FES Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Series

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10315/13775

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 130

Open Access
Placemaking as a Public Space Planning Tool in New Providence, Bahamas
(2023-12-31) Nastassia Pratt; Liette Gilbert
Public space in the Caribbean is increasingly under the planning and organizing power of the tourism industry. Since the emergence of development, the tourism industry has been positioned as an increasingly significant economic and spatial planning strategy in the region. In The Bahamas, waterfront public spaces for locals to enjoy and engage in everyday placemaking and social practice are often provided with “the tourist” as its primary end user. Locally activated public spaces, such as Potter’s Cay in New Providence, de-centers tourism and resists its spatialization forces. Potter’s Cay is an informal waterfront public space beyond the direct influence of tourism development and the “spatialization of race” that generally follows its projects. A literature review revealed a need to understand the full story of informal public spaces like Potter’s Cay to identify the impacts of development, the tourism industry, and local planning policy and development processes. Research revealed that the tourism sector in The Bahamas has been granted significant unofficial planning powers in lieu of explicit public space planning policy. Research also revealed that state and local community viewpoints on Potter’s Cay concerning its social practice, roots of spatial injustices, and cultural value differ. Additionally, a case study and observational study of Potter’s Cay has rendered as existing the complex transformation(s) of the area, its spatial injustices, its community and users, the ongoing placemaking happening in the area, and its layered Bahamian social space. It was found that public space planning that centers the lived experiences and needs of local Bahamians, like the Potter’s Cay community, is a more appropriate and relevant touchstone for Bahamian planning policy and enhancing the urban human scale of public life (Ghel, 2010).
Open Access
Analysis of the Quality of the Green Bonds for Climate Action
(2024-08-31) Sila Basturk Agiroglu; Lina Brand Correa
This research aims to quantify and evaluate the quality of green bonds in terms of transparency and additionality at the issuance level. The study reveals the differences between different countries and industry groupings in their green bond quality assessment and aims to provide a snapshot of the status of the market. For the purpose of this study, 241 green bonds were analyzed. The sample represents 31% of the 774 green bonds disclosed by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) as aligned with ICMA Green Bond Principles which covers 2016 – 2022 period as updated on 25 November 2022. For each green bond issuance, the same metrics were collected through an extensive review of the publicly available green bond frameworks and their impact reporting practices. Using the data extracted and coded by the author, each issuance is scored in terms of transparency and additionality. In this study, the disclosure practices concerning the use of proceeds of an issuance feed the transparency score. On the other hand, additionality is assessed based on the presence of refinancing and if any, the share of refinancing in the total use of proceeds. Hence, an issuance may receive a high transparency score with a low additionality score in the final scoring table. Each selected metric, such as disclosure of the excluded activities from financing, affects only transparency or additionality assessment. At the same time there are some interdependencies between iii metrics. For instance, the share of refinancing in total financing is a determinant of additionality. However, to be able to assess this, there should be a disclosure of the refinancing share which feeds the transparency score. There is a growing literature focusing on the greenwashing risk in the financial markets. This research fills a significant gap in the literature in two aspects. First, it creates a green bond database focusing on detailed disclosures. To the best knowledge of the author, there is no similar database publicly available. Secondly, the analysis provides an evidence-based analysis of the quality of issuances. The results of this study indicate that there is significant room for improvement in the transparency practices of the green bonds even if they are aligned with the ICMA Green Bond Principles. Further policy development is needed to enhance the reporting practices of the issuers to limit the risk of greenwashing. Green bonds are not designed as tools to finance greenfield projects only. Any green bond can be fully or partially dedicated to refinancing. The results show that the majority of the issuances are dedicated fully or partially to refinancing. This resulted in lower additionality scores. The additionality scoring helps to distinguish financial capital dedicated to address climate change from green bond issuances structured as “nice to have” labels. In the absence of clear intentions and transparent communication of impact, no kind of label can help us in the middle of a global climate catastrophe. This iv research aims to provide evidence of the urgent improvements required in climate finance market by specifically focusing on its shining star green bonds.
