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Munk Series on Global Affairs
Making a Global City

Making a Global City

How One Toronto School Embraced Diversity

by Robert C. Vipond

Published by: University of Toronto Press

Series: Munk Series on Global Affairs

Imprint: University of Toronto Press

280 Pages, 152.00 × 229.00 × 25.00 mm, 12 figures

Hardcover
9781442631953
Published: March 2017

£28.99

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Contents
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Half of Toronto’s population is born outside of Canada and over 140 languages are spoken on the city's streets and in its homes. How to build community amidst such diversity is one of the global challenges that Canada – and many other western nations – has to face head on.

Making a Global City critically examines the themes of diversity and community in a single primary school, the Clinton Street Public School in Toronto, between 1920 and 1990. From the swift and seismic shift from a Jewish to southern European demographic in the 1950s to the gradual globalized community starting in the 1970s, Vipond eloquently and clearly highlights the challenges posed by multicultural citizenship in a city that was dominated by Anglo-Protestants. Contrary to recent well-documented anti-immigrant rhetoric in the media, Making a Global City celebrates one of the world’s most multicultural cities while stressing the fact that public schools are a vital tool in integrating and accepting immigrants and children in liberal democracies.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: Jewish Clinton 1920-1952: "Well To The Fore Among Toronto Schools"

Chapter 3: At Clinton You’re a Somebody: Religion and the Idea of Citizenship

Chapter 4: European Clinton, 1950-1965: "Ruth Beside the Alien Corn"

Chapter 5: European Clinton, 1965-1975: From Mungie Cakes to Multiculturalism

Chapter 6: Global Clinton, 1975-1990: "We Have Children From Lots of Countries"

Chapter 7: Global Clinton and Heritage Languages

Chapter 8: Conclusion: Remembering the Answers

Robert C. Vipond is a professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

‘This highly accessible sociological study serves as a thoughtful meditation on the economic, social, political, and cultural changes experienced in Canada over the past century, as reflected in the fascinating history of a landmark downtown Toronto public school.’
- Publishers Weekly Online Review August 2017
‘This is an eminently readable and stimulating contribution to the literature on citizenship, as well as to the history of schooling in Canada… The book, with its solidly grounded historical base, adds greatly to that literature.’
- W.P.J. Miller (Canadian Historical Review vol 99:01:2018)
"Vipond writes with sophistication, appreciation, and affection of all that a neighbourhood public school is called upon to do…The result is a most thoughtful, engaging school history – full of empirical, analytical, and theoretical insight into how a school should be in a diverse, divided city and world."
- Myer Siemiatycki (Historical Studies in Education Review Vol 30:1:2018)
"Making a Global City is a good read that comes at an important time…Vipond persuasively shows how Canadians of all stripes have come together over decades to adapt, adjust, integrate and challenge diversity in meaningful and peaceful ways. It is a history that gives hope for the future."
- Melanie Adrian (Canadian Journal of Political Science Vol 51:2 2018)
"Vipond writes with sophistication, appreciation, and affection of all that a neighbourhood public school is called upon to do."
- Myer Siemiatycki (Historical Studies in Education)