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Discussion Series Archive

Discussion Series

Big Books

May 2010 Food Matters: The Politics of Food

One big idea that affects everyone is the quality, safety and source of the food we eat and feed our families. On Tuesday, May 25, the spring series of Small Communities-Big Ideas wrapped up its examination of the many facets of food issues with Food Matters: The Politics of Food. Other topics discussed in the series were food security, food economics and food awareness.

This final session featured New Germany resident Martin Gursky, who lead a discussion of "The Politics of Food" and dealt with the big idea of food as a commodity. Martin, a founding member of the Nova Scotia Organic Growers Association (NSOGA) and its first president, briefly traced how our food system has evolved to the place it is now, examined possible future scenarios, and suggested ways we might take back some autonomy over our food security.

Food has always been an important part of Martin's life. He and his wife Donna have chosen to live a simple life on a piece of land in New Germany where they grow most of their own food. His Master's degree research examined the dietary practices of Peruvian peasants living at high altitude. Later he studied the effects of poor diets on the growth and development of Guatemalan children. Today he continues to grow vegetables on a modest scale and still loves it. He argues that the health and survival of communities (cities included) will depend increasingly on the viability and success of local providers of food.

April 2010: Food Matters - Bring the Food Economy Home

One big idea that affects everyone is the quality and safety of the food we eat and feed our families. The winter series of Small Communities-Big Ideas, Food Matters, will examine the many facets of food including food security and food awareness- from global agribusiness to the buy local campaign.

The series continued in April with "Awareness-Learning from Experience" featuring Sharri Bush. Sharri shared her ideas about local food as it relates to the economic, social and well-being of Nova Scotians from her personal experience.

Sharri Bush lives in the LaHave area with her family. In-shore lobster fishing and boat building has been the Bush family’s way of life in and source of income in the LaHave Islands area of Lunenburg County since the late 1700’s. Sharri began researching local food and nutrition after the birth of her child when she wanted to ensure she provided him the best start she could in life. She brought her enthusiasm and expertise to spark discussion at this presentation of Small Communities-Big Ideas.

March 2010: Food Matters - Bringing the Food Economy Home

One big idea that affects everyone is the quality and safety of the food we eat and feed our families. The winter series of Small Communities-Big Ideas, Food Matters, will examine the many facets of food including food security and food awareness- from global agribusiness to the buy local campaign.

The series began Tuesday March 23 at the Lunenburg Library with guest presenter Errol Sharpe, co-publisher of Fernwood Books Ltd., who discussed "Bringing the Food Economy Home". Drawing from the recently published Local Alternatives to Global Agribusiness by Steven Gorelick, Todd Merrifield and Helena Norberg-Hodge, Sharpe examined such topics as food and community, food security, the ecology of food production and others.

"Bringing the Food Economy Home" questioned the continuing trend toward big agribusiness and made a case for local food production as a viable means of supplementing the existing food system. The book suggests a more conscientious and active role for people at the local level of food production.

Active in publishing since the early 1970s, Sharpe launched Fernwood Books Ltd., in 1978. He co-founded of Garamond Press in 1982 and began Fernwood Publishing in 1991. He works from his office in Black Point, Nova Scotia publishing critical non-fiction that challenges existing scholarship on issues of race, economics, trade, globalization, gender, labour and numerous other social issues.

February 2010: Violence Against Women - An Issue in Small Communities

South Shore Public Libraries resumed its Small Communities - Big Ideas series for 2010 with Violence against Women – An Issue in Small Communities. Second Story Women’s Centre, along with Harbour House, the RCMP and many other organizations in the community have begun a campaign to create awareness about this topic. Presenters examined the issues associated with gender-based violence and its acute impacts especially on small communities, and explored the big idea of ending violence against girls and women in Lunenburg County.

Isolation, shame and fear may impact on a woman’s self-esteem and her contributions to the community. Family life and the wellbeing of the community are affected. Lost time and productivity for victims of violence result in economic impacts for employers. As well, the increased demand placed on the services the community provides (e.g. Health Care, Emergency Services, Police Services, Mental Health Services, the Court System) is significant.

Violence against girls and women is a very real, pervasive issue in all Nova Scotian communities. In Lunenburg County, informal statistics gathered from January 2007 to June 2009 indicate almost 300 reported incidents of violence against women, and tragically, two homicides. Another, more recent report (May 2009), indicates that Nova Scotia has the highest sexual assault rate in the country.

October 2009: Art and Community: What Makes the Visual Arts Tick or Not

The Small Communities-Big Ideas discussion series continued at the Lunenburg Library on October 27 with presenter Susan Hudson and the topic Art and the Community: What Makes the Visual Arts Tick or Not.

