Faculty of Environmental Studies Archives | Research & Innovation

Conversation to action: Urban planning resource to address anti-Black racism in cities

ls1207 — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 20:39:50 +0000

Spurred by the death of George Floyd, 91��ɫ alumna, award-winning placemaker and author��brings her work in urban planning policy and anti-Black racism to the University to create a new resource –��Engaging Black People and Power.

This powerful resource, developed in a Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change (EUC) graduate-level urban planning course of the same name, taught by Pitter, will launch at a virtual event on March 22. Her forthcoming books, Black Public Joy and Where We Live, will be published later this year.

The project is a homecoming for Pitter, who completed her master's in environmental studies (MES) degree at 91��ɫ and who was excited to work again with her former MES advisor Professor��.

The course and the newly published resource draws on the seminal scholarship and ancestral example of . The students reviewed theoretical texts and paired up to interview leading Black urbanists, including the Commissioner of New 91��ɫ City’s Department of Parks and Recreation, , an award-winning urban planner.

“Jay Pitter’s Engaging Black People & Power brings together EUC students with members of the Black urbanist community to learn about anti-Blackness in planning practices, and to set a path for more just and equitable cities. Such experiential education opportunities are pivotal steps in addressing anti-Black racism and realizing transformational change,” says EUC Dean��.

The course highlights 10 case studies originating from these graduate student-led interviews, edited by Pitter, Sandberg and EUC Professor��. Other project collaborators include EUC Professors��Ի��. The resource also features a case study of Anthony Taylor, Parks & Open Space commissioner for the Metropolitan Council of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, who has led numerous placemaking projects in his community, including the site where George Floyd died.

The publication identifies engagement practices and policy approaches for addressing spatialized anti-Blackness in cities across North America to address design, development, social justice and placemaking challenges. It also contains a living legend tribute to Silver, policy expert roundtable highlights, as well as recommendations and practical templates.

“Black ink on white pages, in response to Black blood on white streets, is not enough. A single publication cannot redress complex socio-spatial threats faced by Black communities. But it does play a small role in transforming long-standing conversations toward action,” says Pitter, a recent John Bousfield Distinguished Visitor in Planning at University of Toronto and a Senior Fellow at the Canadian Urban Institute.

The case studies, including those by 91��ɫ graduate students Selam Eyob and Jasmine Mohamed (see their article in magazine), exemplify forms of engagement with Black communities, including digital justice, development in blighted neighbourhoods, parks design, and creative placemaking with youth from Los Angeles’ most notorious rival gangs.

“The question of whose history matters, and historical preservation is a challenge all urbanists should be grappling with, in order to deepen their commitment and accountability to addressing anti-Black racism,” write Eyob and Mohamed. “The conversation with Mitchell Silver and the course overall left us thinking about how we can centre generosity as a key principle in our planning practice moving forward.”

The publication is expected to have wide-reaching impacts in shaping placemaking and urban planning as a resource for community organizations, scholars, policymakers, urbanists, students and academic institutions to address challenges in equitable city planning.

“Jay’s thought leadership continues to challenge policy makers, practitioners and city leaders to learn more about the legacies and ongoing implications of anti-Black racism in urbanism, and to work and build cities with people with the lived experience and insights needed to radically change the way our cities are built,” says Mary W. Rowe, president and CEO, Canadian Urban Institute.

The launch event details:

WHEN: Monday, March 22, 12 to 1:15 p.m.

WHO: will deliver opening remarks, followed by Jay Pitter in conversation with Anthony Taylor, a living legacy tribute to and talk by , and more.

�±ᷡ�鷡:��Register for the webinar, hosted by 91��ɫ and the Canadian Urban Institute:��

Courtesy of YFile.

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Climate crisis will affect our health from dwindling bees to food insecurity

muellerm — Fri, 07 Feb 2020 10:00:00 +0000

Brainstorm’s guest contributor Paul Fraumeni sits down with five 91��ɫ researchers to discuss climate change, how it affects human health and what we can do about it. Each academic offers unique insights from science, health and environmental studies.

Our overuse of fossil fuels continues to compromise our future.

It seems that every day the media is filled with shocking evidence of climate change: Heat records are being broken in Australia while bush fires ravage the country as never before; Labrador’s permafrost is melting; and ocean levels continue to rise, threatening low-lying islands and coasts.

91��ɫ researchers warn us that the climate change crisis is about to become a health crisis.

Bush fires are still active in Australia. 91��ɫ researchers encourage student activism and knowledge sharing to combat climate change.

Steven Hoffman

“It’s been called by the World Health Organization the defining public health challenge of our century,” says Steven Hoffman, professor and director of 91��ɫ’s Global Strategy Lab. “That’s a good assessment of it. What makes it overwhelming is that climate change is both caused by and impacts everything we do in our human civilization.”

91��ɫ biology professor Dawn Bazely has devoted her 30-year academic career to understanding invasive plant species. Observing how the climate changes is essential to her work.

Dawn Bazely

She says that as climate change warms the globe, northern countries like Canada are seeing plant and insect species for the first time. “Because anywhere there is a warming trend, we’re going to see diseases that dominate tropical and subtropical areas become able to expand into other regions.” That’s why, she adds, we are seeing more West Nile virus (carried by mosquitoes) and Lyme Disease (carried by ticks) in Canada.

