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4 Inches Of Living Soil: Teaching Biodiversity In The Learning Gardens–A Photo-Essay, Dilafruz R. Williams

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education: Bringing Life to Schools and Schools to Life, Williams and Brown (2011) place living soil at the center of the discourse on sustainability education. One of the seven principles that guides their pedagogy of learning gardens is: valuing biocultural diversity. This photo-essay of elementary students in K-8 schools, explores how 4 inches of soil in the learning gardens can teach about life’s diversity. The author urges humble attentiveness to that which is below our feet seemingly hidden and unnoticed yet teeming with life.

Understanding Sand Mining On The Maha Oya: The Conflict Between Economic And Environmental Survival, Meredith Corea Talbert

Dissertations and Theses

River sand mining from the Maha Oya is the main source of income and a force that drives economic activity for residents along the river. This study takes place in Sri Lanka, there are three villages included in this project: Jambugaswatte, Janituspuraya and Thoppuwa. In Sri Lanka, sand serves as the main building material. It is used to make bricks, tiles, asphalt and concrete, therefore demanding a high market value. However, the over-extraction of sand comes along with significant environmental problems. These communities depend on the river in many ways and the health of the river directly corresponds to the …

Assessing Environmental Inequality In Portland, Oregon: An Exploration Of Local Environmental Justice Struggles, Jordan Douglas Folks

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores patterns of environmental inequality in Portland, Oregon; both the existence of spatial environmental inequalities and the structural and local forces which contribute to them. Research on environmental inequality, or inequitable exposure to toxins, has shown that minority and low-income populations experience the bulk of the exposure to environmental hazards. Although Portland is often cited as the archetype of a sustainable city, environmental inequality is a pervasive issue. This thesis examines the health inequalities that characterize underserved communities in Portland. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the researcher uses 1) logistic regression to statistically assess the relationship between race, …

Growing Cities Depend On Ecosystem Services, David E. Ervin, Darrell Brown, Heejun Chang, Veronica Dujon, Elise F. Granek, Vivek Shandas, J. Alan Yeakley

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Many studies have documented the growing fragility of a majority of the globe's ecosystems. Policymakers and resource managers often frame such ecosystem challenges as primarily about protecting natural systems in rural areas. However, that conception misses a key part of the story: the rapid growth of urbanizing areas. Home to more than 50 percent of the world's human population for the first time in modern history, urbanizing regions concentrate pressure on ecosystem services, which are necessary to sustain healthy urban living conditions and vibrant commerce. This dramatic urbanization presents both challenges and opportunities for novel ecosystem services management. A transdisciplinary …

Fair Trade And Development: A Changing Paradigm, Daniel Jaffee

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Book chapter.

By the time the fair trade movement celebrated the 20th anniversary of its founding in 2008, it had been transformed virtually beyond recognition. From a marginal European movement characterized by small ethical companies, non-profit charities, solidarity groups and alternative trading organizations (ATOs) selling coffee and handicrafts to a small group of politicized consumers through alternative world shops, fair trade has become an international market system with annual sales of nearly US $5,000m. (€3,500m.) (FLO 2010), reaching mass audiences of mainstream shoppers across the global North with a wide range of food and non-food products originating from both small …

Leadership In Sustainable Chemicals Policy: Opportunities For Oregon, Jennifer H. Allen, Alexis Dinno

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Oregon is uniquely positioned to lead in the development of safer alternatives to toxic chemicals. Existing chemicals policy in the United States does not comprehensively protect human health or the environment from the potential impacts of chemical exposure. Very few of the 84,000 chemical substances produced, processed or imported for commercial purposes in the United States have been studied for health and environmental impacts. The federal Environmental Protection Agency has access to only limited information about potential health or environmental hazards. Manufacturers have the right to withhold what they consider to be confidential business information. Because of this lack of …

Living Soil And Sustainability Education: Linking Pedagogy And Pedology, Dilafruz R. Williams, Jonathan D. Brown

