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York members interested in attending COP 18 need apply by Friday

Published October 1, 2012

by iris_author

The 18th United Nations climate change conference and the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) will be held from Nov. 26 to Dec. 7 in the State of Qatar.

York community members interested in attending COP 18 should e-mail Annette Dubreuil, coordinator of York’s Institute for Research & Innovation in Sustainability (IRIS) by Friday, Oct. 5 at noon.

Dubreuil can be reached at afdubreu@yorku.ca.

For more information about COP 18, visit the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change website.

Posted in: IRIS News | Opportunities


Are YoU a Climate Zombie?: How can we walk together?

Published October 1, 2012

by iris_author

Climate 2

View the Final Report.

Date: Thurs 25 October 2012
Location: 280N York Lanes
Time: 10:00am to 3:00pm

Come and take action! 

Are you aware of climate justice issues? Are your actions hurting disenfranchised people worldwide? Do you want to take action and make a difference here at York and beyond?

The purpose of this climate justice unconference is to create a forum for students, staff, and faculty to have open conversations around social justice, human rights, sustainability, and climate change issues. The end goal is to create opportunities to work together in order to take action both personally and here at York University.

An unconference uses ‘open space technology’ to host a conference that allows participants to determine the agenda themselves at the start of the day within the scope of a particular topic. So YoU set the agenda!

This unconference is brought to you through the joint efforts of:

  • IRIS - Institute for Research and Innovation in Sustainability
  • the Centre for Human Rights
  • CSBO – Campus Services and Business Operations
  • the President’s Sustainability Council
  • York University - TD Community Engagement Centre
  • Net Impact
  • Regenesis @ York
  • Climate Consortium for Research Action Integration.

Outline for the day:

9:30am to 10:00am – sign up and welcome
10:00am to 11:00am – introduction and setting the agenda
11:00am to 2:00pm – breakout sessions
2:00pm to 3:00pm – conclusions and wrap-up

Climate Zombie Open Space Wordle

Wordle of the discussion of the day. Created by IRIS Director Dawn Bazely.

 

Posted in: Events


Responsible Investment Conference

Published September 27, 2012

by iris_author

Invitation to Responsible Investment Conference: October 2-3, York University

The Canadian Business Ethics Research Network (CBERN) has teamed up withSchulich Net Impact to provide complimentary registration for up to 60 students and faculty to attend the Keynote Speaker and Plenary Panel sessions at the PRI-CBERN Academic Network Conference.

The UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) Academic Network is a unique research community established to support the work of the UN PRI through research on responsible investing. It fosters a network of scholars, practitioners, policymakers and students interested in responsible investment issues.

This annual international conference provides an opportunity for researchers, students and investment professionals to present research, identify research opportunities and build partnerships to continue to enhance our knowledge in this area. CBERN is proud to co-host the conference in 2012 at York University, and we hope you can join us.

RSVP for selected sessions atwww.cbern.ca/pri-cbern2012/students/

Please note that this complimentary registration does not include meals or refreshments nor does it include participation at the parallel sessions. If you would like to attend all sessions of the conference, please register for paid registration atwww.cbern.ca/pri-cbern2012/register/.

If you have any questions, please contact Hilary Martin at hmartin@cbern.ca.

Session Info (complete agenda available at www.cbern.ca/pri-cbern2012/program/)

Session #1:

Tuesday, October 2  |  9:00am – 10:45am

Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building
Keynote Address 1
The Value-add of Shareholder EngagementElroy Dimson, London Business School
Panel 1: 
Governing from without and within: What institutions are needed to facilitate sustainable financial markets?

Gordon Clark, Oxford University

Jane Ambachtsheer, Mercer

Roger Urwin, Towers Watson (TBC)

Charles Sampford, Griffith University

Elroy Dimson, London Business School

Session #2:
Tuesday, October 2  |  1:30pm – 3:15pm

Tribute Communities Recital Hall, Accolade East Building

Keynote Address 2: The role of business ethics in financeOla Mestad, Chair, Norwegian Council on Ethics
Panel 2
Impact Investing: New opportunities for social impact - is there a market?

