Environmental Studies

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Open Access
Towards an Ontology and Canvas for Strongly Sustainable Business Models: A Systemic Design Science Exploration
(2013-09-13) Upward, Antony; Johnston, David
An ontology describing the constructs and their inter-relationships for business models has recently been built and evaluated: the Business Model Ontology (BMO). This ontology has been used to conceptually power a popular practitioner visual design tool: the Business Model Canvas (BMC). However, implicitly these works assume that designers of business models all have a singular normative goal: the creation of businesses that are financially profitable. These works perpetuate beliefs and businesses that do not create outcomes aligned with current natural and social science knowledge about long term individual human, societal and ecological flourishing, i.e. outcomes are not strongly sustainable. This limits the applicability and utility of these works. This exploratory research starts to overcome these limitations: creating knowledge of what is required of businesses for strongly sustainable outcomes to emerge and helping business model designers efficiently create high quality (reliable, consistent, effective) strongly sustainable business models. Based on criticism and review, this research project extends the BMO artefact to enable the description all the constructs and their inter-relationships related to a strongly sustainable business model. This results in the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Ontology (SSBMO). To help evaluate the SSBMO a practitioner visual design tool is also developed: the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Canvas (SSBMC). Ontological engineering (from Artificial Intelligence), Design Science and Systems Thinking methodological approaches were combined in a novel manner to create the Systemic Design Science approach used to build and evaluate the SSBMO. Comparative analysis, interviews and case study techniques were used to evaluate the utility of the designed artefacts. Formal 3rd party evaluation with 7 experts and 2 case study companies resulted in validation of the overall approaches used and the utility of the SSBMO. A number of opportunities for improvement, as well as areas for future work, are identified. This thesis includes a number of supplementary graphics included in separate (electronic) files. See “List of Supplementary Materials” for details.
Open Access
Preventing Breast Cancer: An Analysis of Canada's Regulatory Regime for Chemicals
(2014-07-09) Sweeney, Ellen Christena; Scott, Dayna N.
Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women worldwide. The incidence rates are such that one in nine Canadian women will be diagnosed in her lifetime. While social science research has demonstrated the influence of social, political, economic, and environmental factors on health outcomes, many still emphasize the role of traditional risk factors for breast cancer, such as family history or diet. However, these factors are unable to account for the increased incidence of the disease in industrialized countries. This leads to a call for more attention to the environmental links to breast cancer, including the ‘everyday exposures’ to toxic substances that we experience in our daily lives, which often include mammary carcinogens and endocrine disrupting chemicals. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 and the federal government’s Chemicals Management Plan are designed to protect the environment and the entire Canadian population from risks associated with exposure to toxic substances. This dissertation research examines the body of Canadian law, policy and practice which encompasses Canada’s regulatory regime for toxic substances. The regime is evaluated from a population health and primary prevention perspective. I asked: are the laws, policies and practices governing the everyday exposures to toxic substances in Canada inherently precautionary? And do they enact a primary prevention approach to women’s health? The primary prevention of environmental health outcomes has not been a strong feature of public health policy and legislation in Canada, despite the efforts of environmental breast cancer activists who advocate for a precautionary approach. This research is steeped in politicized debates as it engages with issues central to women’s health, risk and the environment. I examine how the issues are communicated and understood, who the policies are designed to protect, and where the burden of risk is presumed to lie. I consider whether the policies capture the need for prevention and action related to women’s health. This research seeks to identify gaps in the law, policy and practice and in doing so, concludes that women’s health is not adequately protected from detrimental health outcomes as a result of everyday exposures to toxic substances, including breast cancer.
Open Access
Y Intergenerational Leadership?: YWCA Solomon Islands' Feminist Rights-Based Approach to Young Women, Power and Equality
(2014-07-09) Notwell, Jessica Alexandra; Haritaworn, Jinthana
YWCA Solomon Islands’ feminist rights-based approach demonstrates that fulfillment of young women’s right to participate in public life and decision-making inside women’s organizations can simultaneously impact the material reality of rights by increasing rights fulfillment in young women’s everyday lives. This feminist ethnographic account of YWCA Solomon Islands’ feminist rights-based approach includes a multi-faceted set of strategies to support the fulfillment of young women’s rights. Despite the challenges YWCA Solomon Islands faces to full implementation, there is great potential to scale up its feminist rights-based approach to support rights fulfillment in other women’s organizations and communities in Solomon Islands and around the world. Calling for a new right to leadership, this study contributes an analysis of the intersections of generational and gender inequality. Further, the Y Intergenerational Leadership? Framework can be used as a resource by women’s organizations seeking to support young women’s leadership and increase the fulfillment of rights.
