'Something Happened': The Relevance of the Risk Society for Describing the Siting Process for a Municipal Landfill

This paper investigates reactions to a proposed municipal solid waste facility in Southern Ontario supposed to be a low-level, low probability risk using the risk society framework, developed independently by Beck (1992a, 1992b) and Giddens (1990, 1991). Residents often view risk from environmental hazards as high despite expert assurances that risks are low. The appeal of risk society as a general framework is that it connects quantitative risk assessment (QRA) and the social construction of risk (SCR) to show how individuals and social structures reflexively alter and are altered by conflicts over (actual/potential) technological hazards. The analysis involves 30 in-depth face-to-face interviews with residents in Caledon, Ontario, contextualized by interviews with proponent experts (n=4) from the government organization responsible for conducting the siting process. The risk society framework, although developed primarily to describe the effects of high-consequence global hazards, seems well suited to describing local level, low-consequence hazards. The siting process involved a series of fateful moments which upset people's security in particular ways of life. The proposed landfill and the process itself threatened the very nature of what people valued and expected from their community. However, this study raises a concern that the risk society played out at the local/regional level may exacerbate inequalities in the distribution of risks relative to benefits from technological environmental hazards. This stands in contrast with Beck's (1992a) notion that the risks from hazards are equitably distributed within the risk society.     

Towards a nuanced understanding of health‐supportive place using composite research methods

Chronic non‐communicable diseases comprise a major challenge for health in contemporary Australia and across the globe and, while various factors are at play, personal choices in behaviour and lifestyle are significant. The physical make‐up and ongoing management of the places where we live positively and negatively influences these lifestyle choices and subsequent health outcomes. However, responses—in research, policy, built environment design, construction, and management—frequently fail to recognise the intricacies of this people‐place‐behaviour nexus largely because those responses are highly focused and empirical. Rather, the health‐supportive environments needed to address the current chronic disease epidemic also require additional—networked, nuanced, and intuitive—understandings. Responding to that need, the study described in this paper took a comprehensive view of what constitutes a health‐supportive built environment. We detail the composite methods employed—built environment audits, interviews, and focus groups—all of which are available for use by others in similar situations. Then, using two case study examples, we reflect upon how our methodology revealed otherwise hidden aspects of the extent to which the study sites supported or hindered health‐supportive behaviours and responses. These results suggest intervention actions for policy makers and practitioners that will help them respond to the complex needs of communities in creating a health‐supportive environment.     

Acts of severity: colonial settler massacre of amaXhosa and abaThembu on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony,c.1826–47

Colonial massacre of the amaXhosa and abaThembu on the Cape Colony's eastern frontier between the 1820s and 1840s appears to be neglected compared to the extermination of the Khoisan. Whereas revisionist histories—most of which use an indigenous-resistance framework—have concentrated on Xhosa resistance to settler expansion, little attention has been paid to settler massacre. This article examines selected massacres between 1826 and 1847, considers their etiology, situates them within current debates on colonial settler genocide, and questions the success of Buxton's Select Committee on Aborigines in ending them.     

Two decades of Bosnian place-making in St. Louis,Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri received approximately 11,000 refugees from the Bosnian War (1992–1995) between 1993 and 2001. These newcomers were resettled in a predominantly white, working-class neighborhood on the city's south side known a century earlier for its German population. They were joined by family reunification immigrants, secondary migrants from other US cities, and a newborn generation of Bosnian Americans. With a current population of about 70,000, they constitute the largest population of Bosnians in the USA. They are credited with revitalizing the St. Louis neighborhood of Bevo Mill and stabilizing the city's declining population. Bosnians have created a distinctive ethnic enclave that is visible on the commercial, religious, and residential landscapes, and they have found a place in the wider receiving community. Drawing upon field observations, the local media, and the work of fellow scholars, this article investigates two decades of Bosnian place-making in south St. Louis. Through this case study, the author also seeks to fill a gap in the scholarly literature of this relatively recent diaspora by documenting the Bosnian imprint on the cultural landscape.     