Sheila Colla warns that a declining bee population will have serious impacts on our heath. Colla, assistant professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies, has noted significant reductions in the number of bumblebees, native to Canada.

She emphasizes that all bee species are susceptible to changes in weather caused by climate change. An early or late spring, for example, can change the growth of the fruits, vegetables and flowers that bees pollinate. This affects their ability to reproduce. Without bees, we have less food and, thus, fewer sources of nutrition.

Sheila Colla

“A third of our food is pollinated by animals, mostly bees,” Colla explains. She adds that bees pollinate a huge variety of crops and, most importantly, they pollinate foods that are antioxidants, like tomatoes, berries, kale and lettuce.

Unlike honeybees, bumblebees don’t make honey – but they are extremely good pollinators, notes Colla. “You need more than one type of bee to pollinate our crops and for us to have a diet that has variety and lots of vitamins… We clearly need to save all our pollinators.”

For 91��ɫ post-doctoral researcher and documentary filmmaker Mark Terry, the reality of climate change and its damage on living species can be seen, shockingly, at the north and south poles.

When he took a crew to Antarctica to shoot The Antarctica Challenge: A Global Warning in 2010, he filmed seals blinded by increased ultraviolet rays from the sun and penguins wandering away from their traditional coastal homes into the interior, on a desperate search for food. That’s because their primary food – krill, a crustacean found in Antarctic waters – is dying off due to warmer ocean temperatures.

Mark Terry

Malawi, in southeast Africa, brings the disparity of climate change into sharp focus. It’s one of the poorest countries in the world, with an economy is based on agriculture. Maize – known as corn in North America – is the principal food crop. But the maize crop yield has dropped recently by as much as 34 per cent.

“Maize requires a certain amount of sunlight and precipitation,” says James Orbinski, director of 91��ɫ’s Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research (DIGHR) and former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). “With climate change, Malawi now has prolonged periods of dryness. The Southern Region of Africa is amid its worst drought in 100 years. The famed Victoria Falls is running at a trickle, and taps are drying up. More than 45 million people are on food assistance because of crop failures. This is due to climate change.”

James Orbinski

Orbinski points to a cruel irony: “The countries and regions that are most affected by climate change are the poorest and least developed regions. They are the least resilient and have the least flexible social, political and infrastructural systems. The irony is that they are the ones least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions.”

Is there hope for easing what could be a global health disaster?�� 91��ɫ researchers are optimistic – if we act now.

Bazely says it begins with sharing knowledge. “How we can equip local people everywhere and academics outside of the global north? How can we make the research and knowledge widely available? I’m very interested in open access and getting taxpayer-funded research out from behind the barriers of the university library systems. So many academics and researchers and people in the Global South just don’t have access to knowledge tucked behind expensive paywalls.”

For Orbinski, the priority is “seeing the symbiotic relationship between our biosphere and human civilizations that defines Planetary Health. It is also developing tools, technologies and policies that help communities adapt the new reality of the health impacts of climate change. We are actively working on these at the DIGHR.”

Hoffman likens the global action we must take on climate change to the action taken to combat pandemics. “Infectious diseases spread across borders. Viruses don’t carry passports. And as a result, if we’re serious about protecting our health from the next pandemic, we need to be thinking and acting globally in exactly the same way as we need to be thinking globally and acting globally about climate change.”

Terry urges us to help young people embrace activism aimed at halting climate change. In his post-doctoral work with the Dahdaleh Institute, Terry is teaching a course geared toward documentary filmmaking and environmental activism. He has also led a team of his own students during a “Fridays for Future” climate strike in Toronto and hosted a group of Indigenous students from Tuktoyaktuk at COP 25 in Madrid in December 2019.

“Students are the ones who will lead us into the reforms needed to maintain a healthy planet. That’s why Greta Thunberg’s work has been so important. She’s done a remarkable job at raising awareness. I believe our goal now, at universities, is to provide students with the knowledge and tools they will need to keep up the fight.”

To learn more about Steven Hoffman, visit his . To read more on Dawn Bazely, see her . To read more about Sheila Colla’s research, visit her . For more on Mark Terry, visit his . To learn more about James Orbinski, see his .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the , a glimpse of the year’s successes.

Paul Fraumeni is an award-winning freelance writer, who has specialized in covering university research for more than 20 years. To learn more, visit his .

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Solo exhibition on identity and belonging, a powerful gift to visitors

muellerm — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 10:00:00 +0000

Visual artist Andil Gosine assembles a non-sentimental and multilayered exhibition that reconsiders his immigration to Canada as a teenager and early encounters with racism. He skillfully interlaces this charged personal narrative with themes of both servitude and hope.

Andil Gosine

Environmental Studies Professor and visual artist Andil Gosine personifies innovative, compelling and interdisciplinary work. His artwork, while complex and deeply informed by history and scholarship, is also subjective and powerful on a personal level.

His solo exhibition, titled All the Flowers, at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ont., ran from Jan. 13 to March 18, 2018. It was described as “an autobiography on flora.”

The advertisement for the All the Flowers show. Photo courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery

In this show, comprising more than a dozen multimedia works including videos, Gosine considers his own identity and sense of belonging at a pivotal point in his life, and draws on his research about the overlapping of labour, migration and desire. He uses indentureship – that is, the state of being a servant bound to service for a specified time in return for passage to a colony – as a theme, reflecting on his family’s history.

