Major Research Projectshttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/141102024-03-29T06:56:05Z2024-03-29T06:56:05ZSustainability-Enhancing Initiatives in the Ontario Greenbelt: Evaluation of Three Exemplary CasesMary Rosalind, Snyderhttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/204012024-03-21T02:30:59Z2024-01-01T00:00:00ZSustainability-Enhancing Initiatives in the Ontario Greenbelt: Evaluation of Three Exemplary Cases
Mary Rosalind, Snyder
The overwhelmingly complex challenge of intensifying environmental issues and rising social
inequities at all scales, community to global, and the lack of impactful policy and action, contributes
to the negative narrative of the environmental and sustainability field. The severity of the crisis
deserves to be critically analyzed; however, the negative narrative does little to encourage genuine
engagement and motivation for progress. Therefore, the objective of this master’s research paper
(MRP) is to explore stories of positive, creative sustainability initiatives to illuminate examples of
sustainability success and how lessons from these stories can inform sustainability practice. This
MRP examines three case studies, selected through developed criteria, and explored through a
constructed conceptual framework informed by core sustainability concepts in the literature to
account for complexity, interconnectivity, and depth. The Ontario Greenbelt, the focal system,
provides a specific region that is sustainability-minded due to the protection of land, associated
agricultural landscape, and structural support from sustainability organizations, including the
Greenbelt Foundation. Three case studies – the Greenbelt Farmers Market Network, the Alderville
Black Oak Savanna and the Shared Path Consultation Initiative – were selected through application of
explicit sustainability-based criteria and examined through a conceptual framework lens informed by
core sustainability concepts in the literature. Each one is centered on a different dimension of
sustainability. Together they reflect the complexity of the Greenbelt as a social-ecological system.
The reporting uses a storytelling approach, informed through peer reviewed and grey literature,
available documentation about initiative activities and interviews with organizers of the initiatives.
Each case study provides consistent insights into practices that enhance sustainability, including
understanding and appreciating complexity and interconnectivity, supporting community capacity,
networking, and forming respectful relationships, and ensuring equity. Unique lessons from each
initiative were also observed, providing further insight into sustainability thinking and practices given
the social-ecological context of the respective initiative. These stories illustrate the value of focusing
on how sustainability is actively being enhanced within communities and the importance of support
systems like Greenbelt to encouraging sustainability. Implications on the broader literature includes
applications of the framework in examining project in other social-ecological contexts, applying
practices in other communities or larger scales, and encouraging research focused on positive
pathways to progress towards greater sustainability
2024-01-01T00:00:00ZLaying the Foundation: How Municipalities can Utilize Existing Tools to Boost Housing SupplyBoswell, Tylerhttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/200492023-10-21T02:31:11Z2023-05-24T00:00:00ZLaying the Foundation: How Municipalities can Utilize Existing Tools to Boost Housing Supply
Boswell, Tyler
The current housing crisis has worsened the access to housing as a necessity for many, including society's most vulnerable groups. These groups include seniors, young adults, immigrants, and low-income earners. The housing crisis has been made worse by limited supply, an increase in second home purchasers or other forms of housing speculation, and a lack of purpose-built rentals. This paper explores the federal, provincial, and municipal government interventions to understand what is being done to increase the housing supply. Furthermore, municipal tools such as land-use planning, taxation, and policy direction are explored to see if these methods adequately address the crisis or if more needs to be done. Municipalities have a wide range of available tools, but their effectiveness and implementation may provide more difficult if not done correctly. Subsequently, if these tools are not used correctly, the housing crisis will continue to worsen. When examining the federal and provincial levels and their responses to the housing crisis, key indicators are presented by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), Statistics Canada, and the Province of Ontario's Housing Taskforce Report.
2023-05-24T00:00:00ZMaking-With the Burrowing Owl: Value Sensitive Design as Sympoietic Method in Environmental CommunicationGoudie, Bellahttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/197902023-08-30T02:31:18Z2023-08-01T00:00:00ZMaking-With the Burrowing Owl: Value Sensitive Design as Sympoietic Method in Environmental Communication
Goudie, Bella
How can we learn to live with vulnerable species like the Burrowing owl? This paper looks to Value Sensitive Design methods as a way to expand upon Post-Humanist Design and answer Donna Haraway’s call to learn to live on a damaged planet. Value Sensitive Design proves a compelling tool as it includes non-humans in its definition of stakeholders and it encourages designers to think relationally across the human and non-human divide and with the value tensions between humans and non-humans. This research project examines how Value Sensitive Design can be used in environmental communication to practice and embody relational thinking. This project engages Wakkary’s notion of designer as biography. This project also engages Freidman and Hendry’s methods of Stakeholder Analysis and Ethnographic enquiry into values and technology. In utilizing these concepts, this research project will seek to determine how Value Sensitive Design methods allow designers to make-with non-humans. This is demonstrated through a digitally produced zine about burrowing owl conservation efforts in Phoenix, Arizona. The digitally drawn, zine acts as an “object-to-think-with” and has been developed as part of an existing series of environmental education pamphlets by the Arizona State University Institute for Humanities Research.
2023-08-01T00:00:00ZRhetorical Figures in MusicSlater, Mairehttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/193602023-04-29T02:31:19Z2023-04-01T00:00:00ZRhetorical Figures in Music
Slater, Maire
This paper looks at rhetorical figures in music, focusing on figures within the chiastic suite. It argues for a cognitive provenance of these figures, accounting for their appearance in both literature and music. It looks at examples of chiasmus found in instrumental music from across the world and throughout history and suggests the proliferation of these examples has implications for our understanding of the relationship between language and music and may shed light on the neural processes involved in producing both.
2023-04-01T00:00:00Z