DOCSLIB.ORG

The Role of Unesco Biosphere Reserves in Governance for Sustainability: Cases from Canada

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Role of Unesco Biosphere Reserves in Governance for Sustainability: Cases from Canada THE ROLE OF UNESCO BIOSPHERE RESERVES IN GOVERNANCE FOR SUSTAINABILITY: CASES FROM CANADA A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts by REBECCA MIRIAM POLLOCK TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Copyright by Rebecca Miriam Pollock 2009 Canadian Studies PhD Program June 2009 ABSTRACT The Role of UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Governance for Sustainability: Selected Cases from Canada Rebecca Miriam Pollock Designated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), biosphere reserves are seen as models for community-based sustainable development. They are geographic areas that contain globally unique ecosystems and encourage communities to integrate biodiversity conservation with sustainable development. Sustainability requires a variety of innovative governance models and approaches. This research explores the roles of UNESCO biosphere reserves – both as models and as multi-stakeholder organizations – in governance for sustainability. As a grounded study, the research methods are iterative and include a literature review, qualitative interviews, extensive participant observation, and comparative analysis of three cases from Canada. The experiences of Long Point Biosphere Reserve (1986), the Frontenac Arch Biosphere Reserve (2002), and the Georgian Bay Littoral Biosphere Reserve (2004) are used to illustrate the application of the UNESCO model and to provide insights into the role of civil society organizations in governance. A conceptual framework is devised to guide case study analysis in terms of the ethical (integrative), procedural (collaborative), and structural (network) governance potential of biosphere reserve organizations to enhance sustainability initiatives. The results suggest that to play an effective role in governance, biosphere reserve groups must navigate complex jurisdictional layers and other organizational and institutional players in order to establish unifying frameworks that fulfil the functions of biosphere reserves. The case studies show that biosphere reserves have the potential to play a number of unique roles. These ii include: building governance capacity by brokering collaborative cross-scale governance arrangements and facilitating informal governance networks by providing coordination and communication. However, the research also suggests that biosphere reserves could expand their governance influence by building their own organizational capacity, engaging governments at all levels, and exercising greater leadership in terms of articulating a shared vision for sustainable community development and enabling it, through multi-stakeholder collaboration. These findings are meant to contribute toward theories of environmental governance, to inform the management of UNESCO biosphere reserves, and to share insights with other communities and sustainability-oriented agencies and organizations. Key words: UNESCO Biosphere Reserves – Governance – Sustainable Development – Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration – Governance Networks – Canadian Biosphere Reserves iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To be able to study is an enormous privilege. I am fortunate to have met many dedicated and enthusiastic scholars who have guided my work. Foremost among them are my dissertation committee members: supervisor Dr. Robert Paehlke (Trent), Dr. James Meadowcroft (Carleton), Dr. John Wadland (Trent), and Dr. Robert Gibson (Waterloo). Professor George Francis (Waterloo) has also provided tremendous support along the way. It has been an honour to work with these leading thinkers in my field. Dr. Maureen Reed (Saskatoon) and Dr. Asaf Zohar (Trent) acted as excellent external examiners in the process and I look forward to working with them in the future. I would like to express appreciation to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) for a graduate scholarship and acknowledge the outstanding support provided by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation’s doctoral scholarship program. This unique award has granted me the opportunity to visit several world biosphere reserves, meet program staff within the international community, and network within Canada. I would like to thank Joseé St-Martin and Bettina Cenerelli of the Trudeau Foundation for their constant encouragement. I also wish to extend my sincere appreciation to Dr. Art Hanson for his superb mentorship during the program. Within the World Network of Biosphere Reserves, I would most like to thank Jane Robertson Vernhes for her generosity and kindness in welcoming me into the MAB Family. Dr. Natarajan Ishwaran and Meriem Bouamrane have both been supportive of iv my work and of the contributions of Canadian biosphere reserves. In Canada, I wish to thank Dr. Fred Roots (Canada/MAB), Dominique Potvin (Canadian Commission for UNESCO), Jim Birtch (Parks Canada), Richard Murzin (CBRA President) and all the members of the Canadian Biosphere Reserves Association for their support. A special thanks to my fieldwork hosts Brian Craig, Paula Jongerden, and Don and Marnie Ross. I am indebted to my interview participants and greatly appreciate the time they spent with me. Thank you to members of the Department of Environment and Resource Studies at the University of Waterloo for supporting my vision of a field campus in the Georgian Bay Biosphere Reserve. I always feel at home in ERS. To my colleagues on the Biosphere Sustainability Project team: you have challenged me and entertained me in countless ways. Special thanks go to Graham Whitelaw, Dan McCarthy and Sharmalene Mendis- Millard. Finally, I want to thank the White Squall gang in Parry Sound for cheering me on and taking me kayaking. My parents, Carolyn and David Pollock, have always pushed me to fly. Thank you. John and Pauline Mason have provided constant support. To my partner, Greg Mason, you support all my dreams. Thank you for helping this one come true. And to my son, Samuel Robert Mason, you’ve started life as a pretty good earthling. It will be great getting to know you. