1,720,970 research outputs found
Women's work in the 'clean city': Perspectives on wellbeing, waste governance, and inclusion from the urban margins in Ahmedabad, India
No full textThis dissertation uses a feminist mixed-methods approach to investigate solid waste management and informal recycling practices in the city of Ahmedabad, India. The aim of this research is to understand the ways that power unevenly manifests in the urban everyday by exploring marginalized women waste pickers’ experiences of wellbeing, work, and organizing through a moment of change in the governance of waste in urban India. This dissertation argues that contemporary solid waste management planning and discourses of urban cleanliness and inclusion in urban India are implicated in the continual reproduction of spatial, symbolic, political-economic, and social-cultural marginalization of women waste pickers. Key findings of the dissertation highlight women waste pickers’ relational perceptions of wellbeing and work, the gendered impacts of contemporary waste governance for marginalized women workers, and women’s experiences in organizing and navigating mechanisms of inclusion and municipal privatization. These findings point to the spatial, symbolic, material, and intersectional implications that contemporary waste governance and discourses of cleanliness and urban inclusion have in women waste pickers’ everyday lives. The study draws on a survey (n=401), semi-structured interviews (n=45), follow-up interviews (n=36) and group workshop discussions (n=12) with women waste pickers in Ahmedabad between 2016-2018. It also relies on insights from local advocacy workers, NGO employees, and union representatives (n=11) and a discourse analysis of local media and policy documents. The dissertation is grounded in women waste pickers’ perspectives, experiences, and knowledges as important yet under-valued observers and co-producers of urban space. From this perspective, this research makes important contributions toward theorizing marginalized informal work by emphasizing women’s intersectional perspectives on the benefits and challenges of this work in a moment of change in the city. The research highlights the dynamics of power and oppression which tend to be obscured and the marginalized people who tend to be invisibilized in the production of clean-and-modern revitalized urban spaces. The research advances scholarship on vulnerable people in urban spaces and the exclusionary impacts of contemporary urban governance. The insights garnered from women waste pickers livelihoods and wellbeing may also contribute to advocacy and organizing work by scholars and activists and policy through this moment of change in India’s urban governance.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaSociety of Woman GeographersCanada Research Chair
Environmental governance, urban change, and health: An investigation of informal recyclers' perspectives on well-being in Vancouver, BC
No full textIn Vancouver, informal recyclers take to the streets on a daily basis to salvage and sell recyclable materials from the waste stream. Many of these workers reside in the city’s impoverished Downtown Eastside and are highly stigmatized due to their work with waste and their socioeconomic status. This research is based on 40 interviews with informal recyclers that assessed their perceptions of work, the social determinants of their health, and access to services. I found that informal recycling can simultaneously benefit and worsen the self-reported health status of workers by providing independent incomes, but also exposing workers to health threats associated with solid waste, stigma, and limited access to services and resources. This study suggests that recyclers’ experiences of poor health and inequality exemplify the uneven rollout of well-intended policies in the city’s physical, social, and political spaces, shaping their geographies of survival in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver
Evaluating impacts of a behaviour change intervention on Canadian household food waste reduction behaviours
Full text linkIn Canada, household food waste has significant negative impacts on society and the environment. This research evaluated impacts of a food waste behaviour change intervention on Canadian households. A randomized control trial was conducted on households in Wellington County, ON to compare food waste between intervention households (n = 32) and control households (n = 20) from curbside organics and garbage. The intervention attempted to change non-cognitive drivers related to food waste behaviours. Waste audits were used to measure food waste (kg) before and after the intervention, and we found no significant reductions to food waste, nor differences between intervention and control households. The eSurvey showed mixed results in how emotions influence motivation and food disposal. This research contributes to greater understanding of non-cognitive engagement in household food waste reduction and evaluation, and highlights complexities of addressing food waste in Canada as an issue requiring both individual and collective action.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaCounty of Wellingto
Pictures and Perceptions of Household Food Waste in Guelph, Ontario
No full textFood waste in Canada is estimated to amount to $31 billion, with approximately half of this wastage occurring in households (Gooch & Felfel, 2014). As the desire for food waste reduction gains prominence in Canadian policy arenas, it is important to examine the household empirically, and contribute to theory-building for food waste studies as an emerging field. This research uses adapted photovoice interviews with 22 households in Guelph, ON to give insight into moments of transition between food and waste from the householder’s perspective. The study documents these moments of transition between food and waste; explores relationships between food and wasting behaviours in the household; and makes connections between household food waste and systemic and institutional forces. Using discard studies, critiques of capitalist agriculture, and feminist food studies, this study suggests that more creative and effective solutions to the food waste problem will emerge from rethinking household food waste generation.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canad