Educational Leadership and Policy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Sustainability is now permeating educational institutions. Yet the emerging discourse on sustainability education is in many ways caught in a modern web of theoretical, ontological, and epistemological assumptions that are incongruent with sustainability. We introduce an ecologically grounded metaphoric language rooted in living soil as an alternative regenerative framework for linking sustainability pedagogy with pedology (the study of soil). Five principles that guide this relationship are presented: valuing biocultural diversity, sensitizing our senses, recognizing place, cultivating interconnection, and embracing practical experience. Nurtured within an environment of curiosity, wonder, and questioning, and set to the rhythm and scale of localized ecologies, …

Using Brownfields To Think Green: Investigating Factors That Influence Community Decision-Making And Participation, Charissa Ruth Stair

Dissertations and Theses

Brownfield restoration and remediation is a growing concern across the United States. Brownfields are vacant or abandoned properties with real or perceived contamination. Successfully restoring these properties requires strong stakeholder collaboration, including the local community. The purpose of this study was to explore the complexities of creating a community garden on a residential brownfield site located in a low-income, high-minority neighborhood and to gain a better understanding of how a community based project develops and impacts individuals from the community. Specifically, the study investigated who chose to participate in the project, what motivated individuals to become involved and remain committed, …

Youth Voices Of Bounty And Opportunity: High School Students' Experiences With Food And Community, Kara Marie Gilbert

Dissertations and Theses

Currently, garden-based research does not include input from young adults about their experiences and perspectives as individuals in garden-based programs, specifically those that address issues of food and community. To address this void, this qualitative research examines youth perspectives and engagement in garden-based community projects in Olympia, Washington, and Medford, Oregon. The sample of 11 students was chosen from these projects that use food as a means to engage the community and educate underprivileged young adults about local food systems. The main question that the research addresses is: Why, and in what ways, are young adults appropriate agents for community …

Portland Mercado: Community Economic Development To Revitalize, Uplift, And Empower, Abigail Cermak, David Ruelas, Bridger Wineman, Ellen Wyoming

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshop Projects

Realizing public goals of an inclusive and vibrant society requires an advocacy approach to urban planning and economic development. Adelante Planning outlines strategies based on research and case studies to successfully implement a Mercado as an economic development and business incubation strategy for Portland’s Latino community. A Mercado is a strategic planning approach targeted toward Latino populations and other minorities, particularly in gentrifying locations of the Portland Metro region.

This project was conducted under the supervision of Ellen Bassett, Lisa Bates, Karen Gibson, Ken Pirie, and Sumner Sharpe.

The 'Goldilocks Hypothesis' : A Political Ecology Of The Land-Sparing/Wildlife-Friendly Farming Debate, M. Jahi Chappell

Systems Science Friday Noon Seminar Series

Proposals for biodiversity conservation as related to the dominant form of human land use, agriculture, have broadly coalesced around two paradigms: "Land sparing" and "Wildlife-friendly farming." Neither paradigm is sufficiently grounded in the more complex socioeconomic realities of the food system with regards to another paramount problem of our time: widespread malnutrition. However, the "land sparing" paradigm's simplistic approach to food, policy, and ecosystem dynamics is arguably more egregiously out of sync with current knowledge. The talk will present a conceptual view of food systems, hunger, and biodiversity conservation, with the goal of generating discussion on how to systematically integrate …

Community-Based Approaches To Reduce Toxins In Housing: Lessons Learned From Working With Diverse Communities, Erin Mcnally, Ian Blazina, Stephanie Farquhar

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article will review lessons learned from a community-based participatory research project with Latino and Somali residents in Portland, Oregon. The aim of the Healthy Futures Collaborative (HFC) project was to reduce in-home environmental health hazards associated with childhood respiratory illness and asthma through a process that strengthened social support and civic engagement. Using a community-based approach, the HFC trained community residents as community scientists to ensure local leadership and participation. Results suggest an increase in Somali and Latino residents' knowledge of environmental stressors and changes in behavior that may improve indoor environmental quality. Especially when working with historically marginalized …

Climate Change And Globalization In The Americas: Case Studies Of Mitigation And Adaptation, Mary Finley-Brook, Melissa Haeffner, Charmaine Heslop-Thomas, Elma Montaña, Leah Sprain

