Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change

This study examines the impact of attaining permanent resident status on the employment integration of migrant caregivers in Canada. The authors use survey data from 631 caregivers who arrived as migrants under a temporary foreign worker program before transitioning to permanent residency, as well as data from 47 focus group discussions. The authors find that although most caregivers do switch out of caregiving work over time, they often remain within a few, lower-skilled occupations. Postsecondary education acquired before migration has no impact on occupational mobility. Caregivers’ lack of financial stability and the stigmatization of their employment experience often constrain their labor market options; moreover, an emotional bond and sense of obligation toward employers often hinder their ability to move out into other occupations, even after receiving legal permanent resident status. From the empirical results, the authors provide theoretical insights into the complex relatio...

Graduate students were invited by their faculty advisors to attend the 10 th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research. Afterward, they were encouraged to comment on their experiences, involvement, and positioning. Two main authors developed survey questions and retrieved, analyzed, and synthesized the responses of four other graduate students. The overall experience of attending an invitational research seminar evoked various ideas about graduate students' present and future roles in research communities.

The purpose of this dissertation has been to analyze the culturally embedded conditions, and relational and institutional formations required for contemporary conservation and collaborative management arrangements to be beneficial for Indigenous communities.

This report is informed by the research design and findings of a postdoctoral study that examines local scenarios of vulnerability and adaptive capacity to coastal climate risks, and opportunities
for adaptation planning on Prince Edward Island's (PEI) north shore. The postdoctoral research was conducted as part of the Partnership for Canada-Caribbean Community Climate Change
Adaptation (ParCA) project, which is assessing community level vulnerability and possibilities for adaptation to climate change in study sites on Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, Tobago and
Jamaica.

Global climate change is a serious threat to the social and ecological resilience and sustainable development of municipalities and economic sectors connected to PEI’s coastal systems. Assessment reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and downscaled climate model projections for the Atlantic region of Canada and PEI demonstrate that anticipated risks and impacts related to global climate change are expected to become increasingly variable and extreme. Future climate impacts are expected to be reinforced by existing social
vulnerabilities and adaptive capacity limitations that are common to small island and low-lying coastal areas. In particular, the intensifying scale of climate risk and complexity of vulnerability on PEI will likely test the capacities of communities and governments, and potentially overwhelm their resilience
thresholds. Many households in the focal communities of Lennox Island, Malpeque Bay, Cavendish, Stanley Bridge, North Rustico, Stanhope, Brackley Bay, Covehead and Savage Harbour depend on livelihoods in tourism, fisheries, farming and aquaculture industries, and are active in activities that are embedded within coastal landscapes. Changing climatic and socioeconomic conditions pose extensive adaptation challenges to these coastal livelihoods. The increased susceptibility of communities to ongoing coastal hazards and socioeconomic stresses
can reduce their capacity for climate resilience, social change and economic recovery, and be disruptive to local livelihood security.

The purpose of this report is to assess multi-faceted scenarios of vulnerability and adaptation to current and future climate challenges in coastal communities on PEI. The scenarios and analysis provide detailed, context-specific information that can assist local stakeholders and multi-level decision-makers in PEI to develop informed and comprehensive processes for understanding, planning and managing climate change adaptation. The report seeks to encourage and guide local stakeholders and decision-makers on PEI to initiate proactive adaptation planning through community-focused and collaborative processes that can minimize vulnerability while building resilience to future risk. Amidst the immense challenges, adaptation processes can provide windows of opportunity for community stakeholders, grassroots coalitions and decision-makers to explore innovative and transformative ways to evolve their institutions, values, practices and policies to be more equitable and resilient.

A climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment was conducted in Dominica, a Caribbean small island developing state located in the Lesser Antilles. The assessment revealed that the country's population is already experiencing many impacts on health and health systems from climate variability and change. Infectious diseases as well as food and waterborne diseases pose continued threats as climate change may exacerbate the related health risks. Threats to food security were also identified, with particular concern for food production systems. The findings of the assessment included near-term and long-term adaptation options that can inform actions of health sector decision-makers in addressing health vulnerabilities and building resilience to climate change. Key challenges include the need for enhanced financial and human resources to build awareness of key health risks and increase adaptive capacity. Other small island developing states interested in pursuing a vulnerability and adaptation assessment may find this assessment approach, key findings, analysis, and lessons learned useful.

