Teaching Concentration: Policy Analysis
Courses Taught: Introduction to State and Society, Multiculturalism Policy, Research Methods and Design, Policy Institutions and Processes, Public Policy Analysis

Phil Ryan
Associate Professor
Graduate Supervisor, Master of Public Policy & Administration
Website: Browse
Multiculturalism; policy theory
- Brief Biography
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Teaching Concentration: Policy Analysis
Courses Taught: Introduction to State and Society, Multiculturalism Policy, Research Methods and Design, Policy Institutions and Processes, Public Policy Analysis
Honours
- Multicultiphobia, short-listed for the Canada Prize in the Social Sciences (Social Sciences Federation of Canada). 2010
- Multicultiphobia, nominated for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. 2010
- Multicultiphobia, chosen by Embassy, Canada’s Foreign Policy Newspaper as one of the “Top 20 reads of 2010.”
- Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, publication grant 2010
- The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua: chosen as an “outstanding academic book of 1996″ by Choice.
- Social Sciences Federation of Canada, Aid to Scholarly Publications Programme, publication grant 1994
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship, 1988-92
Books & Edited Collections
- Journal Articles
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- Ryan, Phil. “The Paradox of Hegemony and the ‘Multiculturalism of the Individual.’” Canadian ethnic studies 51(2): pp. 153-167 (June 2019) Calgary: Canadian Ethnic Studies Association.
- Ryan, Phil “‘Technocracy,’ democracy … and corruption and trust,” Policy Sciences 51(1): pp. 131-139 (2018) New York: Springer US.
- Ryan, Phil. “Does Canadian Multiculturalism Survive through State Repression?” Nationalism & ethnic politics 22(3): pp.342-350 (July 2016) Routledge.
- Ryan, Phil. “Positivism: Paradigm or Culture?” Policy studies 36(4): pp. 417-433 (July 2015) Routledge
- Ryan, P. “The Multicultural State and the Religiously Neutral State: A Reply to Paul Cliteur.” International journal of constitutional law 12(2): pp. 457–463 (April 2014) Oxford University Press.
- Ryan, Phil. “Can We ‘Regain’ Truth and Objectivity? A Reply to Baillie and Meckler.” Journal of management inquiry 23(2): pp.133-136 (April 2014) Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.
- Ryan, Phil. “Stout, Rawls, and the Idea of Public Reason.” The Journal of religious ethics 42(3): pp. 540–562 (September 2014) Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
- Ryan, Phil. “Meckler and Baillie on Truth and Objectivity: A Commentary.” Journal of management inquiry 14(2): pp. 120–126 (June 2005) Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Ryan, Philip. “The Policy Sciences and the Unmasking Turn of Mind.” The Review of policy research 21(5): pp. 715–728 (September 2004) Oxford, UK and Malden.
- Philip Ryan. “Pastoral Power in the Age of Partnership: Health Canada and the Jr. Jays Club.” Canadian review of social policy (1987) 51: pg.87 (April 2003) Toronto: Canadian Review of Social Policy. ISSN: 0836-303X
- Ryan, Philip. “Ethics and Resignation: A Classroom Exercise.” Journal of policy analysis and management 22(2): pp. 313-315 (March 2003) New York: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Compan.
- Ryan, Philip. “Incrementalism: A Classroom Exercise.” Journal of policy analysis and management 22(2): pp. 315–318 (March 2003): New York: Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company.
- Ryan, Phil. “Stanley Fish’s Case for Speech Regulation: a Critique.” Canadian journal of higher education (1975) 31(2): pg. 167 (January 2001) Toronto: Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education. ISSN: 03161218
- Phil Ryan “Comment: Gare, MacIntyre, and Tradition,” Environmental Ethics 22(2): pp. 223-24 (Summer 2000) Environmental Philosophy (United States)
- Ryan, Phil. “Structure, agency, and the Nicaraguan Revolution.“ Theory and society 29(2): pp. 187-213 (April 2000) Springer.
- Ryan, Philip. “Discourse, Democracy (and Socialism?): A Reading of Habermas’s Between Facts and Norms.” Studies in political economy 60(1): pp. 121–138 (January 1999) Routledge.
- Ryan, Phil. “Communication: On David Schlosberg’s ‛Communicative Action in Practice’.” Political studies 45(5): pp. 853–854. (December 1997) Oxford, UK and Boston.
- Ryan, Phil. “On Political Correctness: Comment On Loury.” Rationality and society 8(3): pp. 353–357 (August 1996) Newbury Park, Calif: SAGE Publications.
- Ryan, Phil. “Was Bloom PC?” Canadian review of American studies 26(2): pp. 1–26 (1996) University of Toronto Press.
- Ryan, Phil. “Duet for Peasant and Socialist Revolutionary, with Obbligato Feminism: Lessons of the Nicaraguan Case.” Studies in political economy 46(1): pp. 79–112 (January 1995) Routledge.
- Ryan, Phil. “Market Reforms and Democratization: The Dilemmas of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.” Studies in political economy 34(1): pp.29-52 (January 1991) Routledge.
- Ryan, Phil. “Nicaragua’s Economy: The Dilemmas of a Revolution at War.” Canadian journal of Latin American and Caribbean studies 11(22): pp. 37–58 (January 1986) Ontario: Routledge.
- Book Chapters
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- “Our multiculturalism: Reflections in the key of Rawls,” in The Multiculturalism Question: Debating Identity in 21st Century Canada, ed. Jack Jedwab (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press): 2014.
- “Compromising Partnerships,” in Words in Common: Essays for Canadians on Language, Culture and Society, ed. Gillian Thomas: 236-42. (Toronto: Addison Wesley Longman, 1999).1
- “Of Miniature Mila and Flying Geese: Government Advertising and Canadian Democracy,” in How Ottawa Spends, ed. Susan Phillips. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1995.
2017-present
Cooperatives and Renewable Energy – potential lessons learned from Alaska for Nunavut, 2017-present
(co-supervisor with advisor James Meadowdroft)
Some text.

