Awards

• Short-listed for 2023 Heritage Toronto Book Award Awarded by Heritage Toronto 2023 (Canada)

Overview

Renowned author Franca Iacovetta provides a new perspective on multiculturalism by examining the hopes and challenges of women activists associated with the Toronto International Institute. For almost two decades before Canada officially adopted multiculturalism in 1971, a large network of women and their allies in Toronto were promoting pluralism as a city- and nation-building project. Before Official Multiculturalism assesses women as liberal pluralist advocates and activists, critically examining the key roles they played as community organizers, frontline social workers, and promoters of ethnic festivals. The book explores women's community-based activism in support of a liberal pluralist vision of multiculturalism thorough an analysis of the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto, a postwar agency that sought to integrate newcomers into the mainstream and promote cultural diversity. Drawing on the rich records of the institute, as well as the massive International Institutes collection in Minnesota, the book situates Toronto within its Canadian and North American contexts and addresses the flawed mandate to integrate immigrants and refugees into an increasingly diverse city. Franca Iacovetta investigates the contradictions between the activists' desire to celebrate and build ethnic diversity on one hand, and their project of Canadian nation-building on the other. Drawing lessons from the history of the Toronto International Institute, Before Official Multiculturalism engages with national and international debates to provide a critical analysis of women's pluralism in Canada.

Full Product Details

Author:   Franca Iacovetta
Publisher:   University of Toronto Press
Imprint:   University of Toronto Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.90cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.750kg
ISBN:  

9781487545635

ISBN 10:   1487545630
Pages:   448
Publication Date:   14 November 2022
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Tertiary & Higher Education ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations Part One: Introduction 1. The Case Study 2. The Scholarship Part Two: Narrative, Subjectivities, and Affect in the Multicultural Social Welfare Encounter 3. Toronto Counsellors and International Institute Social Work Theory and Practice 4. Professionals, Narrative, and Gendered Middle-Class Subjectivities    5. Marital Conflict, Emotions, and “De-culturalizing” Violence 6. Generational Conflict: Intimacy, Money, and “Mini-Skirt” Feminism Part Three: Community-Building Experiments, Integration Projects, and Collective Belonging 7. Making Multicultural Community at the Institute 8. Community Projects for Rural Villagers: Health and Occupational Training   9. Food as Charity, Community-Building, and Cosmopolitanism on a Budget Part Four: Ethnic Folk Cultures and Modern Multicultural Mandates 10. Immigrant Gifts, Pluralist Spectacles, and Staging the Modern City and Nation 11. Handicrafts, High Art, and Human Rights: Cultural Guardianship and Internationalism Conclusion Appendices  Notes Index

Reviews

"""Combining painstaking archival research with sharp analysis, Franca Iacovetta's Before Official Multiculturalism offers us an important account of English Canada's particular version of multiculturalism. Studying the work of women associated with Toronto's International Institute in the 1950s and 60s, Iacovetta's book offers us new ways of thinking about the possibilities, and perhaps more importantly, the enduring limitations of liberal, plural multiculturalism, both then and now."" - Adele Perry, Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba ""Fresh insights into Canada's fifty-year dialogue about multiculturalism abound in this history of Toronto's International Institute. Iacovetta embeds the Institute's immigrant social services and public celebrations of cultural pluralism in a history that highlights interclass, gender, and race relations within local dynamics that foreshadowed the strengths and weaknesses of federal policy."" - Donna Gabaccia, Professor Emerita of History, University of Toronto ""Iacovetta creatively uncovers the story of one organization led primarily by women, which serves as a prototype for how the era understood and developed the pluralism it was experiencing. The book has a celebratory tone even as it has a critical eye on the form and exclusions that women's pluralism of the period undertook. As such there is much to learn from this history for researchers and advocates working on diversity and inclusion issues in Toronto today."" - Joe Mihevc, Adjunct Professor, York University, and former Toronto City Councillor ""Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study of Toronto's International Institute offers a much needed and explicitly gendered intervention into our understandings of mid-century migrant settlement efforts. Emphasizing women's engagement at and with the Institute, Iacovetta deftly untangles the potential and paradoxes of white settler-based liberal cultural pluralism and efforts at multiculturalism before it was made 'official' in Canada."" - Rhonda L. Hinther, Professor of History, Brandon University ""This magnificent work makes it clear why Franca Iacovetta is one of the leading scholars of gender, labour and migration history in Canada. In a finely-tuned analysis, Iacovetta explores the double-edged nature of pluralism at the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto from 1956-1974. Before Official Multiculturalism offers critical insights that help us better understand the significance of ongoing contestations over culture, community, and belonging, in the present."" - Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor of History, Carleton University"