“I knew I had to foreground the personal in exploring the show’s themes. I wanted the audience to contend with the complexity of a personality, rather than as a flattened version of ‘the migrant’ or ‘the racist,’ for example,” Gosine explained. “We are never detached from, nor are we entirely contained by, our social histories and, as in all my work whether it’s teaching, writing or cultural production, I wanted to convey the persistence of ambivalence and sometimes contradictory tensions that we all live through and experience,” he added.

Gosine’s work related to this exhibition was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Arts Council and 91��ɫ.

Multilayered work speaks to immigrant experience

Gosine, whose research, writing and arts practices consider the overlapping of ecology, migration, desire and power, emigrated from Trinidad to Oshawa when he was 14 years of age.

In this exhibition, he reconsiders his turbulent formative years through these works, which are organized chronologically. He shares his desires and vulnerabilities, incorporates reimagined archival materials and brings to light the enduring impact of the struggles that he and his family underwent.

Ixora flower, intended as offering, symbolizes his experiences

One important and repeating icon in this exhibition is the Ixora flower, indigenous to India and other parts of Asia. The flower was brought by Gosine’s ancestors to Trinidad, where it subsequently flourished. His relatives, indentured labourers, emigrated from India to Trinidad in the mid-19th century to the early 20th century after the abolition of slavery.

Using the Ixora flower to symbolize a gift, Gosine offers this flower to Oshawa – more specifically, to the people and experiences that shaped him. “He takes these lovely little flowers with him on his journey to the past and transplants them, as he himself was transplanted from one home to another,” Lanie Treen, author of the exhibition catalogue, explains. “He repurposes the flower to respond to and reflect on his experiences. In doing so, he infuses his memories with new meaning, both for himself and his audience.”

“Flowers for Oshawa,” 2017, Andil Gosine. Photo courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Interestingly, the flower symbolizes different things in the exhibition – some hostile, some welcoming. For example, “Flowers for Oshawa” is created from 13 flowers, made of wood, wool and metal, which are placed around the exhibition room. Each is dedicated to individuals Gosine encountered in his youth. Some of these people were friendly, some destructive and racist. The titles alone speak to the heartbreak of these early years:

The Neighbors who called me Paki;
The Neighbors with the Confederate Flag;
Eva, who walked and talked;
Lesley, who listened and laughed;
Leslie, who taught me how to write;
Sharon, the maybe not good;
Sharon, the good;
Sue, just the best;
Peter of the sweatpants;
An uni(n)formed man;
You, who never noticed; and
You, who noticed too much.

“Apu, Roi des Fleurs” reflects the artist’s struggle with identity. Gosine has described how he was torn by certain expectations and assumptions regarding brown masculinity. Two diametrically opposed archetypes characterized this uneasiness for him: The Simpsons’ cartoon character Apu, disrespected and mocked; and Gandhi, whom he describes as “saintly, earnest, hard-working, destined to make a difference in the world.”

“Apu, Roi des Fleurs,” 2017, Andil Gosine. Photographer: Toni Hafkenscheid

Arguably the most interesting piece in the exhibition tackles what’s most elusive in all of our histories. In “Tick Tock,” Gosine explores how time can alter perception or can bolster or take away the power or magic of an idea, person or place. This piece features three photographs taken at the same location, years apart. It shows how his reverence for the ideals around the Niagara Falls floral clock faded over time. What once symbolized optimism and opportunity to him as a child faded to such an extent that, in the final frame, the location seems completely irrelevant.

“Tick Tock,” 2017, Andil Gosine. Photo courtesy of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery

Show implores viewers to reconsider experiences that shaped their own lives

The best thing about this compelling show is this: the rich juxtaposition of loneliness, anxiety, ambivalence, isolation and injustice against a sense of hopefulness and the desire to connect and share experiences, to build a sense of community, to discuss or elucidate and, with this, the potential to move forward.

While on some level Gosine is reclaiming teenage traumas, this show is surprisingly non-nostalgic. It suggests the opportunity to revisit, rediscover this history, and this opens the door to reconciliation.

The show compels viewers to reconsider their own adolescence, personal narratives and mythologies, and inner landscapes to rethink the roles that they played in others’ lives and vice versa. It urges visitors to reflect upon how powerfully these experiences have shaped their own lives.

To read about the exhibition, visit the gallery’s . To see the catalogue of the show, visit the . To learn more about Gosine, visit his faculty .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Seabirds’ death result of regulatory failure in the offshore oil industry

muellerm — Fri, 02 Nov 2018 08:00:00 +0000

Researchers investigate the ongoing failure to monitor and prevent risks to seabirds posed by the offshore oil industry in Newfoundland and Labrador.��This ground-breaking work will be of interest to policy-makers, biologists, environmentalists and oil industry stakeholders.

Two highly motivated academics – Professors Gail Fraser, in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at 91��ɫ, and Angela Carter, a political scientist at the University of Waterloo – joined forces to press for changes in the offshore oil industry after their study showed that a lack of regulatory action places seabirds’ lives at risk due to their attraction to lighting on oil rigs.

“Our study underscores pressing problems with the environmental governance structure of Newfoundland’s offshore oil industry,” said Fraser.��The two researchers make suggestions for change, including the introduction of light deflectors.

Gail Fraser holding a Leach’s storm petrel, the bird on which her research was focused. Photo: P. Thomas

This work was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and published in Ocean Yearbook (2018).