Open Access
Testing the Implications of an Integrated Rural Tourism Framework for the Niagara Wine Region
(2015-01-26) Holmes, Mark Robert; Wilkinson, Paul F.
Tourism, in general, can contribute to and integrate with rural economies for rural development through industry associations and community participation (Saxena et al., 2007), as well as act as a storehouse for “natural and historical heritage” (Lane, 1994, p. 103). As realization that tourism can benefit local areas increases, so too has the discussion around tourism as a tool for rural areas. In 2007, building on the concept of Integrated Rural Development (IRD), Saxena et al. first discussed the concept of Integrated Rural Tourism (IRT). IRT was suggested as an approach to understanding the complexities of rural tourism through an examination of seven components (networking, scale, endogeneity, sustainability, embeddedness, complementarity, and empowerment), and as a means for exploring the ability of tourism to produce benefits for the rural area. In the past, IRT has been used to examine how tourism has aided rural development in Europe and the US; however, its use in Canada, and more specifically the Niagara Peninsula, has yet to be realized. Using the Niagara Peninsula Appellation (NPA), the largest wine region in Ontario and Canada, as the case study, this project involved interviewing 17 wineries and five industry associations, in an attempt to answer two specific questions: (1) how does the wine industry and wine tourism aid in the development of Niagara’s rural area using the IRT concept, and (2) how can IRT aid in rural development through direct, experiential, conservation, development, and synergistic benefits. While there is still work to be done to improve upon tourism’s positive impacts in Niagara and its peripheral rural areas more generally, this dissertation has found that wine tourism has produced direct, experiential, conservational, and synergistic benefits for the Niagara Region. While there were also some developmental benefits, there is greater need for community engagement and improved industry synergy. Furthermore, this dissertation has found that the concept of IRT provides a reasonable framework through which to analyze the ability of wine tourism to benefit rural areas, although the addition of a focus on the marketing efforts and future goals of the area are needed.
Open Access
Widening the Sweetgrass Road: Re/Balancing Ways of Knowing for Sustainable Living with a Cree-Nishnaabe Medicine Circle
(2015-08-28) Dockstator, Jennifer Sue; Fawcett, Leesa; McNab, David
A Cree-Nishnaabe Medicine Circle, as I have learned about it through twenty-eight years of ceremonies, guides this learning journey of an Indigenous way of knowing as it applies to the theory and practice of sustainability, a strategic ideal established to negotiate the complexities of human-nature relationships and balance social, environmental, and economic priorities. The pursuit of sustainability today has been approached primarily from within the dominant Western, neoliberal worldview. In this dissertation, I uphold Indigenous ways of knowing as equal to Western knowledges. If life as we know it is undergoing significant changes due to climate change and stress upon natural limits to Earth’s life-supporting systems, how can Indigenous ways of knowing contribute toward humanity’s adaptation to these changes? The Cree-Nishnaabe Medicine Circle, as I have come to understand it, provides the methodological basis for my dissertation. This distinctly Indigenous framework privileges an Indigenous approach to assessing the above question and comprehending a way forward. As a non-Indigenous woman, I share how I have been able to situate myself within an Indigenous framework to examine dominant approaches to sustainability (distinct from customary practice using a Western methodology). The following questions are explored to provide context and propose a way forward: What is the dominant Western approach to the current pursuit of sustainability? What are fundamental Indigenous and Western viewpoints underlying their respective worldviews? How does a Cree-Nishnaabe Medicine Circle provide insights and instruction for living in respectful balance with Creation? The main thesis of this dissertation is that Indigenous ways of knowing integrate holistic perspectives and time-proven wisdom essential for sustainable, relational living, which have endured in learnings of “the Sweetgrass Road,” the miyopimatisiwin (also translated as "the way of the good life" or "the way of an exemplary life"). Metaphorically speaking, “widening the Sweetgrass Road” is one intent of my dissertation, sharing learnings of the Medicine Circle so more people can "walk this road" and appreciate the depth of meanings contained therein. By combining insights and re/balancing Indigenous and Western knowledges, I propose a way forward around four themes: raised consciousness, shared responsibility, universal equity, and braided movement.