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................... vi 1. Introduction: Linking Sustainability and Governance................................................. 1 1.1 Theoretical Perspectives on Governance for Sustainability .................................. 3 1.1.1 Sustainable Development................................................................................5 1.1.2 Governance ..................................................................................................... 9 1.1.3 Collaborative Governance............................................................................ 12 1.1.4 Cross-Scale Governance............................................................................... 14 1.1.5 Adaptive Governance....................................................................................18 1.1.6 Governance for Sustainability....................................................................... 25 1.2 Research Context................................................................................................. 27 1.3 Case Studies......................................................................................................... 33 1.4 Research Objectives............................................................................................. 35 1.5 Justification of Research...................................................................................... 37 1.6 Methodological Approach................................................................................... 42 1.7 Thesis Structure................................................................................................... 45 2. Biosphere Reserves.................................................................................................... 46 2.1 UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme................................................. 46 2.2 The Biosphere Reserve Model............................................................................. 49 2.3 The Model in Practice: 40 years of experience.................................................... 57 2.4 Governance of Biosphere Reserves ..................................................................... 65 2.5 Scholarship on Biosphere Reserves..................................................................... 72 2.6 International Experience...................................................................................... 77 2.6.1 Local Participation in the Grosses Wasertal, Austria ................................... 77 2.6.2 Quality Economies in the Rhön, Germany ................................................... 80 2.6.3 An EcoMuseum in Kristianstads Vattenrike, Sweden.................................. 84 2.6.4 Rock Concerts for Nature in North Vidzeme, Latvia ................................... 87 2.6.5 Bioregional Planning in the Riverland / Bookmark, Australia..................... 88 2.7 Canadian Experience........................................................................................... 93 2.8 Research Opportunities.......................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Final Report
    SC-06/CONF.202/16 PARIS, 28 November 2006 Original: English UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION INTERNATIONAL COORDINATING COUNCIL OF THE MAN AND THE BIOSPHERE (MAB) PROGRAMME Nineteenth Session UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, Room IV (Fontenoy Building) 23-27 October 2006 FINAL REPORT 1 . INTRODUCTION 1.1 Convening of the session 1. The nineteenth session of the International Coordinating Council (ICC) of the Programme on the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) was held at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris from 23 to 27 October 2006. 2. Participants included representatives of the following Members of the ICC elected by the UNESCO General Conference: Austria, Belarus, Chile, Congo, Cuba, Czech Republic, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Ethiopia, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Romania, Russian Federation, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Island, United Republic of Tanzania and Viet Nam. 3. In addition, observers from the following Member States were present: Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, China, Costa Rica, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Haiti, Japan, Madagascar, Monaco, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Slovenia, Turkey, United States of America. The Holy See was also represented. 4. The following United Nations organizations were represented: the United Nations University (UNU). The following international non-governmental organization was present: the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE). The full list of participants is presented as Annex 1 to this report. 1.2 Opening of the session 5. Mr Gonzalo Halffter of Mexico, the outgoing Chairperson of the MAB-ICC opened the Council session by inviting Mr Natarajan Ishwaran, Director of the Division of Ecological and Earth Sciences to deliver his opening address.
