For More Information Contact Dr. Jeffrey Shantz at jeffrey.shantz@kpu.ca.
Anarchism stands as one of the most important, if misunderstood, social movements. Anarchy, from the Greek anarchos, simply means “without rule” or “without a ruler.” Anarchism, most directly, is the idea that people can organize their lives on the basis of justice and equality in the absence of economic and political elites. Anarchism has attempted to radically transform societies, eliminate inequality, re-order societal structure, and change daily practice in egalitarian, horizontal, and cooperative ways. In addition to influencing community and workplace movements, anarchism has also played a significant part in the development of numerous academic fields from anthropology to biology to community health to literature to criminology, psychology, and sociology.
The KPU Centre for Anarchist Studies provides a necessary congregation point for resources related to radical political movements, particularly in the Canadian context. It provides, in online and physical archives, a diverse range of materials produced within anarchist movements (pamphlets, magazines, broadsheets, journals, ‘zines) and/or about anarchist movements. The Centre will also serve as a source of commentary on and by anarchists, both activists and academics. It will provide anyone with an interest in anarchism resources for better understanding this important political philosophy and movement. This project also provides a basis for a social history of anarchism in Canada.
The KPU Centre for Anarchist Studies aims to contribute to advancing understandings of anarchism as a social and political movement. In some cases materials available at KCAS are the only existing, or publicly available, copies of otherwise “lost” documents. It is intended to provide a site for activists and academics alike who seek details of the real world histories of anarchist organizing, particularly in the Canadian context as well as those looking to recover lost contributions of anarchist analysis on transdisciplinary scholarly activities.
Anarchism & Student Research at KPU
Take a Look at the following poster on anarchism that Jeff Shantz's students in CRIM 4900 at KPU created. This poster was presented at the Fourth Annual Sociology & Criminology Undergraduate Student Conference in November 2014 at KPU.