Wasting Food is Rubbish: Barriers and Opportunities for Food Waste Diversion in Guelph, ON
No full textFood waste is a serious global issue that has significant environmental, economic, and social impacts. While increasing attention is being paid to this problem, little region specific research exists on food waste in Canada, and Southwestern Ontario in specific. This research investigates the flow of food waste along the food waste hierarchy in Guelph, ON in order to identify barriers, motivations, and opportunities to increase food waste diversion. 33 respondents along the food value chain participated in semi-structured interviews to provide insight for this research. An actor-network approach was employed to examine the socio-material aspects of food waste and the paths it takes, which revealed that many of the findings relate to the materiality of food/waste. This research contributes to a greater understanding of how we relate to both food and waste systems, and provides recommendations for food waste solutions across the value chain
Closing the Loop, or Running in Circles? Assessing Food Waste Policy in Ontario
Full text linkOntario’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change seeks to legislate diverse waste streams (including food waste) by implementing Bill 151, known colloquially as the Waste Free Ontario Act. This research seeks to understand how different members of the food value chain both perceive legislation and align themselves in the creation and treatment of waste. Using social field theory, ecological modernization, and discard studies, this research uncovers lines of tension that may exist in the implementation of a broader waste policy. These lines of tension go beyond typical political ideologies. Instead, they illuminate how different sectors view waste: signalling an efficient vs. inefficient economy; what appropriate mechanisms for treating waste are: fines/bans vs. incentives; and which areas each sector prioritizes: the economy vs. the environment, food safety vs. responsible resource use. Ultimately, this research asserts that until these tensions are resolved, waste legislation will continue to stall in Ontario
Investigating the Geographies of Community-based Public Art and Gentrification in Downtown Eastside, Vancouver
Full text linkInfamous as Canada’s poorest postal code, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) is considered a blank slate fertile for urban redevelopment. In response to this narrative, visually expressive demonstrations and community-based public art (CBPA) actively reclaim urban space for its inhabitants, and boldly resist gentrification. This thesis advances scholarly understandings of the impact of CBPA by exploring artists’ intended impacts of CBPA projects and how they are interpreted in the minds of the public. Through semi-structured interviews and two consecutive circle discussions, I identified three significant social functions of CBPA in the DTES. The 301 surveys completed by passersby at three CBPA sites revealed that CBPA projects act as both a barrier and a conduit for gentrification. Key concepts that emerged throughout this thesis include: therapeutic landscapes and visual democracy. This research seeks to challenge dominant discourses that construct the DTES as a passive community subject to externally-prescribed solutions to local issues
Beyond Charity? Insights on a Food Rescue Work Integration Social Enterprise in Guelph, ON
No full textCharitable food aid organizations, namely food banks, are widely criticized as stigmatizing and ineffective by food insecurity and food waste scholars. At the same time, up to 58% of food is wasted in Canada, and 1 in 7 households are food insecure. Although surplus food redistribution can reduce waste and feed people, alternative models to food banking are needed. Recent scholarship suggests that social enterprises could fill this role, however existing research is scant. This research is a case study of a food rescue work integration social enterprise which “upcycles” surplus food into high-quality value-added products and meals. In doing so, the stigma associated with feeding rejected food to marginalized people is subverted and the root of food insecurity (income) is addressed through a training and employment program. This model is a compelling alternative to charity and might affect waste and hunger policy through public advocacy and education
"We are a business, not a social service agency": Barriers to Widening Access for Low-Income Consumers in Alternative Food Market Spaces
No full textA thesis presented to the University of Guelph in partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in GeographyAlternative Food Networks are emerging in opposition to industrial food systems, but are criticised as being exclusive, since customers’ ability to patronise these market spaces is premised upon their ability to pay higher prices for what are considered the healthiest, freshest foods. In response, there is growing interest in widening the consumer base for alternative foods. This research asks: what barriers do alternative food businesses face in providing access and inclusion for low-income consumers? Seven key barriers were uncovered using surveys and interviews with 45 alternative food businesses in British Columbia, Canada. The findings indicate that the barriers were symptomatic of structural issues in the Canadian food and social welfare systems. Although opportunities exist for business operators to widen access for low-income shoppers, these cannot meaningfully ameliorate food-access inequality. Rather, these barriers underscore issues of income-disparity, poverty, and food-access inequality more broadly, and require structural and societal change to rectify.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of CanadaOntario Graduate Scholarshi
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