Seabirds face many threats

Seabirds encounter numerous threats to their existence. In Newfoundland, on the Grand Banks, offshore oil production began over two decades ago. This area supports one of the most diverse and abundant seabird communities in the world��– an estimated 40-million birds comprising 20 species, according to the Canadian Wildlife Service.

Who is supposed to be protecting these birds?

Environmental regulation is a complicated matter that involves regulations, legislation and intergovernmental relationships. There are two key players:

Environment Canada (EC), which oversees regulation of the��Migratory Bird Convention Act (1994); and
The Canada-Newfoundland and Labrador Offshore Petroleum Board (C-NLOPB), an arms-length (from government) regulator that��enforces environmental compliance.

A memorandum of understanding��(MOU) between the C-NLOPB and EC was created to maintain roles and responsibilities, and to enable cooperation.��In this document, EC was to provide advice on migratory birds.

Study focuses on the mitigation of seabird light attraction

In their study, Fraser and Carter examined the regulatory framework to monitor and mitigate the risks of seabird light attraction in Newfoundland. The duo looked at two sources of artificial lighting from offshore oil platforms: continuous lighting necessary for the operation of the rig, and irregularly occurring gas flaring.

They focused on Leach’s storm petrels, local birds that are attracted to light – a fact that was established over a century ago. Brightly lit offshore platforms can attract petrels, which then become disoriented and crash into the platforms or fly into gas flares on moonless or foggy nights. (In 1999, a reporter visiting the Hibernia oil platform likened the birds to Icarus flying too close to the sun.)

A Leach’s storm petrel. Photo: P. Thomas

Although seabird light attraction is well known, it is not well studied. The recent decline in Leach’s storm petrels in Newfoundland is also not well studied. It is still unknown how significant light attraction is to this population decline. (A “petrel wreck” is when flocks of storm petrels are attracted to light at night. See photograph below.) Fraser and Carter’s research adds to the literature by investigating why this issue has not been systematically addressed in the offshore oil regulations in Newfoundland, where the storm petrels are abundant.

Environment Canada’s concerns went unaddressed

In their research, Fraser and Carter traced EC’s comments throughout the environmental assessment process. “Environment Canada’s concerns in the environmental assessment process is important and it allowed an assessment of the MOU,” Fraser explained. EC also assisted in the development of a protocol allowing oil operators to pick up stranded seabirds on their platforms. It required the operators to report to EC on the number and species of dead birds collected per day (or night), and weather for each incident.

EC stressed that pairing information on the weather with information on the number of birds found on a platform on a particular night, over time, could help to understand the phenomenon of light attraction.

Terra Nova platform. Photo: IceSpecialist, Wikipedia

The duo next examined operators’ protocol reports for birds found on three production platforms from 2000-11, one of them being Terra Nova (above). They concluded that the operators were not fully following the protocol. Further, “the operators were not following a systematic approach to their data collection, and this prevented any serious investigation of seabird attraction to artificial light,” Fraser said.

This research brings to light the failure of the MOU between EC and the oil regulator. EC had repeatedly expressed concern about seabird light attraction, and yet the C-NLOPB failed to resolve this concern.

Pressing need for new regulatory structure

A “petrel wreck” is when flocks of storm petrels are attracted to light at night. This photo illustrates such a wreck in Alaska. Photo: Anonymous

The researchers emphasize the need for accountability and action. “There’s a glaring lack of consistent scientific monitoring and independent oversight,” said Fraser. “A new regulatory structure is required, one that can ensure environmental review and protection that is independent from industry interests.”

She also suggested that operators undertake a more robust monitoring program and immediate mitigation efforts such as adopting light deflectors – an idea that was put forth by EC more than two decades ago.

To read the full report, visit the . To learn more about Fraser, visit her . To see a related article, visit��. To read more about the International Ocean Institute, visit the . To learn more about the Marine and Environmental Law Institute, visit the .

To learn more about Research and Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Ecological partnership further establishes 91��ɫ U as global leader

muellerm — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 08:00:00 +0000

The Ecological Footprint created databases to provide essential information about demand for resources and biocapacity. In 2019, 91��ɫ researchers will team up with the Global Footprint Network to inform future policy in many countries.

Martin Bunch

91��ɫ is committed to sustainability and to addressing the intertwined social, economic, and environmental challenges we face locally and globally. One project perfectly illustrates this deep commitment: Professor Martin Bunch, in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Environmental Studies (FES), spearheaded the research component of 91��ɫ’s involvement in a major collaborative initiative with the Global Footprint Network. The ecological footprint is the only metric that compares overall human demand on nature with biocapacity – what our planet can renew.

The Ecological Footprint project has collected data from across the globe, from 1961 to present day, that provides some straightforward truths about the human predicament. In 2019, 91��ɫ will join forces with the Global Footprint Network to determine if countries are on track to meeting the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals and to improve the Ecological Footprint project’s measures of demand on nature and biocapacity.

“By establishing the National Footprint Accounts at 91��ɫ – a vibrant, independent, well-governed and respected academic leader in sustainability – the accounts will become even more trusted and effective.” – Mathis Wackernagel, co-founder and CEO of the Global Footprint Network

“We hope that the Ecological Footprint will support evidence-based decision making, inspire positive change and action, and shape future public policy,” Bunch said. “The goal is to enhance the impact of this work on policy-makers in government, industry and civil society,” he added.

Timing is critical

In an era when evidence-informed decision making is often under threat, the timing of this project is key.