    [Show full text]
  • UNU-IAS Policy Report
    UNU-IAS Policy Report Cities, Biodiversity and Governance: Perspectives and Challenges of the Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the City Level The United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies (UNU-IAS) is a global think tank whose mission is “to advance knowledge and promote learning for policy-making to meet the challenges of sustainable development”. UNU-IAS undertakes research and postgraduate education to identify and address strategic issues of concern for all humankind, for governments, decision-makers, and particularly, for developing countries. Established in 1996, the Institute convenes expertise from disciplines such as economics, law, social and natural sciences to better understand and contribute creative solutions to pressing global concerns, with research and programmatic activities related to current debates on sustainable development: . Biodiplomacy Initiative . Ecosystem Services Assessment . Satoyama Initiative . Sustainable Development Governance . Education for Sustainable Development . Marine Governance . Traditional Knowledge Initiative . Science and Technology for Sustainable Societies . Sustainable Urban Futures UNU-IAS, based in Yokohama, Japan, has two International Operating Units: the Operating Unit Ishikawa/Kanazawa (OUIK) in Japan, and the Traditional Knowledge Initiative (TKI) in Australia. UNU-IAS Policy Report Cities, Biodiversity and Governance: Perspectives and Challenges of the Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the City Level Jose Antonio
    [Show full text]
  • Accounting for Demand and Supply of the Biosphere's Regenerative Capacity
    Accounting for demand and supply of the Biosphere’s regenerative capacity: the National Footprint Accounts’ underlying methodology and framework Michael Borucke1, David Moore2, Gemma Cranston2, Kyle Gracey1, Katsunori Iha1, Joy Larson1, Elias Lazarus1, Juan Carlos Morales1, Mathis Wackernagel1, Alessandro Galli2, * 1 Global Footprint Network, 312 Clay Street, Oakland, CA, 94607-3510 USA 2 Global Footprint Network, International Environment House 2, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva - Switzerland *Corresponding author: Alessandro Galli, Ph.D. Global Footprint Network, International Environment House 2, 7-9 Chemin de Balexert, 1219 Geneva - Switzerland Tel: +41 22 797 41 10 Mobile: +39 346 6760884 e-mail: [email protected] 1 DRAFT Final version was published as: Michael Borucke, David Moore, Gemma Cranston, Kyle Gracey, Katsunori Iha, Joy Larson, Elias Lazarus, Juan Carlos Morales, Mathis Wackernagel, Alessandro Galli, Accounting for demand and supply of the biosphere's regenerative capacity: The National Footprint Accounts’ underlying methodology and framework, Ecological Indicators, Volume 24, January 2013, Pages 518-533, ISSN 1470-160X, 10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.08.005. (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X12002968) ABSTRACT Human demand on ecosystem services continues to increase, and evidence suggests that this demand is outpacing the regenerative and absorptive capacity of the biosphere. As a result, the productivity of natural capital may increasingly become a limiting factor for the human endeavor. Therefore, metrics tracking human demand on, and availability of, regenerative and waste absorptive capacity within the biosphere are needed. Ecological Footprint analysis is such a metric; it measures human appropriation (Ecological Footprint) and the biosphere’s supply (biocapacity) of ecosystem products and services in terms of the amount of bioproductive land and sea area (ecological assets) needed to supply these products and services.
    [Show full text]
  • The Intersection of Animals and Global Sustainability—A Critical Studies Terrain for Better Policies? †
    Proceedings The Intersection of Animals and Global Sustainability—A Critical Studies Terrain for Better Policies? † Iris M. Bergmann School of Geosciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia; [email protected] † Presented at the 1st International Electronic Conference on Animals—Global Sustainability and Animals: Science, Ethics and Policy 2020, 5–20 December 2020; Available online: https://ieca2020.sciforum.net/. Abstract: At the UN-level, it has only recently been acknowledged that the welfare of animals is not, but should be, part of the sustainable development agenda. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the interconnections between animal welfare and protection on the one hand, and on the other hand, ecosystem destruction, species extinction, the climate crisis, industrial animal agricul- ture and the emergence of zoonoses, have come to the fore. Arguments have also been made that sustainability and animal protection is something of an oxymoron with, in particular, farm animals being treated as vehicles to achieve sustainability rather than being agents who under a justice per- spective should be beneficiaries of the sustainability transition. To address the un/sustainabilities in the nexus of animals and sustainability, critical theory perspectives draw out pathways for trans- formation. Critical Sustainability Studies is being formulated. Critical Animal Studies is already well established. Both converge in what could develop into a new field, Interspecies Sustainability Stud- ies. Moreover, we are observing the birth of another new field, the Veterinary Humanities, with indications of a Critical Veterinary Humanities emerging. In this paper, it is discussed what critical theory perspectives bring to the intersection of animals and global sustainability.
