http://hdl.handle.net/10222/13097 2013-05-23T12:02:57Z 2013-05-23T12:02:57Z Wright, Zena M http://hdl.handle.net/10222/16036 2013-02-24T05:15:12Z 2013-02-23T00:00:00Z

A Voice for the Community: Public Participation in Wind Energy Development Wright, Zena M Wind energy is expanding globally and locally in Atlantic Canada. It is a promising emission-free energy alternative in a context of increasing climate change concerns. Public surveys have reported high levels of public acceptance for wind energy in general; however, this acceptance has not always been reflected in community responses to local wind projects. Public participation has been proposed as an approach for addressing the “gap” between public support and local opposition. However, public participation must not be solely viewed as a means of removing opposition but rather as the democratic right of local communities to influence decision-making processes. This paper proposes that the participatory processes currently available to host communities are limited in form and substance. Increasing the quality and quantity of public participation would provide a range of benefits, including moving towards the larger societal goal of true public governance of natural resources and the environmental.

2013-02-23T00:00:00Z Rothfus, Melissa http://hdl.handle.net/10222/16035 2013-02-24T05:15:12Z 2013-02-23T00:00:00Z

The Breast vs. Bottle Battle: Infant Feeding Mis/Information Rothfus, Melissa That “breast is best” is a truism even infant formula manufacturers do not openly dispute, and the choice to breastfeed has increasingly become part of the measure of a good mother in modern Canadian society. Yet the information in support of breastfeeding’s purported benefits is problematic, even as public discourse vilifies the alternative. This paper examines the issues surrounding infant feeding choices and the way in which information is utilized and manipulated by both sides of the emotionally charged breast vs. bottle debate. While there are good reasons to support breastfeeding practices, the current state of our knowledge of its benefits does not justify the often strident tone and harsh judgment adopted by breastfeeding advocates.

2013-02-23T00:00:00Z Penney, Jordan http://hdl.handle.net/10222/16034 2013-02-24T05:15:12Z 2013-02-23T00:00:00Z

Qualitative evidence, knowledge translation, and policy-making, with reference to health technology assessment Penney, Jordan Although efforts to draw qualitative evidence into health-related policy-making and health technology assessment (HTA) processes have increased in recent years, the range of sources consulted are still limited and the theoretical foundations for consulting them are underdeveloped. This essay builds on such recent scholarship, first, by opening conventional models of knowledge translation up to the possibilities of qualitative evidence, and second, by demonstrating the utility of this wider range of qualitative evidence, signally that of humanities scholarship, in health-related policy-making. The second of these will consist of two themes – pain and narrativity – that will illustrate both the particular complexity of policy-making in HTA, whereby social, ethical, and moral variables are at play, and the mitigating affect humanities scholarship, at its best, might have on this fraught process.

2013-02-23T00:00:00Z Oldreive, Melissa E MacDonald, Colin Pegolo, Eric http://hdl.handle.net/10222/16033 2013-02-24T05:15:13Z 2013-02-23T00:00:00Z

Managing Current Complexity: Critical Energy Infrastructure Failures in North America Oldreive, Melissa E; MacDonald, Colin; Pegolo, Eric This paper applies the competing theories of High Reliability Organizations (HRO) and Normal Accidents Theory (NAT), two competing views of risk management in highly-complex and tightly-coupled systems, in analyzing the 1998 Ice Storm and the 2003 Blackout to examine vulnerabilities in North America’s critical energy infrastructure (CEI). Inferences are then made by highlighting the similarities and differences in the two cases, which are then used to draw lessons for public managers regarding the protection of CEIs. As CEIs are highly-complex and tightly-coupled systems, failures stemming from complex and uncertain risks are inevitable. There is an increasingly low tolerance for failure in energy infrastructure because society’s critical infrastructures have become increasingly interdependent. Public managers must regulate CEIs in order to ensure an emphasis is placed on safety and security while also finding ways to reduce unnecessary complexities. It is through the adoption of such measures that public managers will aid in minimizing the cascading effects of inevitable failures.

2013-02-23T00:00:00Z