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SESSION 1.2: Passionate Interests and Community Decision Making: The Kamloops Food Policy Council since 1995
No full textKamloops, BC is renowned for its community investment in food security – home to Canada’s oldest grassroots food policy council, it also has well-established municipal support for food security programs. Since its formation in 1995, the Kamloops Food Policy Council (KFPC) has collectively made decisions about the initiatives it values, including informal conversations over potlucks, strategic planning and participation in formal community consultation processes. These ongoing processes of deliberation reflect what Bruno Latour describes as the “passionate interests” of actors: intense attachments between members assembled around matters of concern that result in a reconceptualization of “value” as impromptu, mobile, and intransitive. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research conducted with the KFPC since 2017, I situate the network’s decision-making and valuation practices in the broader historical context of agricultural disinvestment in the Kamloops region. As long-term economic and regulatory trends have eroded production and diversity in the sector, the priorities and interests of KFPC have grown more expansive despite the constraints that limit the possibilities of their work. I argue that, as members of the Kamloops food system network assemble around their urgent matters of concern, other “things” function as decision makers alongside them: past and current agricultural infrastructure, consultative planning documents, and indeed, the land itself. Though the network often takes up initiatives that fundamentally don’t compute (in terms of dollars or calories), they erode reliance on dispassionate calculation and render alternative processes of valuation transparent
SESSION 2.1: Incorporating Indigenous Voices: The Struggle for Increased Representation in Jasper National Park
No full textThis thesis focuses on the lack of Indigenous representation in Jasper National Park (JNP) and the negative impacts it has on Indigenous communities and their relationship with JNP management. These representational issues foster the formation and dissemination of problematic Indigenous stereotypes and reinforce pan-Indigenous notions in Jasper and Canada. Relying on Indigenous Methodologies, I conducted semi-structured interviews with members of the Jasper Indigenous Forum (JIF) and JNP management which helped address a gap in knowledge as there are so few scholarly works on this issue, particularly in national parks. The findings from this research clearly indicated that while JNP management and the JIF have some overlapping priorities, they have different levels of understandings about the obstacles each group faces. Unequal power dynamics became evident in this research, which suggests a desire among JNP management to maintain the status quo. The research participants identified several areas of concern: Indigenous histories and cultures presented from non-Indigenous perspectives; a lack of cultural awareness training for JNP staff; the presence of culturally insensitive structures in JNP; inadequate time to meet on issues; and a lack of consultation. These key issues are examined in great detail in an effort to increase culturally appropriate representation in JNP and offer some viable solutions to help reconcile the past and move Indigenous concerns forward in Jasper
SESSION 2.3: Exploring Stakeholder Relationships at the Adams River Salmon Run, Squilax, BC
No full textSalmon have been returning to spawn in the waters of the Adams River in Squilax, BC for thousands of years. Recently, decreasing salmon returns, assertion of Indigenous presence in traditional territories, and a thriving tourism experience at Ts’utswecw Provincial Park have led to the emergence of a complex network of relationships at the Adams River. Research has demonstrated that relationships can have a positive effect on biodiversity conservation (Pfueller et al, 2011). McCool (2009) expresses the need to thoughtfully engineer partnerships for protected area tourism planning in an era of change and complexity. Decision-making and management in protected areas is becoming increasingly complex (McCool et al, 2013). Often bridging organizations act as mediators between people or groups that would not otherwise have been connected to achieve conservation goals (Rathwell, Peterson, 2012). The Adams River Salmon Society, host of the Salute to the Sockeye Festival at the Adams River, is such a bridging organization. Utilizing Actor Network Theory (Rodger et al, 2009), this research demonstrates how a network of relationships built around a nature-based tourism event, with a strong bridging organization at the core, can address complexity and improve socio-economic and ecological sustainability in a BC provincial park. This presentation will provide a brief description of the research project being undertaken, specifically the history and context of the Adams River salmon run. The methodology and research used to examine the network of relationships will be discussed. Finally, this presentation will present emerging themes highlighting how relationships at the Adams River are affecting sustainability
SESSION 2.2: New Trends in Landfill Gas Collection Practices
No full textLandfills form a significant link in waste management throughout British Columbia and accommodate the disposal of municipal, organic, demolition, construction and land clearing refuse. In the past five years we have partnered with GNH Consulting Ltd., a landfill design and operation company in Delta, BC, in order to further the understanding of landfill gas flow regimes and improve engineering practices in landfill operation. This talk will share our work along two directions: horizontal wells and network collection. Horizontal wells are a gas collection mechanism consisting of perforated pipes placed within the waste layer and connected to a suction system. From an engineering point of view they had been expected to function more efficiently than the traditionally designed vertical wells due to collection along the entire length of the pipe, however were found to exhibit baffling behaviour and their popularity was on the wane. They have recently come back into use, although the flow field around them and adequate flow control strategies are still poorly understood. We study the physics of gas flow in these wells with a focus on relations between direct waste properties such as fragment size, packing density and gas generation rate, and geotechnical characteristics of the surrounding soils. This allows us to understand how the collection can be made efficient in different circumstances. We use mathematics and computational fluid dynamics to suggest design and operation strategies: optimise perforation density; minimise suction strength; ascertain gas does not accummulate within the landfill or escape the site; optimise placement of adjacent or stacked wells. Wells of different types form a collection network. We will discuss the reasons why no commercial software solving network flow is suitable for a landfill and present our custom software, including a graphical user interface, that allows to run a simulation of the system for numerous parameter values, test sensitivity, capacity and expected production, optimise configurations and predict bottlenecks
Indigenising Tourism: A Story of an Aboriginal-led Project in the Northern Territory, Australia
Get PDFNeo-tribal Theory and Event Management: Exploring the Role of Event Space in Social Sustainability Outcomes
Get PDFHow did this English Language Learner (ELL) get into my class?
No full textWith the recent increase of international students to TRU, faculty are often left wondering what measures of language ability were used to place students into academic courses. Through this workshop, participants will learn how international students are assessed and placed into programs on campus. This workshop will also include a brief overview of how TRU ESL standards are articulated with other provincial and international standards. Additionally, participants will be given some examples of teaching techniques that can be used across disciplines as a means of supporting English Language Learners