Active Research projects
Title: Political Participation and Electricity in Africa
Collaborators: Elizabeth Baldwin; Jennifer Brass; Lauren MacLean; Winnie Mitullah; Alesha Porisky
Funder: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Insight Grant
Funding Period: 2019-2025
This project builds on our collective, ongoing research on the political, social, and welfare affects of access to electricity in Africa. The project critically examines the impacts of electricity on civic and political participation. It recognizes that electrification is a dynamic process, with households having very different sources and consumption levels. The project also examines how climate change and the global promotion of ‘green energy transitions’ are being realized domestically. The project is a mixed method study - households surveys, focus groups, interviews - focusing on Kenya.
Title: The GMO 2.0 Partnership
Collaborators: Lincoln Addison; Sylvia Bawa; Matthew Schnurr (PI)
Funder: Social Science & Humanities Research Council (Canada), Partnership Development Grant
Funding Period: 2018-2023
Kenyan collaborators, Nancy Gathege and Daniel Ndegwa
This project examines women’s empowerment on smallholder farms in four countries: Ghana, Kenya, South Africa & Uganda. We are principally interested in understanding how agricultural technology, particularly improved seed and crop varieties, impact women’s empowerment. In collaboration with in-country teams, each researcher is investigating a single country, with comparison between countries afterwards.
Title: 100 Resilient Cities Initiative
Collaborators: Michelle Betsill; Matthew Hoffmann (PI); Sarah Sharma; Laura Tozer
Funder: Social Science & Humanities Research Council (Canada); Insight Grant
Funding Period: 2019-2024
This project examines the potential for transnational initiatives and cities to catalyze sustainability and a low carbon-future. The project does this by examining the emergence, implementation/impact, and wind down of the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities initiative. The focus is not solely on the initiative, but on how a transnational initiative that promotes actions and norms focused on resiliency permeates city actions. The project examines resiliency in cities, globally, in the North and South.
Title: Complex Migration Flows and Multiple Drivers in Comparative Perspective (MEMO)
Project Leads: Anna Triandafyllidou; Luisa Vernois; Daniela Ghio
International team of collaborators
Funder: Social Science & Humanities Research Council (Canada); Partnership Grant
Funding Period: 2022-2027
MEMO is a multidisciplinary research partnership that examines migration patterns focusing on three regional systems. By uncovering new connections between macro-level, contextual drivers (such as economic or political conditions) and individual determinants (such as the cultural and emotional factors that influence a migrant’s personal decisions), the project aims to uncover new knowledge and develop a framework for a better understanding of migration.
MEMO draws on data to investigate migration patterns originating in countries from three intercontinental regions in fourteen countries with different cultures and languages. The research is multi-site, comparative, intersectional, multilingual and multiscale. Innovative analytical tools and frameworks will be created to aid decision makers in developing future migration policies.
Projects concluded
Title: Comparative Urban Politics in East Africa: The case of food security
Collaborators: Diana Lee-Smith; Davinder Lamba (Mazingira Institute)
Funder: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (Canada); Insight Development Grant
Funding Period: 2012-2016
This project examined innovation in municipal policy implementation in three East African cities: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Kampala, Uganda; & Nairobi, Kenya. The premise of the project was to understand the conditions when African cities lead in policy development and implementation. The project identified the importance of coalitions of autonomous domestic civil society organizations, municipal bureaucrats and citizens for producing innovative policy for sustainability and human well-being. The project used urban agriculture as a lens for understanding international, national, municipal and civil society interactions.
Title: Towards a Great Lakes Policy Research Partnership
Collaborators: Carolyn Johns (PI); Christopher Borick; Tim Heinmiller; Barry Rabe; Marcia Valiante; Debora VanNijnatten
Funder: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (Canada); Partnership Development Grant
Funding Period: 2012-2014
This project developed a bilateral Great Lakes Policy Research Partnership to generate new knowledge relating to environmental governance in the Great Lakes region. The goal was to examine the existing institutional arrangements, policy networks and capacity for Great Lakes governance; to evaluate public opinion relating to environmental issues in the Great Lakes; and to mobilize government, civil society and private actors in research for collective goals.
Title: Canadian Municipal Response to Climate Change: A Longitudinal Study of Barriers and Opportunities
Collaborator: Pamela Robinson
Funder: Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council (Canada); Standard Research Grant
Funding Period: 2009-2012
This project examined the actions that municipalities in Canada were taking to respond to climate change. We surveyed bureaucrats responsible for climate change or climate-related issues in all municipalities in Canada with a population over 5000 people. The research identified ‘action’ and ‘no-action’ municipalities in relation to climate mitigation and adaptation. The project also identified the factors motivating municipalities to act to respond to climate change.