This study explores whether there is a meaningful role for health organizations such as Dignitas International to support First Nations organizations in Northern Ontario in strengthening the resilience and adaptive capacity of their community health systems to the impacts of climate change. For First Nations organizations and change leaders, the assessment aims to provide some foundational concepts and opportunities for developing climate change and health conversations, adaptation planning and partnership-building that are also informed by First Nations cultural and health values and priorities. Since climate change and health is a relatively new content area for Dignitas and many other health-focused organizations, it has also been important for this study to demonstrate an understanding of the complex relationship between climate change and health from the experiences, conceptualizations and priorities of Indigenous communities in Canada.

As such, this study includes three major elements: i) feasibility assessment, ii) analysis of potential engagement models that can support First Nations organizations, and iii) recommendations of strategic options for health organizations to expand their capacity to support climate change and health planning and programming in partnership with First Nations collaborators. The feasibility assessment and engagement process were conducted with First Nations and non-Indigenous health collaborators to provide an analysis of current climate change and health perceptions, capacities and knowledge translation gaps against existing initiatives implemented by government, non-governmental and community actors. In particular, this study sought to comprehensively explore pathways between climate risks and increasing health vulnerabilities, community strengths and opportunities, barriers and gaps, and existing initiatives through a culturally-informed and health equity lens.

This article examines how advances in digital and data infrastructure in Indigenous communities in Canada can be an important tool in enabling: greater levels of sovereignty and control of community data to enhance decision making and governance; more diversified employment and economic development opportunities; and improved internal capacity and tools for advancing self-determination and self-government. A particularly robust infrastructure model that aligns with Indigenous data sovereignty and governance priorities is a blockchain-enabled data platform, tailored to the specific data custodianship and governance policies, processes, value creation priorities for Indigenous knowledge and data, and socioeconomic development outcomes of a particular community. It has the potential to provide a vital framework for communities to bridge technological, economic, health and social service gaps, and attend to the important business of Nation re-building and self-government.

Increasingly complex social, economic and environmental challenges are testing the adaptation and resilience capacities of cities, communities and institutions around the world, with severe impacts on the well being, livelihood, culture and prosperity of citizens. From extreme weather impacts to housing crises, the Smart Cities framework has emerged as a global panacea for its ability to minimize the interlocking challenges facing urban centres. Whether highly technocratic and top-down (e.g. Seoul and Dubai) or democratized and participatory (e.g. Barcelona and Nunavut communities), many global cities and communities are exploring connected technology, data and innovation opportunities with the goal of improving and transforming the lives and environments of their citizens.

This article demonstrates that while context-relevant digital and data technologies associated with smart cities may be desirable and necessary for communities and cities of the future, the living earth provides a wealth of intelligent, resilient and readily available innovation solutions to urban challenges. The exciting challenge for the flourishing sectors of technology and innovation is to explore how the intelligence and wisdom of natural landscapes and ancient practices can continue to inspire design, technology, and innovation by weaving together with modern digital solutions in intentional and valuable ways that are responsive to the increasing complexity of climate, environmental and socioeconomic challenges. Moreover, how can the multifaceted understanding of and attunement with complex ecosystems at the heart of Indigenous technologies be restored and amplified in urban contexts?

Graduate students were invited by their faculty advisors to attend the 10 th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research. Afterward, they were encouraged to comment on their experiences, involvement, and positioning. Two main authors developed survey questions and retrieved, analyzed, and synthesized the responses of four other graduate students. The overall experience of attending an invitational research seminar evoked various ideas about graduate students’ present and future roles in research communities. Resume Des doctorants ont ete invites par leurs conseillers pedagogiques a participer au colloque intitule 10 th Seminar in Health and Environmental Education Research (10 e colloque sur la recherche en education relative a la sante et a l’environnement). On les a par la suite incites a formuler des commentaires sur leur experience, leur engagement et leurs opinions. Deux eminents auteurs ont elabore un sondage et recueilli puis analyse les reponses de quatre autres d...

In the contemporary global political context of stringent conservation policy and low carbon economies, Guyana has positioned itself between two divergent paths of development and identity: 1) its desire to entrench itself as a competitive player in the global economy, and 2) its goal to pursue a more ecologically sustainable model of development. Focusing on Guyana's controversial Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) and its Reduction of Emissions through Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) framework, this paper critically explores the increasing marketization of forest management and climate change governance and their implications for negotiating Indigenous rights and participation in national and global climate change and conservation policies and debates.

