Marvyn Novick was a leading social policy thinker in Canada, and a colleague and inspiration to many, including members of the Marvyn Novick Legacy Group, most of whom are among the co-founders of socialcommons.ca
The Marvyn Novick Legacy Group is in the final stages of producing an anthology of articles or reports written by Marvyn or, in some cases, by others but where Marvyn played a leadership role in the conceptualization and writing. They include reports and report chapters, as well as speeches and presentations on the many areas that Marvyn was knowledgeable and passionate about, most notably child and family poverty, social and civic inclusion, community and neighbourhood services, and the contribution of progressive taxation to building a better Canada. The anthology will be hosted on the TMU (Toronto Metropolitan University) Library Digital Repository as a searchable database later this year.
In addition, the anthology includes commentaries by both contemporaries and current practitioners in recognition of Marvyn’s contribution and the lasting impact of his ideas on social policy today.
Leading up the to release of the anthology, this website features several of the commentaries beginning, appropriately, with David Hulchanski’s commentary on Marvyn Novick’s ground-breaking two-volume Metro’s Suburbs in Transition (MSIT).
Dr. Hulchanski, a professor at the University of Toronto and author of The Three Cities Within Toronto, describes the MSIT reports as “the first to thoroughly document and analyze the dramatic social transition taking place in Toronto’s rapidly growing postwar middle-class suburbs”.
An additional article and commentary will be released each month as we approach the launch date. A page highlighting individual articles and commentaries within the anthology will also be available on this site closer to the launch date.
We would like to extend our thanks to all those who agreed to participate in this project and look forward to the mounting of the full anthology in the Fall of 2024.