Open Access
Making Sense of Mitigation Used to Address Industrial Effects on Wildlife in Canadian Environmental Assessments
(2015-08-28) Elvin, Sandra Sarah; Fraser, Gail
Within a given industrial project, adverse environmental effects are a likely occurrence. Current environmental sustainability doctrine in Canada suggests that adverse environmental effects need to be adequately addressed in order to be avoided or minimized. The Environmental Assessment (EA) process has been developed to provide a systematic means for effects analysis and to cultivate mitigation programs to offset adverse effects. However, the progress of EAs often leads to development of industry with inadequate regard for mitigation for wildlife and their habitats. To better understand the mechanisms of mitigation programs used to offset effects to wildlife in the Canadian EA process, I established three studies consisting of quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry. In the first study, I interviewed mitigation experts on their use and perceptions of success of various mitigation programs. I found that programs used by experts in different occupation groups differ in terms of frequency of use. Further, the overall pattern for perception of success of mitigation programs remained consistent. Experts were hesitant to label any mitigation program as reliably successful in offsetting adverse environmental effects. Second, I examined the role of an informational tool in informing EAs and subsequent mitigation. Using a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis, I evaluated the telemetry tool. I found that a specific set of support systems is needed to implement telemetry on a useful basis. Last, I used data from experts’ knowledge interviews to unearth trends in mitigation practices. I used this information to develop policy and operational recommendations for improving the Canadian EA process. I conclude this dissertation with a synthesis chapter that demonstrates the contributions of these studies, and provides suggestions for future research.
Open Access
The Conservation Ecology of Neotropical Tree Cavity Communities in Forest and Agro-Ecosystems in the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor, Costa Rica
(2015-08-28) Saker, Christopher Paul Duncan; Stutchbury, Bridget J.
Shade coffee agro-ecosystems with a diversified canopy have been documented to provide quality habitat for a variety of vertebrates. For tree cavity dependent species however, shade coffee may be lacking critical habitat. I chose to investigate whether cavity abundance and the number cavity forming dead trees i.e., snags differed between shade coffee and other disturbed/undisturbed habitats within the Alexander Skutch Biological Corridor (ASBC) in Costa Rica. I also chose to investigate whether artificial tree cavities could be used in ecological restoration projects for cavity-nesting species in agro-ecosystems like shade coffee. To accomplish these tasks, I first conducted a comprehensive survey of tree cavities and snags in 1) primary cloud forest (elevation 1100-1400m), 2) primary middle elevation old-growth rainforest (650-750m), 3) selectively logged secondary middle elevation rainforest (650-700m), and (4) shade coffee (900-1000m) and installed motion-sensor cameras across from selected cavities within each habitat to monitor/compare potential occupancy/use. I then installed artificial tree cavities constructed of bamboo in 3 of the 4 habitats with iButton temperature loggers to test the prediction that shade coffee artificial cavities would have a greater number of occupancy detections due to the low number of cavities in this habitat compared with other habitat types. My findings showed an almost complete absence of snags and tree cavities in shade coffee supporting the hypothesis that shade coffee does not provide habitat for cavity-dependent species. Consistent with my prediction, artificial bamboo tree cavities in shade coffee were occupied/used most relative to the other habitats, further supporting the hypothesis that habitat for cavity-nesting species is limited is this agro-ecosystem. This thesis provides evidence that tree cavity restoration through the use of artificial cavities and a change in the management practices of shade coffee farms should be a priority for those concerned with biodiversity in shade coffee agro-ecosystems. A similar study conducted over a broader geographic range would show whether the lack of available habitat for cavity nesting species in shade coffee is reflected in other areas.
Open Access
Learning From Limbwalkers: Arborists' Stories in Southern Ontario's Urban Forests
(2015-08-28) Bardekjian, Adrina Caroline; Sandberg, L. Anders
Urban forestry (UF) contains dominant stories of adaptive management, ecosystem services, valuation, green infrastructure, planting mandates, and citizen engagement. Inspired by political ecology, this study examines the marginal and under-represented stories related to language, labour processes, human and non-human agency, and educational norms in UF in Southern Ontario, Canada. With a focus on arboricultural practice, I explore how communicating underrepresented narratives informs a more socially inclusive urban forest integration. Methodology uses theoretical reflection, primary and secondary research, and 24 semi-structured interviews, participant observation and site-visits with 50 field arborists and urban foresters. Using phenomenology, political ecology, ethnography and discourse analysis, I examine arborists’: representation in language; working activities and relationships with co-workers; negotiations in the urban forest, physically and emotionally as a place of work; and, feelings about available education versus existing UF and arboriculture programs. Results reveal that: i) language and metaphors surrounding arborists can perpetuate negative perceptions; ii) political climates surrounding UF operations favours male, non-field workers; iii) arborists’ have a physical and emotional relationship with the urban forest; and, iv) lack of standardized comprehensive and inclusive UF education creates knowledge gaps leading to unsafe environments for trees and people. Findings suggest that re-imagining UF practice and communication influences its praxis towards more sustainable, ethical and transdisciplinary directions by: i) raising urban tree worker profiles through accurate terminology in marketing and communications; ii) aligning health and safety policies with field worker perspectives; iii) developing better UF decision-making systems and management practices by understanding arborist perspectives on non-human agency; and, iv) providing a solid baseline of formal education and incorporating critical social theory to better reflect the transdisciplinary aspects of the field. Inspired by Thomas Kuhn’s (1962) notions of how professional fields need paradigm shifts to progress beyond regular or normal avenues, I argue that seeing UF through narratives of lived experience by field workers can better integrate social and ecological considerations in urban forest research, management and education. My research moves beyond existing models of planning, with lessons from the social sciences, by way of critical reflection and participatory learning, offering a new conceptual framework for UF praxis.
