-WIZO was, after all, an exclusively female civil society.

Freiman promoted the equality of Jewish women in Canada while advocating for Jewish solidarity and unity. She challenged traditional structures of authority and legitimacy associated with democratic rule. No longer would the Jewish-Canadian community be run by a male-dominated core - operating only in major urban centres. Instead, Freiman inspired women throughout Canada to connect based on a common national identity founded in Zionism. These women would work together, discuss the future, and work towards an agreed upon path. This Zionism, however, did not operate on the notion that all Jews would return to Israel, but that Israel would become the ‘national’ (or cultural) centre of the Jewish nation.

I will focus on Lillian Freiman as a culturally-hegemonic figure and as a catalyst for the creation of a distinct Jewish-Canadian nationalism through the agency of women, from 1910 to 1940. Using Gramsci’s concept of hegemony, I argue that Freiman was able to construct this identity based on the image that was coercively impressed upon Jewish women in the name of progress that Freiman’s ideas and what she symbolized were complicitly consumed, resulting in her success and importance as a historical figure.

3) Alexander Shvartz, Humber College
Russian Transnational Entrepreneurs in Toronto: How the Global Capitalist Economy Influenced Entrepreneurship

This paper aims to address one of the central themes of the conference – the issue of transnationalism. One of the most interesting results of the collapse of the former Soviet Union is the emergence of successful cosmopolitan entrepreneurs from former Soviet republics who have immigrated to countries, such as the United States and Canada, settling in metropolitan areas like Toronto and making millions establishing businesses in their new host countries. It is important to understand how people who grew up in a context where entrepreneurship was forbidden and there was no privatization prior to the 1980s could develop entrepreneurial skills and how they could transfer these skills to establish successful businesses in the modern context of market capitalism in Toronto. In Canada there has been very little systematic research which focuses on immigrant entrepreneurs from the former Soviet Union, and no studies have explored the effects of transnational business linkages between Russians in major immigrant receiving countries, such as Canada and in their sending countries. This paper considers how experiences in the transitional economy affected the role of human capital, financial capital, and social capital in establishing businesses in Canada. It looks at the effects of transnational business linkages, which for Russian immigrants is unique from other immigrant groups because it reflects the unique cultural patterns and structural characteristics of the former Soviet Union. In short, the unique historical, economic and political environment of the former Soviet Union provided favourable conditions for entrepreneurship.  This study is based on qualitative data derived from face-to-face in-depth interviews with 32 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who became entrepreneurs by starting private companies/businesses in Toronto.  To address how Russian immigrants have established businesses in Toronto, I will examine how social capital, financial capital, human capital, and home country experience, specifically experience in the transitional economy have affected Russian entrepreneurs at each stage of business development in Toronto. I approach these four factors through the two following critical lenses: ethnic and class dimensions of entrepreneurship and transnationalism. I use the central postulates of each of the two approaches to determine how these major factors influenced and shaped business practice and success in Toronto for the two cohorts of Soviet immigrants.