Selected Publications

Brian Murphy is an independent analyst, organizer, educator, and writer.  He was a member of the staff team of the Canadian international social justice organization, Inter Pares, where he worked as a lead programmer and policy analyst for almost 30 years, until the end of 2006.  His current activity includes participation in the Steering Committee of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG), which he helped found. He served on the Advisory Committee for the Institute in Management and Community Development at Concordia University (Montréal) from 1992-2010, where he was active as an external advisor and seminar leader on issues of citizen participation.

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Authored Books

Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World, An Open Conspiracy for Social Change, Second Edition, with an Introduction by David Austin, and Afterword to the Second edition by Brian K Murphy, Daraja Press, 2021. See book launch conversation with Brian Murphy and David Austin here.

Transforming Ourselves, Transforming the World: An Open Conspiracy for Social Change, ZED Books/Fernwood Books, 1999.

Published in translation as De la pensée à l’action: la personne au cœur du changement social (trans. Geneviève Boulanger), Ecosociété (Montréal), 2001.

Contributions to Books

“Recordando a Diana,” in La Luz de Diana, Edited and Introduced by Eduardo González Viaña, Axiara Editions, Lima/Salem/Nueva York, Abril 2018, pp. 227-233.

Learning, Knowledge and Action in Social Movements,” in Beyond Colonialism, Development and Globalisation: Social movements and critical perspectives (eds. Dominique Caouette and Dip Kapoor), Zed Books, London, 2016, pp. 242-258. Available here.

“Thinking in the Active Voice: Macro-policy and the Individual,” in Negotiating Poverty, New Directions, Renewed Debate (eds. N. Middleton, P. O’Keefe and R. Visser), Pluto Books, London, 2001, pp. 26-41.

“International NGOs and the Challenge of Modernity,” in Debating Development, NGOs and the Future, (eds: Eade, Deborah and E. Ligteringen), Oxfam GB, 2001, pp 60-86.

“Waiting for the Apocalypse,” in Rethinking the Future: Canada’s Liveliest Minds Take on the 21st Century, (editor, Patricia Elliott), Fifth House Publishers, Saskatoon, 1993, pp. 165-69.

“Canadian NGOs and the Politics of Participation,” in Conflicts of Interests, Canada and the Third World, (eds. Jamie Swift & Brian Tomlinson), Between The Lines, 1991, Toronto, Canada, pp. 161-212.

Reports

Environmental Justice and Development: Exploring the Policy Landscape, a report commissioned by the Canadian Council for International Cooperation (CCIC), Ottawa, April 2007, 54 pages. [Internal Document]

Out Of The Shadowlands, A Report on an International Learning Circle on Migration & Citizenship, Inter Pares, Ottawa, November 2006, 59 pages.  Available in PDF format here.

Essays, Articles and Papers

“Environmental justice: Putting the poor first,” Pambazuka News, November 3, 2011, Issue 556.  Available in PDF format here.

“Recovering from AIDS: Re-balancing social health priorities and practice,” Pambazuka News, October 13, 2011, Issue 552.  Available in PDF format here.

“ ‘Everyone is lying’: Exposing the global diamond trade,” a review of Blood on the Stone, by Ian Smillie, in Pambazuka News, October 21, 2010, Issue 501.  Available in PDF format here.

“Open borders, global future: the worldwide movement of people across borders demands imaginative and radical new thinking on migration,” in openDemocracy, June 4, 2008.  Available in PDF format here.

“Open Migration and the Politics of Fear,” in Development, Society for International Development (Rome), Volume 50, Issue 4: Migration and Development (December 2007), pp. 50-56.  Available in PDF format here.

“Rethinking Development: Promoting Global Justice in the 21st Century,” Inter Pares Occasional Paper #6, Inter Pares, Ottawa, November 2004.  Available in PDF format here.

“Towards a Feminist Political Economy,” Inter Pares Occasional Paper #5, Inter Pares, Ottawa, November, 2004.  Available in PDF format here.

“The Political Economy of AIDS,” in the on-line health newsmagazine, RedFlagsDaily.com, February 17, 2004.

“Citizenship and Action: What’s at Stake,” Inter Pares Occasional Paper #3, Inter Pares, Ottawa, September 2003.  Based on a keynote address to a Community Forum on Citizen Action, Concordia University, Montréal, June 16, 2003.  Available in PDF format here.

“Beyond the Politics of the Possible: Corporations and the Pursuit of Social Justice,” Inter Pares Occasional Paper, Inter Pares, Ottawa, June 2002.  Based on address presented to a Public Forum on Corporations as a Factor in Social Justice, Concordia University, Montréal, June 2002.  Available in PDF format here.

“Ignoring the Poverty and Chronic Ill-Health that Breeds Aids,” in RedFlagsWeekly.com, May 13, 2002.

An Honourable Commitment: Policy Coherence in Canada’s Relations with the Global South, Inter Pares, Ottawa, February 2001. Available in PDF format here.

