YorkSpace

YorkSpace is York University's Institutional Repository. It supports York University's Senate Policy on Open Access by providing York community members with a place to preserve their research online in an institutional context.

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    Neurodiversity Planning and Accommodation: The Responsibilities of Urban Planners
    (2025-12-15) Switzer, Samuel; Taylor, Laura
    One of the key questions in modern planning corresponds to what the responsibilities are for planners. Are planners responsible for accommodating for the neurodiverse in the built form? In this paper, I aim to answer this question with extensive research into neurodiversity, its interactions with the built form, and how they can be accommodated for. I will express this through the use of walkabout interviews with neurodivergent participants regarding how their neurodiversity is influenced by the built form, as well as an interview with a planning professional regarding the existing state of accessibility in planning practice. From these interviews, I will compare them together, and contrast it with additional research into neurodiversity and planning as a means of exploring the connection between neurodiversity and the built form, and ultimately exploring different methods for how the neurodiverse can be accommodated. Finally, I hope to encourage the incorporation of Neurodiversity Planning into the broader planning world, as a key driver behind developments moving forward.
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    Contesting Land and Power: Colonialism, Capitalism,and Resistance at Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek
    (2025-12-16) Foster, Erin; Kipfer, Stefan
    Protests at Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek started with a small group of activists and quickly grew to become a large movement that included direct action at multiple sites on the West Coast of Vancouver Island as well as a large online following that spanned across the country and to other parts of the world. The actions taken to stop logging at Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek by protesters and the various responses to those actions have raised many questions about decision making in the face of climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing numbers of old-growth-forest-dependent species at risk. It has also drawn attention to crown-industry-Indigenous relations and to questions about land including title rights, jurisdiction, and responsibilities to the land and to each other on both unceded and treaty land in British Columbia. Marxist state theories, theories of colonialism and racial capitalism help explain different facets of these interrelated questions, all of which can be tied to colonialism and the resulting ongoing quest for control over land, the goal of extinguishing Indigenous peoples either through assimilation or genocide, the expansion of colonial capitalist system, as well as the ongoing resistance to these systems and relations. Scholarship has noted that current realities cannot be isolated from their histories and that to both understand current events and enact change one must understand past actions and the traces these have left. Situating the Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek case in economic, social, and environmental context and in a British Columbia influenced by colonialism, capitalism, and climate change, this paper examines the historical preconditions for the controversy at Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek and how these conditions remain reflected in current events and conversations that have taken place during the protests.
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    Community Building Through the Airwaves: RefFM Radio Station and Young People in Kakuma
    (Taylor & Francis, 2025-02-24) Baú, Valentina; Omondi Owiso, Michael
    This paper examines the role that community radio can play in a refugee camp, with particular focus on community building and social cohesion among young people. The article introduces the experience of RefFM in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya. Findings from four focus groups with young refugees in Kakuma shed light on both the uses and perceptions of the radio station among Kakuma youth. They also present insights into the design of radio-based interventions for humanitarian agencies working in refugee camps. In particular, reflections are offered on how “refugee community radio” programming can be developed to strengthen the ties between different communities living in the camp, and particularly among young people, while addressing the critical needs of a displaced population
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    A comparison of the polytomous Rasch analysis output of RUMM2030 and R (ltm/eRm/TAM/lordif)
    (Springer Nature, 2019-02-20) Robinson, Michael; Johnson, Andrew M; Walton, David M; MacDermid, Joy C
    Background Patient-reported outcome measures developed using Classical Test Theory are commonly comprised of ordinal level items on a Likert response scale are problematic as they do not permit the results to be compared between patients. Rasch analysis provides a solution to overcome this by evaluating the measurement characteristics of the rating scales using probability estimates. This is typically achieved using commercial software dedicated to Rasch analysis however, it is possible to conduct this analysis using non-specific open source software such a R. Methods Rasch analysis was conducted using the most commonly used commercial software package, RUMM 2030, and R, using four open-source packages, with a common data set (6-month post-injury PRWE Questionnaire responses) to evaluate the statistical results for consistency. The analysis plan followed recommendations used in a similar study supported by the software package’s instructions in order to obtain category thresholds, item and person fit statistics, measures of reliability and evaluate the data for construct validity, differential item functioning, local dependency and unidimensionality of the items. Results There was substantial agreement between RUMM2030 and R with regards for most of the results, however there are some small discrepancies between the output of the two programs. Conclusions While the differences in output between RUMM2030 and R can easily be explained by comparing the underlying statistical approaches taken by each program, there is disagreement on critical statistical decisions made by each program. This disagreement however should not be an issue as Rasch analysis requires users to apply their own subjective analysis. While researchers might expect that Rasch performed on a large sample would be a stable, two authors who complete Rasch analysis of the PRWE found somewhat dissimilar findings. So, while some variations in results may be due to samples, this paper adds that some variation in findings may be software dependent.
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    Parental justice: A Rawlsian proposal
    (SAGE Publications, 2025-08-01) Hodgson, Louis-Philippe
    Discussions of parental justice typically start from the thought that when people become parents through voluntary choices, they are presumptively responsible for the costs of raising their children. This responsibility-based argument is often presented as innocuous. I argue that it actually denotes a highly contentious view of how voluntary choices relate to the demands of justice, and that this view is particularly problematic regarding the kind of choices at stake in parental justice. In light of these concerns, I contend that the literature on parental justice would benefit from a Rawlsian turn. To negotiate this turn, we must acknowledge that the significance of the choice to have children depends on the justice of the institutional background against which it is made—not the other way around. The first question of parental justice is therefore not what responsibility parents should bear for their choices, but rather how a just institutional order would define the rights, duties, and responsibilities associated with the social position parent . I outline how a Rawlsian theory of parental justice might tackle this question.