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Switching Cars with the Militsiya and Other Ways the Finnish–Russian Borderland is ‘Lived’ by People in Their Everyday Lives
No full textBorderlands differ from more central areas of states as they are affected by different border effects, such as cross-border flows and the intermingling of societies and cultures. Yet, the ways people experience and practice borderlands by attaching meanings to the material and social space have received relatively little attention. The present study focuses on the Finnish–Russian borderland as ‘lived’ by people in their everyday lives. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the Finnish border cities of Imatra and Lappeenranta and the Russian border cities of Svetogorsk and Vyborg in 2017 and 2018. The main finding is that the participants’ cross-border practices are intertwined with personal and socially shared meanings that they associate with the borderland and places within it. These meanings also play an important role in the ways the participants form relationships with the borderland. The paper argues that research on borderlands needs to pay more attention to the ever-evolving relationship between people and space for deepening the understanding of the specificity of borderlands as living environments
Rescue Mission: Poems from Mute Map for the Drowned
No full textThree poems from the 2019 collection Mute Map for the Drowned
Invasive Species Restoration Project and Management Recommendations: Munson Pond, Kelowna, Central Okanagan, BC
No full textMunson Pond is a park located centrally in Kelowna near the junction of KLO and Benvoulin Roads. This report summarizes an invasive plant treatment study that occurred at the park from November 2019 to September 2021. Over that time period, multiple site visits were completed to document the natural character of the site (plant species and ecosystems) and develop an overall treatment plan. The project included three treatment types (mow, mow/spray and hand pull) and three restoration types (none, grass seed and native plant retention) combined in six plots.Results were inconclusive across treatment types with respect to the percent cover of target (desirable) and non-target species. For the mow and spray treatment, the percent cover of non-target species initially decreased for some sub-plots in 2020 but by 2021 the results contradicted themselves between plots with contrasting decreases and increases in non-target species. Results for the mow/spray treatment were inconclusive but a decrease in non-targeted species were dominated by plots with grasses. For the hand pull treatment in one plot non-target species percent cover increased or stayed the same for all restoration types; in the second plot, no non-target species returned. The plot with no non-target re-establishment was dominated by grasses. For the mow sites, there was a contrast between plots but in general a decrease in non-target species was associated with a high percent cover of grasses and the presence of only a single invasive species (thistle).With respect to restoration types the results were variable as well. No restoration type and grass seed were associated with a decrease in non-target species 50% of the time. For the native subplots, non-target species percent cover stayed the same or decreased 83% of the time.Given the aggressiveness and prevalence of invasives at the site and the fact that the site is surrounded by an urban environment, several wider scale intervention techniques are proposed moving forward. In forested areas or where invasives are not prevalent, selective hand pulling of or weed whacking of non-target species combined with selective herbicide use on emergent non-target species in the spring is recommended. In other areas, mowing and increasing the variability of the soil substrate by creating “rough and loose” conditions as described in reference materials (Polster, date unknown) along with live staking or native planting of early successional species is recommended. Grass seeding may be acceptable but only if plantings are taller and intervention is used to prevent grass from choking out any shrubs that are planted. Both live stakes and transplanting trees is recommended to improve the source of target plant species at the site and hopefully transplant some of the beneficial mycorrhizae that are found in natural forested environments. This approach is preferred over sourcing nursery stock.The report included recommendations to protect the character of the park, limit the spread of invasive species, encourage the expansion of natural areas and improve or create habitat features at the site. Finally, an adaptive management program is recommended to monitor ongoing success of interventions and plan and adapt accordingly.The author would like to thank the Central Okanagan Land Trust for their involvement, interest and support of the project
Restoration of Ottertail Carrion Pit, Yoho National Park
