Daniel Drache
Encyclopedia
Daniel Drache is a contemporary scholar in Canadian and international political economy
, globalization studies
, communication studies
, and cultural studies
. He is widely recognized for his highly comparative and interdisciplinary contributions to debates on public policy, particularly on issues relating to globalization, border security, and the impact of new information and communication technologies on political mobilization and citizenship. He is also among the first generation of scholars to critique market fundamentalism
. In Canada, he is also credited with reviving scholarship on the Canadian political economic tradition, and specifically the work of foundational political economist Harold Innis
, within the academy. Drache is currently a Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies
at York University in Toronto, Canada.
, a York University research institute which he previously directed from 1994 to 2003. At York, Prof. Drache is appointed to graduate programs in Political Science, Communication and Culture, and Environmental Studies, where he supervises numerous graduate students.
Drache is also a sought-after lecturer and visiting scholar. For example, in 2003-04 he was a Senior Resident of Massey College
at the University of Toronto, and in 2009, he was the Distinguished Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute Visiting Professor, lecturing at universities in New Delhi, Indore, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai. Drache returned to India from August to December 2010 as a Ford Foundation Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
in New Delhi, where he served as their resident visiting scholar on WTO, trade, and global governance issues.
Born in Toronto in 1941, Drache earned his BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto
in 1963, and his MA in the same field from Queen's University in 1971. Following work as an activist, he was appointed to York University as an Assistant Professor of Political Science in 1974. Four years later, he was tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. From 1988 to 1991, he served as Chair of Political Science, and in 1993, he attained the rank of Full Professor.
. Since 1995, he has edited Routledge’s book series, Studies in Governance and Change in a Global Era, which includes texts on topics such as the impact of globalization, international development, the environment, markets, new citizenship practices, global public health, and information and communication technologies. Some of Drache’s writings have been translated into Spanish, French, and Portuguese, as the select bibliography below attests. Additionally, he has received grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the Canadian International Development Agency
(CIDA), and York University in support of his work.
. It challenges the assumption that globalization was equally beneficial to all countries, a position that was used by some economists to reduce the role of the nation-state as a regulator of markets from what it had been under Keynesianism.
In 1995, Drache co-authored (with Harry Glasbeek) The Changing Workplace, an interdisciplinary analysis of the impact of new technology on work and employment. Their book is an examination of the restructuring of the workplace and the new and complex challenges it poses for organized and non-organized labour.
Additionally, Drache's monograph, Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America (Fernwood Press: 2004), is a study of the effects of post-9/11 US security measures on the management of the Canada-US border. Within, Drache argues that the Canada-US border has become more intrusive or "thicker" post-9/11, and that the seamless border of NAFTA is now a thing of the past. Paradoxically, the border has become more important for Canadians, a country founded on immigation and modern notions of citizenship. Effectively, it has become a priority to protect Canada's national identity at a time of heightened US security concerns.
Finally, in a related work, The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetries of Power (2001), Drache analyzes the reconstitution of the public domain as a sphere of public policy both contested by the market and championed by new citizen practices. He focuses especially on the prospect of an international order requiring governance in the post-Washington Consensus environment, which values institution building rather than the self-regulating market. Overall, the disjunction between the economic side of globalization and its social impact has gradually broken-down, and the public domain has become the public space to defend society from powerful market actors and renew the public interest.
Grounded primarily in the work of Habermas
and Innis
, this text challenges the deterministic assumption of the Frankfurt School
that information-based technologies are captured by powerful elites for their own corporate uses. Instead, Drache argues from the Innisian perspective that “Web 2.0
” and the Internet have transferred power downwards, enabling discursive social networking across the globe to a greater degree.
Because of the number of users who are now online, Drache attributes the rise of micro-activism and user empowerment as a direct result of these activist discursive networks. This text uses political theory framed around “old media” broadcast models to illuminate the potential of new media in an internet age. As a specific case study, Drache offers a theoretical framework to understand Barack Obama’s
victory in the 2008 US Presidential Election by leveraging social media networks.
of capitalist development. According to noted political economist Mel Watkins
, he is partially-credited with the revival of political economy as a field of study and research within Canadian political science, particularly after it had fallen out of fashion in 1974.
Notably, Prof. Drache published The New Era of Global Competition (McGill-Queen’s University Press: 1991), a study of state policy and market power and the new phenomenon of globalization. It also identifies alternative routes for Canadian industry under pressure from global competition. As this text was published before globalization was as widely-recognized and examined as it is today (it was written prior to the publication of the field's first seminal text, Hirst & Thompson's Globalization in Question
from 1996), it can be regarded as one of the first major Canadian analytical examinations of the impact of global capitalism on states and markets.
