Digital Commons Network^™

No. 25: The Climate Change-Food Security Nexus: Intergovernmental Frameworks And Hyper-Experimentation In Cities, Carrie L. Mitchell, Joanne Fitzgibbons, Kristen Regier, Siya Agrawal

Hungry Cities Partnership

In this discussion paper we detail the challenges of tackling the food security-climate change nexus in an era of hyper-experimentation in cities. We detail how the challenge of addressing food security and climate change at the international scale has opened the metaphorical door for urban experimentation, or interventions in the processes of city building at the local level taken by state and non-state actors. Yet, today’s urban experiments differ significantly from their historical counterparts. We detail examples from planning history to contextualize the differences between historical and contemporary urban experimentation. Through a review of three global and national urban experiments, …

No. 29: Modes Of Governance Of Street Food Vending In Nanjing, China, Ning Dai, Taiyang Zhong, Steffanie Scott

Hungry Cities Partnership

In the Global South, the informal food economy is both a source of income for disadvantaged urban groups and an accessible source of food for consumers. Yet governance of this economy has commonly been restrictive in Southern countries including China. Consequently, in China there has been an antagonistic relationship between vendors and chengguan (China’s city management officers). This antagonism has been studied by researchers and reported by Chinese media. This discussion paper uses semi-structured interviews with street food vendors to evaluate how recent policy reforms have affected vendor-chengguan relations and vendor livelihoods in Nanjing. It identifies a non-confrontational relationship …

No. 28: Urban Food Deserts In Nairobi And Mexico City, Jeremy Wagner, Lucy Hinton, Cameron Mccordic, Samuel Owuor, Guénola Capron, Salomón Gonzalez Arellano

Hungry Cities Partnership

Recent conceptualizations of “food deserts” have expanded from a sole focus on access to supermarkets, to food retail outlets, to all household food sources. Each iteration of the urban food desert concept has associated food sourcing behaviour in relation to household poverty, food insecurity, and dietary diversity characteristics. While the term continues to evolve, there has been little empirical evidence to test whether these associations hold in cities of the Global South. This discussion paper empirically tests the premises of three iterations of the urban food desert concept using household survey data collected in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mexico City, Mexico. …

No. 24: Achieving Urban Food Security Through A Public-Private Hybrid Food Provisioning System: A Case Study Of Nanjing, China, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush, Xianjin Huang, Steffanie Scott, Menglu Yan, Shuangshuang Tang, Xiang Zhang

Hungry Cities Partnership

Private and public markets are two models of urban food retailing governance. This paper examines the public-private hybrid model of urban food provisioning system and its governance in Nanjing, China. Based on data from surveys, non-structured interviews, and bibliographical material analysis, we examine the public-private hybrid model and its linkages with urban food security. Our analysis shows that the public-private hybrid model of food markets and its governance ensures a relatively high-level urban food security in Nanjing. We argue that the hybrid food market governance system effectively integrates public and private capital into a government-supported and regulated, small-business-based system in …

No. 33: Containing The Informal Food Sector In Windhoek, Namibia, Lawrence Kazembe, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

Policy responses to the growth of the informal food sector in African cities vary from benign neglect to active destruction. The eradication of street food vending is the dominant mode of governance. Alternative approaches that recognize the inevitability of informality and the role of the sector in making food accessible to the urban poor have begun to emerge. One is an enclose-and-contain model, which creates spaces for trading and seeks to confine trading to these spaces through active policing outside them. This strategy has been pursued in Windhoek but has been compromised by consumer demand that is not satisfied by …

No. 30: Governing The Informal Food Sector In Cities Of The Global South, Graeme Young, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

The role of the informal food sector in the urban food system cannot be appreciated or understood without the compilation and analysis of systematic and representative data on the activities of informal enterprises across a city and along food supply chains outside it. At present, there are significant gaps in the knowledge base about the character, operation, and roles of the informal food sector; a pre-requisite for sound and supportive governance. This paper presents evidence on the relative importance of the informal food sector and discusses various methodologies for improving the knowledge base. It identifies the challenges and opportunities facing …