Open Access
Planning for what nature, in whose city? Climate resilience and ecological imaginaries in the Port Lands Flood Protection Project
(2022-04-30) Alan Trumble; Jennifer Foster
This paper examines the Port Lands Flood Protection Project, a flood mitigation, ecological naturalization, and climate change adaptation project located in Toronto, Canada’s Port Lands area. Previously a site of post-industrial economic decline, ecological dysfunction, and flood risk, the area is being remade into a modern mixed-use neighbourhood with a newly constructed river estuary and a significantly increased area of naturalized habitat and recreational green space. Drawing from research on climate change resilience, urban political ecology, restoration ecology, and public participation theory, this paper investigates how the contemporary ecological imaginaries of the Port Lands emerged, how they have defined and influenced the course of the Port Lands Flood Protection Project, and what actors and interests have directed and been served by these developments. This research finds that the planning and implementation of the Port Lands Flood Protection Project has been defined by a series of compromises made by the project’s proponents between competing imperatives of ecological restoration and economic development, and between demands for public participation and the directives of government and private sector partners. While the project is a remarkable improvement on the state of the Port Lands, the compromises that have defined the project’s direction also threaten to undermine aspects of the project’s democratic legitimacy and its ability to produce long-term resilience in the area.
Open Access
New Era’ of Mass Transit: Governance, Suburbanization, and Regionalism in Toronto and Montréal
(2023-08-31) Stogianou, Patrick; Keil, Roger
This paper examines the ways in which two mass transit projects, the Eglinton Crosstown in Toronto, and the Réseau express métropolitain in Montréal, are responding to changes and challenges in terms of governance, suburbanization, and regionalism. It uses experiences from the two projects, and the lessons learned from them, in order to identify a series of best practices for transit planning in Canada. Methods used included a document and content analysis, as well as walk-through components of station areas on both lines. The results of the research indicated that the lines were designed and built with goals of ameliorating some of the challenges related to suburbanization and regionalism in mind. However, one of the two projects was more successful in countering the challenges related to governance, whereas the other may be more successful in curtailing suburban sprawl. Overall, the paper concludes that the Eglinton Crosstown and the Réseau express métropolitain have provided a framework of how to develop mass transit projects in Canada, and has found that a focus on public involvement, transparency, and accountability are important for success in transit projects, and that developing a local industry from the experiences of projects built will be highly beneficial in the future.
Open Access
Placemaking as a Public Space Planning Tool in New Providence, Bahamas
(2023-08-31) Pratt, Nastassia; Gilbert, Liette
Public space in the Caribbean is increasingly under the planning and organizing power of the tourism industry. Since the emergence of development, the tourism industry has been positioned as an increasingly significant economic and spatial planning strategy in the region. In The Bahamas, waterfront public spaces for locals to enjoy and engage in everyday placemaking and social practice are often provided with “the tourist” as its primary end user. Locally activated public spaces, such as Potter’s Cay in New Providence, de-centers tourism and resists its spatialization forces. Potter’s Cay is an informal waterfront public space beyond the direct influence of tourism development and the “spatialization of race” that generally follows its projects. A literature review revealed a need to understand the full story of informal public spaces like Potter’s Cay to identify the impacts of development, the tourism industry, and local planning policy and development processes. Research revealed that the tourism sector in The Bahamas has been granted significant unofficial planning powers in lieu of explicit public space planning policy. Research also revealed that state and local community viewpoints on Potter’s Cay concerning its social practice, roots of spatial injustices, and cultural value differ. Additionally, a case study and observational study of Potter’s Cay has rendered as existing the complex transformation(s) of the area, its spatial injustices, its community and users, the ongoing placemaking happening in the area, and its layered Bahamian social space. It was found that public space planning that centers the lived experiences and needs of local Bahamians, like the Potter’s Cay community, is a more appropriate and relevant touchstone for Bahamian planning policy and enhancing the urban human scale of public life (Ghel, 2010).