Open Access
A Politics of Dwelling: Local Knowledge and Linked Communities on the Lake Superior North Shore
(2015-08-28) Steiner, Edith Maria; Timmerman, Peter
This dissertation explores how stakeholders of working-class communities and First Nations in Northwestern Ontario along the Lake Superior north shore express a politics of dwelling and their own sense of place in regard to their social and natural environments. The work stresses the importance of local knowledge as a means of community building and knowledge production, and strives to map how the land and landscapes are valued by those who live and work in this region. My methodological approach combines visual methods with autoethnography, since as the researcher, I have a formative and long-term family history in the locations of my study, as well as an ongoing practice of producing personal creative projects and artworks in and about the north shore region. The dissertation’s material structure is presented as a dual construction: this written thesis and a 44 minute documentary film, Conversations on the Lake. My prior history as an independent filmmaker and lens-based visual artist has shaped my scholarly practice, so that my research findings are best expressed using a combination of textual and audio/visual methods. My primary research tool in undertaking the qualitative research interviews that support this dissertation is the camera. Following transcription and analysis, the filmed interview material was organized into the following themes: the role of class in rural northern resource-based communities, the dualisms and tensions between conservation and extraction of natural resources, the intersections of local, regional, and global politics affecting environmental themes in the area of my study, and the local landscape as a unique and relevant character in the culture of Northwestern Ontario. What my research and filmed interviews in the communities of the Lake Superior north shore region have unveiled are an evolving sense of place and belonging, as experienced by actors living and working there. Since beginning this work, new ecological and social themes have continually emerged as stories for investigation and exploration. The shifting progression of my narrative enquiry is a web of interconnected stories along a mobile, transformative geography.
Open Access
On Lifetimes: Children's Experiences of Companion Animal Death
(2015-08-28) Russell, Joshua James; Fawcett, Leesa K.
The purpose of this interdisciplinary research project is to investigate children's lived experiences of companion animal death within the Greater Toronto Area. The central research questions are: "What does it mean for children to experience the death of a companion animal? What do children's experiences of companion animal deaths reveal about their perceptions of, and relationships with, the more-than-human world?" Twelve children, ages 6-13, were interviewed about their relationships with a wide range of companion animals, including dogs, cats, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and tropical fish. This project takes a reflexive, pedagogical approach to engaging in research with children, suggesting that interviews are important sites for exploring the meaning of various experiences. Interview texts were analyzed using a modified, interpretative approach rooted in hermeneutic phenomenology. Emergent themes include the value of shared intentionality, empathy, and intimacy, as evidenced in children's descriptions of playing, communicating, or cuddling with their pets. Children's descriptions of death suggest the importance of the cause of a companion animal's death or her age at death in determining the quality of her life. Children's accounts of experiences after a companion animal's death emphasize the importance of various socially meaningful practices and rituals, such as burial rites, constructing memorials, and telling stories about deceased pets, as well as spatial and embodied elements related to their experiences of grief. Finally, this dissertation also highlights textual excerpts that demonstrate the subjectivity and agency of companion animals. The children in this study often emphasized their observations of companion animals' unique mental, physical, and emotional lives. While children often described their relationships with pets as built around mutuality and intersubjectivity, they simultaneously acknowledged difficulties in living with companion animals, including the challenges of language, care, and responsibility. The findings suggest that children can be deeply attuned to the ethical and emotional complexities of dwelling within multi-species households. The potential implications for these findings include new insights into human-animal relationships and opportunities for children's voices to influence theory and practice within both humane and environmental education.
