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LEARNING OUT LOUD

What Others Are Saying

Reconciliation; Transformative Learning

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Research

Climate Equity; Decolonization

Transforming planning processes at the intersections of climate equity and decolonization

2024

Lindsay Cole; Maggie Low

Local and regional governments are facing increasing pressures to address complex challenges of climate change, equity, and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples as entangled challenges. Innovation into how planning processes are imagined, designed, and facilitated is urgently needed as a response to these pressures. It is no longer good enough to work on these challenges discretely, within departmental or disciplinary silos, or solely within the dominant, western colonial paradigm and practices of planning. This article describes a transformative planning process drawing from social innovation, systemic design, and decolonizing approaches. This article is a summary of a recently published open access journal article in Nature Urban Sustainability.

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Research

 Transformative Learning

Scaling deep through transformative learning in public sector innovation labs – experiences from Vancouver and Auckland

2024

Lindsay Cole; Penny Hagen

This article explores scaling deep through transformative learning in Public SectorInnovation Labs (PSI labs) as a pathway to increase the impacts of their work. Using literature review and participatory action research with two PSI labs in Vancouver andAuckland, we provide descriptions of how they enact transformative learning and scaling deep. A shared ambition for transformative innovation towards social and ecological wellbeing sparked independent moves towards scaling deep and transformative learning which, when compared, offer fruitful insights to researchers and practitioners. The article includes a PSI lab typology and six moves to practice transformative learning and scaling deep.

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Research

Eco-social transformation

Prompts for eco-social transformation: What environmental education can learn from transformative design

2024

Lindsay Cole

This paper seeks to bring together two seemingly disparate conversations, design and environmental education, with the intent to offer an interesting, new, useful approach to developing educational responses to the climate and ecological crises engendered by the capitalocene. Beginning with observations on the relevance of design to the creation of alternative futures, we outlineresults from a six-person year-long research project that led us to identify six principles for guiding eco-social-cultural change: all my relations, abundant time, mystery/unknowability, embeddedness/integration, ancient futures, and (re)creative dissonance. We situate this work within transformative orientations to design, which are shown to parallel critical threads in the environmental education literature. We then extend, rework, and reimagine the six principles by suggesting how they can serve as prompts to assist environmental educators to reexamine and move beyond problematic norms of the capitalocene in their thinking and practice.

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Report

Social Justice

Chicken on my mind

2024

Kyla Pascal

Local community groups like Black Strathcona and Hogan’s Alley Society are demanding the City of Vancouver pay reparations for the irreparable damage it caused by destroying the neighbourhood. The Black communities of Winnipeg and Edmonton – the latter being the city I call home – also deserve for our cities to recognize Haynes and Hatti’s as historical sites and provide opportunities to commemorate them. But beyond demanding recognition and reparations, Black neighbourhoods and community spaces have never been the jurisdiction of settler governments. We built our own communities and third places, and Vie’s, Hatti’s, Haynes, and Hogan’s Alley are ours to reclaim.

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Research

Eco-social transformation

Assembling a Cabinet of Curiousities: Using Participatory Action Research and Constructivist Grounded Theory to Generate Stronger Theorization of Public Sector Innovation Labs

2022

Lindsay Cole

This paper describes how a critical qualitative bricolage of research methods, with participatory action research and constructivist grounded theory at the center, were assembled and applied to support stronger theorization of the work of public sector innovation labs while remaining strongly grounded in the experiences and intelligence of practitioners. We begin by sharing the context for this research, including describing what PSI labs are, the purpose for this research, and an overview of the process and participants. Next, the framing for this approach is described, detailing the metaphor of assembling a cabinet of curiosities. This cabinet contains five main methods and approaches including: critical research bricolage; sensitizing concepts; participatory action research; constructivist grounded theory; and weaving the assemblage together. We conclude by discussing the four key methodological insights generated , the contribution that this work makes to the literature about participatory research methods, and how researchers with a transformative intent can use this in practice.

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Research

Climate Equity; Decolonization; Transformative Innovation

Transforming planning and policy making processes at the intersections of climate, equity, and decolonization challenges

2023

Lindsay Cole; Maggie Low

Cities are facing increasing pressures to address complex challenges of climate change, equity, and reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples as intersecting issues, and innovation into planning and policy-making processes is urgently needed to achieve this. It is no longer good enough to work on these challenges discreetly, or solely within the dominant, western colonial paradigm and practices of governance. There are ongoing harms being caused by climate work that does not embed justice, and there are missed opportunities for synergies across these domains as they have the same systemic root causes. Cities must adapt and transform the processes and practices of planning and policy-making in order to work at these problematic roots. Drawing on an empirical study, this article describes how social innovation, systemic design, and decolonizing practices can shape a different approach to planning and policy-making processes when working at the intersections of climate, equity, and decolonization.

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Reports

Innovation Lab; Transformative Innovation

Circular Food Innovation Lab: Co-creating a circular economy of food through experimentation and learning

2022-2023

Lindsay Cole; Lily Raphael

The Circular Food Innovation Lab (CFIL) is a year-long project co-led by the City of Vancouver, the Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC), and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. We are collaborating with Vancouver-based food businesses to increase circularity in our city.

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Reports

Innovation Lab; Transformative Innovation

Circular Food Innovation Lab

2023

Lindsay Cole and Lily Raphael involved

For businesses, addressing wasted food is increasingly challenging due to the changing complexity of food systems. Our Zero Waste 2040 Strategic Plan emphasizes the importance of collaborating with the business community to reduce waste. We and our partners are helping businesses adopt new practices and ways of thinking to conserve food and adapt to changes.

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Reports

Climate Justice

Sharing Power:
Codifications and Collective Learnings from
Vancouver’s Climate Justice Field School

2022

Lindsay Cole and Lily Raphael involved

This is a gathering up of learnings, archival material and invitations from the Climate Justice Field School to re-imagine power-sharing with communities when it comes to implementing climate justice.

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Reports

Climate Justice

2022

Lindsay Cole and Lily Raphael involved

The purpose of the Climate Justice Charter is to act as a ‘north star’ to provide high-level vision, guidance, and accountability to the City of Vancouver and the wider Vancouver community by outlining principles, goals, and other key directions to create the future of climate justice we want. The Climate Justice Charter acts as a pebble to create ripples of climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, racial justice, and intersectionality that are repeated from the smallest to the largest scale, reinforcing that climate action needs to be taken collectively by local, regional, provincial, federal, and international governing bodies. Ultimately, the Charter works to transform both our current reality of the climate emergency as well as the next 500+ years into a future that prioritizes healing and hope.

Reports

Innovation Lab; Transformative Innovation

Tending to What We Want to Grow

2022

Lindsay Cole; Lily Raphael

This report gathers up the approach, activities and lessons learned from the second iteration of the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab, a public sector innovation lab working on complex sustainability, wellbeing, equity, and reconciliation challenges.

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Reports

Innovation Lab; Transformative Innovation

Navigating Complexity:

The Journey of the City of Vancouver's Solutions Lab (so far)

2018

Lindsay Cole

This report shares the approach, activities, impacts, and lessons learned from the first iteration of the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab, a public sector innovation lab working on complex sustainability, wellbeing, equity, and reconciliation challenges.

Faculty Profiles: School of Community and Regional Planning

What Others Are Saying

Faculty Profiles: School of Community and Regional Planning

This is a short profile of our team member Maggie Low, and what inspires her work from a planning perspective.
“Public innovation Lab Futures.” States of Change Works in Progress Festival

Recordings

“Public innovation Lab Futures.” States of Change Works in Progress Festival

This recorded dialogue explores emerging insights, tensions, questions, and potentials for the field of public sector innovation labs.
Tending to What We Want to Grow: Continuing on the Journey of Vancouver’s

Reports

Tending to What We Want to Grow: Continuing on the Journey of Vancouver’s

2022

Lindsay Cole; Lily Raphael

This report gathers up the approach, activities and lessons learned from the second iteration of the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab, a public sector innovation lab working on complex sustainability, wellbeing, equity, and reconciliation challenges.
Reimagining Intersectionality in Environmental and Sustainability Education: A Critical Literature Review

Research

Reimagining Intersectionality in Environmental and Sustainability Education: A Critical Literature Review

2017

Mumbi Maina, Jada Renee Koushik, Alexandria Wilson

This journal article seeks to disrupt marginalization and calls for the use of critical frameworks such as intersectionality to deconstruct and disrupt oppression in environmental and sustainability education (ESE) literature, focusing on how gender is discussed in relation to other social identities such as class, race, sexuality, and ability.
“Innovation Transformed by Action Research.” States of Change Works in Progress Festival

Recordings

“Innovation Transformed by Action Research.” States of Change Works in Progress Festival

2021

Kyla Pascal, Lindsay Cole, Lily Raphael, Maggie Low, Mumbi Maina

This recorded dialogue describes key elements of the Transforming Cities from Within learning journey, a year-long community of practice with 12 Canadian city-based teams working on complex challenges at the intersections of climate, equity, and decolonization.
City of Vancouver Equity Framework: Getting our House in Order

Reports

City of Vancouver Equity Framework: Getting our House in Order

2021

Mumbi Maina

This policy report details the first City of Vancouver Equity Framework, which exists to create a unified vision and shared understanding of equity across City departments, and to define the City’s orientation to this work.
Navigating Complexity - The Story of the City of Vancouver’s Solutions Lab

Reports

Navigating Complexity - The Story of the City of Vancouver’s Solutions Lab

2018

Lindsay Cole

This report shares the approach, activities, impacts, and lessons learned from the first iteration of the City of Vancouver Solutions Lab, a public sector innovation lab working on complex sustainability, wellbeing, equity, and reconciliation challenges.
Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement in Canadian Higher Education: The Mobilities of Actions, Actors, and Tactics

Research

Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement in Canadian Higher Education: The Mobilities of Actions, Actors, and Tactics

2019

Mumbi Maina, Jaylene Murray, Maria McKenzie

This journal article examines the extent of fossil fuel divestment campaigns at higher education institutions across Canada, examining key actions and tactics through which campaigns are initiated and mobilized, as led by students, faculty, alumni, and climate justice organizations.
Bloomberg Cities Network Innovator of the Week: A City Innovatory Who’s Both a Practitioner and an Academic

What Others Are Saying

Bloomberg Cities Network Innovator of the Week: A City Innovatory Who’s Both a Practitioner and an Academic

2022

A short profile by Bloomberg Cities Network of our team member Lindsay Cole, and what inspires her work.
Step into the River: A Framework for Economic Reconciliation

Reports

Step into the River: A Framework for Economic Reconciliation

2022

Sxwpilemaát Siyám (Chief Leanne Joe, Squamish Nation) and Lily Raphael

Drawing on Indigenous worldviews about wealth and sustainability, along with the wisdom and lived experiences of Indigenous thought leaders and practitioners in the economic sector in BC, this report explores ways in which economic reconciliation can be a catalyst for transforming our economic system.
How We came to Inhabit These Spaces: Reflections on the Role of Place in Our Individual and Collective Journeys as Emerging Sustainability Scholars

Research

How We came to Inhabit These Spaces: Reflections on the Role of Place in Our Individual and Collective Journeys as Emerging Sustainability Scholars

2016

Mumbi Maina

This journal article explores how relationships to place inform our work as sustainability scholars, and the implications of such place analysis for Indigenous land recognition, decolonization, and sustainability scholarship.
Embracing reconciliation in the face of adversity: An intersectional perspective on land, immigration, and anti-racist learning

Research

Embracing reconciliation in the face of adversity: An intersectional perspective on land, immigration, and anti-racist learning

2020

Mumbi Maina

This book chapter uses an intersectional perspective to understand reconciliation as it relates to land, immigration, and anti-racist education.
moreFoundations

TCFW was seeded on the unceded, unsurrendered, and ancestral homelands of the xwməθkwəyə̓m (Musqueam), Sḵwxw̱ú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil- Waututh) and shíshálh (Sechelt) peoples.

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