No. 36: The Interface Between Urbanization, Gender And Food In The Global South, Liam Riley, Belinda Dodson

Hungry Cities Partnership

The interface between urbanization, gender and food in the Global South offers a vantage point from which to think through the integrated nature of contemporary development challenges from both the structural elements of urban poverty and the ways in which urban residents navigate their cities. The starting point of this paper is that there is insufficient research from the vantage point where all three of these concepts interface, even as there is a rich body of literature at the interface of each pair of elements (e.g., gender and urbanization, gender and food, food and urbanization). This paper draws attention to …

No. 35: The Food Safety And Food Security Nexus In The Urbanizing Global South, Jodi Koberinski, Zhenzhong Si, Steffanie Scott

Hungry Cities Partnership

Socioeconomic and structural changes in the global food system, driven by rapid urbanization in the Global South, shape the nature and scale of food safety problems as well as the strategies designed to cope with them. These changes create new challenges for ensuring food security, given that food safety is an essential dimension of food security. By reviewing existing studies, this paper summarizes three key types of contaminant (microbiological, chemical, and physical) that compromise food safety. With analyses of three cases (avian flu, genetic modification contamination, and melamine-tainted milk) in the Global South, the paper explores how food safety is …

No. 31: Motivations And Challenges Of Youth Entrepreneurs In Maputo's Food Markets, Cameron Mccordic, Ines Raimundo

Hungry Cities Partnership

Amidst a growing youth unemployment crisis spreading across Sub-Saharan Africa, there is a pressing need for effective policy intervention, based on sound research, to support young people’s entry into labour markets. As urban labour markets continue to catalyze the growth of national economies in the Global South, the inclusion of youth entrepreneurs in the food retail sector in Maputo has become an important but largely unstudied phenomenon. This paper assesses the demographic and entrepreneurial characteristics of this population through a vendor survey of 504 youth entrepreneurs (those aged 35 years and younger) operating small-scale food enterprises in the Mozambican capital. …

No. 26: Supermarkets And Informal Food Vendors In Windhoek, Namibia, Ndeyapo Nickanor, Lawrence Kazembe, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

Much of the literature on urban food systems has focused on the expansion of supermarkets and their ability to reach urban consumers. However, the current pace of urbanization and rising urban poverty have been accompanied by a major upsurge in informality and a growing role for the informal food sector. One of the persistent arguments in the literature on supermarkets is that the expansion of modern retail undermines the informal food sector. Critics of this argument suggest that there are two conditions under which this may not occur: first, when there is spatial differentiation with supermarkets servicing higher income areas …

No. 16: Inclusive Growth And The Informal Food Sector In Cape Town, South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera, Jonathan Crush

Hungry Cities Partnership

This report on the informal food sector in Cape Town is the third on the city’s food system published by the Hungry Cities Partnership in collaboration with the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town. The earlier reports provided background and context on the nature of the food system (Haysom et al 2017) and the importance of the informal food sector in household food consumption (Crush et al 2018). Additional context is provided by HCP Discussion Paper No. 23, which situates this research in relation to literature on the South African informal economy in general, and the …

No. 24: Achieving Urban Food Security Through A Public-Private Hybrid Food Provisioning System: A Case Study Of Nanjing, China, Taiyang Zhong, Zhenzhong Si, Jonathan Crush, Xianjin Huang, Steffanie Scott, Menglu Yan, Shuangshuang Tang, Xiang Zhang

Hungry Cities Partnership

Private and public markets are two models of urban food retailing governance. This paper examines the public-private hybrid model of urban food provisioning system and its governance in Nanjing, China. Based on data from surveys, non-structured interviews, and bibliographical material analysis, we examine the public-private hybrid model and its linkages with urban food security. Our analysis shows that the public-private hybrid model of food markets and its governance ensures a relatively high-level urban food security in Nanjing. We argue that the hybrid food market governance system effectively integrates public and private capital into a government-supported and regulated, small-business-based system in …