Open Access
Making Place Work: Site-Specific Socially Engaged Art in 21st Century Toronto
(2015-08-28) Hutcheson, Maggie; Barndt, Deborah
Site-specific socially engaged art practices are on the rise, particularly in cities. Global migration, global networks and online communication notwithstanding, artists, curators and cultural institutions are increasingly working to “activate” audiences in and through local encounters premised on shared exploration of specific urban sites. What kinds of social engagement are made possible through these local encounters? And what kinds of engagement are precluded or overlooked when artists try to engage their publics site-specifically? This dissertation considers site-specific socially engaged art in the context of 21st Century Toronto, a city that is rife with multiple historical and ongoing displacements and that is also facing new challenges, including increasing spatial polarization along class and race lines and considerable political apathy. Drawing both on critical theories of place and contemporary literature on socially engaged art, I offer a new set of criteria for analysis of site-specific social engagement, as well as three in-depth examinations of site-specific socially engaged art practices. I look at the work of REPOhistory (New York, 1989-2000), Jumblies Theatre (Toronto, 2001- ) and DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC MEMORY (Toronto, 2011- ). My analysis suggests that social engagement premised on site-specificity is promising, in that it can foster new forms of civic dialogue, but is ideally approached with a fluid spatial imagination, relationally specific awareness of urban dynamics, and close attention to social conflicts. This dissertation contributes to the emergent literature on creative placemaking and to the burgeoning scholarship on socially engaged art.
Open Access
Sustainability in Southeast Nigeria Through Indigenous Environmental Education
(2015-12-16) Alaribe, Charles Chinedu; Fawcett, Leesa; Zalik, Anna
This dissertation aims to illuminate why Indigenous Knowledge is declining in Igbo land, southeastern Nigeria, and the possibilities of using Indigenous Environmental Education to re-generate Igbo Indigenous Knowledge. The research, focusing on both Nigerian Igbo and diasporic Igbo, has the potential to add nuance and complexity to the discussion of Indigenous Knowledge in the context of Igbo people. This study is motivated by the research question “why is Igbo Indigenous knowledge declining and how has this decline impacted on Igbo language preservation, socio-cultural and ecological sustainability of Igbo people”? In exploring this fundamental question, I argue that a culturally based Indigenous environmental education rooted in Igbo language instruction may assist in preserving Igbo Indigenous knowledge, and local ecological resources. Drawing on postcolonial theory, decolonization and critical pedagogy as theoretical frames, I argue that these approaches interrogate Eurocentric dominant views, rooted in colonialism, that misrepresent and undermine African Indigenous knowledge. This dissertation also offers insight into how a persistent colonial mentality, continues to undermine Igbo worldviews. In conducting this research, I employ Indigenous Methodologies, involving Indigenous approaches to epistemology – stories and personal narratives. These are supplemented with interviews and document analysis. Since Igbo are well-dispersed people, the research design also considers Igbo Diaspora in Toronto to illustrate the effect of locatedness and the influence of a westernized environment on Igbo language and Indigenous Knowledge preservation. The findings from the research suggests that complementary epistemology, through a creative integration of Igbo Indigenous Knowledge and Western epistemic approaches in the school curriculum, presents a viable means of preserving Igbo Indigenous knowledge. Findings further suggest that Igbo youths are interested in Igbo Indigenous knowledge, nevertheless, society’s inability to transfer Indigenous knowledge and widespread western influences presents challenges to the preservation of Indigenous knowledge. Ultimately we must consider how to incorporate Igbo and other Indigenous knowledges, into the educational system so that the low-status accorded to them may be reversed. In the Igbo case, I argue, this warrants an epistemological approach grounded in Igbo language instruction and knowledge of the local environment.
