Social justice central to scholars’ work
Madeleine Parent, Mel Watkins and Gregory Baum were all at the School of Community and Public Affairs for the launch of Reclaiming Democracy, on Nov. 28. Marguerite Mendell referred to this trio and Kari Polanyi Levitt who is honoured in the book along with Baum, as “four Olympic minds.”
Photo by kate hutchinson
“This book has been a true labour of love,” said Daniel Salée, principal of the School of Community and Public Affairs. He was talking about Reclaiming Democracy: The Social Justice and Political Economy of Gregory Baum and Kari Polanyi Levitt.
The volume, edited by SCPA professor Marguerite Mendell, honours two scholars who “not only crossed disciplinary boundaries, but have stepped outside of the university to influence public debate,” according to her introduction.
Mendell said at the launch on Nov. 28, “They are both two special friends. Kari I’ve known all my life, and Gregory even longer.”
The project grew out of a conference Mendell organized in 1998 to mark Baum’s and Levitt’s 75th birthdays. Several academics were invited to discuss how the two theorists had influenced their own work. Their papers were combined in Reclaiming Democracy.
Mendell is the first to acknowledge that superficially, the two would seem to have little in common. However, both cross disciplinary boundaries and consider social justice a central principle.
Levitt, a professor emeritus of economics at McGill, is a political economist. Her book Silent Surrender was recently listed among the Literary Review of Canada’s 100 Best Canadian Books more than three decades after its first publication. Baum is a theologian who has analyzed Christian social movements and is a world-renowned social theorist.
Baum and Levitt were born the same year in Germany and Austria respectively and settled in Montreal, meeting only in the 1980s. At the launch, Mendell traced their careers as one of intersections with shared friends and colleagues. They were both involved in the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy, which she directs.
In her introduction, Mendell wrote about their critical approach to powerful institu-tions: Baum’s criticism of the Catholic church, and Levitt’s criticism of the impact of prevailing economic policies on developing countries.
Both theorists were at the launch. Baum said their co-existence in a single volume reflects the link between religious and economic theory exemplified by Max Weber’s work. That link persists today in the way the American government attempts to export its values and beliefs in the name of globalization.
Levitt acknowledged the solidarity the book represented during a lifetime in which she often felt marginalized as an immigrant and for her critical views of international economic policy decisions.
She remarked on this “betweenity,” a concept explored in her chapter of the volume.
The legacy of Baum and Levitt is evident throughout the book, but it was their application of theory to material conditions that led to the title of the collection.
“Reclaiming Democracy could not be a more timely notion. Both Gregory and Kari are guiding us theoretically, ethically and strategically in this pursuit,” Mendell said.