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Robin Leichenko and Karen O‘Brien have proposed ―double exposure‖ as a conceptual framework to demonstrate how processes of globalization and global environmental change (GEC) redefine risk and encourage new, interrelated responses to social and ecological transitions (O‘Brien and Leichenko, 2000; Leichenko and O'Brien, 2008). In particular, the concept encourages researchers and policy makers to consider interplay between global climate change and globalization and how this is expressed unevenly across space. After reviewing the ways double exposure has been used in the literature, we consider four case studies to investigate the utility of the framework for analyzing and understanding climate change …

2010 Commencement Program, Marian Wright Edelman

Commencement Archives 2010-19

The program for the 2010 PSU Commencement ceremony on June 13, 2010.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund, delivered the commencement address and was awarded an honorary doctorate by PSU President Wim Wiewel.

Building Capacity For Sustainability Through Curricular And Faculty Development: A Learning Outcomes Approach, Jennifer H. Allen, Jeffrey J. Gerwing, Leslie G. Mcbride

Environmental Science and Management Faculty Publications and Presentations

Portland State University has made integration of sustainability across its academic programs an institutional priority. This article describes the strategies that have been used to engage faculty in developing sustainability curricula, including adopting sustainability as one of eight campus-wide learning outcomes, incorporating sustainability into the general education program, providing faculty development, and developing a Graduate Certificate in Sustainability. The article shares lessons learned and next steps planned to advance Portland State's sustainability curricula.

Expanding Service Learning Models In Transportation, Robert Parker

TREC Final Reports

This OTREC education project links experiential education with local transportation planning through a collaborative partnership between the University of Oregon, the Lane Transit District, and the cities of Eugene and Springfield. The Community Planning Workshop (CPW) is an experiential/service learning program affiliated with the Department of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon. Through this service learning program, graduate students learn professional planning skills while assisting communities in actual planning and policy projects.

The project results include: (1) the completion of the following six deliverables: EmX Evaluation Framework Document, EmX Stakeholder Perceptions Document, Bus Rapid Transit Case …

Climate Justice: Towards A Proactive Response To Social Inequities, Vivek Shandas

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Discussions about climate change have taken center stage. Claims of 'carbon neutral', and strategies for calculating and mitigating green house gas emissions (GHGs) have become common place from Beaverton to Bali. The discourse on climate change, however, remains largely an environmental one, with increasingly precise definitions of parts per million, downscaling climate models, and regional assessments for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. These discussions are essential for understanding connections between local sources of GHGs and global consequences of our actions. But health and equity are equally critical dimensions of climate change, although these dimensions have had only limited investigation. Regional …

Planetary Boundaries: Exploring The Safe Operating Space For Humanity, Johan Rockström, W. L. Steffen, Kevin Noone, Åsa Persson, F. Stuart Chapin Iii, Eric Lambin, Timothy M. Lenton, Marten Scheffer, Carl Folke, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Björn Nykvist, Cynthia A. De Wit, Terry Hughes, Sander Van Der Leeuw, Henning Rodhe, Sverker Sörlin, Peter K. Snyder, Robert Costanza, Uno Svedin, Malin Falkenmark, Louise Karlberg, Robert W. Corell, Victoria J. Fabry, James Hansen, Brian Walker, Diana Liverman, Katherine Richardson, Paul Crutzen, Jonathan Foley

Institute for Sustainable Solutions Publications and Presentations

Anthropogenic pressures on the Earth System have reached a scale where abrupt global environmental change can no longer be excluded. We propose a new approach to global sustainability in which we define planetary boundaries within which we expect that humanity can operate safely. Transgressing one or more planetary boundaries may be deleterious or even catastrophic due to the risk of crossing thresholds that will trigger non-linear, abrupt environmental change within continental- to planetary-scale systems. We have identified nine planetary boundaries and, drawing upon current scientific understanding, we propose quantifications for seven of them. These seven are climate change (CO2 concentration …

Benchmarking Community Investments In Green Building And Green Buying Programs In Five U.S. Cities, Shanna Nicole Eller

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of what can be learned from leading U.S. cities about their work on environmental sustainability program efforts and what that information suggests for other cities considering a move into the environmental sustainability arena. The study focuses on green building and buying programs.