Assessing Representation at Different Scales of Decision Making: Rethinking Local is Better

The nature and quality of representation in public participation is crucial to reaching acceptable environmental decisions that can be implemented. Ten case studies of natural resource management groups involved in agriculture in south western Australia were conducted at four spatial scales—state, regional, land conservation district (shire or county), and subcatchment. Qualitative analysis identified the desirable qualities of representatives, and then compared perceptions of current practice at the four scales against these ideals. Desirable qualities were being an active participant, competency (skills and knowledge), credibility, adopting the group identity and commitment, communicating outside the group, having established social networks, and an ability to function in multiple roles. Analysis across scales suggests that for groups at broader spatial scales of organizing, such as the state level, representation was closer to achieving the desired qualities than at other scales. This finding is contrary to much of the current rhetoric in natural resource management, and environmental management more generally, that "local is better." The article concludes with some thoughts as to why this is the case, suggesting that the success or otherwise of representation, and the public participation in which representatives are involved, is influenced not only by the scale of decision making but also by how representatives are selected and what they are expected to achieve.     

Care and the Lives of Homeless Youth in Neoliberal Times in Canada

Socio-spatial insights from feminist theories of care are examined in relation to the complex, difficult lives of some homeless youth in Ottawa, and their embeddedness within multiple scales of public policy construction and implementation. As lengthy interviews with 78 female and 78 male homeless youth in Ottawa revealed, both care and self-sufficiency figure strongly in these young peoples' lives. It is our contention that care is generally not part of current senior government agendas geared to marginalised youth and that as a result, there is a gap in funding that supports efforts of community organisations who work with homeless youth. We suggest that one way in which to understand this gap is by recognising that senior government programming for marginalised youth is geared problematically to narrowly defined employability issues. Furthermore, we assert that this results in local organisations being left to bridge the gaps between these one-dimensional characterisations and the complex gendered, racialised and situated lives of marginalised youth. In this article, we draw upon our preliminary findings from on-going research with homeless youth in Ottawa to expand on these arguments, in conjunction with theoretical insights drawn from selected ethics of justice and ethics of care arguments. We assert that there are important socio-spatial implications to be considered. Incorporating care into the framework of senior government policies implies that there is an onus not only to provide sufficient funds but also to direct those monies in such a way that the gendered and racialised contexts within which homeless youths are living manifest qualities of both care and justice. This article suggests that the role of appropriately located, multifaceted social services may have a significance that has not been appropriately recognised.

Cuidado y las vidas de jóvenes que faltan viviendas en tiempos de tendencia neoliberalista en Canadá

Se examinen perspicacias socio-espaciales que viene de teorías feministas de cuidado en relación a las vidas complejos y diversas de jóvenes sin hogares en Ottawa y a su fijación (embeddedness) en escalas múltiples de la construcción e implementación política publica. En entrevistas largas con 78 jóvenas y 78 jóvenes que no tienen hogares en Ottawa se revela que el cuidado e independencia se destacan en las vidas de las/los jóvenes. Sostenemos que generalmente el cuidado no es parte de las agendas actuales del gobierno superior que orientan a jóvenes marginalisados, y como consecuencia existe una brecha de financiamiento para apoyar organisaciones que trabajan con jóvenes sin hogares. Sugerimos que una manera para entender ésta brecha es reconocer que los programas del gobierno superior se orientan a cuestiones de empleabilidad limitado. Además afirmamos que resulta que organisaciones locales tienen la responsabilidad para tender puentes entre la brecha de caracterisaciones unidimensional y las vidas complejas, generificadas (gendered), racialisadas, y situatadas de jóvenes marginalisados. En éste artículo utilisamos conclusiones preliminares de investigaciones continuas con jóvenes que no tiene viviendas en Ottawa para extender los dichos argumentos en conjunción con perspicacias teoréticas de argumentos específicos de las éticas de justicia y las éticas de cuidado. Afirmamos que hay implicaciones socio-espaciales importantes que se necesitan tomar en cuenta. La incorporación de cuidada en el marco de las políticas desgobierno superior implica que no solo hay una responsabilidad para aprovisionar financiamiento suficiente sino que dirigir los fondos en una manera en que los contextos racialisados y generificados de las vidas de jóvenes marginalisados manifestan las calidades de cuidado y justicia. Éste artículo sugiere que el papel de servicios multifacéticos que se ubica adecuado tengan una importancia que no se reconocen apropiado.