Dr. Jamie Lawson

Dr. Jamie Lawson
Position
Associate Professor
Political Science
Contact
Office: DTB A346
250-721-7496
Credentials

PhD (2001) (York)

Area of expertise

Canadian politics, political economy, environmental politics

Spring term 2023 office hours by appointment

James (Jamie) Lawson received his BA from Trent University and his MA from Dalhousie University. Before beginning his MA, he served as a Parliamentary Intern in Ottawa. His PhD is from York University (Toronto). From 2000-02, he held a research position on forest certification programmes at Auburn University’s School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences at Auburn, Alabama.

Since 2002, he has taught at Memorial University of Newfoundland (St. John’s) and at the University of Victoria, where he is now an Associate Professor.

His research interests have centred on the political economy and ecology of contemporary forest politics and conflict, and on the application of theories of social space and time to the understanding of natural resource policy and politics.

His current research interests include policy reform in the area of First Nations’ economic and decision-making rights in the forest (including ‘aboriginal forest tenures’ and resource governance); workplace health and safety for fallers and allied occupations in the forest industry; and the re-theorization of long-distance trade in natural resources (variously understood in terms of staples or global commodity chains).

Other interests include the politics of forest certification programmes and other instances of non-state governance; the use of critical geography and the historical method in politics and political economy; Canadian public policy; federalism and interest intermediation.

Dr. Lawson teaches courses on Canadian government, environmental policy, and Canadian political economy.

  • Canadian politics and political economy
  • Environmental and natural-resource politics
  • The historical geography of resource policy conflict

Dr. Lawson teaches courses on Canadian politics and environmental politics.

Teaching 2022-23

Fall 2022:

Spring 2023:

Courses taught:
  • POLI 201: Canadian Institutions of Government
  • POLI 233: Contemporary Political Problems
  • POLI 306: Introduction to Marxism
  • POLI 357: Canadian Environmental Policy 
  • POLI 365: BC Political Economy
  • POLI 366: Canadian Political Economy
  • POLI 458/533: Topics in Environmental Politics
  • POLI 516/616: Graduate Field Seminar in Canadian Politics

Peer-reviewed articles:

  • Lawson, James. "Canada as Churkendoose: A Response to Paul Kellogg, Escape from the Staple Trap" Socialist Studies/Études socialistes 12.1 (Spring): 147-154
  • Lawson, James. "Tendential Autonomy and Conflict Containment in Non-State Governance Mechanisms: An Example from a Forest Certification Program," Law and Policy Vol. 33, Part 3: 391-426. 2011.
  • Lawson, James. "Chronotope, Story, and Historical Geography: Mikhail Bakhtin and the Space-Time of Narratives," Antipode Vol. 43, Part 2: 384-412., 2011.
  • Lawson, James "'Everywhere in chains': Work, commodity chain analysis, and the subversion of accountability," Work Organisation, Labour, and Globalisation Vol. 5, Part 1 (Summer 2011): 40-57. 2011.
  • Lawson, James. "Explaining Workplace Injuries among BC Loggers: Cultures of Risk and Desperation," BC Studies Vol. 164 (2009/10): 51-74, 2010
  • Lawson, James. "Power, Political Economy, and Supply Chains: Staples as Media of Power," International Journal of Green Economics Vol. 3, Part 1 (2009): 28-47, 2009.
  • Lawson, James and Feng Xu. "Emergency Health Policy and SARS in Canada and China: A Foucauldian Approach," Governance Vol 20 Part 2 (April), pp. 209-232. (Equal share with Xu) 2007.
  • Cashore, Benjamin, Graeme Auld, James Lawson, Deanna Newsom. "The Future of Non-State Authority on Canadian Staples Industries: Assessing the Emergence of Forest Certification," Policy and Society Vol. 26 Part 1: 71-92. (Contribution: primary contributor to Maritime case study, share in re-editing.)
    (Reprinted in Howlett, Michael and Keith Brownsey. Canada's Resource Economy in Transition: The Past, Present, and Future of Canadian Staples Industries. Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2008.) 2007.
  • Cashore, Benjamin and James Lawson. "Comparing Forest Certification Experiences in the US Northeast and the Canadian Maritimes." Orono, MA: CAPP [Canadian-American Public Policy, University of Maine (Orono)], 2003.
  • "Ecological Imperialism in the Economy and Ecology of the New Zealand Maori, 1769-1840." International Insights 6.2 (1990): pp. 55-70.