Facts, Values, and the Policy World
Policy analysts trained in various social sciences face a generally unacknowledged contradiction. Traditionally, mainstream social science has assumed that there is a gulf –a “dichotomy”– between facts and values, and that rigorous social science must be as uncontaminated by values as possible. But policy analysis, as reflection on the question “what is to be done?,” is intrinsically concerned with matters of value. Evasions of this contradiction have relied on various stratagems that have the effect of smuggling unexamined values into analysis.
This book demonstrates the damage that this contradiction inflicts upon policy analysis, and upon society as a whole. It resolves the contradiction by showing that values are every bit as amenable to critical analysis and reasoned defence as factual beliefs. It also presents key qualities of a policy analysis decisively freed from the “binary view” of facts and values.
The introduction presents the binary view and the alternative to it. Part I then examines the effects, both obvious and subtle, of the dichotomy, effects seen both in the practice of policy analysis and in our broader culture. Part II shows how policy analysis is transformed when one embraces a consistently non-binary approach. The third part addresses some of the dangers of the approach being advocated, while the conclusion discusses the role of a non-binary policy analysis in a deliberative democracy.
This novel is forthcoming, releasing in 2022.

After the New Atheist debate.
The first decade of the twenty-first century saw a number of best-selling books which not only challenged the existence of god, but claimed that religious faith was dangerous and immoral. The New Atheists, as writers such as Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris, and Daniel Dennett have become known, sparked a vicious debate over religion’s place in modern society.
In After the New Atheist Debate, Phil Ryan offers both an elegant summary of this controversy and a path out of the cul-de-sac that this argument has become. Drawing on the social sciences, philosophy, and theology, Ryan examines the claims of the New Atheists and of their various religious and secular opponents and finds both sides wanting.
Rather than the mutual demonization that marks the New Atheist debate, Ryan argues that modern society needs respectful ethical dialogue in which citizens present their points of view and seek to understand the positions of others. Lucidly written and clearly argued, After the New Atheist Debate is a book that brings welcome clarity and a solid path to the often contentious conversation about religion in the public sphere.

Multicultiphobia.
Official multiculturalism, established as Canadian government policy in 1971, has drawn criticism from many scholars and journalists who view it as a potential threat to a strong, unified Canadian society. In this timely and original book, Phil Ryan examines the emergence and influence of these criticisms, which continue to provoke an anxiety he calls “multicultiphobia.” Although Ryan argues that multicultiphobic discourse is often marred by important errors of fact and interpretation, a systematic inspection of news coverage and parliamentary debates reveals the persistent influence of these critiques and their underlying concerns.
Rather than simply dismissing multicultiphobia, Ryan acknowledges that critics of multiculturalism have identified issues about which Canadians need to talk. Does multiculturalism discourage adaptation and encourage ‘cultural walls’ between Canadians? Does it promote an ‘anything goes’ relativism? Finally, what do we – both as supporters and critics of multiculturalism – wish to make of Canada’s ethnic diversity? Multicultiphobia perceptively tackles all of these questions by means of a sophisticated analysis that encourages a deeper understanding of the issues at the heart of multiculturalism.

The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua.
The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua is an insightful look at the difficulties that arise when a particular vision of socialism is applied in a country such as Nicaragua. Phil Ryan argues that the Sandinistas pursued a project of social transformation inspired by a Marxism much more orthodox than has been widely recognized. He maintains that tensions between this project and other factors such as war and external debt led to the severe economic crisis of the mid-1980s.
Ryan focuses on four broad issue areas — the organization and role of the state sector, price policy, relations with the bourgeoisie, and agrarian reform. The interactions between these issue areas, and between the technical and political contradictions they reveal, demonstrate the complexity of choices faced by the Sandinista leadership.
The Fall and Rise of the Market in Sandinista Nicaragua will engage those with an interest in not only Latin American and development studies but also socialist politics.
2021
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2020
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2019
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2018
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2017
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2016
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2014
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2010
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