    [Show full text]
  • |||GET||| the Political Ecologist 1St Edition
    THE POLITICAL ECOLOGIST 1ST EDITION DOWNLOAD FREE David Wells | 9781351884037 | | | | | Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction, 2nd Edition Related articles Cultural ecology Cyborg anthropology Digital anthropology Ecological anthropology Environmental anthropology Political ecology Science, technology and society. Public administration. At its core, it contextualizes political and ecological explanations of human behavior. Anthropologist Eric R. Editor: Prince Emeka Ndimele. Selected type: E-Book. NO YES. Undetected location. The effects of crude oil exploration on Fish and fisheries of Nigerian Aquatic Ecosystems With conservationists establishing protected areas to conserve biodiversity"political ecologists have The Political Ecologist 1st edition some energy to the study of protected areas, which is unsurprising given political ecology's overall interest in forms of access to, and control over resources". Conversely, Julian Steward and Roy Rappaport 's theories of cultural ecology are sometimes credited with shifting the functionalist-oriented anthropology of the s and s and incorporating ecology and environment into ethnographic study. We are always looking for ways to improve customer experience on Elsevier. If you decide to The Political Ecologist 1st edition, a new browser tab will open so you can complete the survey after you have completed your visit to this website. The Eco-Economics of crude oil Exploration in Nigeria The impacts of petroleum production on terrestrial fauna and The Political Ecologist 1st edition in oil-producing
    [Show full text]
  • FF Directory
    Directory WFF (World Flora Fauna Program) - Updated 30 November 2012 Directory WorldWide Flora & Fauna - Updated 30 November 2012 Release 2012.06 - by IK1GPG Massimo Balsamo & I5FLN Luciano Fusari Reference Name DXCC Continent Country FF Category 1SFF-001 Spratly 1S AS Spratly Archipelago 3AFF-001 Réserve du Larvotto 3A EU Monaco 3AFF-002 Tombant à corail des Spélugues 3A EU Monaco 3BFF-001 Black River Gorges 3B8 AF Mauritius I. 3BFF-002 Agalega is. 3B6 AF Agalega Is. & St.Brandon I. 3BFF-003 Saint Brandon Isls. (aka Cargados Carajos Isls.) 3B7 AF Agalega Is. & St.Brandon I. 3BFF-004 Rodrigues is. 3B9 AF Rodriguez I. 3CFF-001 Monte-Rayses 3C AF Equatorial Guinea 3CFF-002 Pico-Santa-Isabel 3C AF Equatorial Guinea 3D2FF-001 Conway Reef 3D2 OC Conway Reef 3D2FF-002 Rotuma I. 3D2 OC Conway Reef 3DAFF-001 Mlilvane 3DA0 AF Swaziland 3DAFF-002 Mlavula 3DA0 AF Swaziland 3DAFF-003 Malolotja 3DA0 AF Swaziland 3VFF-001 Bou-Hedma 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-002 Boukornine 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-003 Chambi 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-004 El-Feidja 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-005 Ichkeul 3V AF Tunisia National Park, UNESCO-World Heritage 3VFF-006 Zembraand Zembretta 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-007 Kouriates Nature Reserve 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-008 Iles de Djerba 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-009 Sidi Toui 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-010 Tabarka 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-011 Ain Chrichira 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-012 Aina Zana 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-013 des Iles Kneiss 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-014 Serj 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-015 Djebel Bouramli 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-016 Djebel Khroufa 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-017 Djebel Touati 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-018 Etella Natural 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-019 Grotte de Chauve souris d'El Haouaria 3V AF Tunisia National Park, UNESCO-World Heritage 3VFF-020 Ile Chikly 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-021 Kechem el Kelb 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-022 Lac de Tunis 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-023 Majen Djebel Chitane 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-024 Sebkhat Kelbia 3V AF Tunisia 3VFF-025 Tourbière de Dar.