Open Access
Retrofitting Concrete Utopias: Climate Change Adaptation for Mid-Century Housing Stock
(2023-08-31) Peters, Frederick; Keil, Roger
Toronto is the site of nearly two thousand 1960s concrete residential tower blocks in various states of maintenance, in various locations, more or less peripheral to the major public transit corridors, housing in many cases vulnerable populations on the peripheries of the economic core of the city. Overcrowding of apartments, lack of affordability, inadequate maintenance of basic amenities has been identified as significant problems in academic and social agency reports. This paper is concerned with extreme heat events related to climate change and mortality especially for vulnerable population in these legacy towers. My contribution to this discussion takes as its framework of analysis an understanding that social processes are sociopolitical negotiations in uneven relative power relationships. They are political and environmental. This project is driven by concerns for the experiences of human well-being in the face of the global climate emergency, efforts at reducing operational carbon emissions, and energy consumption, for cooling especially. Comparable towers in France and Switzerland, as well as low rises there and in Germany, are examined, buildings that have undergone significant retrofitting to address these issues. The towers and site analyses are approached within their specific locations, the natural environment and the social infrastructure within which they stand. Practical learnings from European cases and current practices in Toronto lead to practical policy recommendations that aim to bolster institutional and financial capacity in the Toronto situation to address the dual crises of affordable housing and climate change mitigation.
Open Access
Displacement and Survivance: Oromo Organizing and Urban Planning in Addis Ababa (Finfinne) and Minneapolis
(2023-05-31) Osman, Dulaa; Haritaworn, Jin
The role of independent media within Urban Planning is deeply important as it provides a contrasting perspective to the government narrative. In Ethiopia censorship is the norm so members of the public are limited in what they can say on planning issues as going against the government can be seen threat. Diaspora media outlets such as the Oromo Media Network (OMN) play a critical role in amplifying the voices of people that are organizing against the state driven development which seeks to destroy their livelihoods. The Oromo protest movement lead by the Qeerroo (Unmarried young person) against the Addis Ababa Integrated Master Plan was transnational stretching to Oromo street in City of Minneapolis. This paper draws upon a diverse set of literature to argue that the creation of Oromo Street is an instance of post-colonial space making, as the Oromo who had been invisible within the Ethiopian Empire are now visible in the City of Minneapolis. The paper examines the intangible cultural assets of Oromo Street through a community mapping project that shares pictures and stories of Oromo members of the Minneapolis community. It also assesses City of Minneapolis Official Plan 2040 and how it can uplift the Oromo community's cultural heritage.
Open Access
Rights of nature and the “kincentric” turn in Canadian settler law
(2023-08-31) Kushnir, Michelle; Scott, Dayna
This paper considers how the legal articulation of “rights of nature” (RoN) advances social and environmental justice goals in Canada. Focusing on the St. Lawrence River (STL) watershed as a case study, it explores why politicians and environmental not-for-profit groups (ENGOs) have pursued a RoN legislation strategy in this case, and what they hope to achieve. The story that emerged is that the RoN movement is evidence of a hoped-for paradigm shift that is critical for the world and that is to some extent already occurring. This paradigm shift is often described as one towards ecocentrism or towards a more Indigenous-centred view. Alternately, the concept of “kincentrism” is another way of understanding the shift that the RoN movement is encouraging. Kincentrism can be seen as a reorientation for North American settler colonial society, towards greater respect for relationality between, and common ancestry of, human and non-human life. This way of understanding kinship is central to many Indigenous legal systems and worldviews. The research demonstrated that many of those actively involved in the RoN movement are planting the seeds of a shift towards (or perhaps back to) a more relational way of understanding the world and its non-human elements. This supports the suggestion that nature rights can be considered a “collective” form of right that is itself more relational than more traditional western rights concepts. While there is optimism amongst many advocates that a RoN-related paradigm shift could have profound socioecological impacts, there are numerous hurdles. First, if the RoN movement in Canada is to support or compliment Indigenous rights, it must be grounded in Indigenous laws rather than simply be “inspired” by them. To accomplish this, RoN initiatives should be led or co-led by Indigenous peoples and include grassroots Indigenous voices. Second, “anthropocentrism” as well as human failures to protect the environment are often cited as key causes of the problems RoN laws aim to address. In employing this framing, advocates and legal drafters must neither erase the fact of historical and ongoing Indigenous stewardship, nor ignore the role of other socio-economic and political forces contributing to environmental degradation such as (racial) capitalism and the ongoing effects of colonialism. Finally, a related concern is that the movement must not distract from or undermine Indigenous self-determination efforts. While the initial two bills did not advance past first reading, other RoN movement goals such as public education may be advancing. As well, the increased public involvement of Indigenous leaders in STL rights recognition efforts over the past year is a positive sign. It may indicate that the RoN movement in Canada represents and supports progress towards greater respect for, recognition of and prioritization of Indigenous knowledges, laws, and lifeways.