Open Access
What is Music For?: Utopian Ecomusicologies and Musicking Hornby Island
(2015-12-16) Mark, Andrew Christopher Whitton; Timmerman, Peter
This dissertation concerns making music as a utopian ecological practice, skill, or method of associative communication where participants temporarily move towards idealized relationships between themselves and their environment. Live music making can bring people together in the collective present, creating limited states of unification. We are “taken” by music when utopia is performed and brought to the present. From rehearsal to rehearsal, band to band, year to year, musicking binds entire communities more closely together. I locate strategies for community solidarity like turn-taking, trust-building, gift-exchange, communication, fundraising, partying, education, and conflict resolution as plentiful within musical ensembles in any socially environmentally conscious community. Based upon 10 months of fieldwork and 40 extended interviews, my theoretical assertions are grounded in immersive ethnographic research on Hornby Island, a 12-square-mile Gulf Island between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, Canada. I describe how roughly 1000 Islanders struggle to achieve environmental resilience in a uniquely biodiverse region where fisheries collapsed, logging declined, and second-generation settler farms were replaced with vacation homes in the 20th century. Today, extreme gentrification complicates housing for the island’s vulnerable populations as more than half of island residents live below the poverty line. With demographics that reflect a median age of 62, young individuals, families, and children are squeezed out of the community, unable to reproduce Hornby’s alternative society. This dissertation begins with theorization that connects music making to community and environmental thought. I then represent the challenges Islanders set for themselves and the struggles they face, like their desire for food sovereignty, off-grid energy, secure housing, protection of their aquifers, affordability of ferry transportation, ecological waste-cycles, and care for each other’s mental health. I bring attention to unique institutions that Islanders have created to better manage their needs and desires. In response to the island’s social and environmental dynamics of justice, I argue and demonstrate through ethnography that music making is an essential communal process that brings people together to dialogue about their needs and advance their goals to establish a more equitable and environmentally responsible community.
Open Access
From Ecosystem Services to Ecosystem Benefits: Unpacking the Links Between Ecosystems and Human Well-Being in Agricultural Communities in Costa Rica
(2015-12-16) Berbes, Marta; Bunch, Martin J.
This dissertation presents an exploration of the links between ecosystem services and human well-being in resource-dependent communities in diverse agricultural regions in Costa Rica. As such, this dissertation considers the key roles played by environmental management and environmental governance. In broad terms, the question that this dissertation examines is: How does the management of ecosystem services derived from agriculture impact human well-being in resource-dependent communities in Costa Rica? This dissertation has taken as a point of departure the framework proposed by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and has applied it to the examination of communities that are particularly vulnerable to environmental change. The focus on well-being brings to the forefront questions about the distribution of the benefits derived from ecosystems and highlights the perceptions of ecosystem-users. Three manuscripts make up this dissertation: The first manuscript uses a participatory method (photovoice) to elicit narratives about the ecosystems that impact the well-being of residents in the pineapple community of Volcán in South-Pacific Costa Rica. The manuscript offers a community-level perspective on the ecosystem services that contribute to the well-being of agricultural communities. The second manuscript focuses on how access and power relations affect the benefits experienced by Indigenous farmers in the Bribri Territory who produce plantains for sale in the national and international markets. The manuscript identifies how access to the means of production is gained, controlled and maintained within the social-ecological system of plantain agriculture. It also identifies the mechanisms that gatekeepers employ to exercise their power. The manuscript concludes with possible leverage points that could be used to challenge existing power relations and improve human well-being in the Bribri Indigenous Territory. The third manuscript presents three community-level assessments of well-being from agricultural regions on the Caribbean side of Costa Rica that have different environmental management systems ranging from large-scale monocrop banana plantations in Matina to agroforestry in the Bribri Indigenous Territory. The analysis investigates the ways in which different systems of resource extraction shape well-being at the local level. In brief, the dissertation offers insights for improving the theoretical and empirical understandings of how changes in ecosystems affect human well-being in resource-dependent communities. It also offers suggestions to render the ecosystem services framework more relevant to guide environmental management at the micro-scale and in the context of poverty alleviation.
Open Access
From Dismal Swamp to Smiling Farms: Socio-Ecological Change and Making Food in the Holland Marsh
(2016-09-20) Classens, Michael Martin Gerard; Wekerle, Gerda R.
In the early 1920s a three thousand hectare area of the Holland River lowlands, 60 kilometers north of Toronto, Ontario, was canalized, drained and transformed into fields. In the contemporary period, wetlands are places to protect not dredge, drain and farm. Yet in the 1920s support for the conversion of the Holland Marsh was virtually unanimous. Indeed in 1920 not converting the wetland to farmland would have been considered reckless. The pages that follow excavate the complex social, political, biophysical, and cultural processes that account for this significant divergence in ideas about, and uses of, land. Through a chronological environmental history of the area, important historical conjunctures and constellations of institutions, ideologies and technologies responsible for driving landscape change and the production of nature in the Holland Marsh are highlighted. Conceptually, I problematize the idea that the agricultural landscape is natural by drawing on Neil Smiths (2008 [1984]) provocative production of nature thesis. I combine this with more traditional political economic and political ecological approaches to the study of food agriculture in order to elaborate and extend Smiths work. I demonstrate that the context of natures production the actors, institutions, locale, history and politics both facilitate and impinge upon the production of nature.
Open Access
Unbreaking Our Hearts: Cultures of Un/Desirability and the Transformative Potential of Queercrip Porn
(2016-09-20) Erickson, Loree L.; Sandilands, Catriona A. H.
