Bio

Warren Magnusson is a political theorist with a particular interest in the urban and the local as sites of politics and government. He has written extensively on the theory of local government, the character of urban politics, the nature of social movements, and the forms of political space. His two most recent books are A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), edited with Karena Shaw of UVic’s School of Environmental Studies, and The Search for Political Space: Globalization, Social Movements, and the Urban Political Experience (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996).

Magnusson teaches political theory (202, 300A, 300B, 300C, 401, 402/509, and CSPT 500), political analysis (338), and urban politics (332 and CSPT 500). He is a founding member of the Interdisciplinary MA Program in Cultural, Social and Political Thought (CSPT) and an active graduate supervisor. He encourages his students to explore theoretical issues through the study of particular political phenomena.

Dr. Magnusson teaches courses on contemporary political theory.

For further information on Dr. Warren Magnusson click here.

Publications

• "Community Organization and Local Self-Government," in L.D. Feldman (ed.), Politics and Government of Urban Canada (4th ed.; Toronto: Methuen, 1981), 61-86.
• "Metropolitan Reform in the Capitalist City," Canadian Journal of Political Science, XIV:3 (September 1981), 557-85.
• "The Local State in Canada: Theoretical Perspectives," Canadian Public Administration, XXVIII:4 (1985), 575-99.
• "Bourgeois Theories of Local Government," Political Studies, XXXIV:1 (1986), 1-18.
• City Politics in Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983).
• The New Reality: The Politics of Restraint in British Columbia (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1984), edited with William K. Carroll, et al.
• After Bennett: A New Politics for British Columbia (Vancouver: New Star Books, 1986), edited with John DeMarco, et al.
• "De-Centring the State: Political Theory and Canadian Political Economy," with R.B.J. Walker, Studies in Political Economy: A Socialist Review, 26 (Summer 1988), 37-71.
• The Search for Political Space: Globalization, Social Movements, and the Urban Political Experience (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996).
• "Victoria Regina: Social Movements and Political Space," in Jon Caulfield and Linda Peake (eds.), City Lives and City Forms: Critical Research and Canadian Urbanism (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), 324-47.
• “Globalization, Movements, and the Decentred State,” in William K. Carroll (ed.), Organizing Dissent: Contemporary Social Movements in Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Garamond Press, 1997), 94-113.
• “Unicity, Megacity, Global City,” Working Papers in Local Governance and Democracy, no 1 (1999), 108-116.
• “Hyperspace: A Political Ontology of the Global City,” in Richard V. Ericson and Nico Stehr (eds.), Governing Modern Societies (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000), 80-104.
• “Politicizing the Global City,” in Engin Isin, ed. Democracy, Citizenship, and the Global City (London: Routledge, 2000), 289-306.
• “The City as the Hope of Democracy,” in Caroline Andrew, Katherine Graham, and Susan Phillips, eds., Urban Affairs: Back on the Policy Agenda (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2002), 331-44.
• “Beyond the Politics of Nostalgia,” in Oliver Schmidtke, ed., The Third Way Transformation of Social Democracy: Normative claims and policy initiatives in the 21st century (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, 2002), 181-97.
• A Political Space: Reading the Global through Clayoquot Sound (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2003), edited with Karena Shaw.
• “Urbanism, cities and local self-government,” Canadian Public Administration 48:1 (Spring 2005), 96-123.
• “Are municipalities creatures of the provinces?” Journal of Canadian Studies 39:2 (Spring 2005), 5-29.
• “Protecting the right of local self-government,” Canadian Journal of Political Science,38:4 (December 2005), 897-922.

Courses

• Political Theory (202, 300A, 300B, 300C, 401, 402/509, and CSPT 500)
• Political Analysis (previous outlines: 338 and 332)
• Urban Politics (332 and CSPT 500)

Research projects

Links

 

Teaching videos of POLI 300C Fall 2010 (taken by Nick Montgomery): part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4