Open Access
A Spatially Explicit Assessment of the Biocapacity of Brazilian Forests from 2001 to 2019
(2021-12-31) Kapoor, Chaya; Mulvihill, Peter
Through the demand for resources and ecosystem services, the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide poses a striking example of how humanity exceeds the regenerative and absorptive capacity of the biosphere. The magnitude to which humans exceed this threshold is often expressed using the Ecological Footprint (EF) methodology. This approach tracks the amount of biologically productive areas on Earth for which human demands compete. Forested land is an integral component of the EF methodology since it is expected to meet multiple competing demands. This paper assesses the forest component of the National Footprint & Biocapacity Accounting (NFBA) framework – the most widely known application of the EF methodology. It investigates the forest component from a methodological and data perspective through an extensive literature review. Since the discussion of outdated input data to the forest component seems neglected in the literature, this study explores alternative datasets to estimate a key parameter of the carbon Footprint (cF), the Average Forest Carbon Sequestration (AFCS). A spatially explicit analysis involving net primary productivity (NPP) and land use datasets is conducted to generate forest metrics and timeseries data for the country of Brazil between 2001 and 2019. The results are subsequently compared to forest area and biocapacity data found in the NFBAs. The outcome of this analysis presents forest extent and productivity data in a more nuanced manner which could work towards improving the robustness of the Accounts if applied at the global scale.
Open Access
GHOSTS OF DIASPORA: Hauntology, Hip-Hop and Diasporic Memory in the Colonial Anthropocene
(2023-08-31) Guerra, Sergio; Zalik, Anna
This essay explores the political imagination of the post-war hinge generation of the Salvadorian diasporic subjectivity. Through the ethnographic narrative of hip-hop recording artist Cheko7even and the creation of a hauntological project entitled “The Migrant Report” and the adaptation screenplay entitled, Adrift, the Salvador Alvarenga Story, we explore hegemonic power over memory and the role of our transmissions in identity formation in the diaspora. By extracting themes from the lyrical narrative of the album, the essay explores the rhizome-like assemblages of our diasporic imagination through the modalities of hauntology, political ecology, social work and hip-hop. The essay attempts to creatively thread personal story and global counter-currents to argue for the benefits of diasporic subjectivities to in creating emancipatory narratives that bridge the West-South divide, as well argue for the use of experimental modalities of cultural production to produce counter-subjectivities from the diasporic political imagination.
Open Access
Pastures: An Exploration of an Aging Queer Woman
(2023-08-31) Dunn, Vanessa; Gosine, Andil
This paper accompanies the culmination my installation entitled, “Pastures.” “Pastures” was featured at The 519 community centre in Toronto, Canada in May 2023. It showcased pastoral cyanotype patches on denim and leather jackets, inspired by queer DIY punk motifs, nature, and the aging queer woman body. In this paper, I expand on themes of aging as a queer woman, including issues of invisibility and irrelevancy, transitory environments, and the nature of space, memory, and mourning. I also detail the artistic journey and reasoning that led to the final iteration of the “Pastures” installation, and its possibilities for the future. One of the many questions “Pastures” asks is how environments resonate with, and respond to, the personal. “Pastures” is inspired by my own journey as a queer woman and my search for a sense of belonging, vibrancy, and worth. In conversation with a theoretical framework that includes, visual arts practice, queer ecology and environments, and queer aging, “Pastures” central question posits: In a world that pushes queer woman bodies to the periphery, or pasture, where does my body belong?
