Supervision
Aaron Moguin MA, RMES (co-supervision with Ray Cole), 2014-
Aaron will investigate how sustainability assessment frameworks can better influence agents of urban change (land developers and policymakers), and how these existing frameworks can be improved at the neighbourhood level by analyzing data collected through research at IRES and CIRS.
Steve Williams, PhD, RMES, 2014-
Steve will examine how new techniques for public engagement such as Social Innovation Labs, and new tools such as data visualization, social media and the use of gaming techniques might change how we do public engagement in complex systems; the linkage between technological innovation and social innovation; and the role of institutional entrepreneurs in enabling and driving transformational system change.
Anne-Mareike Chu MA, RMES, 2013-
Anne-Mareike is interested in the Earth system, centered on the needs of human beings in a social system, with a focus on sustainability. Her research focuses on conservation, self-sufficiency and sustainability in society, and more specifically, the required organizational dimension that will allow sustainability to become an inherent part of our culture.
Pani Pajouhesh MA, RMES, 2013-
Pani will be focusing her research on regenerative sustainability – a school of thought that shifts from damage limitation to one concerned with improving environmental and human conditions at a larger scale. As part of her thesis, an adaptive and evolving assessment framework, or lens, will be developed that evaluates the sustainability performance of infrastructure and building development, and in particular, transitions from current green practices and discussions to those shaped by regenerative principles.
Amanda Duncan PhD, GEOG, 2012-
It has been Amanda’s aim to explore the importance of community building practices, specifically within an urban environment, to the increase of participants’ well-being and to the development of a sustainable future. The interplay between the inhabitants and the sustainable systems in CIRS from a social psychology perspective and exploring community engagement processes, primarily through qualitative methods, will be her main focus.
Ivana Zelenika PhD, RMES, (co-supervisor with Jiaying Zhao), 2012-
Ivana’s research interests are in applied sustainability, appropriate technology, barriers to sustainable development, power of Information and Communication Technologies (internet, access to knowledge), open access and innovation through collaboration, as well as technology, environment, society and common good.
Sylvia Coleman PhD, RMES (co-supervisor with Ray Cole), 2007-
Sylvia is investigating the negotiation of social practice and behaviour change in an innovative regenerative building, as it relates to sustainability. Her work focuses on the qualitative, and will concern discourse and narrative analysis, using CIRS as the site of engagement.
Committee membership
Jason Brown, PhD, RMES, 2013-
Jason is exploring the linkages between spirituality and sustainability
Jacqueline Koerner PhD, GEOG, 2009-
Jacqueline’s research interests are in resilience building; particularly, how people and place matter in a rapidly globalizing world; how they engage in innovative partnerships, at a variety of scales, developing economic strategies and practices, for-profit and not-for-profit, to improve their well-being – economic, environmental and socio-cultural.
Recent Graduates
Lisa Westerhoff PhD, RMES, 2015 (supervisor)
Title: City stories : from narrative to practice in Vancouver’s Olympic Village (https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0215882)
Abstract: Calls for a more thoughtful and wholehearted inclusion of the humanities and social sciences in defining and answering questions of sustainability have highlighted the importance of integrating a more comprehensive range of values, knowledges and perspectives into our efforts to transition towards sustainable societies. Far from an abstract gesture, such a shift has practical implications for the way sustainability policies and projects are conceived and carried out, including the design and assessment of urban sustainable neighbourhoods.
In this dissertation, I show that the study of narrative offers a potent means of untangling the underlying assumptions and meanings embedded within decisions and characterizations of sustainability and sustainable neighbourhoods, which I explore in the context of Vancouver’s Olympic Village. I tell the story of this unique urban development from the perspectives of the many voices that have created it, from its first planners to its present beneficiaries. By combining narrative with insights and methods from social practice theories, I show how the sustainable intentions of the Olympic Village have challenged and intersected with the lived narratives of its residents and managers, two key constituencies in the neighbourhood’s unfolding. I investigate the neighbourhood as an intervention both structural and symbolic to reveal the normative (i.e. discursive) and performative (i.e. material) dimensions of the neighbourhood’s particular narrative of sustainability, and the way these have intervened into residents’ and managers’ practices, perceptions and identities.
I conclude that while broad metanarratives of sustainability in both policy and media have played strong roles in shaping the lives of the neighbourhood’s residents and managers, the neighbourhood continues to evolve as its constituents perform new practices in the landscape. I show the important intersection between social and ecological goals, highlighting the need to consider and support liveability in the pursuit of sustainability. Finally, I show that while the neighbourhood has been instrumental in pushing sustainability efforts forward, it also missed key opportunities to address the expectations and experiences of its future inhabitants.