This dissertation combines critical disability studies, sexuality and porn studies, radical disability politics, interviews and the collaborative creation of queercrip porn to both explain and challenge the operation of cultures of undesirability in dominant culture. The concept "cultures of undesirability," describes the relations between systemic oppression and sexual marginalization: this dissertation documents the potential of queercrip porn to challenge and transform these relations. Through disability justice framework, we can imagine and enact disability not as pathological and unwanted, but as an opportunity to bring forth social organization that emphasizes connection, radical access, interdependency, and collectivity. In this dissertation I theorize porn as a multiple, embodied storytelling practice that contains the potential for disrupting and transforming cultures of undesirability. This dissertation also foregrounds the stories of the nine queercrip collaborators. Major themes to emerge in the research were in/visibility, shame, exclusion, and control. By enacting radical access, generating moments of access intimacy, and building community through practices of shared storytelling this research opens opportunities to push against the harm, erasure, and exclusion of cultures of undesirability. Queercrip porn, a strategic and intentional frame, is complex and always in motion. Centering the subjugated knowledges, experiences, and desires of queercrips, through the production of queercrip porn worlds disrupts dominant narratives, making room for complex personhood and messy and multiple ways of living and being. Also of significance to this work is the importance of community and imagining otherwise to the generation of cultures of resistance and resilience.
Open Access
Beyond the Colonial Divide: African Diasporic and Indigenous Youth Alliance Building for HIV Prevention
(2016-09-20) Wilson, Ciann Larose; Flicker, Sarah
This dissertation examines the history of and potential for solidarity building approaches in HIV prevention between Aboriginal and African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) - Canadian communities, through the utilization of arts-based research approaches. Colonization, conquest and slavery have and continue to shape the experiences of discrimination that are embodied and expressed in the health of these communities. This is exemplified by the disproportionate rates of HIV within both Aboriginal and ACB communities. In unpacking this complicated socio-historical embodied health issue, data was collected from two focus groups and a two-day mural-making workshop. Black and Aboriginal youth leaders were encouraged to think about and artistically express the possibilities for, and challenges to, HIV prevention and health promotion through cross-community collaboration. The analysis offered here situates these discussions in the history of social, political, and colonial relations between African diasporic and Indigenous communities in the Americas. It interrogates the possibilities for health promotion activism and HIV prevention that incorporates the arts as a communicative medium for honouring the lived experience of embodied health ills a direct opposition to Western, top-down, bio-medicalized and individualized explorations of health disparities. This dissertation includes an introduction chapter, three core chapters written in manuscript format, and a concluding chapter. In the introduction, I outline my dissertation, providing context for my inquiry and situating it at the intersections of HIV, public health, critical theory and arts- and community-based research. Each of the three core chapters are written from different perspectives. Chapter 2 is intended to highlight the large breadth of scholarship that informs my work. As such, it examines the history of racial formation and anti-colonial and anti-racist aims as they contribute to Indigenous-Black relations in the Americas. Chapter 3 is a reflective paper, written as a first person account of how I reconciled my personal history, world views, and community commitments with my engagement with different qualitative arts- and community-based methods. Chapter 4 highlights the voices of the youth participants and examines the empirical findings of my arts-based approach to engaging Black and Indigenous youth in a cross-community HIV focused health promotion intervention. Lastly, I conclude with the implications of my work for theory, practice and social mobilizing between African diasporic and Indigenous communities in envisioning possible futures.
Open Access
Greening the Saskatchewan Grid
(2016-09-20) Dolter, Brett David; Victor, Peter Alan
Saskatchewan is home to one of the most greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensive electricity sectors in Canada. To contribute to global efforts to mitigate climate change, and comply with Canadian coal-fired electricity regulations, the province must transform its electricity sector in the coming decades. This dissertation asks, what is the cost of reducing Saskatchewans electricity sector GHG emissions by 80% or more by 2050, using a mix of renewable electricity generating technologies? A renewable focused Greening the Saskatchewan Grid scenario is compared with a business-as-usual scenario and alternative pathways for reducing GHG emissions. Scenarios are selected using a linear programming model called the Saskatchewan Investment Model (SIM). The resulting scenarios are then tested using the Will-It-Run-Electricity Model (WIRE) to understand whether a given electricity generation mix can adequately meet hourly electricity demand. Scenarios are compared using indicators such as electricity cost, GHG emissions, land impact, water impact, and radioactive waste, and sustainability criteria such as path dependence. It is found that a Greening the Grid scenario can reduce electricity sector GHG emissions to near zero levels by 2040. There is an added financial cost for taking this leadership path, but the cost of the Greening the Grid scenario becomes comparable to competing scenarios when an escalating carbon price is assumed. This dissertation also presents the results of a deliberative modelling exercise. Three workshops were held in Saskatchewan that brought together diverse participants interested in the future of the Saskatchewan electricity system. The goal of the workshops was to understand whether deliberation, supported by an interactive version of SIM, could encourage shared understanding of the barriers to and opportunities for expanding renewable energy in Saskatchewan. Workshop participants did not shift their positions to a great extent, except to find consensus that there are political and policy barriers to renewable energy expansion. This research contributes to the energy transitions literature by providing a case study of the costs and barriers faced when pursuing a renewable energy focused electricity system. It also contributes to the field of deliberative ecological economics and provides an example of an ecological economics approach to energy policy modelling.