No. 23: Food Vending And The Urban Informal Sector In Cape Town, South Africa, Godfrey Tawodzera

Hungry Cities Partnership

In South Africa, the informal food sector is either criminalized or ignored, despite the important role it plays in the economy in terms of employment, income generation, food distribution, and general livelihoods. This paper assesses the nature, operations, strategies, and challenges of the informal food sector in Cape Town. Data was collected through a survey of over 1,000 informal food vendors in the city. Survey results indicate that most of the enterprises were single-owner businesses, financed from personal savings, and started by owners seeking employment, independence, and improved financial security for their families. Most businesses had little or no access …

No. 34: The Political Economy Of Informal Food Vending In Kingston, Jamaica, Robert Kinlocke, Elizabeth Thomas-Hope

Hungry Cities Partnership

Small-scale food enterprises occupy a critical space in the food system of Kingston, Jamaica. While smallscale food retailers serve the entire population, they are disproportionately relied on by poor urban households. The nodes and networks of retailers play an important role in the value and commodity chain by providing access to comparatively cheap food but are often affected by economic vagaries and state-level regulation, among other factors that potentially challenge the sustainability of trade. These issues are potentially offset by a highly dynamic system where entry into the trade is maintained by the high levels of unemployment and limited alternatives. …

“How Can He Be So Cruel?” Examining Issues Of Trust In School Improvement Efforts, Jacqueline R. Wettlaufer, Steve Sider

Education Faculty Publications

In this case, a high school vice-principal encounters tension and anger when she rewrites a staff member’s report card comments without his knowledge. The case narrative examines the conflict that arises when, under time constraints and pressures to produce student reports, the vice-principal acts on a decision she believes is ethically correct only to find that she incurs a significant setback with staffing relationships largely due to wavering of trust. The analysis examines how transformational leadership builds self-efficacy in all staff founded on trusting relationships. Professional reflection provides a conduit through which educational leaders can assess their own practice and …

Border Disorder: 'Irregular Bangladeshis', Xenophobia And Crimmigration Control In India, Sujata Ramachandran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In India, the crisis of migration tied to the entry, presence and assimilation of the so-called ‘irregular’, ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ is now an undisputed reality, seemingly affecting all geographical areas located within the national territories in multiple adverse ways. A decidedly strident xenophobic rhetoric attaches the presence of such migrants in an indiscriminate fashion to unending anxieties and urgent problems, whilst constantly drawing attention to the inefficacies of immigration enforcement and deficiencies of (interior and exterior) borders controls. This dissertation addresses key moments in the making and deepening of this national crisis and its management by state authorities over the …

Spatial Big Data Analytics: The New Boundaries Of Retail Location Decision-Making, Joseph M. Aversa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the current state and evolution of retail location decision-making (RLDM) in Canada. The major objectives are: (i) To explore the type and scale of location decisions that retail firms are currently undertaking; (ii) To identify the availability and use of technology and Spatial Big Data (SBD) within the decision-making process; (iii) To identify the awareness, availability, use, adoption and development of SBD; and, (iv) To assess the implications of SBD in RLDM. These objectives were investigated by using a three stage multi-method research process. First, an online survey of retail location decision makers across a range of …

Using Paleolimnology To Establish Baseline Conditions For Metal Contaminants In Advance Of Proposed Mining To Inform A Northern Community-Led Aquatic Monitoring Program, Tłı̨Chǫ Lands, Northwest Territories, Canada., James Telford

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Marian Watershed Stewardship Program (MWSP), a community-driven aquatic ecosystem monitoring program, was developed by the Tłı̨chǫ Government to address concerns regarding the cumulative impacts of multiple potential stressors. In particular, the MWSP aims to develop methods that will be effective for detecting potential pollution from the proposed cobalt-gold-copper-bismuth NICO mine within Tłı̨chǫ Lands. In collaboration with the MWSP, paleolimnological methods and geochemical normalization are used to establish pre-mine baselines of lake sediment metals concentrations in the Marian River watershed prior to mine development. This baseline framework can be used to assess for pollution from surficial sediment once the mine …