Peer-reviewed contributions to edited books:

  • Lawson, James and Benjamin W. Cashore. "Firm Choices on Sustainable Forestry Forest Certification: The Case of JD Irving, Ltd," Forest Policy for Private Forestry: Global and Regional Challenges, L. Teeter, B. Cashore, and D. Zhang, eds. Wallingford, UK: CABI Publishing, 2003.
  • Lawson, Jamie. "Space, Strategy, and Surprise: Thinking about Temagami Ten Years after the Blockades," Blockades and Resistance: Studies in Actions of Peace and the Temagami Blockades of 1988-89, Bruce W. Hodgins, Ute Lischke, David T. McNab, eds. Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier Press, 2003.
  • Lawson, James, Marcelo Levi, L. Anders Sandberg. "'Perpetual Revenues and the Delights of the Primitive': Change, Continuity, and Forest Policy Regimes in Ontario," Canadian Forest Policy: Adapting to Change, Michael Howlett, ed. Toronto: UofT Press, 2001.
  • "Nastawgan or Not? First Nations Land Management in Temagami and Algonquin Park," Sustainability--The Challenge: People, Power, and the Environment, L. Anders Sandberg, Sverker Sörlin, eds. Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1998. pp. 189-201.

Chapters in peer-reviewed books:

  • Lawson, James. "Colonialism, Indigenous Struggles, and the Ontario State" Divided Province: Ontario Politics in an Age of Neoliberalism. 420-460. (Montréal/Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2019)
  • Lawson, James. "The Coexistence of Umran and the Improvement Epic of Settler Societies," Towards the Dignity of Difference: Neither "End of History" nor "Clash of Civilisations", Mojtaba Mahdavi and Andrew Knight, eds. 513-540. Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate, 2012.

Other articles and contributions to edited books:

  • Lawson, Jamie. “Review: William J. Buxton, Michael R. Cheney, and Paul Heyer, eds. Harold Innis Reflects: Memoir and WWI Writings/ Correspondence. Lanham, md: Rowman & Littlefield, 2016.” Canadian Historical Review 98.4 (December 2017): 818-819.
  • Opinion article on Enbridge Northern Gateway published as "A Risky Game of Economic Chicken" Vancouver Sun July 30, 2012. (Linked to Calgary Herald website and yahoo.ca) http://www.vancouversun.com/business/risky+game+economic+chicken/7009944/story.html
  • "Kashechewan and the Legacy of Colonialism," Relay (Jan/Feb 2006): 6-8. Accessible at: http://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay09.pdf Last accessed June 30, 2006.
  • Lawson, James, Benjamin Cashore. "Research Note: The Application of the Theory of Social Autopoiesis to the Problem of Non-State Sanctioned, Market-Driven (NSMD) Governance" Auburn University Forest Policy Center, Internal Working Paper Series #120, June 2001. Accessible at: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/forestry_wildlife/forest_policy_ctr/ Last accessed June 30, 2006.
  • "Nunavut." Canadian Annual Review, 1999. Toronto: UofT Press, 2005.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1998. Toronto: UofT Press, 2005.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1997. Toronto: UofT Press, 2003.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1996. Toronto: UofT Press, 2002.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1995. Toronto: UofT Press, 2001.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1994. Toronto: UofT Press, 2000.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1993. Toronto: UofT Press, 1999.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1992. Toronto: UofT Press, 1999.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1991. Toronto: UofT Press, 1998.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1990. Toronto: UofT Press, 1997.
  • "The Yukon and Northwest Territories," Canadian Annual Review, 1989. Toronto: UofT Press, 1995.
  • "The Canada-US Softwood Lumber Dispute: A Study of US Trade Law," Canada and the Global Political Economy. Athabaska: Athabaska University Library. (This article also appeared in an edited anthology Canada and the Global Economy, Volume 2. Daniel Drache, ed. Athabaska: Athabaska University Press, 1994.).

Reports:

  • Navarro, Pablo, Barbara Neis, James Lawson, Joshua Pike. Statistical report on forestry and forestry-related WHSCC claims, 1990-2002. Newfoundland and Labrador Forestry Occupational Health and Safety Project, Coasts under Stress, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 2004.