This is an exploratory study aimed at determining if detailed information, recommended for pursuit by Portney (2003), is available regarding: (a) how individual city sustainability programs got started; (b) how they maintain or fail to maintain themselves; (c) what they have been able to achieve programmatically; and (d) how effectively they have accomplished environmental …

Meeting Notes 2008-04-10 , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Portland State Library Newsletter; Spring 2008, Portland State University Library

Library Newsletters

In this issue: Your Success is Our Goal; Government Information; Meebo - Instant Messaging; Access to Dissertations; RefWorks; New Hours and Exhibits and Events

Where's The Kale? Environmental Availability Of Fruits And Vegetables In Two Racially Dissimilar Communities, Edith M. Williams, Bamidele O. Tayo, Beverly Marie Mclean, Ellen Smit, Christopher T. Sempos, Carlos J. Crespo

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Minority communities across the United States have limited numbers of stores that offer a variety of fruits and vegetables, creating major barriers to good eating habits and nutritional practices among minority groups such as African Americans. Factors like environmental availability of healthy food options have not been fully investigated as possible sources of current cross-population differences in disease. The present study examined whether a predominantly African American neighborhood had disproportionately less availability of fruits and vegetables than a predominantly non-Hispanic White neighborhood. Availability was judged on the bases of the types of stores available in each community and the specific …

Good Planning, Good Health: An Interview With Rajiv Bhatia, Vivek Shandas

Institute of Metropolitan Studies Publications

Rajiv Bhatia, MD, MPH, is the Director of Occupational and Environmental Health for the San Francisco Department of Public Health. He is also a faculty member at both the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine and the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. He is a founding member of the Health and Social Justice Committee for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Nationally recognized for leadership in developing the health impact assessment tool, Bhatia thinks poor health resulting from social factors can be combatted by cooperation among health officials, policy makers, and …

Epistemological Pluralism: Reorganizing Interdisciplinary Research, Thaddeus R. Miller, Timothy D. Baird, Caitlin M. Littlefield, Gary Kofinas, F. Stuart Chapin Iii, Charles L. Redman

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite progress in interdisciplinary research, difficulties remain. In this paper, we argue that scholars, educators, and practitioners need to critically rethink the ways in which interdisciplinary research and training are conducted. We present epistemological pluralism as an approach for conducting innovative, collaborative research and study. Epistemological pluralism recognizes that, in any given research context, there may be several valuable ways of knowing, and that accommodating this plurality can lead to more successful integrated study. This approach is particularly useful in the study and management of social–ecological systems. Through resilience theory's adaptive cycle, we demonstrate how a focus on epistemological pluralism …

Coming To Know (In) This Place Called Home: Teaching And Learning Sustainability At Portland Community College, Karen Elizabeth Wolfgang

Leadership for Sustainability Education Comprehensive Papers

A personal and professional chronicle of the ways in which indigenous education models can be applied to education for sustainability, especially among "New Portlanders."

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet June 2007, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The June 2007 Monthly packet includes the June agenda and appendices and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 2007

Meeting Notes 2007-04-12 , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Building Community Research Capacity: Process Evaluation Of Community Training And Education In A Community-Based Participatory Research Program Serving A Predominately Puerto Rican Community, Laurene M. Tumiel-Berhalter, Victoria Mclaughlin-Diaz, John Vena, Carlos J. Crespo

Community Health Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Education and training build community research capacity and have impact on improvements of health outcomes.

Objectives: This manuscript describes the training and educational approaches to building research capacity that were utilized in a community-based participatory research program serving a Puerto Rican population and identifies barriers and strategies for overcoming them.

Methods: A process evaluation identified a multitiered approach to training and education that was critical to reaching the broad community.

Results: This approach included four major categories providing a continuum of education and training opportunities: networking, methods training, on-the-job experience, and community education. Participation in these opportunities supported the …

Meeting Notes 2007-03-01 [Part B] , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.

Meeting Notes 2007-03-01 [Part A] , Joint Policy Advisory Committee On Transportation

Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation

No abstract provided.