Biogeochemical And Hydrological Impacts Of A Low-Severity Wildfire In The Wetland-Dominated Zone Of Discontinuous Permafrost, Caren J. Ackley

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern regions are experiencing rapid climate warming. As these regions warm, the occurrences of naturally ignited wildfires are increasing in frequency, severity and area burned, calling for a more thorough understanding of post-fire eco-hydrological impacts. Changes in runoff chemistry, and soil moisture and thermal regimes, have been attributed to the significant loss of organic matter (OM) and exposure of deeper soils, leading to enhanced permafrost degradation, ground surface subsidence and the conversion of peat landscapes from long-term C sinks to sources. However, low-severity wildfires often result in minor OM loss. Due to the significant and immediate threats posed to the …

Refugees From Syria Caught Between War And Borders: A Journey Towards Protection, Maissaa Almustafa

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation examines the global crisis of protection through the lens of the Syrian refugee crisis and the particular experiences of refugees’ journeys to Sweden.

In doing so, the dissertation challenges the dominant narratives that represent refugees either as victims who deserve aid in their regions, or as threats when they exert their agency and journey towards the global north. In the same vein, the dissertation problematizes the dominant narrative of the “European crisis of migration” and proposes that the “unauthorized” arrivals of refugees in Europe are reflections of a global crisis of protection, a crisis that develops as a …

The Mockery Of Things: Material Culture And Domestic Ideology In The Detective Fiction Of Anna Katharine Green, Claire Meldrum

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Mockery of Things: Material Culture and Domestic Ideology in the Detective Fiction of Anna Katharine Green examines how a popular genre author like Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) uses objects to articulate middle-class identity and social constructions in late-nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century America. During that era, the home as both a physical space and an ideological signifier was a central tenet in American middle-class identity. Focusing on domestically situated objects – clothing, household furnishings and domestic architecture – this dissertation considers how such items, which have tended to be read in support of domestic identity, instead function within the context …

Development And Application Of Hydrological And Limnological Monitoring In Lake-Rich Landscapes Of Canada’S Subarctic National Parks, Hilary Emma White

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Arctic and subarctic environments are being adversely influenced by human-caused climate change across our entire planet. Canada’s northern freshwater ecosystems are influenced by a variety of environmental stressors and are particularly sensitive to climate change, since small shifts in climate have the potential to substantially alter their hydrological, limnological, and biogeochemical conditions. Some other indirect effects on northern freshwater landscapes are the expansion of vegetation as well as changes in wildlife and waterfowl populations and distribution. It is, therefore, critical to understand the observed and predicted influences of climate change and other environmental stressors on these northern freshwater environments dominant …

Exploring The Personhood And Citizenship Of Persons With Disabilities Among Konkombas In Rural Ghana, Festus Moasun

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) are susceptible to various forms of mistreatments, particularly in the developing world, such that their personhoods are called to question. It was for this purpose that I set out to explore the personhood and citizenship of PWDs in rural Ghana. I used the constructivist paradigm in addition to the personhood and critical disability theories to guide the study which was conducted using an interpretive phenomenological research approach. To make the findings of the study participant driven, semi-structured interviews were held with PWDs. The findings revealed personhood to be perceived in a rank order of three semi-fluid …

The Geography Of Crime: Placing Geographers In The Space Of Criminologists, Anthony Wv Piscitelli

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The Geography of Crime consists of five articles. The first article, Exploring opportunities for geographers to explain the spatial distribution of crime, serves as a key conceptual link between each of the other four articles. This paper provides a broad introduction to the dissertation showing what gaps in the crime literature exist, especially those ripe for analysis by geographers. Three primary directions emerged as a focus of this dissertation: overarching theoretical contributions, specialized geographic quantitative techniques, and qualitative approaches centred on the concept of place.