“International NGOs and the Challenge of Modernity,” in Development in Practice, Volume 10, No 3 & 4, 10th Anniversary Edition, August 2000, pp 330-348.  Available in PDF format here.

“AIDS: Obscuring Injustice, Medicalizing Poverty,” in Canadian Dimension, May/June, 1995.

Towards a New Framework for Development Action, Inter Pares, Ottawa, April, 1995.

A Vision of Human Development in the 21st Century, a brief to the Parliamentary Joint Committee Reviewing Canada’s Foreign Policy, Inter Pares, Ottawa, April, 1994.

“Waiting for the Apocalypse,” in Canadian Forum, Vol. LXVIII, No. 782, October 1989, pp 31 – 32.

  • Reprinted as “The Dangers of Doom”, in Utne Reader, May/June 1991.

“Literacy in the Land of Oz: Panacea or Smokescreen?” in Inter-Action, the Newsletter of World Inter-Action Mondiale, Ottawa, December 1989, pp 1-2.

  • Reprinted in The Literacy Bin, Resources for Literacy, Canadian Movement for Literacy, January 1993.
  • Also translated as “Savoir lire et écrire dans le pays d’Oz: panacée ou rideau de fumée” (translated by Marguerite Lapalme), Programme Apprenons Ensemble, Sudbury, Ontario, September 1994.

“Making sure the El Salvador ceasefire holds,” in The Globe & Mail (Toronto), April 6, 1992, p. A19.

  • Reprinted in Catholic New Times, p. 5, April 26, 1992.

The Right to Return: Displaced People in Guatemala (co-authored with Jean Symes), a brief to Canadian Parliament for the Central America Monitoring Group (CAMG), Ottawa, February 1992, 39 pages.

Also published as:

  • Les Personnes Déplacées au Guatemala: Le Droit de Rentrer Chez Soi (translated by Gilles Rivet); and
  • Los Desplazados de Guatemala (translated by Gabrielle Labelle).

Does Testing Pass the Test of Hippocrates? A Plea for Caution, a brief to the Ontario Law Reform Commission Project on HIV/AIDS Testing, Inter Pares, Ottawa, February 1991, 14 pages.

“The Dice are Loaded (Structural Adjustment and the Poor),” in Canadian Forum, Vol. LXIX, No.794, November 1990, pp 12-17; scanned PDF file here.

“Male Reflections on the Roots of Pornography,” in Canadian Dimension, Vol. 23, No. 4, June 1989, pp 31-33; scanned PDF file here.

  • Excerpted in The Ottawa Citizen, page A.3, January 6, 1990.

“To Accompany the Poor: Learning on Our Feet, ” in New Internationalist, no. 183, May 1988, pp.12-13; available in PDF format here.

  • Reprinted in Upstream Journal, Social Justice Committee (Montréal), October 1989.

“The Pan-American Game, Canada and Central America,” in The Canadian Forum, Vol. LXVII, No. 776/777, February/March 1988, pp. 9-13; scanned PDF file here.

  • Reprinted, in Socialist Affairs, Fall, 1988.
  • Excerpted as “Mechanisms of Sustained Poverty”, in Upstream Journal, Social Justice Committee, (Montreal), August/September 1989.

“El Salvador: A Canadian Looks in the Mirror,” in Canadian Dimension, Vol. 20, No. 6, November 1986, pp. 28-32; scanned PDF file here.

“Canadian NGOs and Political Activism,” in The Journal, 1986 (CUSO), pp. 2-3.

“Between Struggle and Hope: The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade,” Book Review in Participatory Research, the Journal of the Participatory Research Group, International Council of Adult Education/OISE, September 1985, pp. 30-32.

“Literacy, Poverty, and Participation,” in Perception, Vol. 5 No. 3, Canadian Council on Social Development, February 1982, pp. 22-23.

Addresses

Vices, Vignettes, and Vicissitudes: Reflections from the Activist Road, seminar presentation at Summer Program in Community Action, Concordia University Institute in Management and Community Development, June 12, 2006: speaking ‘notes’ available here.

Knowledge and Action: Challenging the Limits, keynote address at Inter Pares’ 30th Anniversary Symposium, Ottawa, April 30, 2005; available in PDF format here.

Citizenship and Action: What’s at Stake?, keynote address to the Community Forum on Citizen Action, Concordia University, Institute in Management and Community Development, Montréal, June 16, 2003; available in PDF format here.

Beyond the Politics of the Possible: Corporations and the Pursuit of Social Justice, an address to the Forum on Corporations as a Factor in Social Justice, Concordia University Institute in Management and Community Development, Montréal, June 12-14, 2002; available in PDF format here.

Thinking in the Active Voice, Keynote Presentation to the Expert Consultation on Guidelines on Poverty Reduction, OECD: DAC/POVNET, Callantsoog, Netherlands, September 12-14, 2000; available in PDF format here.

Academic

An Examination of the Conclusions of the Third International Conference on Adult Education (Tokyo, 1972) in the Light of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, M.A. Thesis, University of Ottawa, 1973.  Available here.

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