Julia Reckermann MA, RMES, 2014 (supervisor)
Title: CIRS pre-occupancy evaluation : inhabitant feedback processes and possibilities for a regenerative place (https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0167655)
Abstract: An untypical workplace, The Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS) is an aspiring regenerative place with the goals to realize net-positive inhabitant psychological and physiological well-being and environmental performance in which inhabitants actively shape their experiences. As part of these aspirations, this research set out to investigate how feedback processes, such as specifically a Pre-Occupancy Evaluation, can support the navigation towards manifesting these human performance goals. This research explores inhabitants’ relationships with their Pre-CIRS workplace experiences before their move into the new place, as well as to their future experience in CIRS. More specifically, it investigates inhabitant satisfaction and interactions with controls within their previous workplace contexts as well as their associations, expectations and desires for their experiences at CIRS. Past experiences of workplaces can influence inhabitant satisfaction with, behaviours, and the emergence of desired novelty and aspirations of regenerative places. Findings reveal that inhabitants were not satisfied with certain elements of their Pre-CIRS workplaces and not very engaged in creating their experience. Sources of discontent in many cases were associated with perceived lack of control over situations to alleviate discomfort and negative affect. Whilst mental associations with CIRS appeared to reflect a heavy focus on environmental sustainability aspirations, sources of positive feelings include the physical building, the social aspirations of place, the novelty and vision, and a desire for connectedness. Although inhabitant desires are aligned with CIRS aspirations at the conceptual level, they likely go beyond past experiences of their workplaces and call for new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting to realize net-positive aspirations. Thus, it is proposed that regenerative workplaces require a new set of tools that enable a place to shift into ‘becoming’ and embodying aspirations of place. Based on the learning from this research, the regenerative literature, as well as reflections on the process itself, actions steps have been recommended in this work to realize aspirations of place.
David Maggs PhD, RMES, 2014 (supervisor)
Title: Artists of the floating world : rethinking art/sustainability relations in the late days of modernity (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/46995)
Abstract: This research is an attempt to reroute art-sustainability relations through the metaphysical juncture of Modernism’s fading dichotomies, i.e. fact-value, subject-object, culture-nature. For many this relationship has fallen short, particularly in the form of infocentric, instrumental engagements aimed at behaviour change. But if we read sustainability as a problem of worldview and artistic agency as ontological in nature, might something more promising emerge? To explore this, four artists were commissioned to produce work in response to an analysis of sustainability built around Bruno Latour’s ‘Modern Constitution’. The interests were twofold, to investigate the challenge of engaging art’s ‘ontological agency’ in light of prior art-sustainability frustrations; and to explore practical and ontological dimensions of operating ‘beyond’ the dichotomies of Modernity. The first interest concerns the prescriptive challenge of artistic agency—how do we ‘use’ art? Outcomes include the following explorations: A distinction between art’s behavioral and ontological agencies; a proposed category of ‘artistic ontologists’ to house scholarship aligning ontological agency with aesthetic, expressive, and imaginative priorities; a view of art as ‘double agent’, necessarily ‘of’ and ‘against’ encompassing rationalities; and the argument that a healthy view of art is fundamentally epistemological, a means to learn not teach. Regarding a ‘post’ Modern or ‘post-normal’ world, this research proposes to shift sustainability from the well-worn challenge to prove the world real to the more perplexing challenge to prove the world imaginary. This entails a shift from ‘substantive’ approaches to sustainability (facts drive values) to ‘procedural’ approaches, where sustainability emerges from the interactions of immanent human and non-human agencies. Practical concerns include structuring emergent dynamics within collective processes and shifting expertise accordingly. Ontological dimensions explore particular ‘qualities of immanence’ that might shape our imaginings in fruitful ways, while pursuing a genuine exit from Modernity nonetheless. Building on Mike Hulme’s arguments, I suggest sustainability in an imaginary world involves ‘flipping the sustainability predicate’, turning a problem we are trying to solve into one that solves us. This engages John Robinson’s work on ‘regenerative sustainability’ by arguing that regenerative approaches may not only be more compelling, but increasingly in line with emerging logics of a post-normal worldAs part of the Greenest City Conversations project, David’s research explored the relationship between art and sustainability. In particular, he explored less instrumental applications to sustainability issues by identifying the relevance of more intrinsic or idiomatic elements of artistic language in the hopes that this opens up a wider opportunity for the arts to engage with sustainability, along a broader conception of such issues themselves.