The second article, Connecting social disorganization theory to broken windows and routine activities proposes …

Toward Using High-Frequency Coastal Radars For Calibration Of S-Ais Based Ocean Vessel Tracking Models, Ben Freidrich

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Most of the world relies on ships for transportation, shipping, and tourism. Automatic Identification System messages are transmitted from ships and provide a wealth of positional data on these open ocean vessels. This data is being utilized to determine the optimal path for ships, as well as predicting where a ship may be going in the near future. It has only been in the past decade that Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) signals have been easily received with satellites (S-AIS) so there have been few studies that look at using available information and pairing it with the new abundance of ship …

Understanding Motor Vehicle-Based Travel: Examining The Experiences Of Yukon Tourists, Natalia Wegrzyn

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In the past several decades, scholarly research has simultaneously expanded in three research areas: northern tourism, drive tourism and the tourist experience. This study used an exploratory approach to understand the relationship between those three areas through a case study of the Yukon. Lead by four guiding questions 1) what are motor vehicle-based tourists’ expectations of Yukon? 2) how do Yukon tourists’ expectations influence their motor vehicle travel? 3) how does the motor vehicle influence tourists’ experience in the Yukon? and 4) how is Yukon reflected in the narratives of motor vehicle-based tourists? a mixed methods approach was used to …

"And Now I'M Able To Fight For My Future": A Qualitative Exploration Of The Perspectives And Experiences Of Service Users Of Faith-Based Ngos In Ghana, Kevin Devotta

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have grown in their importance in the international development field over the past 30 years. As a result of their rapid expansion and growth in influence, questions about their accountability, including their accountability to their service users, are being raised by key stakeholders (donors, NGO staff, and the service users themselves). Faith-based organizations (FBOs) are an increasingly important sub-group of NGOs, yet few studies exist which examine the accountability of FBOs to their service users. This study aims to help fill the gap in the literature by exploring the perspectives and experiences of FBO service users in …

Dispersal As A Buffer Against Zooplankton Community Change In Response To Fluctuating Salinity Levels On The Great Plains, Mercedes Huynh

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The North American Great Plains is home to thousands of closed-basin lakes that are sensitive to changes in hydrology. Climate change models predict increased aridity in this region over the coming century, which is expected to lead to higher salinity levels in many freshwater lakes. Increases in salinity levels may impact zooplankton communities, as laboratory experiments show that many freshwater species have a low tolerance for elevated salinity levels, and field data demonstrate that salinity is the primary factor structuring aquatic communities on the Great Plains. Changes to zooplankton communities could lead to a trophic cascade based on their important …

Governing Chinese Engagement With The Hydrocarbon-Rich Countries; Examining Chinese Investment In The Hydrocarbon Sector Of Canada And Russia, Anastasia Ufimtseva

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

China’s global quest for energy has been one of the most fascinating developments of the past twenty years. As Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have increasingly gone ‘global’ in search of energy resources, scholars have explored the rationale and implications of China’s investment abroad. However, existing studies have yet to examine the ability of Chinese SOEs to complete the intended investment projects. Several studies that have noted this gap suggest that researchers should examine the ability of Chinese SOEs to adapt to different institutional environments (Smith and D’Arcy 2013) and to analyze the responses of local stakeholders to Chinese SOEs’ engagement …

Riparian Zone Soil Microbial Community Dynamics: Interactions With Nutrient Loadings, James Bannister

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Riparian zones are a type of wetland described as the interface between land and a body of water such as a river or stream. Riparian zones are effective buffers against anthropogenic pollutants and nutrient loads from non-point sources that can greatly diminish water quality. Riparian zones can host a variety of plant species and associated microbial communities. The combined biological processes of plants, bacteria, and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are key to nutrient cycling and nutrient removal in riparian zones. As such, understanding the factors that influence them is critical for watershed management. This research is targeted at obtaining a …