Drache also edited a new collection of Innis’ own work, published by McGill-Queen’s in 1995 as Staples, Markets and Cultural Change: the Centenary Edition of Harold Innis’ Collected Essays. Drache’s volume presents Innis’ scholarship on political economy, economic geography, communications theory to the public as an integrated whole, and re-introduces his work to a new generation of scholars within the emerging context of globalization.
Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen. (Polity Press, 2008).
Big Picture Realities: Canada and Mexico at the Crossroads, Daniel Drache, ed. (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008).
La Ilusión Continental: Seguridad fronteriza y la búsqueda de una identidad Norteamericana. Translation with new introduction and material. (Siglo XXI, 2007).
L’Illusion continentale: Securité et nord-américanité. (Montreal: Athéna éditions, 2006).
Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America. (Fernwood Publishing, 2004).
The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power, Daniel Drache, ed. (Routledge, 2001).
Health Reform: Public Success, Private Failure, Daniel Drache and Terry Sullivan, eds. (Routledge, 1999).
States Against Markets: The Limits of Globalization, Daniel Drache and Robert Boyer, eds. (Routledge, 1996).
Warm Heart, Cold Country: Fiscal and Social Policy Reform in Canada, Daniel Drache and Andrew Ranachan, eds. (Caledon Institute, 1995).
Staples, Markets and Cultural Change: The Centenary Edition of Harold Innis’ Collected Essays, Daniel Drache, ed. (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995).
Canada and the Global Economy. (University of Athabasca, 1994).
The Changing Workplace: Reshaping Canada’s Industrial Relations System, Daniel Drache and Harry Glasbeek. (James Lorimer, 1992).
Getting On Track: Social Democratic Strategies for Ontario, Daniel Drache and John O’Grady, eds. (McGill-Queen’s, 1992).
Negotiating with a Sovereign Quebec, Daniel Drache and R. Perin, eds. (James Lorimer, 1992).
The New Era of Global Competition: State Policy and Market Power, Daniel Drache and Meric Gertler, eds. (McGill-Queen’s, 1991).
Politique et Régulation Modele de Développement et Trajectoire Canadienne, Daniel Drache et Gérard Boismenu. (Méridien/L’Harmattan, 1990).
The Other Macdonald Report The Consensus on Canada's Future That The Macdonald Commission Left Out, Daniel Drache and Duncan Cameron, eds. (James Lorimer, 1985).
The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy, Daniel Drache and Wallace Clement, eds. (James Lorimer, 1985).
"Debates and Controversies", from the pages of This Magazine, Daniel Drache, ed. (Toronto, 1979).
A Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy, Daniel Drache and Wallace Clement, eds. (James Lorimer, 1978).
Quebec. Only the Beginning. (New Press, 1972).
Political economy
Political economy originally was the term for studying production, buying, and selling, and their relations with law, custom, and government, as well as with the distribution of national income and wealth, including through the budget process. Political economy originated in moral philosophy...
, globalization studies
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
, communication studies
Communication studies
Communication Studies is an academic field that deals with processes of communication, commonly defined as the sharing of symbols over distances in space and time. Hence, communication studies encompasses a wide range of topics and contexts ranging from face-to-face conversation to speeches to mass...
, and cultural studies
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
. He is widely recognized for his highly comparative and interdisciplinary contributions to debates on public policy, particularly on issues relating to globalization, border security, and the impact of new information and communication technologies on political mobilization and citizenship. He is also among the first generation of scholars to critique market fundamentalism
Market fundamentalism
Market fundamentalism is a pejorative term applied to a strong belief in the ability of laissez-faire or free market economic views or policies to solve economic and social problems....
. In Canada, he is also credited with reviving scholarship on the Canadian political economic tradition, and specifically the work of foundational political economist Harold Innis
Harold Innis
Harold Adams Innis was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. The affiliated Innis College at the University of Toronto is named for him...
, within the academy. Drache is currently a Professor of Political Science and Associate Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies
Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies
The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies is a research centre at York University in Toronto, Canada that supports interdisciplinary and discipline-specific research pertinent to Canadianists and Canada's place in the world. Faculty affiliated with the Robarts Centre are concerned with Canadian...
at York University in Toronto, Canada.
Biography
Daniel Drache is currently the Associate Director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian StudiesRobarts Centre for Canadian Studies
The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies is a research centre at York University in Toronto, Canada that supports interdisciplinary and discipline-specific research pertinent to Canadianists and Canada's place in the world. Faculty affiliated with the Robarts Centre are concerned with Canadian...
, a York University research institute which he previously directed from 1994 to 2003. At York, Prof. Drache is appointed to graduate programs in Political Science, Communication and Culture, and Environmental Studies, where he supervises numerous graduate students.