At this initial stage of my inquiry, this paper does not purport to be a complete or authoritative analysis of the research topic. Rather, it reflects the substantive issues; empirical, philosophical and methodological questions seminal to my doctoral research. The pretext for my doctoral research and for this paper is to explore whether a collaborative wildlife conservation approach that is grounded in Amerindian wildlife knowledge and stewardship, yet complemented by decolonized conservation knowledge, has the potential of being more socially/environmentally just, reflexive, holistic and relevant to Amerindian communities, animal beings and ecosystems. The transformative potential of the processes and concepts embodied in indigenous knowledge systems holds the greatest possibility (Simpson, 2004; Bishop, 1998) for decolonizing conservation, for collaboration between conservationist and indigenist discourses and practices, and for local stewardship of tropical forests and wildlife....

A climate change and health vulnerability and adaptation assessment was conducted in Dominica, a Caribbean small island developing state located in the Lesser Antilles. The assessment revealed that the country’s population is already experiencing many impacts on health and health systems from climate variability and change. Infectious diseases as well as food and waterborne diseases pose continued threats as climate change may exacerbate the related health risks. Threats to food security were also identified, with particular concern for food production systems. The findings of the assessment included near-term and long-term adaptation options that can inform actions of health sector decision-makers in addressing health vulnerabilities and building resilience to climate change. Key challenges include the need for enhanced financial and human resources to build awareness of key health risks and increase adaptive capacity. Other small island developing states interested in pursuing a v...

Within their collective memory, most Indigenous cultures hold allegorical prophecies 1 about a time of darkness and uncertainty that precipitates a deep transformational shift in the ecological, spiritual, philosophical, epistemic, and cultural foundations of society, leading to a period of deep reflection and accountability by the Peoples for their actions and how they impact the land and the future generations. It is also a time of awakening in the Peoples of their sacred relationships and covenants with the Earth and all beings, and their duties to cultivate and activate their spiritual, cultural, and ecological understanding and responsibilities. According to our Elders, Knowledge Keepers, and the Ancestors, the darkness is not a malevolent force but rather, a manifestation of the collective pain, trauma, fear, and ignorance that have not yet been brought into consciousness and integrated into our collective wholeness. Colonial capitalist systems around the world have fundamentally transformed people's relationships with the Earth, as well as global social, economic, and political systems and institutions. Over the past several centuries, capitalist forms of land ownership and use, economic growth, extractive resource development, agriculture, health care, production, trade, consumption, science, and technology have become extremely unsustainable, unhealthy and inequitable for our social and ecological systems. Our dominant modes of living and producing have brought a prolonged period of intensifying darkness and physical, emotional, spiritual, and psychological distress for many impacted communities. Consequently, the Earth's systems and beings have borne levels of devastation and suffering that are pushing many ecological and human communities over their threshold for adaptation and resilience. This time of shadow is a threshold to important environmental, social, and internal shifts, and often amplified with disasters caused by extreme weather events, and massive health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Such crises cause not only pain and loss to many families and societies around the world, but also cascading economic, mental wellness, social, and political impacts that reverberate into the forthcoming generation(s).

The sacred is all around us, always. The sacred is in each of our bodies, a miracle of life and water and earth. It is present in every object we touch, every wall and window we somehow believe separates us from our Mother. We each hold the beauty of creation in every fiber of our being. We are never far from the answer to the problem we have created-it is within each of us. Tara Houska 1 Our greatest challenges are not scientific or technological; they are deeper than that-they are spiritual and cultural. Imagine shaping cities as if peoples, lands, and natures were sacred. What if each person were seen as inherently worthy of dignity, empathy, respect, and a life of flourishing? And what if the infrastructures of food, transport, housing, and other civic, cultural, and economic systems were conceived to be in relationships of reciprocity with underlying natural ecosystems, which are essential for all life? The motivation for this book is that recognizing peoples, lands, and natures as sacred lays the foundations for building equitable and regenerative cities where both present and future generations can thrive. All sorts of possibilities flow from such a recognition, which would mean improving upon how we construct places, shape civic infrastructures, systems, and economies, and how we organize and govern ourselves.

Qualitative methods were used to code and analyze the interview tapes and notes. Three main results are discussed: (i) the role of connection in building a youth action movement; (ii) the differential use of various communication technologies; and (iii) access barriers to connection opportunities. ICT enables new and expanded ways of connecting youth to express and share their experiences, which is a key success factor for social action initiatives.