Open Access
From Housing Now to Housing When? Exploring the State’s Approach to Affordable Housing
(2023-08-31) Campbell, Allsun; Kipfer, Stefan
This paper offers an explanatory framework for the genesis, operation, and outcome of the City of Toronto’s Housing Now Initiative. To better understand the roles of the state and civil society within this policy initiative, this paper seeks to uncover theories that aid in an explanation of the development and implementation of the Housing Now Initiative and the roles of different institutions in the shared objective of creating more housing. The final outcome of this major research paper is an explanatory framework of the genesis and operation of Toronto’s Housing Now Initiative. The Housing Now Initiative is an approach to leverage City of Toronto-owned land for the development of affordable housing within mixed-income, mixed-use, and transit-oriented communities. The Housing Now Initiative aims to address the need for affordable rental housing in Toronto, as indicated by the low residential vacancy rate, the significant number of people experiencing homelessness each night, and the increasing unaffordability of housing. Toronto is also expected to grow both economically and in population, further increasing the pressure to expand rental housing supply. Using state theory, the concept of hegemony, growth machine theory, and Social Reproduction Theory, this paper will suggest that the Housing Now Initiative represents a condensation of a relationship of forces between the dominant classes (i.e. real estate developers) and the dominated classes (i.e. those seeking affordable housing) as mediated and condensed by the state, particularly the City of Toronto. Furthermore, it will be suggested that the state upholds the hegemony of the dominant classes through a growth ideology with the goal of guaranteeing the reproduction of labour power to fill the gaps left by the contradictions inherent in capitalism. Such an analysis points to the codependent relationship between real estate developers and local governments and allows for further investigations into the efficacy of state-led initiatives to increase the affordable housing supply in Toronto.
Open Access
From Corporate Settler Food Regimes to Sustainable Urban Food Systems: Food as a Right of Citizenship and the Democratisation of Food Systems
(2023-08-31) Abdullah, Amal; Simoulidis, John
This Major Paper combines an approach from the disciplines of urban planning, political economy, environmental studies and health studies to deconstruct the role of the settler state and economic institutions in Canada in the contemporary urban food system. It examines the inequalities of power and property in the corporate settler food regime to explain the relationship between processes such as colonialism, capitalism, and urbanisation in how food is produced, distributed, consumed and disposed in the city. Part One explores the idea of the food-city nexus, and the application of food systems as a strategic lever to enhance related urban systems, such as housing and transportation in the city. Part Two demonstrates the ways in which the ongoing settler colonial project in the region now-known as Canada is at the heart of the dominant food system in urban space, with examples of the ways in which early colonial violence dispossessed Indigenous peoples of their territory, and destroyed their social and cultural food practices. Part Three argues that the commodification of food and the control of food distribution in cities by market entities is irrational, constricts food access, and is detrimental to the health of consumers, the livelihood of farmers and farmworkers, and the future of the natural environment. Part Four offers sustainable urban food systems as a framework for a way forward; it argues that the alternative to the dominant settler colonial and capitalist food system is to adopt the view of food citizenship and food as commons in the city. Here, we offer six guiding values that are essential to an urban food system where food citizenship is adopted by urban residents, and food is governed as commons: localness, universality, sustainable resource management, culture and social connectedness, food as an essential public service, and citizen-centred policy and engagement. This research has been written with the aim to present academic research in urban food systems planning to public non-academic audiences in a way that feels universal and relevant. The objective is to equip general audiences with ideas, terminology and concepts about the processes and actors in the settler corporate food regime so that they are able to develop a critical understanding of their impact on, and their interaction with, the urban food system. As this information is often hidden behind a price tag at the local supermarket, it may seem distant to urban food consumers. The value of presenting this research to public audiences, rather than to only the academy, is to bring reflexivity into everyday ordinary food practice. This process leads to a careful consideration of the impact of one’s choices and actions on the health and wellbeing of the individual, the collective and the natural ecological environment for present and future generations.