Bunch believes that humanity is faced with many challenges relating to the ever-expanding global population (now at 7.6 billion people). These challenges include the conservation of biodiversity and the need for a dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. “Understanding and communicating the use of the Earth’s resources compared to its supply of ecosystem services is crucial if we are to live within our means,” he said.

Bunch says that humanity is faced with many challenges, including the conservation of biodiversity and the need for dramatic reduction of greenhouse gas emissions

Bunch’s areas of expertise mean that he’s perfectly suited for this kind of work. With an educational background in geography, his research and interests are highly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary.

“The problems I address require an approach that transcends traditional disciplinary bounds,” he explained. “This type of work is fertile ground for geographers who are practitioners of a science that is both analytic and synthetic, makes use of qualitative as well as quantitative methods, and has a history of exploring the relationship among human beings and their physical environments,” he added.

91��ɫ becomes global data centre for tracking biocapacity for over 200 countries

Beginning in 2019, 91��ɫ will become the global data centre for the National Ecological Footprint Accounts. These accounts are the foundation of the Global Footprint Network’s ecological footprint metric, which is updated annually with UN data so that the footprint can help determine if countries are on track to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This means that the accounts track the ecological footprint metric and biocapacity of more than 200 countries and regions.

The Ecological Footprint project collects data from all over the globe

More than a dozen national governments (such as Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates) and many cities (including Calgary and Vancouver) already turn to this vital information to guide their sustainability policy.

The goal of the partnership is to make the National Footprint Accounts even more scientifically robust and widely used. An international hub at 91��ɫ will not only update the accounts, but also co-ordinate, among international research institutions, methodological improvements to the Footprint Accounts.

What does this mean for 91��ɫ?

This new partnership means that 91��ɫ will provide the leadership and core activities for an international research collaboration to further develop, strengthen and elaborate the accounts.

“By establishing the National Footprint Accounts at 91��ɫ – a vibrant, independent, well-governed and respected academic leader in sustainability – the accounts will become even more trusted and effective,” said Mathis Wackernagel, co-founder and CEO of the Global Footprint Network. “This new placement at 91��ɫ will turn these accounts into an even more incontrovertible reference for public and private decision-making in support of sustainability.”

Looking for master’s-level researchers in sustainability in 2019

In addition to hosting the Ecological Footprint database, 91��ɫ will mobilize graduate programs to support the production of the National Footprint Accounts.

Bunch encourages researchers at the graduate level with backgrounds in sustainability assessment, sustainability indicators, quantitative methods, spatial analysis and geomatics (a field involving the collection, analysis and interpretation of data relating to the Earth’s surface) to think about using the Ecological Footprint in their graduate work.

Candidates would need to apply to do this. If accepted, these researchers could be offered funding of $11,000 per year for two years in addition to a research assistantship.

To learn more about the Ecological Footprint project, visit the To read a related YFile article, visit the . To read the press release, visit the . For more information about the Global Footprint Network, visit the To learn more about Bunch, visit his .

To learn more about Research and Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research and Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Book challenges urban thought, offers fresh perspective “from outside in”

muellerm — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Environmental Studies professor releases book on the global phenomenon of suburbanization. This, on the heels of a major international conference, will shape future thought on this important topic.

Professor Roger Keil, 91��ɫ Research Chair and former Director of the CITY Institute at 91��ɫ, has been very busy. He released his latest book, Suburban Planet: Making the World Urban from the Outside In, published by Polity (2017) in October 2017. The book was launched at a key international conference that Keil organized, “After Suburbia: Extended Urbanization and Life on the Planet’s Periphery,” held at 91��ɫ, October 19 to 21, and made possible by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connections Grant. The conference was the final event of the Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI) “Global Suburbanisms: Governance, Land and Infrastructure in the 21st Century,” also funded by SSHRC since 2010.

Roger Keil. Image by Ute Lehrer

This book and conference will change the way people think of urbanization in years to come, noted South African suburban researcher and core contributor to Global Suburbanisms, Professor Robin Bloch, in introducing Keil’s closing keynote address. Keil’s work adds to a greater understanding of our suburban futures, as new forms of work, housing, mobility and governance, as well as how human/non-human nature relationships take shape.

Keil, a professor in the��Faculty of Environmental Studies, holds a 91��ɫ Research Chair in Global Sub/Urban Studies in recognition of his research contributions to the field of urban and environmental research. His research examines suburbanization, a defining feature of the “urban century.”

Book considers the city from its periphery

Part of an Urban Futures Series produced by the publisher, Suburban Planet is a compelling response to 20th-century Marxist philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre’s demand not to give up urban theory as the city in its classical form disappears. This new book invites the reader to reconsider the city from its periphery. Keil argues that while the massive wave of present urbanization is often referred to as an “urban revolution,” most of this startling urban growth worldwide is happening at the margins of cities.

Suburban Planet: Making the World Urban from the Outside In by Roger Keil published by Polity. Cover image reproduced with permission of the publisher

“This book occupies itself with questions of urban growth that are better understood if we take into account tendencies towards urban expansion, decentralization and suburbanization,” Keil explains. “Suburban Planet is about the process that creates the global urban periphery – suburbanization – and the ways of life – suburbanisms – we encounter there,” Keil summarizes.

Suburbanization, according to Keil, is a global process and part of the extended urbanization of the planet.��“The reality of life in the urban century is suburban: most of the earth’s future 10 billion inhabitants will not live in conventional cities but in suburban constellations of one kind or another,” Keil explains.