Stefan Storey PhD, RMES, 2014 (supervisor)
Title: Application of life-cycle approaches for the evaluation of high performance buildings (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/46591)
Abstract: The market shift towards high performance buildings is posing a major challenge to decision- makers, designers and developers. They need to know what constitutes high performance design and practice, what the environmental consequences of decisions are, and how buildings are performing relative to anchored benchmarks. This doctoral dissertation provides building designers and operators methods on how to use life-cycle approaches to inform design and track performance. The research focuses on a case-study of the lifecycle impacts of advanced buildings at UBC, built to various standards of performance including the current best-practices (LEED standards) and the currently emerging ‘regenerative’ standard. Life-cycle approaches are used to explore simulated impact over time in terms of quantified financial and environmental metrics. The research novelty is in the integration of life-cycle models; the aggregation of compatible separate studies to provide a larger overview of building performance. Additionally, the analysis leverages the benchmarking capabilities of the UBC Life-cycle Analysis database – a high-resolution survey of 30 UBC buildings – to show that the contribution of rapid churn building products, such as information technology, contributes a disproportionally high amount to embodied impacts. The study also analyses operational impacts based on utility consumption data for 70 conventional buildings versus 10 best practices (LEED Gold) buildings at UBC with respect to building age and building type. The results show that, in contrast to previous studies, older buildings often outperform new buildings. The dissertation concludes that benchmarking and multi-stakeholder modeling life-cycle approaches are critical for informing expert opinion during decision-making. Attention to modeling construction, and ensuring broad participation is key to ‘useful’ modeling. The process of creating a life-cycle model is often more informative than modeled final results; collective understanding and communication – the basis of good decision-making – improve through participation and stakeholder interaction.
Laura Fedoruk MA, RMES, 2013 (supervisor)
Title: ‘Smart’ energy systems and networked buildings : examining the integrations, controls, and experience of design through operation (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/45658)
Abstract: Designs for new infrastructure such as buildings and energy systems often have the goals of being ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’. These goals often coincide with designs that integrate renewable and distributed energy systems, industrial ecology based principles, increased controls and monitoring capabilities, and integrated design techniques. This thesis attempts to understand the design and process-based lessons that help to achieve these goals in networked infrastructure through the use of a contextual literature review as well as two case studies that examine the design and early operation of the networked energy and controls systems at the University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS). The thesis examines various literatures associated with ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’ systems inclusive of sustainable buildings, smart grids, distributed energy systems, and industrial ecology and finds that learning processes and systems integration are key to the success of these projects. From this understanding, a case study is used to examine the energy systems at CIRS in order to understand the systems integration of energy infrastructure during early operation. The analysis reveals that in order to create systems that meet their design intent and create symbiotic relationships within a network, it is paramount to understand system boundaries and network effects throughout the lifecycle of a project – from design through to operation and optimization. A second case study examines the systems at CIRS that are usually considered the ‘smart’ component of infrastructure, controls and monitoring capabilities, and finds that in order to have successful controls systems it is necessary to design and operate these systems in a way that complements the human systems that interact with them. Designing for learning enables operator troubleshooting processes and inhabitant feedback and understanding.
Tom Berkhout PhD, RMES, 2013 (supervisor)
Title: Steering transformative energy efficiency and conservation in British Columbia, Canada (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/44751)
Abstract: In this thesis I assess the strength of efforts by the Government of British Columbia and BC Hydro to steer transformative energy efficiency and conservation (TEEC) in BC’s built environment between 2005 and 2012. TEEC implies a level of energy savings that requires major changes over the next 10 to 40 years in not only the physical components of the built environment but also in day-to-day routines and patterns of life. An underlying assumption of the thesis is that in order to learn about, develop and implement the kinds of initiatives needed to achieve TEEC an accelerated system of policy and technology innovation is required. In carrying out my research, my particular focus was on assessing the influence of governance practices on efforts to achieve TEEC and on the outcomes that these practices lead to. To do this, I developed a theory-based evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of existing governance approaches to steer socio-technical transitions. The underlying premise of the theory is that a reflexive governance approach to steering transitions is more likely to lead to a stronger transition context which over time increases the likelihood of a transition being achieved. To this end, the thesis singled-out eight system conditions that I argue are needed to build and maintain the kind of momentum needed to realize long-term transformational change in complex socio-technical systems. These eight conditions were then used as the basis for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Province’s and BC Hydro’s efforts to steer TEEC. When I compared the strength of the transition conditions being created in each case study against the governance approach used, I found a link between the use of reflexive governance practices and stronger transition conditions. Based on this assessment 15 recommendations were advanced for how to improve the governance of TEEC in BC’s built environment. What is more, these findings suggest that any effort to pursue TEEC will need to also be accompanied by a shift to a more reflexive approach for steering transformational change.
