Oil production has peaked. The climate is askew. We are in a race to make the inevitable transition to renewable energies and energy conservation. But numerous obstacles stand in the way of important and necessary energy developments. Opposition to hydropower projects is now spilling over onto wind and solar projects. By redeeming hydropower and telling the truth about the potential and limitations of other renewables, the authors dispel myths and identify obstacles to the implementation of a truly sustainable energy strategy.

Globalization has challenged concepts such as local culture and cultural autonomy. And the rampant commodification of cultural products has challenged the way we define culture itself. Have these developments transformed the relationship between culture and autonomy? Have traditional notions of cultural autonomy been recast? This book showcases the work of scholars who employ a broad definition of culture to trace how issues of cultural autonomy have played out in various arenas, including literary criticism, indigenous societies, the Slow Food movement, and skateboarding culture. Although they focus on the marginalized issue of autonomy, they reveal that globalization has both limited as well as created new forms of cultural autonomy.

Power Struggles: Hydro Development and First Nations in Manitoba and Quebec examines the evolution of new agreements between First Nations and Inuit and the hydro corporations in Quebec and Manitoba, including the Wuskwatim Dam Project, Paix des Braves, and the Great Whale Project. In the 1970s, both provinces signed so-called “modern treaties” with First Nations for the development of large hydro projects in Aboriginal territories. In recent times, however, the two provinces have diverged in their implementation, and public opinion of these agreements has ranged from celebratory to outrage. Power Struggles brings together perspectives on these issues from both scholars and activists. In debating the relative merits and limits of these agreements, they raise a crucial question: Is Canada on the eve of a new relationship with First Nations, or do the same colonial attitudes that have long characterized Canadian-Aboriginal relations still prevail?

The passage of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 focused attention on the ways in which Indigenous peoples are adapting to the pressures of globalization and development. This volume extends the discussion by presenting case studies from around the world that explore how Indigenous peoples are engaging with and challenging globalization and Western views of autonomy. Taken together, these insightful studies reveal that concepts such as globalization and autonomy neither encapsulate nor explain Indigenous peoples' experiences.