The book contains richly detailed examples from around the world. This includes the gated communities of elites, the squatter settlements of the poor, and many built forms and ways of life in-between.

Conference featured leading thinkers from across the globe

The related conference, “After Suburbia,” brought together leading scholars of suburbanization and suburbanisms with a global profile, including international experts directly associated with the multiyear Major Collaborative Research Initiative, and Toronto-based urban policy and planning professionals and practitioners. Keynote speakers included Solly Angel, New 91��ɫ, New 91��ɫ; Crystal Legacy, University of Melbourne, Australia; Roberto Luís Monte-Mór, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil; Jennifer Robinson and Fulong Wu, University College London, UK; in addition to Keil.

Keil at “After Suburbia” conference held at 91��ɫ, October 19 to 21, 2017

The conference had much to offer: Graduate students presented their own work in a pre-conference event. Art and performance pieces augmented the conference: Photography and data visualization work created by MCRI researchers Markus Moos and Robert Walter-Joseph University of Waterloo, Ute Lehrer, 91��ɫ were featured. This provided a glimpse into the past seven years of work in the field of suburban research.

As well, the Art Gallery of 91��ɫ presented a panel on ‘off-centred curating’ and the specificities of curatorial practices in suburbia. The gallery also hosted a reception, artists’ talk and tour of the fall exhibit “Migrating the Margins,” which featured the work by artists of immigrant families who grew up in the suburbs. 91��ɫ’s Department of Theatre also staged a reading of a play, set in suburbia: “Concord Floral.”

To learn more about Keil’s book, visit the . For more information about Keil, visit his .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Indigenous Environmental Justice Project offers unparalleled resource

muellerm — Fri, 12 Jan 2018 10:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ U Professor and Canada Research Chair undertakes remarkable project that provides new and unique place for dialogue on Indigenous environmental justice.

Deborah McGregor

What does environmental justice mean to Indigenous Peoples? How can it be addressed? These are two of the foundational questions raised by the��Indigenous Environmental Justice Project (IEJ), a five-year initiative funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The 91��ɫ-based project is the brainchild of Osgoode Hall Law School’s Professor Deborah McGregor, Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Indigenous Environmental Justice, cross appointed to the Faculty of Environmental Studies.

“We hope that this project – specifically, our well-developed website – will be a key resource for community members, students, activists and scholars,” McGregor explains. “The website provides support to communities currently fighting an environmental injustice, resources to teachers or schools interested in educating students about environmental justice; and it creates a place for inclusive dialogue on how to move toward greater justice,” she adds.

What is environmental justice?

According to the project’s website, environmental justice refers to the inequitable distribution of costs and benefits of environmental degradation, such that people of colour, the marginalized and the poor tend to bear a significantly greater portion of the costs, while receiving relatively little in terms of any benefits.

“In Canada, environmental (in)justice is a constant undercurrent for arguably most (if not all) environmental challenges that Indigenous peoples face,” McGregor explains. “The field of environmental justice studies therefore forms a critical theoretical and applied framework for addressing key environmental issues of concern to Indigenous peoples in Canada,” she adds.��

McGregor brought wealth of expertise to 91��ɫ in 2015

McGregor is ideally situated to embark upon such an ambitious venture, the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project. She came to 91��ɫ three years ago, in 2015, and brought with her vast research expertise in Indigenous knowledge systems and their various applications in diverse contexts.

With one foot in law and the other in environmental studies, she brings a multidimensional kind of scholarship that ranges from water and environmental governance to forest policy and sustainable development.

McGregor explains the profound interconnectedness of law, the environment and Indigeneity: “Anishinaabe philosophies, principles and values are the foundation of the ethical conduct required to ensure��appropriate relationships with all of creation, and thus a just world.”

Her work has been published in numerous national and international journals. A highly engaging speaker, she has delivered numerous public and academic presentations relating to traditional knowledge and governance. She remains actively involved in a variety of Indigenous communities, serving as an advisor and continuing to engage in community-based research and initiatives.��

Project creates unique forum to share ideas, knowledge and experiences

The Indigenous Environmental Justice Project�� ̶�� a venture greatly bolstered by 91��ɫ collaborators Dayna Scott and Martha Stiegman�� ̶�� provides a variety of opportunities for dialogue, learning and exchange. It organizes well-attended special events and symposia, and in doing so, creates a forum to share ideas, knowledge and experiences to help participants and visitors to the website understand what environmental justice means.

Deborah McGregor and Ruth Koleszar Green (assistant professor, Indigenous Research, School of Social Work) moderated the symposium

A young role model for First Nations women, Autumn Peltier represented her community at the symposium

For example, in May 2016, the project team organized a knowledge-sharing symposium to advance the theory and practice of environmental justice scholarship. Symposium participants engaged with Indigenous peoples to more fully develop the concept of justice, and the policies and law necessary to enable just relations. At its core, the symposium posed these two questions:

What does environmental justice mean in Canada, in an Indigenous context and from an Indigenous perspective?
What is currently known about Indigenous environmental justice in Canada?

“By bringing together activists, youth, women, artists, Elders, scholars, leaders, environmental practitioners, advocates and community members, the symposium was intended to initiate and invite dialogue,” McGregor explains.