Hudson suggested that the visual art world is elusive to many in the community. She argued that there are many factors that contribute to this: the nature of the discipline, the fact that that artists have failed to reach out to the community enough, and the intimidating nature of many galleries.

She maintained, however, that this need not be the case and had suggestions for how this could change. Lunenburg area has several successful initiatives that are helping to move the visual arts more fully into the community and Susan Hudson has been at the forefront of some of them.

Susan Hudson lives and works in Lunenburg. During her career she was an Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Design Art, Concordia University, Montreal. In her work she has portrayed classical fairy tales as part of her ongoing research into the mythology of children's literature. Her studio work in Lunenburg is varied and explores an expansive range of media, that incorporates painting and collage with photographic and or computer designed images. In 1999, Susan Hudson was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. She is President and founder of the artists’ co-operative, Peer Gallery in Lunenburg. She was also a founding member of the photographers’ and printmakers’ co-operative-Viewpoint Gallery- in Halifax.

September 2009: Art and Community: The Artist and Society: Are We Mining Our Artists' Potential?

The Fall 2009 Small Communites - Big Ideas series is looking at the topic of Art and Community, and began with a focus on The Artist and Society: Are We Mining Our Artists' Potential?. Visual artist Steven Rhude joined participants to present and lead a discussion on the place of the arts in society and in everyday life.

Rhude shared a brief selection of images of his recent paintings, sparking a discussion on the potential uses of art in one's own community. "In communities such as Lunenburg", Rhude wondered, "are we using our artistic assets here to the fullest advantage, or is the gulf between artistic concepts and tangible results too wide?"

Steven Rhude and his wife Simone moved to Nova Scotia in 1990. Today they live in Lunenburg where he continues to explore his passion for themes which evoke the ethos of coastal communities in Atlantic Canada, their social conditions and iconic character.

April 2009: Media and Ethics: Community and Media: The Next Frontier

The popular Small Communities - Big Ideas discussion series continued with the third and final look at the topic of media and ethics. Journalist and communications expert Laurie Cook guided participants through a thoughtful examination of the role media plays in our communities. Community and Media: The Next Frontier offered those present a chance to ask and answer some questions that have a big impact on communities large and small. What is the media coming to? Is the world of the blog, You Tube, Facebook and Twitter poised to take over mainstream media? What point does the media serve in our society? Who controls it? Who should control it? Are we receiving the kind of information we care about?

Laurie Cook is a graduate of the University of King's College Journalism program. She worked in the film and television industry in Halifax for several years. She is now working on a Masters in Adult Education and Community Development at St. Francis Xavier University, and specifically studying the role of different modes of communication in moving ideas into action.

March 2009: Media and Ethics: The Pitfalls of Everyday Journalism with Bruce Wark

The March Small Communities-Big Ideas event examined reporting routines and how they shape information we receive through media. Bruce Wark illustrated how the routines of "balance" and "fairness" actually produce ahistorical, unfair reporting. Actual reports from CBC coverage of the native/military/police conflict at Ipperwash, Ontario over an 11-year period were presented. Participants were given the opportunity to comment on these reports and consider how they are framed, who gets to speak and the overall quality of information presented.

Bruce Wark taught journalism at the University of King's College for 15 years and is now an Inglis Professor at King's. During his career in the School of Journalism he taught History and Ethics, a course which examined both the many historical battles for free speech, and its central importance to media and democracy. Before he began teaching at King's in 1991, Bruce worked as a CBC Radio journalist for nearly 20 years. He was in charge of network programs such as The World at Six and World Report. Today he writes a regular column for the alternative Halifax weekly, The Coast.

February 2009: Media and Ethics: Responsibilities and Roles in Your Local Community with Vernon Oickle, editor of the Bridgewater Bulletin and Progress Enterprise

The Small Communities-Big Ideas initiative continued at the Lunenburg Library with a series entitled Media and Ethics. The first evening fell during Freedom to Read Week and provided an opportunity for participants to explore the big idea of the ethical questions that face the media. Vernon Oickle began the discussion by exploring the function of newspapers in rural communities and how this differs from the role of newspapers in larger centres. He also offered his insights on the ethics policies of Lighthouse Media Groups, and provided a framework for the discussion.

Vernon Oickle was born in Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and continues to live there. Today, he is the editor of the nationally award-winning newspapers The Bulletin and The Progress Enterprise.

November 2008: The Global Financial Crisis in Our Communities: Markets and Morality

On the heels of the American election, the November session of the discussion series featured Daphna Levit, economist and author of 'An Insider's View', a regular column in the local paper.

As global markets spin in confusion and chaos, as government leaders and central bankers strive to find ways to put a halt to recession, the basic assumptions as well as the structure of capitalism are being reexamined. In our haste to condemn the greed of individuals and institutions that have caused or hastened the crisis, should we not examine our own values that encourage material success and consumerism? What should be the role of regulation in the ethical limitation of the markets? Can we make a wise determination about the boundaries of free markets?