Giselle Leung, Global Impact Investing Network

Wes Cragg, CBERN

Serge LeVert-Chiasson, Sarona Asset Management

David Wood, Initiative for Responsible Investment, Harvard University

Session #3:
Wednesday, October 3  |  8:30am – 10:15am

McEwan Auditorium, Schulich School of Business
Keynote Address 3
Creating incentives that work in the long-term: aligning the interests of asset owners and asset managersSébastien Pouget, Toulouse School of Economics     
Panel 3
Is the problem the principal or the agent? Dysfunctional relationships in the investment chain and pathways for research to 'treat' them

Daniel Simard, Batirente  

Brigid Barnett, Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board

Sébastien Pouget, Toulouse School of Economics

Alison Schneider, Alberta Investment Management Corporation

RSVP for selected sessions atwww.cbern.ca/pri-cbern2012/students/

Posted in: Events


The Political Empowerment of the Poor in Bangladesh: Donors, NGOs and ‘the Road Not Taken’

Published September 27, 2012

by iris_author

The Political Empowerment of the Poor in Bangladesh: Donors, NGOs and 'the Road Not Taken'
Friday, 5 October 2012 | 11:30 am to 1:30pm | 305 Founders College | York University

Naila Kabeer, Professor of Development Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies

Recent research in Bangladesh highlights an interesting paradox: impressive development outcomes combined with extremely poor quality of governance. The country's active development NGO sector has been credited with some of the more positive development achievements. This presentation sets out to explore why the sector has not made an equivalent contribution on the governance front. It draws on field work in Bangladesh to explore the hypothesis that the problem lies in the increasing homogenization of the NGO sector around the delivery of services, primarily microfinance services, and its shift away from the political empowerment of the poor.

Hosted and organized by: International Development Studies, York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), Department of Social Science and the Graduate Program in Gender, Feminist and Women's Studies

For more information, email ycar@yorku.ca

Posted in: Events


CALL FOR PAPER

Published September 27, 2012

by iris_author

CALL FOR PAPERS
 
Spaces of Refuge:
Exploring Practices, Perceptions and Policies in Forced Migration and (Re)Settlement 
 
6th Annual Conference of the 
Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies (CARFMS) Hosted by: 
The Department of Sociology and Criminology and 
The Atlantic Metropolis Centre 
Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, NSMarch 7-10, 2013
 

The 2013 CARFMS Conference will bring together researchers, policymakers, practitioners, displaced persons, and advocates from diverse disciplinary and regional backgrounds to discuss spaces of refuge for forced migrants in the context of a changing global geopolitical context. We invite participants from a wide range of perspectives to explore the practical, experiential, policy-oriented, legal and theoretical questions raised by situations of forced migration as a result of conflict, development, climate change, and natural disaster. We also invite studies of short and long-term options for, challenges of, and success with respect to, integration, settlement, resettlement and voluntary return. In the area of both migration and settlement, we are particularly interested in studies that address threats to humanitarian space, and recommendations to counter such threats and build solidarity with those who seek refuge. The conference will feature keynote and plenary speeches from leaders in the field and refugees, and we welcome proposals for individual posters, papers, organized panels and roundtables structured around the following broad subthemes: 

1. Global/Transnational Causes and Solutions to Forced Migration

Main causes of displacement include conflict, environmental disasters and climate change, development, and frequently a combination of these. What’s more, one of the most concerning trends in the current global context is the number of long-term internally and internationally displaced persons. This suggests the usefulness of taking a global approach to understanding displacement and seeking solutions. Furthermore, the search for solutions must explore the balance between short-term emergency responses and durable solutions in the context of broader structural problems. In sum, this theme is an attempt to solicit analyses that explore causes for and solutions to displacement from global and transnational perspectives.