Conference papers:

  • "Commodity Chain Governance, Accountability, and Raw Material Exports: The Political Economy of Western Canadian Fossil-Fuel Staples" Paper Presented at Society for Socialist Studies Annual General Meeting, Victoria, June 5 2014.
  • "Boundaries and Chains: Canadian Mines in the Global South" Paper Presented at Society for Socialist Studies Annual General Meeting, Brock University, May 27-30, 2014.
  • "Bakhtin's chronotope and narrating contested truths about the land: A method for opening the settler imaginary to indigenous truth claims" Paper Presented at the American Society for Literature and the Environment (ASLE), Juneau, Alaska, June 14-16, 2012.
  • "The Western Canadian bitumen chain, accountability, and the problem of democracy" Paper Presented at HiiL Conference Workshop on the Legitimacy of Private Transnational Governance by Contract, Victoria, British Columbia, September 6-7, 2012.
  • "Accountability, Legitimacy, and Democracy along Energy Commodity Chains" Paper presented at the Workshop on Energy and Territoriality in Europe and North America, Transatlantic Forum 2011, CCGES, York University, Toronto, ON, January 28-29, 2011.
  • "Accountability, Legitimacy, and Democracy along Energy Commodity Chains: Paper presented at the Workshop on Energy and Territoriality in Europe and North America, Transatlantic Forum 2011, CCGES, York University, Toronto, ON, January 28-29, 2011.
  • "Commodity Chains, Raw Material Exports, and Democracy" Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Montreal, QC, March 16, 2011.
  • :The Ottawa Valley Shiners’ Wars as Threshold Encounters: Bakhtin’s Chronotope in Analyzing Forest Conflicts and Shifting Identities in Colonial Canada" Paper presented at the American Society for Environmental History, Phoenix, AZ, April 15, 2011.
  • "‘Accountability Chains’: The Re-Organization of Production and Exchange and the Subversion of Accountability". Paper Presented at the 5th Annual Critical Geographies Mini-Conference, Victoria, BC, October 29-30, 2010.
  • "Aboriginal Dispossession in the Emergence of a Capitalist Resource Extractive Region: The Ottawa Valley, 1800-1830s" Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association. Carleton University. Ottawa, ON. May 27-9, 2009.
  • "Parks, Preserves, and Primary Accumulation:  A Foundational Experience of Conservation as Dispossession in the Upper Ottawa Valley, Canada". Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association, Fairmont Empress Hotel, Victoria, BC, October 15, 2009
  • "The Coexistence of ‘Umran’ and the Improvement Epic of Settler Societies” Paper presented at the Conference, "Towards 'the Dignity of Difference': Neither 'the Clash of Civilizations' nor 'the End of History'", Edmonton, AB, October 2-4, 2009.
  • "'Accountability Chains':  The Re-Organization of Production and Exchange Linkages and the subversion of Accountability" Paper presented at the annual general meeting of the Society for Socialist Studies, Vancouver BC, June 2008.
  • "Explaining Workplace Injuries among 'Union-Men': Cultures of Risk vs. Cultures of Desperation among West Coast Loggers" Paper presented at the annual general meeting of Society for Socialist Studies, Vancouver BC, June 2008  
  • Lawson, James. "What Time Can Tell: The Kaska, the Carrier-Sekani, Newcomers and Forest Relations in Northern British Columbia." Paper presented at the Sustainable Forest Management (SFM) Network Conference, Edmonton, AB, June 20-22, 2006.
  • Pike, Joshua, Jeremy Rickards, and Jamie Lawson, "Occupational Health and Safety in Newfoundland Logging Operations – Outcomes from a Pilot Study" Paper presented at Research On Workplace Health And Safety: From The Core To The Margins, SafetyNet, St. John’s, NL, June 7-9, 2006.
  • "Power, Political Economy, and Supply Chains: Staples as Media of Power" Paper Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, June 2-5, 2005. Accessible at: http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2005/Lawson.pdf Last accessed August 14, 2006.
  • "Pressurized Timber: The Policy and Political Economy of Stress as an Occupational Health and Safety Issue for Woodsworkers in the Boreal Forest." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 3-5, 2004. Available at http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2004/Lawson.pdf Last accessed August 14, 2006.
  • "Tendential Autonomy in Global Mechanisms of Environmental Governance: The Self-Containment of Stakeholder Conflict in Forest Certification Programmes" Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Montréal, Québec, March 17-20, 2004.
  • Lawson, James and Feng Xu. The Emergence and Control of a “SARS Identity": The Socio-Political Geography of Emergency Health Policy in Global Cities Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the Atlantic Provinces Political Studies Association, St. John's, NL, September 26-8, 2003.