    [Show full text]
  • Analytical Environmental Agency 2 21St Century Frontiers 3 22 Four 4
    # Official Name of Organization Name of Organization in English 1 "Greenwomen" Analytical Environmental Agency 2 21st Century Frontiers 3 22 Four 4 350 Vermont 5 350.org 6 A Seed Japan Acao Voluntaria de Atitude dos Movimentos por Voluntary Action O Attitude of Social 7 Transparencia Social Movements for Transparency Acción para la Promoción de Ambientes Libres Promoting Action for Smokefree 8 de Tabaco Environments Ações para Preservação dos Recursos Naturais e 9 Desenvolvimento Economico Racional - APRENDER 10 ACT Alliance - Action by Churches Together 11 Action on Armed Violence Action on Disability and Development, 12 Bangladesh Actions communautaires pour le développement COMMUNITY ACTIONS FOR 13 integral INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT 14 Actions Vitales pour le Développement durable Vital Actions for Sustainable Development Advocates coalition for Development and 15 Environment 16 Africa Youth for Peace and Development 17 African Development and Advocacy Centre African Network for Policy Research and 18 Advocacy for Sustainability 19 African Women's Alliance, Inc. Afrique Internationale pour le Developpement et 20 l'Environnement au 21è Siècle 21 Agência Brasileira de Gerenciamento Costeiro Brazilian Coastal Management Agency 22 Agrisud International 23 Ainu association of Hokkaido 24 Air Transport Action Group 25 Aldeota Global Aldeota Global - (Global "small village") 26 Aleanca Ekologjike Europiane Rinore Ecological European Youth Alliance Alianza de Mujeres Indigenas de Centroamerica y 27 Mexico 28 Alianza ONG NGO Alliance ALL INDIA HUMAN
    [Show full text]
  • ANGELICA CAREY Focus: Urban Sustainability a Native from Lynn
    Meet Our Students! PATRICK KELLEY JEREMY PRICE Focus: Environmental Quality Focus: Renewable Energy and Efficient Design I completed my undergraduate degree at Hampshire College with a concentration in environmental After completing his undergraduate studies at UMass,(B.S. Sustainable Community Development), and wildlife science. My thesis explored the usage of bird feathers as bioindicators of environmental Jeremy sought to strengthen his ability to effectively facilitate change, and enrolled in the Department ANGELICA CAREY contamination using mass spectrometry in the Cape Cod area. I love the environment and everything of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning’s (LARP) Master of Regional Planning Program. Jeremy Focus: Urban Sustainability that comes with it- wildlife, sunshine, hiking, swimming, and most of all, the beautiful, encouraging is the Peer Undergraduate Advisor/Mentor within LARP and also holds a Graduate Certificate in Climate A native from Lynn, Massachusetts, I attended UMass Amherst for my undergraduate degree in feeling of curiosity that it bestows. I like to think of the environment as the canvas to humankind’s Change and Green infrastructure Planning. Anthropology and Civic Environmentalism, a self-designed major from the BDIC program. After epic masterpiece. To put it simply, there’s really no way to paint without it, and that’s sort of where Looking to further explore the intersection between the environment, planning, and energy, he was graduating in 2012, I was accepted to teach K-5 General Music and 6-8 Choir with Teach for America, sustainability and environmental quality interests me. admitted to the MS3 program where he will concentrate in Renewable Energy and Efficient Design; in the small town of Palestine, Arkansas.
    [Show full text]
  • January, 2007 CURRICULUM VITA William Duncan Solecki CUNY
    January, 2007 CURRICULUM VITA William Duncan Solecki CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities and Department of Geography Hunter College – City of New York 695 Park Avenue New York, NY 10021 Voice mail: (212) 772-4536 Email: [email protected] Education Ph.D. 1990 Geography - Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey M.A. 1987 Geography - Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey A.B. 1984 Geography - Columbia University, New York, New York Academic Positions 2006- Acting Director, CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities, City University of New York. 2005- Chair, Department of Geography, Hunter College – City University of New York. 2004-2005 Fellow, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, City University of New York- Graduate Center 2003- Professor, Department of Geography, Hunter College – City University of New York. 2003- Faculty, Earth and Environmental Science Doctoral Program, City University of New York-Graduate Center 2002-2003 Professor, Department of Earth & Environmental Studies, Montclair State University. 1997-2002 Associate Professor, Department of Earth & Environmental Studies, Montclair State University. 1996-1997 Associate Professor, Department of Geography, Florida State University. 1991-1996 Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Florida State University. 1990-1991 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Geography and Planning, West Chester University. Other Positions 2002 Lecturer, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, MPA Program, Columbia University, Biosphere2 Campus. 2001-2003 Faculty, Center for Environmental Prediction, Rutgers University. 1990 Summer Session Instructor, Department of Geography, Rutgers University. Publications Solecki, W.D. with many others (2007). IPCC Working Group II Contribution to The Fourth Assessment Report. Contributing author for Chapter 7. Industry, Settlement, and Society, and Chapter 14. North America.