Additionally, in 2016/2017, the project team members hosted a five-part speaker series that highlighted Indigenous women and youth perspectives on environmental justice. In the spirit of social justice, four of the five events were live streamed via the project’s social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) to ensure that those who were interested but unable to travel for various reasons could still participate. Videos of these events are posted on the website.

Project provides fulsome range of resources

To augment the videos and photographs from various events, the website also offers a reading list and hyperlinked research resources, including:

General, including the Assembly of Nations, the David Suzuki Foundation and the Hopi Message to the United Nations;
Energy justice, shining a spotlight on a joint statement to US President Obama produced by Honor the Earth, the Intertribal Council on Utility Policy, the International Indian Treaty Council and the Indigenous Environmental Network;
Climate change justice; and
Water justice, including materials related to First Nations and Inuit Health drinking water and wastewater.

To learn more about McGregor, visit her . For more information about the Indigenous Environmental Justice Project and upcoming events for 2018, visit the , follow the project on Twitter: and watch the .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, watch the , see the or visit the .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Bold new book aims to reframe environmental thinking at pivotal point in time

muellerm — Fri, 03 Nov 2017 08:00:00 +0000

Professors Peter Mulvihill and Harris Ali publish provocative new book on how to deal with today’s ecological crisis. They start with tearing down old paradigms.

Environmental management: Critical thinking and emerging practices by Peter Mulvihill and Harris Ali (Routledge, 2017). Cover image reproduced with permission of Routledge.

Positive leadership involves standing back from an issue, assessing the problem, providing a learned interpretation and delivering a rational and well-constructed vision for change or improvement. This is true in the academic world. Professors Peter Mulvihill (Faculty of Environmental Studies) and Harris Ali (Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies), have just released a new book, , which does just that. It’s especially pertinent because the issue is our dying planet.

The authors of this book ��̶ ��essential reading for academics, students, practitioners, policy- and decision- makers, and historians�� ̶ ��believe that environmental management (EM) is facing a mounting ecological crisis. They emphasize that the full magnitude of this crisis is unknown and largely imponderable.

Time is of the essence; the planet is at a pivotal point in its history. “Current environmental management is not well equipped to handle the complex and uncertain implications of today’s ecological crisis,” Mulvihill states. “New approaches need to be comparatively more flexible and imaginative to address future environmental problems of a scale and severity previously unforeseen,” he adds.

Peter Mulvihill (left), Harris Ali (right)

EM is the best place to look for solutions. This field has evolved rapidly since the 1970s as a direct result of a variety of ecological issues that demanded policy and regulatory responses. Today, the field is very broad as it folds many closely related disciplines and approaches into the mix. It is also quickly changing. What started nearly 50 years ago as a reactive, compliance-based field has now matured into an expansive, interdisciplinary field of study primarily seeking sustainability.

Book aims to start fresh, introduce new and controversial approaches

In writing this book, Mulvihill and Ali provide a clear, intelligent and rigourous critique of what has been done to date and explore new ideas, some of which are considered by the mainstream to be markedly fringe or radical. They accomplish this, in part, by returning to fundamental questions, such as: What are the purpose, roles, scope and potential for EM?

In their return to basic principles, Mulvihill and Ali also provide a much-needed definition of EM. In fact, they devote several pages to a number of compelling definitions, but conclude that “Environmental management is a broad, collective, collaborative endeavor – it is nothing less than governance for sustainability.”

The authors believe new approaches need to be flexible and imaginative to address future environmental problems

Asking the tough questions

From the start, the authors are clear that they’re asking big questions. “It’s the deeper forms of sustainability that we are concerned with in this book,” Ali explains. “We’re interested in more powerful practices that are conceived explicitly to address the ecological crisis and deep, long-term sustainability. This means that the questions we should be asking about environmental management are profound and, to some extent, speculative or even unanswerable given the current state of affairs,” he adds.

Chapters move from describing the situation to pressing for change

Although Mulvihill and Ali say that the book is not an attempt to examine EM in an exhaustive way, they still cover a remarkable terrain, and do so in a logical and compelling fashion. The first four chapters provide the all-important context and examine the key forces influencing new directions in EM. These chapters also provide significant insights into conventional EM. Importantly, this sets the stage for the latter half of the book, which opens with chapter five profiling the current state of alternative EM – theory, practice, limitations and gaps.

Case studies involving climate change are undertaken in chapter seven, followed by disaster studies and more. Chapter ten hits home with the authors’ press for a philosophical reorientation in EM, while subsequent chapters consider experimental applications and prospects for alternative EM.

Mulvihill and Ali consider experimental applications and prospects for alternative EM

This new book accomplishes four things particularly well:

Captures the transient nature of EM and the ever-changing moving parts: natural, social and economic conditions shaped by politics and the public;
Presents a healthy balance of theory, practice and connections to the real world;
Integrates insights from disaster management to ‘black swan thinking’ – a metaphor referring to unexpected events of large magnitude and consequence, like an oil spill or high pollution levels, often inappropriately rationalized after the fact with the benefit of hindsight; and
Formulates a timely call for a re-orientation in environmental thinking.

The book, , was published by Routledge in 2017. For more information about Mulvihill, visit his . For more information about Ali, visit his .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, watch the , see the or visit the .

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Policy-relevant lessons emerge from Indigenous models of leadership

muellerm — Fri, 07 Apr 2017 08:00:00 +0000

91��ɫ Environmentalist examines how a group of Indigenous youth leaders embraced leadership in the context of HIV prevention.