2. Challenges to Asylum/Resettlement and Humanitarian Space in Local Contexts

 
This theme seeks to analyze changing procedures and practices regarding asylum and (re)settlement more broadly. Recent changes in legislation on asylum in Canada, for example, illustrate the shrinking space for humanitarian action that characterizes the wider global context. What are the short and long-term implications of these changes in Canada and abroad? What are the responses of different social actors to such changes? What alternatives are available for humanitarian action? Another set of questions addresses how forced migrants, and the agencies assisting them, are coping with changes in perceptions, policies and practices concerning refugees, asylum seekers, and other forced migrants: Where and with whom do refugees and other forced migrants look for support? Where do displaced persons find or seek to find a sense of belonging? How are identities of forced migrants negotiated in different contexts of reception? Papers that consider the relevance of gender and intersectional analysis for displacement, and issues of particular relevance for refugee children and youth, are encouraged. In sum, this theme solicits exploration of the changing contexts of reception for forced migrants, and how forced migrants, agencies, and other advocates are responding to these changes.

3. Researching and Theorizing Displacement

Grounding current theories and methods of research in concrete examples of displacement will lead to a better understanding, and ultimately to better policies and practices affecting the displaced in local, regional, national, and international contexts. What are the practical issues and challenges of researching displacement? How do we do research on displacement, and how does this influence what we know? How should conventional research methods be adjusted to studies of forced migrants, who are often difficult to locate, on the move, and highly vulnerable? What role do these paradigms play in how we understand different situations of displacement, and how we respond? What are the implications of positioning ourselves as academics, policy makers, displaced persons, advocates, or activists when we are looking into issues of displacement? In sum, this theme solicits primary research into specific situations of displacement, with the goals of highlighting specificity, making comparisons, testing theory, practicing reflexivity, and examining policy appropriateness in a variety of national, and international contexts. 

SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS 

Individuals wishing to present at the conference must submit a 250-word abstract and 100-word biography by December 21, 2012. The conference organizers welcome submissions of posters, individual papers, proposals for panels, and roundtables.

Please submit your abstract online via the conference website:http://carfmsconference.yorku.ca
Instructions on submitting online abstracts are available at:http://carfmsconference.yorku.ca/index.php?conference=carfms13&schedConf=carfms13&page=announcement&op=view&path[]=30

For more information, please contact Michele Millard at: mmillard@yorku.ca

*********************************************************************************************************************

APPEL DE COMMUNICATIONS 
Espaces de refuge : 
Explorer les pratiques, les perceptions et les politiques relatives aux migrations forcées, à la réinstallation et à l’intégration

6e conférence annuelle de 
l’Association canadienne des études relatives aux réfugiés et à la migration forcée (CARFMS) 

organisée par 
le Département de Sociologie et de Criminologie et
le Centre Métropolis Atlantique 
Université Saint Mary’s, Halifax, Nouvelle-Écosse

Du 7 au 10 mars 2013
 

La Conférence de 2013 réunira chercheurs, représentants gouvernementaux, des personnes déplacées, des avocats et des acteurs issus de diverses disciplines et d’origines géographiques, pour discuter des espaces de refuge pour les migrants forcés dans un contexte géopolitique global en évolution. Nous invitons les participants à explorer, depuis une large variété de perspectives, les aspects théoriques et pratiques, nourris par l’expérience, de nature juridique ou politique, que soulève la migration forcée suite à des situations de conflit, de développement, de changement climatique ou de désastre naturel. Nous invitons aussi les participants à explorer les différentes questions concernant l’intégration, l’établissement, la réinstallation des réfugiés et le retour volontaire des migrants forcés, ainsi que les solutions à court terme ou de nature durable pour faire face à ces problèmes, y compris les propositions visant à élargir l’espace humanitaire et à assurer la solidarité avec les migrants forcés. Des personnalités reconnues dans le domaine de l’(im)migration et des réfugiés interviendront pendant la conférence inaugurale et les sessions plénières. Nous sollicitons la soumission de présentations individuelles, d’affiches, de panels et de tables rondes autour des axes suivants : 

1.        Les causes globales et transnationales des migrations forcées et les solutions

Parmi les principales causes de déplacements forcés figurent les conflits, les désastres environnementaux, le changement climatique, les projets de développement, qui sont souvent combinés. L’augmentation considérable du nombre de personnes déplacées de manière durable, tant à l’intérieur de leur propre pays qu’à l’international, est un développement particulièrement préoccupant. Il est par conséquent nécessaire d’adopter une approche globale pour analyser les migrations forcées et explorer des solutions appropriées aux défis que soulève ce phénomène. Ce faisant, il importe d’assurer un équilibre entre les solutions d’urgence à court terme et des réponses durables aux problèmes d’ordre structural et systémique. Ce thème vise à promouvoir des analyses explorant diverses causes des migrations forcées et les solutions qui peuvent y être apportées dans des perspectives globales et transnationales.