Open Access
Ecological Encounters in Outdoor Early Childhood Education Programs: Pedagogies for childhood, Nature and Place
(2013-12-31) Rafferty, Sinead; Leduc, Tim
This paper explores how nature, place, and pedagogical practice are perceived by educators in three Canadian outdoor early childhood education programs. Intersections between ideologies in early childhood education and interests in environmental education are introduced to highlight possibilities for collaboration in education for social transformation and ecological justice. Thematic issues and philosophical undercurrents of modern culture are explored and how they shape human and nature relations in educational settings. This research is situated in the movement to reconnect children to nature, whose goals include more outdoor play, enhancing children’s well-being and fostering environmental concern. Elements of critical theory, ethnography, phenomenology, grounded theory, and documents analysis were crafted to inform questions and code for themes that emerged from interviews with educators from the outdoor early childhood programs. Findings revealed that what the educators perceived from outdoor play was that children were more experientially engaged with movement, the land, and the local flora and fauna they encountered outside. The combination of democratic, child-led, and emergent pedagogical approaches with the educator’s conceptualizations of ecological literacy allowed children to construct reciprocal and affective ways of knowing and meaning making in the outdoors. This alternative form of pedagogical praxis, revealed from the educators’ experiences and the immersion of learning and play in the outdoors, demonstrates tangible possibilities for transformative education that honours embodied ways of knowing and reconfigures human and nature relations towards sustaining life and an ethics of co-existence.
Open Access
Energy Efficiency in Commercial Kitchens
(2022-08-31) Ritchie, Trevor; Lakhan, Calvin
The Energy Efficiency in Commercial Kitchens course project is intended to observe the presence of energy efficiency as a curriculum in post-secondary culinary institutions. It is designed to connect commercial kitchen planning and practice with emission reduction strategies as they relate to energy use. The following reflection provides an overview of the research findings and methods used to create an energy efficiency course proposed for post-secondary culinary students. This project responds to the gap in culinary training in prospect that chefs will gain the ability to identify opportunities for energy efficiency in commercial kitchens and become activists in energy reduction endeavours.
Open Access
Solidarity: The history and future of Canadian BIPOC co-operation and co-operatives in context
(2022-08-31) Redekop, Susanna; Myers, Lisa
This paper is a reflection of my research and experiences over the course of my Masters of Environmental Studies degree, which culminated in my co-founding Freedom Dreams Co-operative Education, an organization designed to educate about the co-operative model from an intersectionality lens specific to Black, Indigenous and People of Colour communities and to enable coalition building in the solidarity economy. Culturally diverse forms of co-operation are not recognized or understood well by the Canadian co-operative sector, which has led to a dominant model of co-operatives held up by and continuing to perpetuate colonial, heteropatriarchal constructs. This is problematic in the active erasure of BIPOC contributions to the co-operative sector, ignoring the diverse, rich cultural traditions of co-operation, and leaving out demographics of groups and individuals who may benefit from the co-op model. My research was guided by the following questions: How do Canadian co-operators and co-op activists engage more diverse communities in the co-operative model and establish more equitable and inclusive co-ops? How does the co-op sector introduce tools and education to form co-ops for interested BIPOC co-operators? What is it about the Canadian co-operative model that has made it inaccessible to many BIPOC communities? Through my primary and secondary research via interviews, focus groups and a literature review I draw on what I have learned from various communities of Black and Indigenous co-operators, and engage with critical pedagogy, Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR), and decolonial theory. I argue that this is a pivotal time to reassess the Canadian co-operative sector in making room for more diverse voices and action, strengthening the wider solidarity economy with co-operative action and bringing co-operative values to work led by BIPOC co-operators, youth, and allies. The key findings of this research were that culturally diverse co-operation in Canada faces barriers of language, racism, and a lack of time, resources and trust. This paper is part of a portfolio which explores these themes and connects them to the broader body of work that explores co-operatives and the solidarity economy through an intersectional lens. This portfolio also includes a an appendix of partners building solidarity economy in Canada, a business plan outline for Freedom Dreams Co-operative Education and the framework for an upcoming workshop series analyzing the 7 Co-operative Principles using an anti-oppression lens, each intended to build on this reflection paper by creating practical tools for the co-operative sector.
