What's in this site:
|
Current research
For the past 20 years, I have been studying the family in all its varied forms. How are Canadian families today different from each other, from families of the past, and from families around the world? How does family life contribute to happiness? How has the changing role of women in our society affected the family, and how has the changing family affected women? These are some of the questions I have considered. More recently I have been interested in the connections between family life and health and caregiving.
Many of my books have come out of funded research or teaching activities. From research for Health Canada’s Demographic Review came Lives of their Own, a book about how women are reorganizing and individualizing their lives; The Futures of the Family, a look into foreseeable changes in family life; and Next of Kin, a reader on family changes due to industrialization and urbanization. A textbook on the family, Close Relations, (co-authored with Susan McDaniel, University of Alberta) was published in the summer of 1999. A brief version of this book, aimed at community college students, came out a year later; a second edition of Close Relations came out in 2003, and a 3rd edition will be out in 2007.
My interest in social problems, combined with an interest in the major sociological paradigms, led me to write a book on deviance and control which was published in 2006. Like an earlier book on social problems (Tepperman and Curtis, 2004), this book looked at the health consequences of problematic behaviour. Along similar lines, I have combined my interest in families with a new interest in problem or compulsive gambling. In this connection, I have completed several major research reports on the topic for the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, and I am currently studying the ways partners of compulsive gamblers attempt to regulate the gambling behaviour that is often causing their families great difficulty.
 Research papers
"The ebb and flow of punitiveness in Canadian Society". Proceedings of the Canadian Society for Legal History, Quebec City, 2-4 June, 1977.
"Did Canada have a future? Sorokin's prophesies re-examined". The Eleventh Sorokin Lecture, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, 23 January, 1980.
"Malthus and a contemporary dilemma: the social limits to growth". Presented at the International Congress of Historical Demography, Paris, 27-30 May, 1980.
"The persistence of dynasties in Ontario". Presented at the Forty-First Annual Meeting of the Society of Applied Anthropology, 'Rethinking Applied Anthropology', Edinburgh, 12-17 April, 1981.
"Old ways, new machines". Presented at the Xth World Conference of the World Futures Studies Federation, Beijing, China, September 3-8, 1988.
"Nine images of Canada". Presented at the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) Conference, San Francisco, November 17-20, 1989.
"Satisfying information". Presented at the World Futures Studies Federation Pacific-Basin Conference, Nagoya, Japan, November 20-23, 1989. Also, symposium panelist, "Designing a global information society of the 21st century," Telepia Hall, Nagoya (Japan), November 23, 1989.
"Normal accidents and fatal remedies: Lessons of applied sociology for future planning." Presented at the Xlth World Conference of the World Futures Studies Federation, Budapest (Hungary), May 27-31, 1990.
"The futures of the family." Proceedings of the Conference on the Peopling of the Americas, International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Vera Cruz (Mexico), May 18-23, 1992.
"Doing better with less: Structures of useful information," Presented at the International Conference on Socio-cultural and Policy Dimensions of Health Care, Singapore, November 20-22, 1999. With Bernie Munich.
"Flows in time: The study of social structure by modelling flows." Presented at Making Time, Marking Time, the British Sociological Association Annual Conference, York, England, 17-20 April, 2000.
“Fuzzy issues in the future of healthcare: What futures studies can teach us,” Presented at the New Futures International Conference, Taiwan, 5-7 November, 2000
“What time-use data can tell about caregiving to adults,” Presented at the Workshop on The Residential Context of Health, in the Conference of the European Network for Housing Research, Gavle, Sweden, June 26-30, 2000. With William Michelson
“Close relations at a distance,” Presented at the International Conference "Universal Values and the Future of Society," International Sociological Association, Sao Paolo, September 17-19, 2001.
"To tell or not to tell: Disclosure in an AIDS/HIV seropositive population," To be presented at Symposium #3 "Sexuality, family and forms of intimacy: Cross-cultural meanings in the context of HIV/AIDS", World Congress of the International Sociological Association, Brisbane Australia, July, 2002. With Liviana Calzavara and Wendy Medved.
“At home with gambling,” Presented at the Annual Discovery Conference of the Responsible Gambling Council (Ontario), Niagara Falls, April 21-24, 2002. With David Korn and Marion Lynn.
“The intergenerational transmission of family gambling cultures,” Presented at the conference on "The Intergenerational Relations in Families Life Course," Taipei, Taiwan, March 12-14, 2003. This conference co-sponsored by the Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan and the Committee on Family Research (RC06), International Sociological Association (CFR).
Research reports
The Modernization of Crime, with Victoria Grabb and Carol Wilton. Prepared for the Solicitor General (Canada), 1976.