2.        Asile et réinstallation: Défis et solutions humanitaires dans des contextes locaux
 
Ce thème vise à analyser l’évolution des procédures et des pratiques relatives à l’asile, à la réinstallation et à l’intégration des réfugiés plus largement. Des changements récents dans le système canadien d’asile illustrent la tendance restrictive au regard du droit des réfugiés et le rétrécissement de l’espace réservé à l’action humanitaire qui caractérisent le contexte global actuel. Quelles sont les conséquences immédiates et à long terme de ces changements dans le système canadien d’asile et dans d’autres pays? Quelles sont les réponses de différents acteurs sociaux face à ces changements? Quelles alternatives s’offrent à l’action humanitaire? Ce thème s’intéresse également aux manières dont les migrants forcés et les agences qui les aident réagissent face aux changements dans les perceptions, les politiques et les pratiques concernant les réfugiés, les demandeurs d’asile et les autres migrants forcés. Il explore entre autres les questions suivantes : où et auprès de qui les réfugiés et les migrants forcés trouvent-ils du soutien? Où cherchent-ils un sens d’appartenance? Comment sont négociées les identités des migrants forcés dans divers contextes de réception? En d’autres mots, quelles sont les réponses apportées par les migrants eux-mêmes et par les organismes et les défenseurs des droits des migrants face aux conditions d’accueil plus restrictives et plus globalement, face aux défis d’intégration et de recherche d’un sens d’appartenance?

3.        Les nouvelles approches et théories dans l’étude des migrations forcées 

Ancrer les théories et les méthodes actuelles de recherche dans des exemples concrets de déplacement vont donner lieu à une meilleure compréhension et éventuellement à de meilleures politiques et pratiques ayant un impact sur les personnes déplacées au niveau local, régional, national et international. Quelles sont les méthodologies, les théories et les questions pratiques et les difficultés liées à la recherche dans le domaine des migrations forcées? Comment les méthodes de recherche propres aux sciences humaines sont-elles adaptées à l’étude des migrants forcés qui sont souvent en mouvement et dans une situation vulnérable? Comment le point de vue de différents chercheurs peut-il varier en fonction de leur position ou de leur statut d’universitaire, de représentant gouvernemental, de décideur, de représentant du milieu associatif, d’avocat, de défenseur des droits humains ou de migrant forcé? Dans le cadre de ce thème, nous sollicitons entre autres des présentations  sur des recherches empiriques portant sur des situations de déplacements forcés et qui ont pour but d’explorer ces situations, de faire des comparaisons, de tester des théories,  ou d’examiner les politiques dans une variété de contextes nationaux et internationaux.

SOUMISSION DE COMMUNICATIONS 

Les personnes qui souhaitent présenter une communication individuelle, une proposition de panel, ou organiser une table-ronde ou toute autre événement lors de la Conférence sont priées soumettre un résumé de 250 mots de leur communication ou des présentations composant le panel ou la table-ronde, ainsi qu’une note biographique de 100 mots via le site internet de la conférence :http://carfmsconference.yorku.ca

Les informations relatives à la soumission des propositions sont disponibles à l’adresse suivante: http://carfmsconference.yorku.ca/index.php?conference=carfms13&schedConf=carfms13&page=announcement&op=view&path[]=30

La date limite des soumissions est le 15 novembre 2012.

Pour plus d’information, prière de contacter  Michele Millard : mmillard@yorku.ca

Posted in: Opportunities



“Climate Change is NOT a Hoax” (B. Obama) Blog #2: Just cancelled my Globe and Mail subscriptions

Published September 25, 2012

by dbazely

SCENE: Kitchen, writing student references for medical schools, while CBC's As It Happens plays on the radio.

JEFF DOUGLAS (As It Happens radio broadcoaster):

""Media Culpa." That's the name of a blog maintained by Ottawa artist Carol Wainio. As the name suggests, the blog exposes what Ms. Wainio believes to be substandard journalism. Lately, her spotlight has been focusing on one Canadian journalist in particular: Globe and Mail columnist Margaret Wente.

