Jonah Olsen

My interests centre on understanding the possibility of alternatives to capitalism. In my dissertation project, I apply an ethnographic methodology to consider the socio-spatial dynamics of economic alterity in worker cooperatives in the Basque Country and Italy by examining how the presence of large-scale cooperative movements shape and are shaped by their broader cultural, socio-spatial, and political economic contexts. My dissertation research has been supported by SSHRC Doctoral Scholarships (CGS-D and CGS-MSFSS) and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. I hold a double BA (Hons) in Anthropology and History and an MA in Anthropology.

My other current research projects include an examination of the cultural politics of Canadian cooperative movements from the Maritimes to the prairies and an investigation into the potential for fostering economic democracy in fisheries. I have also conducted research on the politics of music and the state in Latin America, with a focus on the New Song movement in Chile and Cuba, as well as on the sociocultural, economic, and nutritional significance of dried fish in South and Southeast Asia as part of the Dried Fish Matters team.

I have been a Visiting Researcher at Mondragon Unibertsitatea (Mondragon University) at both the Faculty of Business in Oñati (2023) and the Lanki Institute of Cooperative Research in Eskoriatza (2024). I have also taught courses on Economic Geography and Animal Geographies at the University of Manitoba.

Publications

Olsen, Jonah. 2024. “Resilient Commoning: The Reproduction of the Basque Commons in the Longue Durée.” Antipode 56 (6): 2321–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/anti.13077.

Hisey, Forrest, and Jonah Olsen. 2024. “Collaborative Management on the Eastern Slopes: The Waldron Ranch Grazing Cooperative and Conservation Easement Motivations.” Journal of Canadian Studies 58 (2): 217–42. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcs-2023-0011.

Belton, Ben, Derek S. Johnson, Eric Thrift, Jonah Olsen, Mostafa Ali Reza Hossain, and Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted. 2022. “Dried Fish at the Intersection of Food Science, Economy, and Culture: A Global Survey.” Fish and Fisheries 23 (4): 941–62. https://doi.org/10.1111/faf.12664.

Olsen, Jonah Durrant. 2021. “‘No Hay Revolución Sin Canciones’: State, Revolution, and Music in Chile and Cuba.” Journal of Latin American Geography 20 (3): 103–25. https://doi.org/10.1353/lag.2021.0051.