A Background Study of Young Offenders, with John Gandy and H.G. Morrison. Prepared for the Ministry of Community and Social Services (Ontario), 1982.
Activities Outside Ontario Aimed at Technology Development in the Social Services. Prepared for the Ministry of Community and Social Services (Ontario), 1984.
Environmental Scan, with Edward Harvey, A comprehensive report on major Canadian trends, 1985-1990, prepared for IBM (Canada), 1986.
The Individualization of Adult Women's Lives, with Charles Jones. A report on trends in women's labour force participation, part of the Demographic Review, prepared for Health and Welfare (Canada), 1988.
The Future(s) of the Family, with Charles Jones. A report on trends in family life, part of the Demographic Review, prepared for Health and Welfare (Canada), 1990.
Social Trends in North America, with John Veugelers, Vivian Brachet (Mexico), and Andrew Beveridge (USA). A report on social trends in Canada, the United States and Mexico, prepared for the Commission on Environmental Cooperation, 1996.
Poverty, Social Capital, Parenting and Child Outcomes in Canada, Applied Research Branch, Strategic Policy, Human Resources Development Canada, with Charles Jones, Linn Clark, Joan Grusec, Randle Hart, and Gabriele Plickert, March 2002.
At Home With Gambling, Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre, with David Korn and Marion Lynn, June 2002.
Major Research Grants
|
1972, 1973
|
Project Title: Marriage and Mobility in Mabou.
|
|
Grantor:
|
Canada Council |
|
|
1975
|
Project Title: The Modernization of Crime.
|
|
Grantor:
|
Solicitor General of Canada |
|
1975
|
Project Title: The Circulation of Toronto Elites.
|
|
Grantor:
|
Canada Council |
|
|
1982-87
|
Project Title: Computer Use in the Social Services (with John Gandy)
|
|
Grantor:
|
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada |
|
|
1982-83
|
Seed grant, Human Context of Science and Technology
|
|
|
1983-84
|
Research Grant
|
|
|
1984-87
|
Strategic Grant, Human Context of Science and Technology
|
|
|
1987-88
|
Project Title: Individualization of the female adult life cycle in Canada (with Charles Jones)
|
|
Grantor:
|
Health and Welfare Canada, Review of Demography and its Implications for Economic and Social Policy |
|
|
1988
|
Publication grant for False Alarm.
|
|
Grantor:
|
Social Science Federation of Canada |
|
|
1988-89
|
Project Title: Selected socioeconomic consequences of disability for women in Canada (with E. B. Harvey)
|
|
Grantor:
|
Statistics Canada |
|
|
1989-90
|
Project Title: The future(s) of the family (with Charles Jones)
|
|
Grantor:
|
Health and Welfare Canada, Review of Demography and its Implications for Economic and Social Policy |
|
|
1991
|
Project Title: Broadening the curriculum culturally and geographically
|
|
Grantor:
|
Provost's Fund for Ethno-Cultural Initiatives |
|
|
1997
|
Project Title: Multimedia module on First Nations People
|
|
Grantor:
|
Instructional Initiative Grant, Arts and Sciences |
|
2000
|
Project Title: Styles of kin care: Building a healthy diversity.
|
| Grantor: |
SSHRCC - Society, Culture and the Health of Canadians II |
| Grantor: |
Wellesley Central Hospital Corporation |
|
2001
|
Project Title: At home with gambling (with David Korn. Public Health Sciences)
|
| Grantor: |
Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre |
|
2001
|
Project Title: The impact of neighborhood social capital and family stress on child health and learning outcomes
With Charles Jones (Sociology) and Joan Grusec (Psychology)
|
| Grantor: |
Human Resources and Development Canada, Child Youth and Social Development Studies, Applied Research Branch |
|
2002
|
Project Title: Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (Historical Census) Project. (With Chad Gaffield, P.I. and others)
|
| Grantor: |
Canadian Foundation for Innovation |
|
2002
|
Project Title: Seminal Approaches to the Study of Children’s Trajectories of Individual Outcomes: Potential Lessons for Canada’s National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. (With Charles Jones)
|
| Grantor: |
Human Resources and Development Canada, Child Youth and Social Development Studies, Applied Research Branch |
|
2002
|
Project Title: Gender and Children’s Developmental Trajectories. (With Charles Jones, Patricia Albanese and Ann-Marie Sorenson)
|
| Grantor: |
Human Resources and Development Canada, Child Youth and Social Development Studies, Applied Research Branch |
|
2003
|
Project Title: Ontario Ethnic Gambling Study. (With Jamie Wiebe, Charles Jones, and Agata Falkowski-Ham.)
|
| Grantor: |
Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre |
|