Drache is also a sought-after lecturer and visiting scholar. For example, in 2003-04 he was a Senior Resident of Massey College
Massey College
Massey College is a postgraduate residential college at the University of Toronto, established in 1963 with an endowment by the Massey Foundation. Similar to All Souls College, Oxford, members of Massey College are nominated from the university community, and are elected by and as fellows of the...
at the University of Toronto, and in 2009, he was the Distinguished Shastri-Indo Canadian Institute Visiting Professor, lecturing at universities in New Delhi, Indore, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Chennai. Drache returned to India from August to December 2010 as a Ford Foundation Visiting Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University
Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...
in New Delhi, where he served as their resident visiting scholar on WTO, trade, and global governance issues.
Born in Toronto in 1941, Drache earned his BA in Political Science from the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
in 1963, and his MA in the same field from Queen's University in 1971. Following work as an activist, he was appointed to York University as an Assistant Professor of Political Science in 1974. Four years later, he was tenured and promoted to the rank of Associate Professor. From 1988 to 1991, he served as Chair of Political Science, and in 1993, he attained the rank of Full Professor.
Research and Publications
Prof. Drache's diverse research constitutes a critical body of interdisciplinary work reflecting his expertise in international political economyInternational political economy
International political economy , also known as global political economy, is an academic discipline within the social sciences that analyzes international relations in combination with political economy. As an interdisciplinary field it draws on many distinct academic schools, most notably ...
. Since 1995, he has edited Routledge’s book series, Studies in Governance and Change in a Global Era, which includes texts on topics such as the impact of globalization, international development, the environment, markets, new citizenship practices, global public health, and information and communication technologies. Some of Drache’s writings have been translated into Spanish, French, and Portuguese, as the select bibliography below attests. Additionally, he has received grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the Canadian International Development Agency
Canadian International Development Agency
The Canadian International Development Agency was formed in 1968 by the Canadian government. CIDA administers foreign aid programs in developing countries, and operates in partnership with other Canadian organizations in the public and private sectors as well as other international organizations...
(CIDA), and York University in support of his work.
Markets and globalization
Drache’s 1996 book, States Against Market (co-edited with Robert Boyer of Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique in Paris), is regarded by experts as one of the first texts of globalization studies to reassess empirically as well as analytically market fundamentalismMarket fundamentalism
Market fundamentalism is a pejorative term applied to a strong belief in the ability of laissez-faire or free market economic views or policies to solve economic and social problems....
. It challenges the assumption that globalization was equally beneficial to all countries, a position that was used by some economists to reduce the role of the nation-state as a regulator of markets from what it had been under Keynesianism.
In 1995, Drache co-authored (with Harry Glasbeek) The Changing Workplace, an interdisciplinary analysis of the impact of new technology on work and employment. Their book is an examination of the restructuring of the workplace and the new and complex challenges it poses for organized and non-organized labour.
Additionally, Drache's monograph, Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America (Fernwood Press: 2004), is a study of the effects of post-9/11 US security measures on the management of the Canada-US border. Within, Drache argues that the Canada-US border has become more intrusive or "thicker" post-9/11, and that the seamless border of NAFTA is now a thing of the past. Paradoxically, the border has become more important for Canadians, a country founded on immigation and modern notions of citizenship. Effectively, it has become a priority to protect Canada's national identity at a time of heightened US security concerns.
Finally, in a related work, The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetries of Power (2001), Drache analyzes the reconstitution of the public domain as a sphere of public policy both contested by the market and championed by new citizen practices. He focuses especially on the prospect of an international order requiring governance in the post-Washington Consensus environment, which values institution building rather than the self-regulating market. Overall, the disjunction between the economic side of globalization and its social impact has gradually broken-down, and the public domain has become the public space to defend society from powerful market actors and renew the public interest.
New technologies and the public sphere
The latest of Drache’s published books, Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen (Polity Press: 2008), focuses on how information technologies transfer power to the user and, as a result, have extended and deepened the global public sphere in new and unanticipated ways.Grounded primarily in the work of Habermas
Jürgen Habermas
Jürgen Habermas is a German sociologist and philosopher in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. He is perhaps best known for his theory on the concepts of 'communicative rationality' and the 'public sphere'...
and Innis
Harold Innis
Harold Adams Innis was a Canadian professor of political economy at the University of Toronto and the author of seminal works on media, communication theory and Canadian economic history. The affiliated Innis College at the University of Toronto is named for him...
, this text challenges the deterministic assumption of the Frankfurt School
Frankfurt School
The Frankfurt School refers to a school of neo-Marxist interdisciplinary social theory, particularly associated with the Institute for Social Research at the University of Frankfurt am Main...
that information-based technologies are captured by powerful elites for their own corporate uses. Instead, Drache argues from the Innisian perspective that “Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
” and the Internet have transferred power downwards, enabling discursive social networking across the globe to a greater degree.