On Friday, the Globe's Public Editor, Sylvia Stead, responded to some of the issues raised by Ms Wainio. Ms. Stead included an explanation from Ms. Wente. But Carol Wainio isn't satisfied, and neither is John Miller.

He's the founding Chair of Ryerson University's Journalism Department and professor emeritus. We reached Mr. Miller in Port Hope, Ontario." (from The Monday Edition of As It Happens, duration 7 mins 49 secs)

DAWN BAZELY: "What the heck?" To my family hanging around doing homework and reading the Globe and Mail: "Did you hear that?"

Yes, we heard it and after the interview with Prof. Miller (starting at minute 13:25 of the podcast), I read many of the blogs and the Globe and Mail articles about the plagiarism. The Globe and Mail admitted to some of what Carol Wainio has been documenting, though did not call it plagiarism. It culminated, this morning, in my sending a Letter to the Editor of the Globe and Mail explaining that until a transparent and public investigation takes place to restore my faith in their journalistic standards and practices, that I would be cancelling my online and print subscriptions. Too bad, because I am a huge fan of Lucy Waverman's recipes, and my lobbying to get her back to the Saturday Life section from the mid-week section appeared to have borne fruit.

What does this debacle at the Globe and Mail have to do with Climate Change? A lot, actually (more on that in a moment).

It also has to do with how universities deal with ethics and academic integrity, including plagiarism. York University students are required to read the Academic Integrity webpages and do the tutorial about it. At York, I was one of the first professors to use Turnitin plagiarism software, because I brought in a lot of written work into BIOL 2050 (Ecology). Course instructors and teaching assistants spend a huge amount of their time educating about and policing academic honesty and making sure that plagiarism is not happening and if something is flagged as being potential plagiarism, filing complaints, holding meetings with associate deans and students involved, and then doing any follow up remedial work. There are large chunks of my life spent with tearful, upset students, that I will never ever get back.

So to read that a very public and polarizing columnist who has been given many board-feet of column space in what Chris Selley of the National Post describes in an online post as Canada's "self-styled paper of record" is not only being questioned about possible plagiarism and that several instances of this have been raised in the past by Carol Wainio (you can read the comparisons of the text - they are all over the internet), but then to see the muted responses from the Globe's Public Editor, and the Editor, made me feel utterly dismayed. THIS IS SERIOUS! In our courses, this would get students called into meetings, and if it continued (as appears to be have been happening), there would be a ramped up response and penalties imposed - severe penalties. Chris Selley quite rightly went on to observe that the Globe's response "is completely out of keeping with the global journalism mainstream".

I have written about the challenges of consistent blogging about sustainability, because of the time that I feel ethically obliged to spend checking sources, referencing and inserting links into posts, so as to maintain the standards that I am supposed to uphold as an academic. I get freaked out about accuracy and attribution. Apparently the Globe and Mail doesn't see this as such a big issue.

And finally, climate change... It's simply that Margaret Wente's many columns on climate change, sustainability, energy, etc. indicate that she is happy to give a big shout out to skeptics and denialists and generally is not interested in considering the boring old scientific community in a respectful, (even semi-) balanced and informed dialogue. Furthermore, a number of her columns about about the environment have contained errors through omission - exactly one of the reasons for academic dishonesty charges being levelled against Bjorn Lomborg, himself a controversial climate skeptic - then believer - now unfunded. I gave up reading Wente a long time ago after realizing that any time spent analyzing and responding was a total waste. The people now defending Wente in the comments section of the Globe and Mail appear to be supporting her because she speaks to their cultural beliefs and for them, uncomfortable facts are really not going to be that important (aka cognitive dissonance). A couple of years ago, the Globe and Mail actually did publish a response by Gerald Butts of WWF Canada to one of Wente's anti-climate change screeds.

