Published January 26, 2012

by iris_author

Paul Parker, BSc, BA, MA, PhD, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, Faculty of Environment, University of Waterloo
The Earth Summit was held in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro with Canadian and global leaders signing conventions to protect the planet. In 2012, the Rio+20 conference will assess what we have achieved and what we need to do. Green economy has been proposed as a solution and the Ontario experience of green energy initiatives will be examined as a local case study. Energy efficiency to reduce demand and renewable sources of energy supply will be reviewed.

For more details visit: http://www.yorku.ca/rci/Site/Winter_12.html

Posted in: Events

Published January 25, 2012

by iris_author

Vanessa Lamb

PhD Candidate, Geography

 York University

January 26

749 York Research Tower

1:30 - 3 pm

While debates have alternated from arguments of a border-less world to arguments that maintain borders are everywhere (i.e., Balibar 2004), recent scholarship in geography has focused on the question of not just where borders are (or are not) located, but on the question of ­who borders (Johnson et al 2011, Rumford 2008). I examine the ‘who borders’ question at the Thai-Burma border by looking at the daily practices and performances (i.e., the borderwork) of those at the political border, drawing on fieldwork in 2010-11. As I demonstrate through examples from the environmental decision-making process around one large dam proposed at the border, the involvement of non-state actors in border-making is contradictory and multi-faceted in that it works to destabilize and reinforce the political border. Moreover, in contrast to much scholarly and activist work at or regarding the Thai-Burma border, which prioritizes a focus on the state, the “problem” of refugees and border crossing, I argue that the political border has long been (re)made and fixed through the involvement of non-state actors in relation to access and control over natural resources. This is important not only for understanding how the borderwork of local actors matters materially to the re-making of the decision-making framework for development but also, for how the border is (re)made through these same processes.

Posted in: Events

Published January 25, 2012

by iris_author

The Cynical Citizen: Teasing the Inside of the Settler State

Nathan Prier

PhD Candidate, Geography

 York University

January 26

749 York Research Tower

1:30 – 3 pm

The Cynical Citizen: Teasing the Inside of the Settler State

This is a set of reflections on emergent anti-colonial migrant justice organizing in Toronto and questions on “the political” and the insides and outsides of “citizenship”.  In the struggle for “Status for All”, a strategy to make the city substantially accessible in all manners to non-status migrants and refugees, the political dimensions of struggle have been framed not as “begging for recognition” but as a direct confrontation of Canada’s colonial state structure. In this framework, difficult questions around what “access without fear” means in terms of validating the state’s role as authority over the powers of life and death have been wrestled with in complex, if unsettled, ways. In the formation of an autonomous politics focused precisely on challenging state documentation and its consequences for communities, language to clearly define one’s subject position with regards to the “recognition of the state” is sometimes lacking. Borrowing from positions developed by Antonio Negri and Judith Butler, this research explores some of the entanglements of what I am tentatively calling “cynical citizenship”.

Posted in: Events

Published January 25, 2012

by iris_author

Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012

12:30 - 2:30 in HNES room 141

Miriam Duailibi, Director of the Ecoar Institute for Citizenship, Brazil

In today’s society, global networks that link together civil society, academia and governments are extremely important. They are vital to success and are necessary to create adaptive solutions important community issues such as: geographic, social, cultural, and economic vulnerabilities to global warming.

In particular, the semiarid regions of the Brazilian Northeast are being severely hit by these changes. However, NGOs, in partnership with universities and public entities, are taking actions that are gaining ground and improving the quality of life of communities in these areas. In Brazil, the restoration of traditional agricultural techniques and water management solutions for the retention and storing of water have improved the lives of many rural citizens. This has particularly impacted women’s lives.  Innovative social technologies are emerged from the understanding of local communities and then integrated with science. The ultimate goal is to bring simple and low-cost solutions which can effectively resolve problems that afflict poor populations around the world.

Miriam Duailibi is director of the Ecoar Institute for Citizenship, a Brazilian environmental and social NGO launched in 1992 during the United Nations’ Rio Conference on Environment and Development. Ecoar focuses on Education for Sustainable Societies, Climate Change, and advocacy with local and national governments on environmental, social justice and economic development issues, especially those affecting poor communities in metropolitan areas.   Author of many publications such as Energy of a Dream, Evaluating Environmental Education in Brazil, Women’s Enterprises, Water: a Wet Experience, and many articles for newspapers and books, Miriam is an active teacher and participant in networks all around the world such as the Climate Change Network, CCS Global Forum, the Brazilian Environmental Education Network, Social Technology Network, and the Centre for Socioecological Wisdom and Care of the La Plata River Basin, among many others.

Posted in: Events