Because of the number of users who are now online, Drache attributes the rise of micro-activism and user empowerment as a direct result of these activist discursive networks. This text uses political theory framed around “old media” broadcast models to illuminate the potential of new media in an internet age. As a specific case study, Drache offers a theoretical framework to understand Barack Obama’s
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
victory in the 2008 US Presidential Election by leveraging social media networks.
Harold Innis and Canadian political economy
A political scientist by training, Drache is mainly recognized for his foundational work in Canadian political economy, specifically in the fields of resource capitalism and Harold Innis's Staples thesisStaples thesis
The staples thesis is a theory of Canadian economic development. The theory “has its origins in research into Canadian social, political, and economic history carried out in Canadian universities…by members of what were then known as departments of political economy.” From these groups of...
of capitalist development. According to noted political economist Mel Watkins
Mel Watkins
Mel Watkins is a Canadian political economist and activist. He is professor emeritus of economics and political science at the University of Toronto...
, he is partially-credited with the revival of political economy as a field of study and research within Canadian political science, particularly after it had fallen out of fashion in 1974.
Notably, Prof. Drache published The New Era of Global Competition (McGill-Queen’s University Press: 1991), a study of state policy and market power and the new phenomenon of globalization. It also identifies alternative routes for Canadian industry under pressure from global competition. As this text was published before globalization was as widely-recognized and examined as it is today (it was written prior to the publication of the field's first seminal text, Hirst & Thompson's Globalization in Question
Globalization in Question
Globalization in question: the international economy and the possibilities of governance is a noted text on globalization by Paul Hirst and Grahame Thompson. Published in 1996 by Polity Press.- Background :...
from 1996), it can be regarded as one of the first major Canadian analytical examinations of the impact of global capitalism on states and markets.
Drache also edited a new collection of Innis’ own work, published by McGill-Queen’s in 1995 as Staples, Markets and Cultural Change: the Centenary Edition of Harold Innis’ Collected Essays. Drache’s volume presents Innis’ scholarship on political economy, economic geography, communications theory to the public as an integrated whole, and re-introduces his work to a new generation of scholars within the emerging context of globalization.
Select bibliography
Books or book chapters (written or edited):Defiant Publics: The Unprecedented Reach of the Global Citizen. (Polity Press, 2008).
Big Picture Realities: Canada and Mexico at the Crossroads, Daniel Drache, ed. (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2008).
La Ilusión Continental: Seguridad fronteriza y la búsqueda de una identidad Norteamericana. Translation with new introduction and material. (Siglo XXI, 2007).
L’Illusion continentale: Securité et nord-américanité. (Montreal: Athéna éditions, 2006).
Borders Matter: Homeland Security and the Search for North America. (Fernwood Publishing, 2004).
The Market or the Public Domain: Global Governance and the Asymmetry of Power, Daniel Drache, ed. (Routledge, 2001).
Health Reform: Public Success, Private Failure, Daniel Drache and Terry Sullivan, eds. (Routledge, 1999).
States Against Markets: The Limits of Globalization, Daniel Drache and Robert Boyer, eds. (Routledge, 1996).
Warm Heart, Cold Country: Fiscal and Social Policy Reform in Canada, Daniel Drache and Andrew Ranachan, eds. (Caledon Institute, 1995).
Staples, Markets and Cultural Change: The Centenary Edition of Harold Innis’ Collected Essays, Daniel Drache, ed. (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995).
Canada and the Global Economy. (University of Athabasca, 1994).
The Changing Workplace: Reshaping Canada’s Industrial Relations System, Daniel Drache and Harry Glasbeek. (James Lorimer, 1992).
Getting On Track: Social Democratic Strategies for Ontario, Daniel Drache and John O’Grady, eds. (McGill-Queen’s, 1992).
Negotiating with a Sovereign Quebec, Daniel Drache and R. Perin, eds. (James Lorimer, 1992).
The New Era of Global Competition: State Policy and Market Power, Daniel Drache and Meric Gertler, eds. (McGill-Queen’s, 1991).
Politique et Régulation Modele de Développement et Trajectoire Canadienne, Daniel Drache et Gérard Boismenu. (Méridien/L’Harmattan, 1990).
The Other Macdonald Report The Consensus on Canada's Future That The Macdonald Commission Left Out, Daniel Drache and Duncan Cameron, eds. (James Lorimer, 1985).
The New Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy, Daniel Drache and Wallace Clement, eds. (James Lorimer, 1985).
"Debates and Controversies", from the pages of This Magazine, Daniel Drache, ed. (Toronto, 1979).
A Practical Guide to Canadian Political Economy, Daniel Drache and Wallace Clement, eds. (James Lorimer, 1978).
Quebec. Only the Beginning. (New Press, 1972).