Fri. Feb. 24,  Beyond Dangerous Climate Change: the void between rhetoric and reality in reducing GHG emissions.
What we say we need to do, what is actually happening, and what is really involved in achieving the rhetoric. Based on the work of Kevin Anderson; presentation by George Morrison. Be part of this critical discussion. Free/PWYC Friends' House, 60 Lowther, 7 pm. Peace and Social Action Committee, www.torontoclimatecampaign.org

Sat. Feb. 18, Polly Higgins speaks on Eradicating Ecocide.
Meet Polly Higgins, Earth's Lawyer. Award-winning author of Eradicating Ecocide, barrister and international environmental lawyer, Polly proposed to the U.N. in April 2010 a law of Ecocide to be classed as an international law alongside Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, Crimes of Aggression and War Crimes as a 5th Crime Against Peace. Ecocide is defined as the mass "damage, destruction to or loss of ecosystems of a given territory, whether by human agency or by other causes, to such an extent that peaceful enjoyment by the inhabitants of that territory has been severely diminished."  www.thisisecocide.com/  In a rare visit to Toronto, en route for a U.S. speaking tour, Polly will speak about the campaign to make ecocide a crime. Polly wishes to meet with faith, environmental, youth, business, legal, political leaders, civil society, all interested in making Earth law at the Earth Summit.  Please join us at Friends' House 60 Lowther Ave., (2 bl. N of the St. George subway), 4pm, Feb. 18. The event is free. She will present from 4- 6 pm, followed by a potluck 6-8 pm. (Contributions welcome!) For more information, http://tinyurl.com/7rol3ek   Phone (416) 731 6605

On Thursday, March 8, 2012, the Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) will be hosting their annual research showcase event. This year's theme is Transcending Interdisciplinary Research Barriers: Best Practices for Mobilizing Knowledge.

Wicked problems, such as climate change and poverty, are highly complex, defying traditional problem-solving approaches. How key are electronic communications for providing solutions to these problems by building the global knowledge society and generating new kinds of knowledge? The power of interdisciplinary approaches as facilitated by global communication networks are widely touted by all universities and colleges today. Yet their authenticity and effectiveness are seldom examined critically, except perhaps by those who have trodden the thorny path of interdisciplinary academic collaboration, seeking transdisciplinary and novel outcomes and solutions. A common experience is that even with today's awesome communication technologies, among academics, there are barriers of language and culture. Transcending these barriers remains an ongoing challenge for effective team science, because of the high transaction costs of interdisciplinary interactions, compared with discipline-centric research, in a familiar setting. This session features speakers from the natural and social sciences who have sought to move out of their comfort zones: their labs, field sites, and libraries. The collective experiences of highly diverse, interdisciplinary academic teams that have tackled wicked problems, identifying best practices for interdisciplinary team science, and how global communication technologies have been used in mobilizing science into sound policy solutions will be explored.

Dawn R. Bazely, Biology

Managing Northward-Bound Species: Which Will Become Invasive?
Along with habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species are recognized as a major threat to biodiversity. Research examining the ecological impacts of invasive non-indigenous species has increased hugely, yet managing invasive species remains problematic due to conflicting societal values. Additionally, determining the impacts of invasives under climate warming scenarios is even more complex. Co-authors are Norm Yan and Andrea Smith (York University) and Stephen Murphy (Waterloo University). Download Dawn Bazely's presentation.

Steve Tufts, Geography

Adapting to and mitigating climate change require major societal shifts, but what will everyday jobs look like? This presentation, from members of the interdisciplinary research team of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Community-University Research Alliance project, Work in a Warming World, explores this question. Co-authors include, Warren Mabee (Queen’s University) and Stepan Wood and Irene Henriques (York University). Download Steve Tufts' presentation.

These talks were originally presented during this year's American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting held in Vancouver on February 16-20.

Dr. Mari Kira, Aalto University School of Science, Finland

Date: Thursday February 16, 2012
Time: 10 am - 12 pm
Location: HNES 142, Keele Campus, York University

For those of you who cannot attend in person, you can also take part in this event online at http://connect.yorku.ca/marikira/

TALK ABSTRACT

My research and the present talk focus on two interconnected topics: sustainable work organizations and sustainable work. The perspectives I take relate to organizational change and development for sustainability, and the design and development of work for sustainability.

Sustainable work organizations seek to maintain their adaptive capacities and dynamically reach their operational or business goals in a manner that contributes to the regeneration, rather than the consumption, of various resources engaged in and affected by their operations. The unwavering goal of protecting and regenerating various resources is a value-based hallmark of a sustainable work organization. In my talk, I will present some key findings relating to the leadership and organizational development for work-organizational sustainability based on a recent anthology (Docherty et al., Eds, 2009) and on-going European research on sustainability (Kira & Lifvergren, 2011).

The sustainability literature has traditionally considered three important resources – social, economic, and ecological resources. However, my aim is to understand how also the personal and professional resources of employees may be supported to develop in sustainable work (Kira et al., 2010) such that employees’ capacity for well-being and for making a positive contribution through their work strengthens. I draw from recent theories in the positive organizational scholarship to discuss how work experiences may promote the development of human resources at work. Especially, I will focus on employees’ possibilities to work in alignment with their work identities as a source of human sustainability (Kira et al., 2011).

References

Docherty, P., Kira, M. & Shani, A.B. (Eds., 2009), Creating Sustainable Work Systems, Developing Social Sustainability, 2nd edition. London: Routledge.

Kira, M. & Lifvergren, S. (2011), Sowing the seeds for sustainability. In: I. Ehnert, W. Harry and K. Zink (Eds), Handbook of Sustainability and Human Resource Management, forthcoming.

Kira, M., Balkin, D.B. & San, E. (2011), Authentic work and organizational change: Some longitudinal evidence from a merger. Journal of Change Management, forthcoming.

Kira, M., Eijnatten, F.M. Van & Balkin D.B. (2010), Crafting sustainable work: Development of personal resources. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 23, 5, 616-632.

About Mari Kira

Mari Kira is an Academy Research Fellow at Aalto University School of Science, Finland. At Aalto, she carries out research and coordinates a research project on sustainable work systems. The questions she approaches in her research are: What does the sustainability of human resources at work mean and how can it be promoted in contemporary organizations? How does human sustainability connect with an organization’s overall sustainability orientation? At the moment, she is especially interested in studying the role of work and organizational identities in connection with human and work-system sustainability. Mari has been studying human and social sustainability in working life for already over a decade. Earlier, she worked at University of Kassel in Germany and at Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, where she also defended her PhD thesis in 2003. She has also been a guest researcher at University of Colorado at Boulder, USA, in three occasions. Mari’s work has been published in several international journals (e.g., Journal of Organizational Change Management, International Journal of Training and Development, and Systems Research and Behavioral Science). She has also co-edited an anthology on “Creating Sustainable Work Systems” that was published in 2009 by Routledge.