blog on "Rethinking Development Economics"

possibly of interest?
http://www.rethinkingdevelopment.blogspot.com/

i missed the deadline!!

maybe i had subconscious fears of political disruptions, but i procrastinated (or alternately, blame my office for too much work) on the isee in nairobi conference, and was so tired tonight but debated getting it in by midnight on the deadline. however, the secretariat is in new zealand and is *closed*, so i missed it, even though i wasn't planning to go anyways, i really wanted to go through the process.

maybe i am lucky this week, i searched for a bit and found this list, and i *am* carefully debating hooking up with friends in thailand in august, and what do you know? there is an energy security and climate change conference in bangkok right after i plan on landing there, with academics from all over, including UBC and Toronto, so maybe my vacation will include improving my academic credentials as well. and maybe there is even something relevant closer to home, but i doubt it--sadly, i think everything in canada is about the tar sands these days, and i think my masters work actually is more likely to be employed in a country facing real scarcity.

CFP: A Return to the Senses

sounds like an interesting multidisciplinary conference--at Trent, no less!
http://www.nocaptionneeded.com/?p=840

k

toronto star for cheep

well, yes, i guess it is the star, but it's $16 for four months (a buck a week), seven days a week!

here's the link:
https://secure.thestar.com/NASApp/CSSApp/do/placeOrder?service=7DAY&promo=SUMROFFR&area=GTA

... in any case, it is local, and at least it's not the sun.

the fake photo was not my idea!

FYI: I wrote a short piece for the LTO newsletter on page 6:
http://www.ryerson.ca/lt/about/exchange_newsletter/march08.pdf

"hey, remember that book review you did..."

so my review of the new media handbook and the media literacy reader finally got published in issue 1 of vol. 23 of Visual Studies, Apr. 2008. please read it now, regardless of what continent you are on.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14725860801908585

IDRC Doctoral Research Awards

These awards are relevant to a few of us, I think.


1) IDRC Doctoral Research Awards
Deadline to receive applications: April 1, 2008
For more information: http://www.idrc.ca/awards/ev-23374-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Bourses du CRDI aux chercheurs candidates au doctorat
Date limite pour recevoir les demandes : le 1^er avril 2008
Pour plus d’informations : http://www.idrc.ca/fr/ev-23374-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) Canadian Window on International Development
Deadline to receive applications: April 1, 2008
For more information: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-23376-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Bourses Regard canadien sur le développement international
Date limite pour recevoir les demandes : le 1^er avril 2008
Pour plus d’informations : http://www.idrc.ca/fr/ev-23376-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3) Ecopolis Graduate Research and Design Awards
Deadline to receive applications: May 15, 2008
For more information: http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-88111-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Bourses de recherche et design Écopolis
Date limite pour recevoir les demandes : le 15 mai 2008
Pour plus d’informations : http://www.idrc.ca/fr/ev-88111-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

Resilience theory and learning

Based on the idea of resilience and the adaptive cycle (below) Garry Peterson identified three different types of learning:

• • Incremental, (r to K)
  • Lurching, (omega to alpha)
  • Transforming, (panarchical)

  Incremental change and learning. This type of change
  occurs in the predictable development phase or from the r to K phase of the
  adaptive cycle. During these phases, models or schemas are assumed to be
  correct, and learning is characterized by collecting data or information to
  update these models. This type of learning is similar to the single loop
  learning of Argyris and Schon (1978). In bureaucratically dominated resource systems, the activity of learning is carried out largely by self-referential professionals or technocrats, who primarily view dealing with this type of change and learning as problem solution (Westley, in Press).
  
  Abrupt Change and Spasmodic Learning. This type of
  change is episodic, discontinuous and surprising. It is created by slow-fast
  dynamics that reveal the inadequacies of the underlying model or schema
  structure. It is the change described by transitions from the conservation phase (K) through the omega and renewal phases of the adaptive cycle. This can be manifest as an environmental crisis, where policy failure is undeniable
  (Gunderson et al., 1995) and results from an environmental cognitive dissonance. In this case, the learning is described as double-loop, where the underlying model or schema is questioned and rejected (Argyris and Schon, 1978). This is also characterized as problem reformation. In bureaucratic resource systems, this type of learning is facilitated by outside groups or charismatic integrators.
  
