2004 winners of the Distinguished Academics Awards

Already a respected constitutional scholar, Joel Bakan in 1997 turned his formidable legal mind to questions about the status and functions of corporations. Why has the legal concept that defines corporations as people and was originally used merely as a means to organize business been twisted to the point that corporations demand constitutional protections normally associated only with flesh and blood people?

The results of his exploration are a book and film in which Bakan and his cinematic collaborators explore the origins of the corporation, then show how and why corporations’ pursuit of their shareholders’ and managements’ self-interests often undermines the interests of human people and of human society generally.

Extending the analogy of a corporation as a “person,” Bakan and film directors Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbot point out that a corporate “person” is “required by law to elevate their own interests above those of others” and demonstrate how this makes them prone to preying upon and exploiting others without regard for moral limits or legal rules. Bakan, Achbar, and Abbot assert that corporations typically behave in a manner defined by the Manual of Mental Disorders as psychopathic. The film-The Corporation-puts the patient “on the couch” to learn about the origins of its problems and consider how this illness might be treated.

An entertaining look at serious issues, the film is backed by Bakan’s thorough research. His book The Corporation : The Pathological Pursuit of Power has been described as “not only a skillful synthesis of the relevant literature but a compelling critique of what is arguably our most power and characteristic social, legal and economic institution.”

Since her student days, Neena Chappell has had a keen interest in the difficulties people face as they grow older. Whether it was the way in which medical professionals deal with older clients, the effects of institutionalization on elders, the special needs of Chinese seniors in British Columbia, or the ways in which seniors help support one another, Dr. Chappell’s research covers the range of public issues and private challenges in dealing with an aging society.

Not content with simply studying aging, Dr. Chappell worked in partnership with seniors and community organisations in identifying questions that needed to be answered and then brought her research expertise and university resources to the task of finding answers they could use. This type of research-called participatory action research-was rarely used when she started her career in the 1970s and remains uncommon today. Rather than the researcher alone setting the agenda, participatory action research enables community members to shape research questions toward their own needs, to participate actively in the research itself, and to use the research findings to improve their own situations.

Recognizing the need to involve academics from different disciplines in answering the questions posed by seniors and community organisations, Dr. Chappell sought funding from the federal government and established Canada’s first social science-based research Centre on Aging at the University of Manitoba in 1982. She established a second research Centre on Aging when she came to the University of Victoria in 1992.