Open Access
Diagnosing Doug Ford’s Durability: The Discourse and Political Economy of Right-Wing Populist Environmental Politics in Ontario
(2022-04-30) Hillson, Peter; Winfield, Mark
As we approach the 2022 Ontario provincial election, political observers are apt to be somewhat confused. To most, it would seem that the current Ontario government, facing increasingly low popularity and widespread dissatisfaction with its management of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been ‘mugged by reality.’ However, as of yet polls show the Conservative Party of Ontario, (though with a dented reputation), very likely to retain power if an election were called today. This poses something of a theoretical dilemma. How do we make sense of an approach to governance that seems to have been discredited by reality, but shambles on relatively undisturbed in the discursive/political realm? With the goal of answering that question, this paper forwards a theory of the Ford government’s discursive strategy in general, and then examines how that style has persisted. It approaches this investigation using through discourse analysis, political-economic analysis, and a Gramscian analysis of hegemony. It proposes that the Ford government’s resilience can be attributed to the ability of its populistneoliberal and promethean-populist discourses to absorb and explain challenges accompanying COVID-19, changes in environmental politics, and labor market polarization in Ontario, as well as the inability of institutional discursive alternatives to provide a compelling counterhegemonic discourse that moves beyond the facilitative-managerial discourse the Ford government displaced in 2018. It concludes by suggesting that a revision of the ‘Green New Deal’ discourse that incorporates elements of deliberative democracy and a ‘green economic survivalism’ discourse might prove to be a more successful counter-hegemonic discourse.
Open Access
The Spit Represented: Imagined Natures of the Leslie Street Spit and Emerging Aesthetic Ideals on Instagram
(2022-08-31) Donnelly, Allison; Foster, Jennifer
From a wasteland to an urban wilderness, Tommy Thompson Park (commonly referred to as “the Spit”) is the culmination of various landscape narratives and visions of nature. Built from the rubble of Toronto’s early city-building initiatives, the 5km long peninsula is a product of shifting environmental values and socio-political processes. As a landscape in flux, there is a need to understand aesthetic preferences and the landscape character of the Spit. Publicly available photographs on social media have increasingly been used as a proxy for recreational values, preferences and to gauge visitor behaviour (Hamstead et al., 2018; Jim & Chen, 2006; X. P. Song et al., 2020; Wood et al., 2013). This method supports the shift away from technocratic, expert-based approaches to understanding landscape preferences, towards a more placebased understanding of the everyday situated experience, while enabling more collaborative local landscape planning processes. In this research, landscape preferences are identified through the coding of frequently occurring image attributes and the rate of occurrence serves as an indicator of aesthetic appreciation. Key findings demonstrate a balanced appreciation for socalled natural and urban features. The photos of Lake Ontario and Toronto’s skyline resemble a relatively homogenous photographic composition that constitutes the bulk of visual representation. Images of Toronto’s skyline portrays an idealized waterfront city. In looking out towards the urban centre, it positions the Spit outside of the city, engendering particular affective responses and perceptions that limit understandings of the urban, economic, and socio-ecological entanglements that have created it. This is problematic for post-industrial natures that are deeply enmeshed within urban processes, which require contextually attuned responses, and for promoting narratives that exclude the negative and unscenic impacts of the “urban engine” (Coelho, 2018). The prevalence of images that depict water either as the focal point or in the background, suggests access to Lake Ontario is highly valued and contributes to the Spit’s imageability. Other viewpoints that are oriented toward the urban skyline and those with unimpeded views of the lake are highly appreciated and could inform future park management plans. The prevalence of wildlife imagery affirms the Spit’s important role in habitat creation. It also alludes to the power of nonhuman actors (especially birds) in shaping the relationship between humans and the environment, in both attracting people to the Spit and inspiring its protection. The results confirm the landscape is multivalent and offers insight into aesthetic preferences of the Spit. This research complements existing work by the Rubble to Refuge Project, a joint endeavor with the Toronto Region and Conservation Authority (TRCA) and York University that responds to the pressing need to understand human uses with the Spit.