  Transformational Learning. This is the most dramatic
  type of change and requires the deepest type of learning. Cross-scale surprise or novelty surprises characterize this type of change and are related to
  interaction between different sets of labile variables. In these cases, learning
  involves solving problems of identifying problem domains, among sets of wicked and complex variables (Westley, in press). This is also described as
  evolutionary learning (Parsons and Clark, 1995) where not just new models or schema are developed, but also new paradigmatic structures (sensu Kuhn,
  1970).
  
  Argyris, C. and D. A. Schon. 1978. Organizational Learning: A Theory of Action Perspective. Addison-Wesley, Reading.
  Parsons, E. and W. Clark. 1995. Sustainable Development as Social Learning. In, Barriers and Bridges to the Renewal of Ecosystems and Institutions. Columbia University Press, New York.
  Westley, F. In Prep. The Devil in the Dynamics: Adaptive Management on the Front Lines. In Theories for Sustainable Futures. Gunderson and Holling, editors. Island Press.
  
  

I'm still more interested in looking at the integration of different epistemologies in adaptive management but maybe the educators in you would apprecite his take.

Self-promotion (shameless)

I am happy to report that I have been publicated! Mind you, not a peer-reviewed venue but as part of a series of grad student papers from FES. So now when I refer to "(Berbes, 2007)", you know what I'm talking about ;)

Here is the abstract:

Environmental crises have prompted a re-evaluation of traditional approaches to environmental management that has often highlighted their inability to deal with the complexity of social-ecological systems. The ecosystem approach (EA) offers an alternative that combines ideas from systems theory, participatory decision-making and adaptive management. However, EAs are still relatively young both as a discipline and as a practice, and as such, their meaning is continuously being redefined. This paper assesses the current state of development and the direction of EAs in the Golden Horseshoe Region (Ontario) by analyzing quantitative and qualitative data from interviews with EA practitioners. Practitioners were involved in projects that applied EA in a variety of fronts from ecological restoration to eco-health to urban development. The survey used helped to identify the theoretical foundations and core themes of EA; the methods, techniques and tools used; and, the factors and barriers to its implementation and potential application to other contexts. Two findings emerged from this research: first, despite the diversity of practitioners and applications, the theoretical understandings of EA are coalescing into a unified view that emphasizes the principles of integration, connectivity and participation. Second, successful implementation of EAs will require a parallel shift in the current institutional setting towards more adaptive forms of governance. Despite this obstacle EA continues to spread to applications in the fields of eco-health and urban development.

To full paper is available on FES Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Series. Kris, the literature review has some stuff on systems theory that may be of interest.

I wish I had studied this instead....

Check this out! I wish I could go. Why have I wasted my time studying resources when I could have studied Hip Hop?

HIPHOP BLACK GLOBALITY
AND VERNACULAR COSMPOLITANISM
IN THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
Remi Warner
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
286C Winters College
Drawing on my year-long fieldwork in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, my presentation examines some of the
ways in which globally circulating hiphop popular musical-cultural forms and practices have been appropriated and
deployed by South African youth to negotiate contemporary and inherited legacies of ascriptive ethnic and racial
identification. I introduce and discuss the concept of ‘Black Globality’ as an alternative framework for understanding the
multiple, varied, and shifting kinds of identifications, affiliations and social imaginaries forged by and between citizens of
the global hiphop nation. The presentation focuses in particular on ‘vernacular cosmopolitan’ hiphop cultural practices
produced under conditions of Black Globality, a primary outcome of which, I argue, is an agonistic ‘fusion of horizons’ and
re-invigorated ethico-political debate.
Remi Warner has a PhD in Social Anthropology from York University. His research explores the politics and poetics of race
and place and the impact of the globalization of Black popular culture on youth identity, cultural politics and racial
formation in post-apartheid Cape Town and Johannesburg. He has also published on Hip Hop in Canada. He currently works
as a researcher with the provincial government while also teaching an undergraduate course, Race, Racism and Popular
Culture, in York’s Department of Anthropology.
For more information contact:
Professor Daniel Yon
Faculty of Education
Tel: 416-736-2100 ext. 88806
Email: dyon@edu.yorku.ca