Sarah Flicker

Being willing to listen, humble and dedicated – these are some of the successful leadership traits that Indigenous youth leaders identified when discussing HIV prevention. Sharing their stories through digital storytelling, they also viewed leadership as deeply connected to their ancestors and culture.

Their stories pointed to a singular and profound statement about empathy and engagement: “When you follow your heart, you provide that path for others” − a message that will resonate in health, policy, programming and education.

In partnership with the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, 91��ɫ Environmental Studies Professor, Sarah Flicker, came to these conclusions as they along with counterparts from the universities of Toronto, McMaster, McGill and others, studied 18 Indigenous youth leaders from across Canada in 2016. They were looking for the most successful leadership skills in the context of HIV prevention in this unique project funded by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR) and the Ontario HIV��Treatment Network.

Indigenous youth leaders from across Canada considered the most successful leadership skills in the context of HIV prevention

“By investing in youth leadership and by supporting Indigenous models of youth leadership, researchers, policymakers, educators and communities can gain key allies in the fight against HIV,” Flicker explains.

HIV infection rates seven times higher for Indigenous youth

The need is great. In Canada, HIV is on the rise among Indigenous youth, with rates of new infections currently at seven times that of non-Indigenous youth.

Flicker believes that the elevated rates are likely explained by colonization, racism and poverty, and leadership could be the key to bridging the gap. They point out that models of promoting Indigenous youth leadership are noticeably absent in the literature.

Project aspires to social change

With leadership top of mind, the researchers explored how a group of Indigenous youth leaders, who participated in a community-based participatory action research project, Taking Action, took up the notion of leadership in the context of HIV prevention. The project planners used the word ‘action’ as a reminder of the end goal: meaningful action and social change.

In this project, guided by the National Aboriginal Youth Council on HIV and AIDS, a group of community activists, researchers and students imagined new approaches to respond to the elevated rates of HIV in Indigenous communities. Importantly, in this project led by the Native Youth Sexual Health Network, team members used research methods that were collaborative, equity-based and with an emphasis on the individual’s unique contribution.

The project planners used the word ‘action’ as a reminder of the end goal of meaningful action and social change

In the first phase of this project, from 2007 to 2011, team members worked with more than 100 youth in six communities to create art that considered the relationship between inequity and HIV. However, youth requested more opportunities to meet with peers from different communities and learn from each other.

Digital stories illustrate personal journeys

Young people are leading the way in HIV prevention

In response to this request, Taking Action II invited Indigenous youth leaders from across Canada to a week-long retreat at 91��ɫ, in summer 2012. There were 18 youth from First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities, 11 female and 7 male, ranging from ages 16 to 26 years.

During the retreat, the youths created three-to-five-minute digital stories or visual narratives about HIV leadership, activism and engagement. With guidance and technical support, they recreated their personal journey. ��At week’s end, the visual narratives were shared – a process that was emotionally arduous for many.��

Researchers interview to gather data

Next, interviews were conducted with the youth where they explained their stories and discussed their feelings about being Indigenous. They were also asked what being a youth leader means to them. In a second interview, after the stories were publicly screened, the youth were asked to reflect on a concrete example of their leadership and how it felt to share their stories publicly.

Youth identify qualities of good leadership

Leadership qualities identified by the youth included being confident, trustworthy, willing to listen, humble, patient, dedicated, resilient and healthy.

Hearing the voices of these participants, speaking in their own words about these qualities, has impact:

Trustworthy: “Doing the work with the people that trust in you and believe in you or even would put their life in your hands. You would have to work with them and show them that you are actually caring.”
Willing to listen: “A lot of people have this image that leaders are the ones that are talking, but I feel a lot of leaders, youth leaders, are the ones listening … being able to support people even though they may not be necessarily supported in their decisions.”
Humble: “It’s not about having that title of leadership … you are out there to make a difference, you are out there to work with one person at a time, to work with another person, and to build a community that is solid.”
Dedicated: “You got to be dedicated to the change that you want to see in your communities and it’s not going to be easy. But if you really believe in something then you are going to continue to get back up and keep working towards different approaches.”

A Taking Action participant

“When you follow your heart you provide that path for others to follow. […] We are following our heart back to that remembering of who we are as Indigenous people.”

Participants also identified challenges to leadership, such as stigma, pressure and intergenerational trauma, and put forward suggestions for successful leadership:

Starting small;
Getting an education;
Mobilizing the community;
Teaching others; and
Preserving culture.

The final suggestion was best expressed by one participant:��“If I can help somebody grow or help them find an opportunity or to even be there just to have a conversation with them, then I know that I am doing what my ancestors would like me to do. And that’s just following my heart. ’Cause when you follow your heart you provide that path for others to follow your lead, and I think that that’s what a lot of our young people and a lot of our people are doing ’cause we are following our heart back to that remembering of who we are as Indigenous people.”

The youth often returned to the idea of the importance of their ancestors and their culture to leadership.

Findings point to policy implications

The researchers emphasize that because the youth were producers of knowledge, they could also play roles as agents of change, influencing policy, programming and education. If this were the case, Indigenous models of youth leadership, researchers, policymakers, educators and communities could work together in the fight against HIV.

The article, “,” was published in the International Journal of Indigenous Health (2016). To learn more about Professor Flicker’s work, visit their��.

By Megan Mueller, manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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