Open Access
Exploring Disparities in Park Access and Experience: A Case Study of Toronto, Ontario
(2022-08-31) Del Prete, Nicholas; Podur, Justin
According to the City of Toronto Strategy (2019), Toronto has over 1,500 parks in approximately 7,700 hectares of land scattered throughout the City, equating to 28m2 of parkland per person. This paper explores the provision of parkland throughout the City of Toronto, while intersecting the practice of urban and environmental planning with wider themes of environmental justice and equity. If parks are unevenly distributed, then so are the benefits that they provide. This research paper looks beyond the geographic distribution of parks, to critically examine the quality and user experience of these public spaces in socio-economically contrasting neighbourhoods to attempt to highlight themes of environmental inequity and environmental injustice in the context of the City of Toronto. Through this essay, I will argue why the practice of urban planning and more specifically, parks planning in a neoliberal context such as Toronto, works to perpetuate injustices that already exist through the exclusion of participatory planning practices. I argue that it is vital to equitable parks planning to create meaningful community engagement opportunities that considers the varying needs of contrasting communities. This study will build on existing theoretical and empirical conversations on how the intersection of socioeconomic inequality, racialized poverty and environmental degradation disproportionately impact vulnerable groups in Toronto and how different levels of access to quality park spaces contribute to environmental justice. Through intense site observations, a created site audit tool, as well as questionnaire responses, this study uncovers the different qualities and user experiences that exist at parks within four neighbourhoods which consist of contrasting socio-economic characteristics. The results of this study demonstrate that user experience and park quality are much greater in the neighbourhoods of higher socioeconomic statuses or that have recently received investment through urban revitalization processes. Findings also highlight the importance of considering the unique needs of a particular neighbourhood and the residents, rather than a one-size-fits all approach when planning and enhancing local parks.
Open Access
“Public” Space for Whom? Encampment Evictions, Spatio-Legal Exclusion, and Differentiated Urban Citizenships in Toronto
(2022-08-31) Abdelmeguied, Farida; Sotomayor, Luisa
In the summer of 2021, Toronto police executed violent raids, brutalizing vulnerated encampment residents and their supporters in three downtown public parks. During these evictions, state violence manifested in displacement and police brutality, including the use of force and intimidation tactics such as kettling. In response to the public relations fallout that ensued, the City changed course in October 2021, issuing Suspension Notices to encampment leaders that barred them from public space and public services. These tactics constitute a form of legally-imposed spatial exclusion (Beckett and Herbet, 2010), subjugating a vulnerated group to additional precarity, uncertainty, displacement, and violence. Forbidding unhoused people from accessing and using public space produces an acutely unequal and exclusionary city. In light of this, questions of differentiated urban citizenship, the meaning of “public” in public space, the processes by which individuals are made illegal, and the narratives and discourses embedded in the aforementioned become acutely pertinent. This portfolio of work is an exploration of the encampment eviction tactics pursued by the City of Toronto in the summer and fall of 2021 in the context of spatio-legal displacement and exclusion, carceral urban governance, and differentiated and propertied urban citizenship. The first section of the portfolio is an article that identifies the implications that the City’s eviction tactics have on questions of urban citizenship and the reconfiguration of spatial governance in Toronto. Utilizing a socio-legal approach and a mixed-methods qualitative research design, the article investigates how and why legal processes of spatial exclusion are mobilized against unhoused people, and how those processes produce differentiated access to urban citizenship and rights. The second section employs arts-based methods to complicate the City’s narratives surrounding the encampment evictions. Using erasure poetry and abecedarian poetry, two municipal press briefings are intentionally reworked to transform their meaning or effect, elucidating the constructedness and instability of narrative. The experimental and site-specific poetic explorations raise questions of erasure, public memory, and the right to narrate (Bhabha, 2014). The final section is a critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992, 2003, 2010), identifying the dominant narratives about encampment evictions constructed in mainstream media articles and municipal press briefings. The analysis elucidates how discourses of governance, order, and citizenship are mobilized to justify displacement and minimize state violence, while constructing unhoused people as undeserving non-citizens. In an antiparallel corollary, counter-narratives identified from advocate public statements and internal municipal documents relating to the planning of encampment evictions reveal what is erased by hegemonic narratives. This work contributes to socio-legal literatures on propertied urban citizenship and permanent displaceability, offering new insights on the arbitrary and informal processes of illegalization that exclude unhoused dwellers from public space in cities of the Global North and the narratives used to justify them.