Nature and Society Relations Commons^™

Mapping With The Land: Co-Developing A Cumulative Impact Monitoring And Land Stewardship Framework With Sambaa K’E First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada, Michael S. Mcphee

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Across the Northwest Territories (NWT), Canada, Indigenous populations are striving to achieve effective environmental protection, whilst navigating complex methods, policies, and research relationships within co-management contexts. This thesis seeks to identify how differing cultural systems, environmental change, and fractured partnerships may be unified to align with the needs of the Sambaa K’e First Nation (SKFN), a remote Dehcho Dene community. Indigenous methodologies guided co-development of research questions with SKFN leadership which yielded objectives a) develop a GIS-based method to manage, organize and mobilize cultural and environmental data; b) develop a new stewardship monitoring procedure so that users can apply the …

Enhancing Harvester Safety And Traditional Food Access Through Participatory Mapping With The Ka’A’Gee Tu First Nation Of Kakisa, Northwest Territories, Neomi Jayaratne

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Northern Canada has struggled with various systemic challenges based on Eurocentric ideologies, policies, and practices. A major challenge Indigenous communities face North of the 60^th parallel is their food security and sovereignty. Inuit, First Nation and Métis populations across the North experience 5 to 6 times higher levels of food insecurity compared to the National average (Food Secure Canada, 2020). These communities face concentrated levels of food system issues, which connect to other factors, such as, health and wellness, the supply chain of market foods, governance, a shift away from traditional foods, and the impacts of climate change. Climate …

Park Agency Social Media Communication During The Covid-19 Crisis, Raluca Oprean

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all industries and organizations, including park agencies. There is a lack of research on how park agencies utilize Twitter during times of crisis, specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. How park agencies communicate with the public and how they use their social media has not been extensively studied. In addition, the coronavirus pandemic is a novel management issue for these agencies, and there has been no empirical analysis in the ways in which information is being communicated to the public or how that information is being perceived.

This study aims to better understand park agency response …

Seeking A Path To Wellness And Flourishing: Exploring Ecological Citizenship, Systems Thinking, And Environmental Governance In Southwest Yukon, Amanda Solmes

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

While efforts toward environmental management (EM) have been increasing, the state of our natural world is getting worse. Numerous reports have outlined that today’s environmental problems are predominantly human-induced, yet approaches to EM often only address “environmental” rather than “human” issues. More holistic approaches are required. This thesis explores “ecological citizenship” (EC) as an alternative framework that may have the potential to address elements too often left out of top-down and reductionist approaches. Academic and case-based notions of this concept are explored, and a new definition for the term is developed. A case study, drawn from the rich results of …

The Legitimation & Networked Unification Of #Nodapl: Diverse Discourses Of Value Validate A Collective Identity, Jacqueline Marie Ouellette

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

NoDAPL was, first and foremost, an Indigenous-led resistance against the construction of a pipeline in North Dakota. It was also a movement that built solidarity, bridging networks between international Indigenous peoples, Black Lives Matter activists, veterans, and feminists. This discourse analysis of social media and digital texts addresses the networked publics, collective identities, social capital, and intersectionality in applying Van Leeuwen’s (2007) understanding of legitimation. In doing so, the practice of reproducing and extending the values, themes, and images of various algorithmic imaginaries will be explored, as they relate to network homophily, identity construction, and mobilization. This study will argue …

First Nations And Adaptive Water Governance In Southern Ontario, Canada, Thomas Dyck

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Water quality and quantity are prominent concerns for First Nations across Canada. The federal government shares the responsibility with First Nations to ensure water resources on-reserves meet the needs of First Nations. Federal approaches have been predominantly technical, focused on addressing issues related to infrastructure, maintenance, training, and monitoring. This approach is important. However, water issues concerning First Nations go beyond technical issues and relate to inadequate participation in decision making, poorly defined roles and responsibilities, and approaches to managing water resources on-reserve that have not accounted for local context. These issues parallel historical nation-to-nation (i.e., First Nations and federal …

Marine Protected Areas In Colombia: Re-Connecting Social, Ecological, And Policy Aspects Through A Governance Perspective, Luisa Ramirez

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this doctoral research is to examine opportunities and constraints for integrating key aspects of governance into marine conservation strategies and for shifting top-down approaches toward collaborative and integrative forms of governance that enhance conservation and social outcomes in marine protected areas (MPAs).