Fresh insights into Canada's fifty-year dialogue about multiculturalism abound in this history of Toronto's International Institute. Iacovetta embeds the Institute's immigrant social services and public celebrations of cultural pluralism in a history that highlights interclass, gender, and race relations within local dynamics that foreshadowed the strengths and weaknesses of federal policy. - Donna Gabaccia, Professor Emerita of History, University of Toronto Iacovetta creatively uncovers the story of one organization led primarily by women, which serves as a prototype for how the era understood and developed the pluralism it was experiencing. The book has a celebratory tone even as it has a critical eye on the form and exclusions that women's pluralism of the period undertook. As such there is much to learn from this history for researchers and advocates working on diversity and inclusion issues in Toronto today. - Joe Mihevc, Adjunct Professor, York University, and former Toronto City Councillor Combining painstaking archival research with sharp analysis, Franca Iacovetta's Before Official Multiculturalism offers us an important account of English Canada's particular version of multiculturalism. Studying the work of women associated with Toronto's International Institute in the 1950s and 60s, Iacovetta's book offers us new ways of thinking about the possibilities, and perhaps more importantly, the enduring limitations of liberal, plural multiculturalism, both then and now. - Adele Perry, Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study of Toronto's International Institute offers a much needed and explicitly gendered intervention into our understandings of mid-century migrant settlement efforts. Emphasizing women's engagement at and with the Institute, Iacovetta deftly untangles the potential and paradoxes of white settler-based liberal cultural pluralism and efforts at multiculturalism before it was made 'official' in Canada. - Rhonda L. Hinther, Professor of History, Brandon University This magnificent work makes it clear why Franca Iacovetta is one of the leading scholars of gender, labour and migration history in Canada. In a finely-tuned analysis, Iacovetta explores the double-edged nature of pluralism at the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto from 1956-1974. Before Official Multiculturalism offers critical insights that help us better understand the significance of ongoing contestations over culture, community, and belonging, in the present. - Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor of History, Carleton University

"""Combining painstaking archival research with sharp analysis, Franca Iacovetta's Before Official Multiculturalism offers us an important account of English Canada's particular version of multiculturalism. Studying the work of women associated with Toronto's International Institute in the 1950s and 60s, Iacovetta's book offers us new ways of thinking about the possibilities, and perhaps more importantly, the enduring limitations of liberal, plural multiculturalism, both then and now.""--Adele Perry, Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba ""Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study of Toronto's International Institute offers a much needed and explicitly gendered intervention into our understandings of mid-century migrant settlement efforts. Emphasizing women's engagement at and with the Institute, Iacovetta deftly untangles the potential and paradoxes of white settler-based liberal cultural pluralism and efforts at multiculturalism before it was made 'official' in Canada.""--Rhonda L. Hinther, Professor of History, Brandon University ""This magnificent work makes it clear why Franca Iacovetta is one of the leading scholars of gender, labour and migration history in Canada. In a finely-tuned analysis, Iacovetta explores the double-edged nature of pluralism at the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto from 1956-1974. Before Official Multiculturalism offers critical insights that help us better understand the significance of ongoing contestations over culture, community, and belonging, in the present.""--Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor of History, Carleton University ""Fresh insights into Canada's fifty-year dialogue about multiculturalism abound in this history of Toronto's International Institute. Iacovetta embeds the Institute's immigrant social services and public celebrations of cultural pluralism in a history that highlights interclass, gender, and race relations within local dynamics that foreshadowed the strengths and weaknesses of federal policy.""--Donna Gabaccia, Professor Emerita of History, University of Toronto ""Iacovetta creatively uncovers the story of one organization led primarily by women, which serves as a prototype for how the era understood and developed the pluralism it was experiencing. The book has a celebratory tone even as it has a critical eye on the form and exclusions that women's pluralism of the period undertook. As such there is much to learn from this history for researchers and advocates working on diversity and inclusion issues in Toronto today.""--Joe Mihevc, Adjunct Professor, York University, and former Toronto City Councillor"

Combining painstaking archival research with sharp analysis, Franca Iacovetta's Before Official Multiculturalism offers us an important account of English Canada's particular version of multiculturalism. Studying the work of women associated with Toronto's International Institute in the 1950s and 60s, Iacovetta's book offers us new ways of thinking about the possibilities, and perhaps more importantly, the enduring limitations of liberal, plural multiculturalism, both then and now. -- Adele Perry, Professor of History and Women's and Gender Studies and Director of the Centre for Human Rights Research, University of Manitoba Meticulously researched and accessibly written, this study of Toronto's International Institute offers a much needed and explicitly gendered intervention into our understandings of mid-century migrant settlement efforts. Emphasizing women's engagement at and with the Institute, Iacovetta deftly untangles the potential and paradoxes of white settler-based liberal cultural pluralism and efforts at multiculturalism before it was made 'official' in Canada. -- Rhonda L. Hinther, Professor of History, Brandon University This magnificent work makes it clear why Franca Iacovetta is one of the leading scholars of gender, labour and migration history in Canada. In a finely-tuned analysis, Iacovetta explores the double-edged nature of pluralism at the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto from 1956-1974. Before Official Multiculturalism offers critical insights that help us better understand the significance of ongoing contestations over culture, community, and belonging, in the present. -- Laura Madokoro, Associate Professor of History, Carleton University

Author Information

Franca Iacovetta is a professor emerita of history at the University of Toronto.

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