No full textIn collaboration with the Parks Canada Invasive Plant Management Program of the Lake Louise, Kootenay and Yoho field unit, a project was completed in the summers of 2019 and 2020 to restore Ottertail landing area, a former test site for carrion disposal infrastructure including an electrified mat and fence. The goal of the project was to control invasive plants, focusing on meadow hawkweed (Heiracium caespitosum) and increase cover of native grasses, forbs, and shrubs. This plant invasion is of special concern as hawkweed (Heiracium, spp.) populations have been expanding in Yoho National Park in recent years, and have great potential to spread and decrease native plant populations and overall biodiversity in the alpine ecosystems of Yoho National Park. Ottertail landing area was identified as an area with high seed dispersal potential due to animal activity in the area and proximity to alpine ecosystems. In order to restore this site to pre-mat conditions, a site-specific restoration strategy was created, incorporating the testing of several non-chemical strategies including the use of hemp-matting, steaming, reducing compaction, and seeding with competitive native grasses. Data collected over the summers of 2019 and 2020 have shown that the strategies used were minimally effective at reducing non-native plant cover, but very effective in encouraging the growth of native species
Entangle, Entangled, Entanglements: Reimagining a Child and Youth Engagement Model Using a Common Worlds Approach
No full textThis paper responds to the call to explore pedagogical relations and dialogues in considering how to create climate pedagogies that are responsive, dynamic, and transformative in thinking about human and nonhuman relations. Using the lens of entanglement, the paper attempts to bring into dialogue children’s rights and more-than-human ways of thinking to understand what, if any, commonalities lie in these two projects and whether and how a rights-respecting approach can be productively reconfigured in envisaging a dynamic climate pedagogy. It considers several tensions that arise from this entangled dialogue to probe both the overlaps and points of incommensurability in the two approaches. This includes viewing asymmetrical power and logics of coloniality that assert themselves through rights discourses and rights-based techniques based in an Anglo-Eurocentric worldview that narrowly defines who is included in the “human” of human rights. To illustrate these entanglements, the paper draws on a child/youth-led and child/youth-driven participatory model called Shaking the Movers (STM) created in 2007 by the Landon Pearson Centre and used with youth as well as with children in early childhood and other settings across Canada each year. The model aims to enable children’s civil and political rights. Shaking the Movers was used as the framework for a workshop held in Williams Lake, British Columbia in 2017. The workshop serves as a case study in this paper to illustrate some of the entanglements that arise in practice when considering rights-respecting and more-than-human approaches. The analysis draws on scholarship from several disciplinary locations, including Stuart Aitken’s critical childhood concept of the post-child, Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw and Affrica Taylor’s notion of agency as not exclusively human and conceived as collective rather than an outcome of individual intent, and Shenila Khoja-Moolji’s analysis of an ethic of interdependency and alliance when understanding human rights in context. Each of these perspectives informs a contemplation of how to reconfigure the Shaking the Movers model amplify its strengths. The paper concludes with thoughts on the ways entanglements create a productive space both for bringing together a more-than-human and rights-respecting approach to attend to actions emanating from the margins and for invigorating and understanding how to meaningfully engage children located in interconnected and interdependent worlds
The Broken Promise Doctrine: AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc and the Future of Pharmaceutical Patents
No full textIn AstraZeneca Canada Inc v Apotex Inc, the Supreme Court of Canada abolished the so-called promise doctrine in patent law. Large pharmaceutical companies that sought greater patent protections through litigation routinely mischaracterized the promise doctrine. To demonstrate that mischaracterization, this case comment begins by examining historical and international perspectives that informed the Supreme Court’s decision. This paper then turns to a critical yet subjective element of the decision: the analysis of the meaning and purpose of “use” and “useful” in the Patent Act. The reasons for the decision are then considered against the advantages that more stringent utility requirements offer to both patent law and the pharmaceutical industry. This paper concludes with the recent legacy of the decision and recommendations for why and how the courts might seek a middle ground for utility promises in patents
Peter Bogner and Gerd Zillner, eds. Frederick Kiesler: "Face to Face with the Avant-Garde: Essays on Network and Impact."
No full textHow Gaelic Irish Women Exercised Agency in Early Modern Ireland, 1400-1700
No full textWith the increasing presence of the English government in Ireland during the Early Modern Period, the history of Gaelic Irish women is often left untold. These women were a part of everyday life and yet their narratives have often been framed to contextualize the stories of men, if they are indeed mentioned at all. This paper explores how Gaelic Irish women were able to exert agency in various aspects of their lives including marriage, labour, and leadership. From dowries and property rights to brief mentions of women stepping into leadership roles outside traditional gender norms, this paper aims to examine important junctures of Gaelic Irish women’s lives and whether or not it can be said that they were true agents of their situations, or simply conforming to the patriarchal societal expectations. As many saw the Gaelic Irish culture vanishing, these women left their mark on history with deeds not documented yet crucial to the fabric of society