So, here I go - a bit of analysis and observation of a couple of Wente columns:

From a December 1st 2011 column, "Suppression of climate debate is a disaster for science"

"Instead of distancing themselves from the shenanigans, the broader climate-science community has treated the central figures in Climategate like persecuted heroes. That is a terrible mistake, because it erodes the credibility of the entire field. The suppression of legitimate debate is a catastrophe for climate science. It’s also a catastrophe for science, period." (M. Wente)

Sorry - but the climate scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit were cleared of malpractice allegations, as reported by the Guardian on April 14 2010 in an inquiry headed by Lord Oxburgh. More of the same hacked emails were put out there after the inquiry had finished, by the denialists - but Wente doesn't mention the Oxburgh inquiry results anywhere, as far as I can tell - though she does consistently say that the science of climate change is not settled. NOT TRUE! Surely the Globe could have afforded to send her to any one of the International Polar Year conferences held in Quebec.

And  in the same column, Wente cites an economics professor on the topic of climate science: "Ross McKitrick... at the University of Guelph who is a leading climate-science critic" A quick check of McKitrick's publications on Google Scholar, indicates that he publishes papers about the lack of evidence for climate change with a co-author Patrick J. Michaels of the libertarian think tank, the Cato Institute, Washington, D. C. Hmm - wonder who funds them? - oh, that billionaire, Koch.

Previously, Wente had covered Climategate in a column, "Climate science's PR disaster" in which someone called Steve McIntyre, a skeptic and "anarchist", was heavily referenced. He has recently published a journal paper confirming  climate change in Antarctica, but this is his only peer-reviewed paper - his other writing is on his blog page.

The problem with these two columns is that Wente is conflating peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed writing. There is a whole field that considers academic and funder bias (but it's not really ever mentioned by Wente).

I could go on picking Wente's biased writing apart, but it's pointless. She has sold many papers with this approach, and gets a lot of clicks on the internet. Except, that I cannot resist pointing out the irony of a June 14 column supporting fracking in which she's actually calling for science: "I'm no expert on fracking technology, and I'm in no position to evaluate the risks. I have to rely on experts for that." She fails to point out that there is research ongoing into this issue and a lot of concern about fracking. Yes, the research investigating the downsides of fracking is in its infancy, and there's not much published on it, but Wente has never shied away from featuring the opinions of poorly-published people.

It really is time for the "legacy media", as I have learned it is called, to step up to the plate and deal substantively with the allegations against Margaret Wente. This would at the very least, include running all of her writing through Turnitin or some other plagiarism software.

Dawn Bazely

Posted in: Blogs | IRIS Director Blog



CANADA AND EMPIRE: the new canadian imperialism in central america

Published September 25, 2012

by iris_author

CERLAC presents

CANADA AND EMPIRE: the new canadian imperialism in central america

with Grahame Russell and Tyler Shipley

 Weds Sept 26, 2012

3:30 – 5:00 pm

956 YRT (York Research Tower)

York University

 Join us in a discussion of Canada’s particular role in exploitation and injustice in Guatemala & Honduras

While the role of U.S. imperial power in Central America has long been the subject of much warranted critique, Canada’s participation in the projects of empire has too often slipped below the radar.  This is of particular significance in the context of the increasingly aggressive imperial strategies that Canada has undertaken in recent decades, which both dovetail with traditional U.S. imperial strategy and, at the same time, present Canadian capital as an imperial competitor to Washington.  

The painful consequences of this shift have fallen, not surprisingly, to the peoples and communities of Central America, whose land, resources and bodies are treated as cheap inputs in the quest for profits for North American companies engaged in mining, manufacturing, tourism and other industries.  Join us in a discussion of Canada’s particular role in exploitation and injustice in Guatemala and Honduras.   

More info

http://www.yorku.ca/cerlac/events12-13.htm#russell

cerlac@yorku.ca

Posted in: Events


Home Sweet Home Competition

Published September 25, 2012

by iris_author

Calling all ONTARIO post-secondary STUDENTS! 

ENTER this super-fun yet academically challenging green home design competition anytime between now and March 1st, 2013. CONTRIBUTEyour creativity and research talents to making future home designs more healthy, efficient, and ethical. Winning teams will BE RECOGNIZED on stage by an audience of Ontario's best and brightest professionals in the eco design/construction sector in April.

For More Information, Please click on the HOME SWEET HOME COMPETITION page

Posted in: Opportunities


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