Open Access
Newcomers' Perceptions of How Housing Discrimination Affected Their Health and Sense Of Wellbeing
(2016-09-20) Wenyeve, Gloria; Flicker, Sarah
Housing discrimination is a common problem experienced by disadvantaged groups in Torontos private housing markets, including newcomers. As a result, distribution of the burden of affordable housing shortage is skewed against members of the affected groups, exacerbating their vulnerabilities and exposing them to ill-health. Using one-on-one research interviews, my research investigated newcomers perceptions on how their experiences with housing discrimination related to their health. It began by exploring newcomers experiences with differential impact housing discrimination in Torontos private rental housing market: landlords/ housing providers application of various rules on disadvantaged house-seekers without making necessary accommodations to level the playing field for them, which aggravates their position of disadvantage. To contextualize newcomers experiences with differential impact housing discrimination, I examined the environment in which it was experienced, including, other forms of discrimination that may have intersected with and compounded its impact; as well as factors that enabled such discrimination to occur despite legislation against it. The research revealed widespread experiences with differential impact housing discrimination among newcomers, such as landlords requirement for possession of proof of employment, Canadian credit history in order to qualify for private rental housing. Demands by some landlords for payment of illegal large deposits and key money, were also revealed. Real and perceived forms of housing discrimination based on race, ethnicity and gender, practiced alongside differential impact housing discrimination were also exposed: differential treatment housing discrimination by definition. While racialized newcomers experienced these different forms of housing discrimination, their white counterparts did not. Affected newcomers reported experiencing health problems such as stress, anxiety, hypertension, and asthma while they were experiencing housing discrimination and after. They blamed their experiences with housing discrimination for aggravating their situations and contributing to the negative health outcomes.
Open Access
Tehran Urban Reforms Between Two Revolutions Developmentalism, Worlding Urbanism and Neoliberalism
(2016-09-20) Khatam, Azam; Keil, Roger H.
The will to improve through urban reform has a long and troubled history in Iran, enduring continuities from the first attempts at modernization in the Constitution Revolution (1906-1911) to the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Such history has witnessed elitist as well as populist urban modernizations. This research examines the commonalities between urban reforms in Tehran with a focus on the 1990s reform. A pioneer plan of a broader economic reconstruction project launched after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini (1989), the 1990s urban reform in Tehran was a multilayered project that articulated a modernist urban renewal and a democratic cultural change with a mayor-centred decentralization. The worlding character of the reform reflected a reaction to international isolation and to the extreme particularism of the Iranian situation, and signified a shift from the populist Islamic urbanism of the 1979 Revolution toward neoliberal urban governance. While these urban reforms symbolize the different development ambitions of each era, they share a focus on speeding up the mobility in the city, intensification of land use, disciplining space, and beautifying the city. They draw our attention to the local production of capitalism, globalization and neoliberalism through urban processes and planning. They have contributed to the construction of a developmental state as well as its dismantling in Iran. They were exclusive and inclusive at the same time, opening new horizons for engaging the public in political struggles over the right to the city, while leaving the city in a perpetual speculative redevelopment cycle of the physical landscape. This research consists of a macro analysis of five major interventions in the city through the last century, and field research on two case studies of Navab Highway and Enqelab Street, linked to the 1990s reform. These case studies narrate two distinctive processes common to all urban reforms in Tehran: a relatively uncontested implementation of modernizing projects where the public apprehension of improvement adopts the notions developed by planners or reconstruction agendas (ex. Navab Highway project) and a parallel processes of resisting the state attempts to regulate and remap the public spaces through imposing desired functions or conflicting uses of the space (Enqelab Street).