[ensu] ENVIROFLASH: Nov 17 and 24 IES Environmental Studies Seminars

From: ENSU <utorensu@xxxxxxxx>
To: ENSU Listserv <ensu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 14 Nov 2004 22:18:48 -0500 (EST)

Institute for Environmental Studies 
UPCOMING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES SEMINARS 
***************************************
WED NOVEMBER 17, 4:00 p.m.
ANDRÉ SORENSEN, Assistant Professor, Urban Geography, Department of
Social Sciences, U of Toronto Scarborough, Centre for Urban and
Community Studies, and Department of Geography and Programme in Planning
"Community-based neighbourhood improvement and development of civil
society in Japan" (abstract below)
(Co-hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community Studies)

WED NOVEMBER 24, 4:00 p.m.
MURRAY CHARLTON, Research Scientist, Aquatic Ecosystem Management
Research, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada
"From dead zones to alien invaders, what's happening in the Great
Lakes?"
(abstract below)

LOCATION:
Room 2093, Earth Sciences Centre 
(Huron & Bancroft; Geology section of building) 
(north of College St., east of Spadina Ave.) 

No registration required; all are welcome.

For more information, please contact 
Mona El-Haddad, Series Coordinator (416-978-6526;
m.elhaddad@xxxxxxxxxxx) 

Please visit www.utoronto.ca/env/seminars.htm for abstracts and updates.
************************************************************************
**
WED NOVEMBER 17, 4:00 p.m.
ANDRÉ SORENSEN, Assistant Professor, Urban Geography, Department of
Social Sciences, U of Toronto Scarborough, Centre for Urban and
Community Studies, and Department of Geography and Programme in Planning
"COMMUNITY-BASED NEIGHBOURHOOD IMPROVEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF CIVIL
SOCIETY IN JAPAN" (Co-hosted by the Centre for Urban and Community
Studies)
In Japan, as elsewhere, urban planning governance is an increasingly
contested terrain in which the balance of power between local and
central governments, the contest for legitimacy between residents and
the state, and the conflicts between urban liveability and economic
pressures are among the central political issues of the day. 
One of the most important political changes in Japan during the last
decade has been the rapid growth of civil society, voluntarism, and the
spread of local community development citizens? movements in cities and
towns across the country. Such movements are widely referred to as
?machizukuri undou? (literally ?neighbourhood building movements? or
?community building movements?). Proponents of machizukuri have no
doubt that it represents fundamental changes to Japanese city planning
and local empowerment. On the one hand Japan has a legacy of highly
organised urban neighbourhoods, with an astounding ability to organise,
mobilise, and maintain extensive networks of grassroots organisations.
On the other hand, neighbourhoods and municipalities have often proved
politically powerless, unable to pursue alternative priorities than
those promoted from the centre, and seldom able to oppose national
projects. 
Japan has long had a highly centralised system of local governance,
particularly with regard to land development control, public works and
city planning issues. The role of citizens, communities and grassroots
organisations in local environmental management has been limited in this
context. The case of local environmental management in Japan helps to
clarify the apparent contradictions between local and national, and is
also revealing of the central importance of civil society development
for environmental governance.

WED NOVEMBER 24, 4:00 p.m.
MURRAY CHARLTON, Research Scientist, Aquatic Ecosystem Management
Research, National Water Research Institute, Environment Canada
"FROM DEAD ZONES TO ALIEN INVADERS, WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE GREAT
LAKES?"
Sometimes there is a surprising difference between environmental science
reported in popular media and the data actually available. The Lake
Erie ?Dead Zone? is one of those cases. Have Zebra Mussels cleaned up
all of Lake Erie? Not according to the data. At the same time
important issues, such as the quality of urban runoff, are sometimes
hardly recognized. The success of Great Lakes management depends on the
maintenance and upgrading of municipal sewage plants as well as better
land use. Alien species continue to arrive in the Great Lakes at the
rate of one new species per year since Zebra Mussels were discovered in
1988. Little has been accomplished in the fight to stop this threat to
the ecosystem. Recent studies of aquaculture and beach closures will be
highlighted as further examples of things that are sometimes not so
simple as we would think. 

************************************************************************
THERE ARE NO MORE SEMINARS IN THIS SERIES SCHEDULED FOR THIS TERM. 
PLEASE CHECK THE WEBSITE ABOVE IN DECEMBER OR EARLY JANUARY FOR
WINTER/SPRING SEMINARS.






---------------------------------
Post your free ad now! Yahoo! Canada Personals
[ensu] ENVIROFLASH: Nov 17 and 24 IES Environmental Studies Seminars

Other related posts:
