Dec. 9, 2022: Antonella Maiello (Assistant Professor, Centre for Governance of Sustainability, Institute of Public Administration, Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University, Campus The Hague – Wijnhaven)

In, out or beyond? Waste-pickers and policy networks. A story from Jardim Gramacho (Rio de Janeiro - Brazil)

Antonella Maiello is an Assistant Professor of Governance of Sustainability. Her research concerns collaborative governance in the different realms of sustainability – water, waste and energy - with attention to the underpinning ethical and political dilemmas. Within this research field, she focuses on community and commons-based approaches to address sustainability challenges in the provision of public service. She is especially interested in studying the potential of local/place-based experiments in triggering necessary institutional changes. At this aim, her current work revolves around the use of socio-spatial relations, i.e., network and embedding power dynamics and scaling across different levels of governance, as lenses to explore the role of old and new institutional actors (e.g., parties, cooperatives, consortia, intermediary/boundary organizations, advocacy coalitions) in the (re)making of the public sphere. 

As circularity is momentous, waste-picker communities all around the world are getting noticed. Brazil is at the forefront of waste-picker community inclusion, recognizing by law waste-pickers as professionals who must be part of waste management. This level of institutionalization is the result of a political struggle within the national waste policy network over more than twenty years. Understanding these political relations is key to recognising a waste-pickers role for a more just governance of circularity. This research presents the result of an extended case study which over seven-year the author has conducted on the community of Jardim Gramacho, in the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region. Building upon the policy network theory, this paper first maps the policy community and the issue network of waste governance. Second, through a thematic analysis of 20 semi-structured interviews, identifies core themes in the local waste policy community. These themes depict the waste-picker community in its diversity, beyond a paternalistic reading. By recognizing waste-pickers agency and power, the research’s findings identify a plurality of roles waste-pickers are playing in the broader waste policy community, among them a role the author defines as institutional stewardship. The conclusion outlines a research agenda on waste-picking institutionalization.

Dec. 12, 2022: Joandson Fernandes (PhD Cand., UFScar, Brazil)

Waste picker networks in Brazil - Proposition of indicators for performance evaluation

Joandson Fernandes is part of the Doctoral Program in Urban Engineering at the Civil Engineering Department, Federal University of São Carlos - UFSCar, São Paulo. Researcher at the São Carlos Solid Waste Community Forum and at the Multidisciplinary and Integrated Center for Studies, Training and Intervention in Solidarity Economy, which is linked to the UFSCar Rectory Office

Nov. 25, 2022: Maeva Gauthier (PhD Cand., UVic Geography) Marine Plastics in the Arctic from Sources to Solutions-- Insights from the UArctic Greenland Summer School

Maeva Gauthier is a PhD Candidate in Geography in the CBR Lab at UVic. Her research project is using participatory arts-based tools, such as participatory video, photovoice and storymaps to engage Inuit youth on global environmental changes, such as climate change and marine plastics in their environment. https://www.cbrl.uvic.ca/inuit-youth  

Plastics continue to pollute the marine environment around the world, and the Arctic is no exception. In the Arctic, plastic pollution may be a result of long-transported debris but there are also challenges with establishment of effective local waste handling systems, as well as raising public awareness. Maeva will share highlights and insights from the UArctic Marine Plastics course she participated in last August in Nuuk, Greenland. 

Nov. 18, 2022: Michelle Bonatti (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Social learning as an underlying mechanism for sustainability in neglected communities: The Brazilian case of the Bucket Revolution project.

Michelle Bonatti has been a senior lecturer at the Humboldt University of Berlin on Environmental Policy and Sociology and works at ZALF (Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung) as deputy head of the Susland research group. She is an Agronomy Engineer from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, with a Master's degree in Rural Development from Buenos Aires University, Argentina, and a PhD degree from the Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany. She is a conflict Mediator and Educator for Sustainable Development at Santa Catarina University, Brazil. She worked on 10 transdisciplinary research projects and 5 NGOs; and published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles receiving 4 prizes for her outstanding academic performance. She worked as consultant at FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), and in collaboration with CGIARS and other institutions, she coordinated projects about sustainable land use, social learning, and the co-creation of knowledge in several countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Nov. 4, 2022: Christine Todd (PhD Candidate, UVic, Geography) Conversations on De-colonizing Geography colonial relations as assumed access

Thanks to Jutta for the invitation to provoke conversation. I’m Christine Todd (she/her), a visiting, settler (Scots-English-Pakeha) PhD student, working with(in) the GIF (Geographic Indigenous Futures) lab  https://deondresmiles.com/gif-lab/ here on Lkwungen and Wsanec territories. My research considers what it means to be a good relative, as a non-Indigenous, visitor, researcher, educator on Indigenous territories. Metis geographer, Max Liboiron defines colonial (land) relations – as “the assumed access by settler and colonial projects to Indigenous lands [insert communities, peoples, culture] for settler and colonial goals” (Liboiron, 2022, p. 5).

How might colonialism as assumed access (or even insistent or persistent access) be causing ongoing harm? How does the university position research as abstract, when working in community is personal. Might we think about the ways assumed access violates our own personal boundaries and sovereignty as a way of relating? How might researchers approach Indigenous relations (and relationships with community) as sacred?

Oct. 28, 2022: Sarah Marie Wiebe (UVic, Public Administration) Encounters with State of Emergency Declarations: Investigating the Edges of Democratic Participation through Community-Engaged Research

Sarah Wiebe is an Assistant Professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria. She primarily teaches in the Community Development program and her research focuses on environmental justice, public engagement and community-engaged research. Sarah is a board member with the Climate Disaster Project, author of the forthcoming book with UBC Press Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat and leads a research team examining vulnerabilities to extreme heat exposure events in the Capital Regional District. Drawing upon her lived-experience, she is currently writing a manuscript entitled Hot Mess: Becoming a Mother during a Code Red Climate Emergency, under contract with Fernwood Press. More information about her research interests is available at www.sarahmariewiebe.com.

When state of emergency declarations become the norm, the health of democratic societies is called into question. This presentation brings a feminist critical discourse analysis lens to investigate the political environment of two distinct yet related emergency scenarios. The first draws upon a ten-year project that involved arts-based community-engaged research with members of the Attawapiskat nation to challenge predominant, hegemonic narratives framing the community as constantly in crisis. In conversation with a knowledge democracy approach, findings from this project centre counterstories grounded in the lived-experiences and stories of community-members, including former Chief Theresa Spence, as discussed in Wiebe’s book Life against States of Emergency: Revitalizing Treaty Relations from Attawapiskat, forthcoming with UBC Press in 2023. This presentation will offer some reflections and lessons learned about the politics of framing and reframing through this participatory, mixed media approach. The next scenario bridges this research with the current climate emergency crisis, highlighting some avenues for future research and collaboration, while raising and responding to critical questions about the implications of state of emergency declarations for political participation.

Oct. 21, 2022: Danae Zachari (UVIC, Geography): Exploring Community Strengths and Vibrancy with Koforidua Zongo Residents

Danae Zachari has a strong interest in critical and de-colonial approaches to research and community engagement, with a focus on community and environmental health. For her graduate research, she is working with the Koforidua Zongo community in Ghana to explore how residents thrive, and community strengths that foster healthy, sustainable, livelihoods. Danae joined the Community-based Research Lab in 2018, which provides students with opportunities to learn about and engage in critical pedagogy, co-production of knowledge and Participatory Action Research approaches.

This talk is about a study that aims to explore the views of Koforidua Zongo residents on what helps people thrive in their community. This includes what supports community members' health and wellbeing. The study seeks to explore how people perceive and experience healthy sustainable livelihoods. Through people's lived experiences, and by looking at participants' sense of place, the aim is to highlight community strengths and innovations that foster health and wellbeing. Applying a participatory approach to data collection, youth participants collaborated to conduct a photo-narrative project. In addition, through in-depth conversations with elders and other adult knowledge-holders, participants discussed what they consider important in their community that fosters, for them, health and sustainable livelihoods.

The portrayal of Zongo communities in the literature mainly focuses on identifying and addressing community issues, which creates a single, deficit-based, and incomplete story of the dynamic lifeworlds and multiple worldviews within Koforidua Zongo. The study participants highlight stories and experiences that demonstrate community strengths and vibrancy. This appreciative and strengths-based research approach seeks to capture the material, cultural and relational aspects that provide social cohesion and promote sustainable livelihoods.

Oct. 14 , 2022: Bruno Jayme (University of Manitoba): How to Hack a Museum – Transformative Adult Education and Implications for Human Geography

Bruno Jayme has concluded his PhD dissertation titled: The heART of social movement and learning in the CBRLab, in the Department of Geography at UVic in 2016 after having concluded an MA in Education and Environmental Studies at UVic. He is now an Assistant Professor at the University of Manitoba.

Oct. 7, 2022: Jutta Gutberlet (UVIC, Geography): Creating a university for and with waste pickers: a community-based research approach

Jutta Gutberlet is a Professor in the Geography Department and affiliated faculty member of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria (UVic), Canada. She is the director of the Community-Based Research Laboratory at UVic, created in 2005. She brings previous experiences from working as Associate Professional Officer with the United Nations, as a Researcher at the University of Tübingen, Germany in collaboration with the Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), Brazil and as a Lecturer at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research takes an interdisciplinary Social Sciences approach, investigating livelihoods and development issues related to waste with a particular focus on social and environmental justice, social grassroots innovations and governance in the global South. She brings an intersectional perspective and a participatory action-oriented method to research, geared towards sustainable livelihoods, resilient community building and a healthy global environment. She has worked in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Kenya, Nicaragua and Tanzania and several other countries (see: www.JuttaGutberlet.com and www.cbrl.uvic.ca).

The talk reflects on the research conducted in early 2022 on perceptions and reflections of waste pickers regarding the proposal to create a university with and for waste pickers. The idea of building a grassroots educational space emerged within the scope of the Brazil – Canada project: Participatory and Sustainable Waste Management (PSWM), carried out in the metropolitan region of São Paulo since 2008.

Sept. 23, 2022: Prof. Eveline Dürr (LMU – Germany) & Saskia Brill (PhD Candidate): Carbon Offsets in the Great Bear Rainforest - A community-based research project about stewardship, land-use and collaboration

Eveline Dürr is a professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the LMU Munich, where she is engaged in a range of mostly collaborative research projects on urban issues, such as ethics and notions of the “good life” in cities, “poverty” tourism and inequality, and (non)human-environmental entanglements and identity politics. She has lived and conducted fieldwork in Mexico, U.S. and New Zealand. In each case, she paid special attention to the interplay between political forces and local responses, and the ways their entanglements shape individuals’ lives.

Saskia Brill studied social and cultural anthropology, economics, and communication at LMU Munich and the Université Laval, Québec. Saskia focusses on economic aspects of human-environment relationships. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the LMU Munich and member of the interdisciplinary program “Environment and Society” at the Rachel Carson Center at LMU. For her doctoral thesis, she works in close cooperation with the Haíɫzaqv Nation on a carbon saving project.