Identity, Place, and the Political Mobilization of Urban Minorities: Comparative Perspectives on Irish Catholics in Buffalo and Toronto 1880–1910

Abstract

In this paper the political fortunes and identities of Irish Catholics in US and Canadian cities are explored through a comparative study of Buffalo and Toronto. Local spaces of political administration in the urban arena, such as wards, were significant in affecting the generation of sociopolitical networks of power which in turn had implications for the sense of political identity and involvement felt by Irish Catholics within these two places. The importance of such spaces, however, was also contingent on the interaction between these cities' Irish Catholic populations and wider geographies of social, economic, and ethnoreligious relations over time as well as on the topographies and traditions of political power that extended beyond the municipal scale in both societies.

The urban in fragile, uncertain, neoliberal times: towards new geographies of social justice?

“…Important recent work has examined the relationship between urban space (including emergent urban forms such as those produced through condominium development), gender identity and the challenges of promoting women's safety and belonging in the contemporary neoliberal city (Bain 2003; Kern 2007; Whitzman 2007), as well as the problems that traditional service provision models pose for homeless women in Canada (Whitzman 2006). Geographers are providing spatial perspectives on the history of various urban political movements, including the identity politics of gays and lesbians (Nash 2005) and constructions of queer identities in the context of contemporary legal developments (Bain and Nash 2007), as well as continuing to explore the history of ethnic and cultural politics in Canadian cities (e.g., Jenkins 2007).…”