    [Show full text]
  • Requirements for the Major and Minor in Sustainability Studies (SUS) Requirements for the Major in Sustainability Studies (SUS) A
    SUSTAINABILITY STUDIES (SUS) Fall 2021 Bulletin Sustainability Studies (SUS) Major and Minor in Sustainability Studies Director: Arlene Cassidy Email: [email protected] Advisor: Nancy Black Program Office: W0511 Melville Library Phone: (631) 632-9404 Website: https://www.somas.stonybrook.edu/education/undergraduate/undergraduate-degrees/bachelor-of-arts-in-sustainability-studies/ Sustainability Studies (SUS) The Sustainability Studies major, leading to a Bachelor of Arts degree, provides the skills, knowledge, and preparation for students to understand and address the environmental, social, political, economic and ethical issues related to the transformation of our current societies to ones that are sustainable. The curriculum integrates principles and methodologies from social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. The major prepares students for entry-level employment in the public, private, or non-profit sectors in a variety of fields including economic development, foreign aid, public administration, law, diplomacy, public policy, public health, resource and energy conservation, business, finance, international trade, or eco-tourism. The major prepares students for graduate study in social science, political science, law, management and business. The major builds on the interdisciplinary sustainability core curriculum. Students will enroll in major-specific courses in their junior and senior year. As part of the preparation, students will work in teams with students enrolled in related majors to collaboratively
    [Show full text]
  • The Virocene Epoch: the Vulnerability Nexus of Viruses, Capitalism and Racism
    The Virocene Epoch: the vulnerability nexus of viruses, capitalism and racism Jude L. Fernando1 Clark University, USA Abstract COVID-19 has ushered in a new planetary epoch—the Virocene. In doing so, it has laid bare the limits of humanity's power over nature, exposing the vulnerability of 'normal' ways of living and their moral and pragmatic bankruptcy in coping with those vulnerabilities. 'Normal' is powerless against the virus and has not worked for a majority of the world's human and non-human population. Whatever new normal humanity fashions depends on the socio-ecological change set in motion by mutations between human and non-human species. The outcomes of society's responses to the pandemic depend on how human agency, as an embodiment of social, ecological, and metaphysical relations, transforms the relations now shaped by capitalism and racism—the two mutually reinforcing processes at the root of the Virocene's social and ecological vulnerabilities. A deeper understanding of vulnerabilities is necessary to avoid recreating a 'new normal' that normalizes the current oppressive and vulnerable social order, while inhibiting our ability to transform the world. At the same time, the sweeping possibilities of alternative ways of organizing humanity's mutual wellbeing and nature lie at our fingertips. The emancipatory political consciousness, rationalities, and strategies inherent in such intuitively sensible and counter-hegemonic approaches, first and foremost, are matters of justice, embodied in the power that shapes human-nature metabolism. The Virocene is thus a battleground for social and ecological justice. To be effective partners in these struggles for justice, political ecology needs a universal perspective of social and ecological justice that functions both as a form of critical inquiry—that is, as a way to understand how social and ecological inequalities and justices arise and function—and as a form of critical praxis—that is, as a way to reclaim and transform capitalism and racism's power in valuing and organizing social and ecological wellbeing.
    [Show full text]
  • Book of Abstracts Here
    Page 1 22nd Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia Abstracts 22nd Biennial Conference of the ASAA The University of Sydney sydney.edu.au/events/asaa2018 Area Studies and Beyond – Abstracts 22nd Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) 3 - 5 July 2018 Contents Welcome from the ASAA President ii Welcome from the Conference Convenor iii Sub-Regional Keynote Abstracts 1 Roundtable Abstracts 3 Speaker Abstracts (alphabetical by last name) Abdullah – Asad 4 Bacon – Bytheway 12 Campbell – Curato 21 Da-Anoy – Dutta 37 Edwards – Erlina 44 Fabrizio – Fushiki 46 Galang – Gupta 53 Hack – Hyslop 62 Inwald – I-Ying 73 Jacka – Jung 74 Kam – Kwek 77 Lahiri-Dutt - Luzzu 86 Ma – Myutel 98 Abstracts Nagesh – Nur 112 O’Brien – Oshiro 120 Pak – Putra 121 Rahim – Rungmanee 132 Saito – Swinbank 139 Tadem – Twomey 155 Uabumrungjit – Utama 164 Vanderstaay – Vu 164 Wahyuningrum – Wu 167 Xiaoxuan – Xu 179 Yadav – Yusuke 179 Zabrovskaia – Zhou 186 22nd Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia Association of Asian Studies 22nd Biennial Conference of the i Page i2 Welcome from the ASAA President Welcome to the 22nd biennial Asian Studies Association of Australia Conference Since 1976, ASAA and its conferences have been at the centre of Asian engagement in Australia. Over these 42 years, Asian Studies and Asian engagement have moved from the periphery of the Australian academy and public discourse to the very heart. We stand on the shoulders of those who have presented before us and brought their insight to the attention of policy makers and the next generation of students.
    [Show full text]