Nichole Dusyk PhD, RMES, 2013 (supervisor)
Title: The transformative potential of participatory politics : energy planning and emergent sustainability in British Columbia, Canada (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/44160)
Abstract: This research examines the potential for local engagement in provincial energy planning and the contribution it might make to an energy transition. Combining a social worlds framework with the concept of hybrid forums, I develop the thesis that participation can facilitate sociotechnical change by facilitating the exploration of new identities and the collective reframing of problems and their solutions. This is what I call the transformative potential of participatory politics. I explore and elaborate this thesis using a discourse analysis of the provincial clean energy policy and two case studies of communities in British Columbia: Fort St. John and Dawson Creek. The discourse analysis examines the evolution of the clean energy storyline, introduced in 2007, and how it serves to position actors and technologies in the province. The analysis shows how the storyline, although integrating an environmental imperative into policy discourse, reproduces the trajectory and inertia of historical energy development. The case study analysis examines municipal energy planning and one large-scale renewable energy project in each of the communities: the proposed Site C Hydroelectric Project in Fort St. John and the Bear Mountain Wind Park in Dawson Creek. My analysis describes the mechanisms and sites of collective negotiation and how in each case, participatory processes have altered technologies, collective identities, and the framing of energy planning. The case studies support the thesis that participatory politics can contribute to energy transitions by altering the social and material characteristics of energy networks. In so doing, they add nuance to our understanding of what participatory energy governance can contribute and the circumstances in which it is effective. This includes findings that highlight the significance of the institutional, political, and infrastructural context in which participatory governance unfolds leading to the conclusion that participation, although potentially transformative, is not a panacea. In conclusion, I situate my findings in relation to the concept of procedural sustainability arguing that by making room for collective negotiation, participatory politics can help move beyond the apparent antagonism of implementing renewable energy projects toward a potentially more productive approach of localizing energy projects and collectively constructing sustainability discourses and practices.
Meg O’Shea, PhD, RMES, 2012 (supervisor)
Title: Embodying and performing sustainability (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/43179)
Abstract: This dissertation explores the theoretical and methodological implications of including embodiment and performance theory in sustainability theory and practice, and demonstrates the advantages and difficulties of embodied sustainability research in two case studies of communities performing sustainability practices. The potential influence of an embodied approach to participatory governance theory in light of the anticipated sustainability transition is also investigated. The fundamental characteristics of embodiment are determined and a performance typology derived from performance theory is developed to help guide case study analysis and interpretation. The first case study investigates the perceptions, actions, and possible transformations of members of a theatrical group who tour British Columbia by bicycle. The second case study recruits the creative participation of members of a recycling initiative in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in a photographic project designed to elicit their embodied experiences of sustainability within their daily actions. This research is premised on the argument that sustainability can be usefully conceived of as a property that emerges from collaborative practices and dialogue (i.e., procedural sustainability), rather than simply as a set of expert-defined imperatives (i.e., substantive sustainability). Incorporating the embodiment paradigm into research on sustainability suggests that such research should be interactive by way of active and creative participation by citizens. Furthermore, embodiment and sustainability are experienced as deeply socially and culturally embedded phenomena, which should be reflected in sustainability research through a strong integration of ecological, economic, social, and cultural concerns. Performance theory provides a theoretical frame and methodological direction that centres on the socially- and culturally-mediated experiencing body. Findings from the case studies, and application of findings to participatory governance theory, confirm that: framing sustainability as a procedurally emergent property of social practices is appropriate and productive at the community-scale; applying a performance lens to sustainability practices reveals complex performative dimensions of socially-situated embodied experience; and participatory processes for embodied engagement, specifically arts-based methods, have great potential to provide novel opportunities for engagement with governments and policy processes.
Susanna Haas Lyons, MA, RMES, 2012 (supervisor)
Title: It’s complicated : exploring Facebook’s potential for deliberative public engagement on sustainability policy (https://circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/41049)
Abstract: The explosion of low-cost interactive digital tools like Facebook has prompted governments around the world to experiment with online public engagement. However, the media’s rapidly changing nature, combined with limited research in the field, means that little is known about how social media impacts who participates, how they participate and what is contributed in these online public engagement activities. To address these questions, the researcher convened over 500 people in a Facebook-based deliberation about transportation policy for the City of Vancouver, Canada, which resulted in recommendations that were considered by the City in drafting a long-range plan. Two hypotheses are explored: (1) locating a deliberative public engagement on Facebook can address some key challenges of in-person deliberation, and (2) deliberative discourse can be cultivated within a social media environment. An analysis of Facebook’s affordances – access to publics, distributed time and space, collaboration and learning, cross-platform connectivity, and social character – suggests that its properties both improve and impede the deliberative qualities of public engagement such as demographic representativeness, frequency of participation and reflective opinion sharing. Measuring participant discourse according to criteria of deliberativeness – discussion coherence, disagreement, opinion justification, engagement, and equality – demonstrates that this case study fostered the individual role in deliberation such as topical coherence, justified opinions and equal access to the discussion. However, the e-deliberation was not as successful as hoped in eliciting group aspects of deliberation such as disagreement and engagement with one another’s contributions. Together, these investigations provide a cautious but optimistic view on social media for deliberative public engagement. The study concludes by pointing to the need for further attention in social media based deliberation to engagement process design, participant recruitment and discussion tool development.
