Karen Foster, Associate Dean Research
Associate Professor; Canada Research Chair in Sustainable Rural Futures for Atlantic Canada
Related information
Email: karen.foster@dal.ca
Phone: 902-494-3130
Mailing Address:
PO Box 15000, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4R2
- Economy, work and development
- Knowledge, science and expertise
- Political economy
- Research methods
- Rural communities
- Social policy
- Social statistics
- Atlantic Canada
Education
- BA Hons, Dalhousie
- MA, University of Waterloo
- PhD, Carleton University
- PDF, York University; Banting PDF, Saint Mary鈥檚 University
Research interests
Dr. Foster is a sociologist whose research and writing spans the sociology of work, rural sociology, political economy, and historical sociology. She has drawn on both qualitative and quantitative methods to study economic issues from a sociological perspective: the history of productivity as a statistic and a concept,听,听, and youth outmigration from rural communities. Her 2017 book,听 (University of Toronto Press), explores how the productivity concept and its statistical representation鈥攁nd the powerful discourses to which it is attached鈥攈ave featured in three Canadian sites: the Dominion Bureau of Statistics; the short-lived 1960s body, the National Productivity Council; and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. The book received an Honourable Mention for the Canadian Sociological Association鈥檚 2017 John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award.
Dr. Foster鈥檚 CRC current research, supported by her CFI-funded聽,聽focuses on the sustainability of rural life in Atlantic Canada, with a particular emphasis on how government policy and everyday life intersect. Her interests in this area聽include import replacement, youth outmigration, occupational succession in rural family businesses, social perceptions of climate change, rural struggles to protect local public services, and housing desires among adults with Autism in rural and urban communities. More details about the research carried out at the Rural Futures Research Centre can be found at . An ongoing side project is the experiences of contract instructors in post-secondary institutions across Canada, for example in a聽聽conducted in partnership with the Canadian Association of University Teachers.
Selected publications
- (2018) Canadian Journal of Sociology 55(1):67-85
- (2018)听.听Annapolis Royal, NS: Centre for Local Prosperity.
- (2017)听.听SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Report.
- 聽(2017)听.听Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
- 听(2013Current Sociology听61(7):931-948.
- 听(2013) 鈥�.鈥澛�British Journal of Sociology聽64(2):195-215.
- with Dale Spencer (2013)聽.鈥澛�International Journal of Drug Policy.