Although there is evidence that demonstrates that MPAs are an effective tool for marine conservation, shortcomings in addressing ecological characteristics and particularly in addressing social factors in the design and planning of MPAs often constrain achieving conservation and sustainability goals. These shortcomings are particularly acute in MPAs implemented through top-down governance approaches that overlook stakeholder …

Analysis Of The Geosocial Landscape In The City Of Toronto, Courtney J. Jones

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Microblogging on geosocial platforms is a popular form of online communication where users post information about their daily lives and challenges. Since the launch of Twitter in 2006, information sharing through social media has become a largely unused data repository. Tweets often convey content about the users sentiment as it is happening. As such, Tweets can be viewed as a proxy of public mood. In this thesis, I performed a sentiment analysis of all public geo-located Tweets posted by a variety of Twitter users between September 2013 and October 2014. Each Tweet was processed through a custom algorithm to extract …

A Time Series Analysis: Exploring The Link Between Human Activity And Blood Glucose Fluctuation, Eric A. Sadowski

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In this thesis, time series models are developed to explore the correlates of blood glucose (BG) fluctuation of diabetic patients. In particular, it is investigated whether certain human activities and lifestyle events (e.g. food and medication consumption, physical activity, travel and social interaction) influence BG, and if so, how. A unique dataset is utilized consisting of 40 diabetic patients who participated in a 3-day study involving continuous monitoring of blood glucose (BG) at five minute intervals, combined with measures for sugar; carbohydrate; calorie and insulin intake; physical activity; distance from home; time spent traveling via public transit and private automobile; …

Responding To Change In A Northern Aboriginal Community (Fort Resolution, Nwt, Canada): Linking Social And Ecological Perspectives, Sonia Darienne Wesche

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Human and environmental systems in the circumpolar north are particularly affected by the Earth’s changing climate, thus acting as a bellwether for other parts of the globe. Rural indigenous communities are most visibly impacted due to their close relationship with the land. These challenges are compounded by socio-economic transformations typical of peripheral communities within a larger, centrally governed system.

This dissertation links a community-based study of environmental change in Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, Canada to evolving adaptation science. The study was prompted by local concern about changing environmental conditions caused by climatic, hydrological and resource development drivers. Its collaborative research …

An Analysis Of Community Forest Implementation In British Columbia, Canada, Ryan C. Bullock

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The community forest is increasingly seen as an alternative to industrial forestry for its perceived potential to mitigate conflict in forest resource management and planning. Theoretically, a community-based approach affords the chance to assert local values, provide local benefits, and manage resources differently than established top-down approaches. Yet practical examples of community forest initiatives in Canada reveal a host of constraints. This research uses a multiple case study design to investigate the motivations for and challenges to implementing community forests in British Columbia, Canada. Observations are drawn from four case studies (Denman Island, Malcolm Island, Cortes Island, and Creston) in …

Risk, Vulnerability And Environmental Hazards In The Village Of Darkot, Northern Pakistan, Nicholas Andrew Cradock-Henry

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Conventional approaches to studying environmental risks and hazards have focused on the physical parameters of geomorphic, hydrologic and climatic events—magnitude, duration and frequency—without adequately accounting for the role of human agency in averting disaster and distributing loss. Secondly, where human intervention was recognized it was often in an incriminating way, particularly in work dealing with the developing world or peripheral regions such as mountain areas. Here, humans were portrayed as helpless victims; unable to successfully adapt to their environment or else they were viewed as having played an unwitting role in their own downfall through ‘short-sighted’ agricultural practices such as …

Vulnerability To Natural Disasters In A Rapidly Growing, Affluent Society, British Columbia, Canada, Jonathan P. Maclean Belcher

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

British Columbia is a province that experienced rapid demographic, urban and economic growth in the past few decades. It is a modern and technologically sophisticated society. Although the province possesses the knowledge and resources to combat most dangers that threaten its people and communities, these dangers continue to outstrip the precautions and safety measures in place. The reasons for this seem to lie less in the characteristics of dangers or hazards, but rather relate to socioeconomic processes and organisations that disadvantage particular people, groups and sectors of the population, or make them more vulnerable to dangers than others. This thesis …

An Analysis Of The Economic Factors And Changes In Land-Use Associated With The Transition To A Beef Feedlot System In Waterloo County, Gary B. Griffith

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The first objective of this study is to examine the transition from the traditional system of agriculture to a relatively new type of operation, the beef feedlot enterprise. This will incldue not only an examination of the actual transition but also the factors which were conducive to such a change. In this respect, the current, as well as the past position of beef in the agricultural economy, will be discussed as a contributing factor to the movement toward specialization. The views and attitudes of the framers in the study group concerning their change in vocation will also be examined and …