  • "Aboriginal Dispossession and the Transformation of Social Space in the Formation of Resource Rent Régimes: Cases Leading to the Ottawa Valley Timber Industry" Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Environmental History, Providence, RI, March 26-30, 2003.
  • Lawson, James and Benjamin Cashore. "Forest Certification Experiences in the US Northeast and the Canadian Maritimes: A Comparative Institutional Study." Paper presented to the Association of Canadian Studies in the United States Annual Conference. San Antonio, Texas, USA. November 14-18, 2001.
  • "Emergent Institutional Autonomy in a 'Non-State Sanctioned, Market Driven' Forest Certification Program: The Case of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in the Canadian Maritimes." Paper presented to the Annual Meeting of the Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association. Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. October 12-14, 2001.
  • Cashore, Benjamin, Graeme Auld, Jamie Lawson, Deanna Newsom, "Political Consumerism, Private Regulations, and Legitimacy: Toward a Theory of How Non-State Market Driven (NSMD) Governance Systems Obtain and Maintain Rule-Making Authority." Paper presented to the International Seminar on Political Consumerism. City University, Stockholm and Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. May 31 – June 3, 2001.
  • Cashore, Benjamin, Graeme Auld, Jamie Lawson, Deanna Newsom. "Forest Certification (Eco-labelling) Programs and their Policy-Making Authority: Explaining Divergence Among North American and European Case Studies." Paper presented to the International Seminar on Political Consumerism. City University, Stockholm and Department of Political Science, Stockholm University. May 31 – June 3, 2001.
  • Lawson, James, Benjamin Cashore. "Forest Certification Experiences in the US Northeast and the Canadian Maritimes: A Comparative Institutional Study" Paper presented to the First International Conference on Private Forestry in the 21st Century, Global Initiatives and Public Policies. Atlanta, GA. March 25-7, 2001.
  • "Space, Strategy, and Surprise: Thinking about Temagami Ten Years after the Blockades." Paper presented at the Temagami Blockades Conference. Wanapitei Wilderness Centre, Lake Temagami, ON, Canada. August 26, 1999.
  • "A Park and a People, a Forest, a Farmer: A History of Struggles over Algonquin Park." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association. Sherbrooke, PQ, Canada. June 6-8, 1999.
  • "Civilizations, Forms of Struggle, and Aboriginal/Settler Relations in Canada: Towards a Conceptual Language." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the ISA Annual Convention. Washington, DC. 16-20 February 1999.
  • "Using Gramsci in the Study of Local Conflict in Forest Management." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association. St. John's, NL, Canada. June 8-10, 1997.
  • "First Nations, Resource Management and Strategy in Central Ontario: Temagami and Algonquin Park." Paper prepared for the Third Swedish-Canadian Academic Foundation Conference, Environmental Issues in Canada and Sweden: The Challenge of Sustainability. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. May 15-17, 1996.
  • "Ibn Khaldûn and Dynastic Rise and Fall: The Concepts of `umran badawi and `umran hadari and the Making of Canadian Resource History". Paper presented at the York-MUNS Network Symposium, Social Forces and Post-Westphalian Politics. York University, Toronto, ON, Canada. May 4-5, 1995.
  • "Triumph of the Mill: The Disruption of US Trade Law and 'Socred Fordism' in the Canada-US Softwood Lumber Dispute." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association. Ottawa, ON, Canada. June 8, 1993.

Other papers and reports:

  • "Kashechewan and the Legacy of Colonialism" Relay (Jan/Feb 2006): 6-8. Accessible at: http://www.socialistproject.ca/relay/relay09.pdf
  • "Power, Political Economy, and Supply Chains: Staples as Media of Power" Paper presented at the 2005 CPSA Annual General Meeting, Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 2-4, 2005. Accessible at: http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2005/Lawson.pdf
  • "Pressurized Timber: The Policy and Political Economy of Stress as an Occupational Health and Safety Issue for Woodsworkers in the Boreal Forest." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, June 3-5, 2004. Available at http://www.cpsa-acsp.ca/papers-2004/Lawson.pdf
  • Lawson, James, Benjamin Cashore. "Research Note: The Application of the Theory of Social Autopoiesis to the Problem of Non-State Sanctioned, Market-Driven (NSMD) Governance." Auburn University Forest Policy Center, Internal Working Paper Series #120, June 2001. Accessible at: http://www.auburn.edu/academic/forestry_wildlife/forest_policy_ctr/

Panel presentations: