Remaking Nature Through Public Participation in Resilient Calgary

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dc.contributor.advisorBurns, Ryan
dc.contributor.authorWelker, Preston
dc.contributor.committeememberRosol, Marit
dc.contributor.committeememberBlue, Gwendolyn
dc.contributor.committeememberKeough, Noel
dc.date2022-02
dc.date.accessioned2022-01-17T17:30:17Z
dc.date.available2022-01-17T17:30:17Z
dc.date.issued2022-01
dc.description.abstractCities around the world are embracing agendas to build urban resilience, in part by harnessing “nature” and engaging citizens. Critical geographers have argued that top-down resilience agendas deploy frameworks that homogenize understandings of “urban natures”, legitimate technocratic approaches to urbanism, and disempower citizens. These scholars call for in-depth case studies that situate “urban natures” to bring out crucial politics of how knowledges of these phenomena are used in contexts of contested urbanization. This thesis is an intensive qualitative case study of public participation in urban resilience governance in The City of Calgary, following the 2013 Alberta floods. Through a scholar-activist approach, I employ participant observation and semi-structured interview methods to bring out politics in the redevelopment of a multi-functional infrastructure, the Sunnyside Flood Barrier. Drawing from theory on the “social production of nature” – where discourse and materiality are entangled and iteratively reproduced – I argue that processes of public participation in urban resilience governance operate as power-laden “technologies” in the social production of nature, and can depoliticize contested urban transformations. An analysis of two such technologies – community engagement and a triple bottom line analysis – illuminates how power operates through participatory knowledge production activities to remake actors’ conceptualizations of “nature” in ways that influence decision making and urbanization. The study also expands on participant “counter-conduct”, documenting how this subtle form of resistance can build citizen power in the process. I conclude that public participation offers powerful tools in the social production of nature however, additional research and practice are needed to explore how “nature” might be remade in radical alternative ways that shift our collective praxis towards more sustainable, and socially and environmentally just futures.en_US
dc.identifier.citationWelker, P. (2022). Remaking nature through public participation in resilient Calgary (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/39505
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/114290
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectNatureen_US
dc.subjectPublic participationen_US
dc.subjectUrban resilienceen_US
dc.subjectUrban political ecologyen_US
dc.subjectKnowledge politicsen_US
dc.subjectScholar-activismen_US
dc.subjectCalgaryen_US
dc.subject.classificationLandscape Architectureen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Sciencesen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Social Sciencesen_US
dc.subject.classificationEducation--Technologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationGeographyen_US
dc.subject.classificationUrban and Regional Planningen_US
dc.subject.classificationEnvironmental Sciencesen_US
dc.subject.classificationEngineering--Environmentalen_US
dc.titleRemaking Nature Through Public Participation in Resilient Calgaryen_US
dc.typemaster thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineGeographyen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (MA)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrueen_US
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