Armed with graduate degrees from Cornell University, Daphna Levit spent two decades employed by some of the Wall Street firms that currently top the headlines. She was an international equity analyst at Merrill Lynch in Tokyo before, during and in the aftermath of the Asian Crisis; vice-president at Morgan Stanley in London; and senior vice-president at Barings Securities in New York, before and at the time of its collapse. Barings Bank, the oldest merchant bank in England that was founded in 1762, collapsed notoriously in 1995. So Daphna has seen collapse from within.

She got out of the industry before the recent crisis and went on to teach finance and economics to MBA students, so she perhaps bears some of the responsibility. To atone, she would like to attempt to make sense of the markets and their current crisis.

Six years ago, Daphna came to visit friends on the South Shore of Nova Scotia and never left. She lives near Lunenburg.

September 2008 Discussion Mini-Series

In the May 27^th discussion entitled "Community-based Decision Making: Democracy from the Bottom Up", presenter Frank Fawson challenged participants to explore ways to become more involved in issues affecting their own communities. Those in attendance expressed an interest in continuing the conversation in the future.

As we approach the Municipal Election season, it is important to consider ways we can become involved in the future of our communities beyond simply voting once every four years. This mini-series on citizen engagement entitled "Communities and Government: Who's Speaking? Who’s Listening?" will invite participants to explore these ideas in a deeper way. All sessions will take place in the Lunenburg Library.

Printable version of series description>>

"Communities and Government: Who's Speaking? Who’s Listening?"

September 16^th - "Public Consultation: Are They Really Listening?" featuring Paul Pross
September 23^rd - "Bringing Government Closer to Home" featuring Alan Parry
September 30^th - "Overcoming Barriers to Citizen Participation" featuring Richard M^cBride

September 16^th
PUBLIC CONSULTATION: ARE THEY REALLY LISTENING?
Governments frequently use public consultations in making public policy decisions and in reviewing programs. Yet it is not a process that either the public or government officials like. Members of the public believe it is used manipulatively and officials find it disruptive and unreliable. In this first session of our series Paul Pross will look at the reasons for public consultation and discuss ways in which both governments and members of the public can make better use of it.

Paul Pross taught public administration and Canadian studies at Dalhousie University for nearly thirty years. Responsible for the design and establishment of the Dalhousie Programmes in Public Administration, he was the first Co-ordinator of the programmes and later Director of the School of Public Administration. He is the author, co-author or editor of a number of books and various articles on Canadian policy processes, natural resource administration, pressure group politics, lobbying and government publishing. He has participated in many public consultation exercises, including the current Voluntary Planning/DNR consultation on resource strategy, and conducted workshops for professional and community groups engaged in lobbying government. Paul lives at Indian Path, Lunenburg County.

September 23^rd
BRINGING GOVERNMENT CLOSER TO HOME
In the last 50 years, the growth of governments is destroying the capability of Nova Scotia communities to respond to their needs as perceived by their citizens. Tax dollars generated from communities are no longer available for solving problems in those communities. Instead, they flow to Ottawa and Halifax where experts and specialists make many of the decisions that affect us. Alan Parry argues that it is increasingly difficult for citizens to become involved in decisions that affect them when these decisions are made so far away by people they don't know and are not easily accessible. He will invite you to decide whether you consider this to be a problem and if so, what should citizens do to begin to take back some of the authority for local decision-making.

Alan Parry is a retired consultant in Corporate and Strategic Planning. He was responsible for the development and installation of the School Based Management model for Edmonton Public Schools in the late 70’s and consulted in Corporate and Strategic Planning to clients in all provinces in Canada as well as clients from Los Angeles, Rome and Moscow. Alan lives in the town of Lunenburg.

September 30^th
OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
The final session in the series will consider barriers to citizen participation in governance by asking: "How can we ensure a fully inclusive process of participation open to all sectors of the community? What learning and personal development takes place in people as they become engaged in solving the problems of their communities? How can that development be encouraged?" Richard M^cBride will invite the group to assess some recent Nova Scotian examples as to the level of inclusiveness and the quality of the participation that different approaches achieved.

Richard M^cBride was a Professor of Biology at Dalhousie University for 22 years. He particularly enjoyed developing and teaching a course that encouraged non-science students to be active citizens in science-society issues. During the past 15 years he has worked with Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) on community development projects in Africa and Asia. This work gave him first hand experience of the value and challenge of the participatory approach in solving community problems. Richard now lives full time in Union Square, Lunenburg County except for two months a year when he teaches in a community school in India.

May 2008 - Big Idea: Democracy

In a discussion on May 27^th entitled: "Community-based Decision Making: Democracy from the Bottom Up" presenter Frank Fawson challenged participants to explore ways to become more involved in community decisions.

