Drawing on 14 months of participant observation and interviews with women at the Council, George provides a much needed, specifically Canadian contribution to ethno-cultural studies, grass-roots activism, and feminist studies. The research successfully situates the particular concerns and political activism of these women in this rural region of Canada within the larger context of economic restructuring and neoliberal economic and social policies that continue to marginalize women in Canada and around the world.
This important study continues the work of feminist ethnographies by such scholars as: Abu-Lughod, Behar, Cole, DiLeonardo, Ginsburg, and Lowenhaupt-Tsing. Avoiding the all too common pitfall of folkorization in rural studies, The Rock Where We Stand represents an innovative and experimental contribution to the field.
Glynis George is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Windsor.