Frank Fawson believes that working for the betterment of communities is important, necessary work for all members of the community, elected officials and residents alike. He suggests that a healthy community is a strong community because of its collective and inclusive nature. 2008, the year of Democracy 250, offers a great opportunity to explore ways in which representative democracy can begin to evolve into participatory democracy. Once more members of the community become involved, the result will be responsive political institutions at all levels of government. Frank Fawson lives in Dayspring, Lunenburg County. He is a community activist and a passionate believer in the concept: "Think Globally, Act Locally."

April 2008 - Big Idea: Ecology

Creating Sustainable Communities: How Ecological Principles Can Assist Community Planning. On April 22^nd, Geraline Blyleven most recently worked as a Green Renovation Project Coordinator at the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax and Leon de Vreede is the Sustainability Planner for the Town of Bridgewater. Together they gave participants the opportunity to talk about, learn about, and share ideas about sustainability in communities. A link was made between ecological principles (using The Natural Step Framework) and sustainable communities. Discussion notes and other resources>>

March 2008 - Big Idea: Philosophy

On March 25^th, the discussion centred around the topic: "Big Issues in our Community: Can Philosophy address the tough questions?" The presenter was Peter March, journalist and retired philosophy professor at St. Mary's University. March made headlines in 2006 when he posted controversial caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad on his office door in order to spark a discussion of freedom of expression. No stranger to tough questions, March challenged participants to face established belief systems and to discover how philosophy can assist in this. Philosophical thinking demands we examine ideas without holding on to tradition, authority, or our own cherished beliefs. For this reason, March says, philosophy is a tough discipline. He invited members of the audience to examine pressing issues in South Shore communities in light of philosophical thinking.

February 2008 - Big Idea: Technology

The Library was delighted to launch this series during Freedom to Read Week, February 24-March 1, 2008, with a provocative topic, "Privacy & community: how do technological advances such as Facebook affect your privacy". The presenter, David Fraser, a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the Canadian firm of McInnes Cooper led the first group of participants in a lively discussion on February 28^th. Read David's blog >> David is counsel to National Privacy Services Inc. and has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws. Resources>>

Small Communities - Big Books

War and Peace

Behind big ideas are big books.

Summer 2008

Small Communities-Big Ideas launched a summer book club called Small Communities-Big Books at the Lunenburg Library. The Library offered an alternative to the "beach read", by choosing one book, of significant stature, to read throughout the summer months. Meetings were held at the Library on the last Tuesday of June, July and August to discuss progress.

The selection for summer 2008 was Tolstoy’s War and Peace.

Tolstoy tackles many "big ideas": can we have equality among citizens? What does it mean to have emancipation from prejudice? How can one capture the past once it is past? What makes people sign up for war? Who are the real protagonists of history, the masses of peasants turned into ordinary soldiers or the military leaders? What is the cost of progress?

The 2007 translation by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky has a delightful introduction written by Pevear. He opens with: "War and Peace is the most famous and at the same time the most daunting of Russian novels, as vast as Russia herself and as long to cross from one end to the other. Yet if one makes the journey, the sights seen and the people met on the way mark one’s life forever."

Winter 2009

During Winter 2009, the Library hosted a book club with only one book, of significant stature, from January - March.

Since it first appeared in an English translation in 1885, Don Quixote has been wooing readers to join the Man of La Mancha on his knightly quest. The novel, written by Spanish dramatist, author and poet, Miguel de Cervantes, was written in two parts; Part 1 in 1605 and Part 2 in 1615, the year before Cervantes’ death.

Without a doubt, Don Quixote is a big book filled with big ideas and is one that has inspired artists, singers, authors and dramatists with its timeless story. We have chosen the Edith Grossman translation. In Harold Bloom’s introduction to this 2003 edition he declares: “The aesthetic truth of Don Quixote is that …it makes us confront greatness directly. “

See also: Spotlight on Classics>>

Summer 2009

Sir Francis Bacon famously gave the advice: "Read not to contradict and confute, not to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider." William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair was chosen as the summer 2009 book to weigh and consider.

Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero marked a turning point in the novelist's career and fortunes. Known principally as a humourist, Thackeray surprised his audiences with this novel without a hero. Borrowing the title from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim's Progress, Vanity Fair won a place in the great movement of European Realism in the 1830s. Thackeray's own life is said to have been revealed in the pages of Vanity Fair and his character Dobbin is described as the author’s alter ego. Thackeray described his purpose in writing Vanity Fair as "to indicate, in cheerful terms, that we are for the most part an abominably foolish and selfish people." He wanted his readers to join with him to "lift up our voices about these and howl to a congregation of fools."

Small Communities-Big Books offered readers a chance to howl in tandem at the Lunenburg Library over the summer.

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