The following are interdisciplinary research projects that our team is currently completing:
Evaluating English Fluency Effect on the Delivery of Water Campaign Messages
Researcher: Mirae Kim
Project Description:
Amid growing pressures on freshwater availability, it is critical to ensure that language fluency is not a barrier to accessing water-saving knowledge in linguistically diverse societies. In Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, where there is high residential water usage and a large immigrant population, many of whom may not be fluent in English, it is important to evaluate how well the water conservation campaign messages are received by non-fluent English speakers compared to fluent English speakers. Therefore, Mirae’s research goal was to evaluate the effectiveness of Metro Vancouver's residential water conservation campaign in delivering messages to fluent English speakers (FS) and non-fluent English speakers (NFS).
Through an online survey, data were quantitatively analyzed to compare FS' and NFS' awareness of the campaign's existence and understanding of its messages, as well as psychological factors related to water conservation from the Theory of Planned Behaviour. There was a significant difference between FS and NFS in the understanding of campaign messages but not in awareness or among the psychological factors. Preferences for communication methods among FS and NFS are also provided. The findings from this preliminary research will be useful for Metro Vancouver's water practitioners in developing strategies to effectively engage both the FS and NFS and achieve their water conservation goals.
Project Funding: This research was partially funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council’s Insight Development Grant (Wolfe) and Insight Grant (Wolfe).
Reading in a Time of Climate Change: Observations of a Cli-Fi Reading Group
Researcher: Misty Matthews-Roper
Project Description: In the last decade, climate fiction – cli-fi for short – has addressed anthropogenic climate change stirring scholarly interest in the capacity of cli-fi to impact reader behaviour and motivate action on climate change. Scholarship on cli-fi owes much to ecocriticism, a sub-field of literary studies which seeks to understand how different media represent, express, and influence human perspectives on nature. These scholars argue that cli-fi provides a way to both think and feel our way through climate change. Interestingly, while ecocritics talk a lot about cli-fi, they have had few discussions with cli-fi’s general readership.
In an effort to fill this gap, several scholars have turned to empirical ecocriticism, which is defined by its use of both communication and literary studies methodologies. In principle, empirical ecocriticism is similar to studies of reception - prioritizing the audience’s reaction to a text over the text itself. In practice, empirical ecocriticism uncovers these reactions with methods borrowed from communications studies (such as focus groups, interviews, surveys). These are particularly apt for the study of cli-fi as many ecocritics claim that these novels are capable of having an effect on a reader’s mind. Empirical ecocriticism is also response to recent cognitive narratology research, which sees reading as a process of immersion. Some cognitive narratologists argue that this immersion allows readers to emotionally identify with characters and places in the story. Importantly, empirical ecocriticism is not simply a social science or communication studies approach to studying literature. It differs from these disciplines in that it seeks not only to gather data from audiences, but also to combine this with textual analysis and other ecocritical concerns (such as questions of narrative voice, genre, style).
The first forays into empirically studying cli-fi readers have revealed several mixed conclusions about the impact of reading cli-fi. Significantly, the results suggest that reading any one cli-fi will not lead to changes in behaviour; however, this doesn’t discount cli-fi’s significance. For one, much of this research has been conducted through surveys, missing the social aspect of reading.
Readers don’t always read in isolation and many readers discuss what they read with others. These discussions could be where the work of cli-fi occurs. Aiming to develop our understanding of this social aspect of reading, Misty’s doctoral research will focus on observing a book club as they read four cli-fi novels (Weather (2020) by Jenny Offill; Blaze Island (2020) by Catherine Bush; Blackfish City (2018) by Sam J. Miller; The Marrow Thieves (2017) by Cherie Dimaline). Some of the questions guiding her research are: How does a group of readers discuss each novel, what themes are mentioned? Each author wrote their novels with the intention of inspiring their readers to have hope for the future. Will the readers in this group feel inspired? How do these novels provide space for these readers to reflect on more than just the climate change facts and figures, as some ecocritics claim? Observing readers as they interpret and discuss these novels will provide valuable insight into the cultural work of cli-fi.
Feeling Rules and Water Education
Researcher: Kirsten Rudestam
Project Description: In this project, we’ll examine the institutionalized “feeling rules” (Hochschild 1979) around water scarcity and climate change discussions in post-secondary, water-related courses and research centres. Because professors establish the culture for generations of water activists and policy-makers, Kirsten will interview and observe faculty members at University of Victoria and University of Waterloo to determine the role of emotion in water decision making and pedagogy, and to explore the reproduction of feeling rules in the culture of the discipline.
Project Funding: This work is supported by the SSHRC Postdoctoral fellowship program.
Yuck! Gross! and Ewwww! Applying interdisciplinary insights to design communication strategies for effectively addressing negative responses to water reuse practices
Researcher: Stephanie Shouldice
Project Description: To conserve water, communities can reuse treated wastewater for activities like toilet flushing, irrigation and drinking. But people are disgusted by the idea of using water that once touched human feces. Drawing from social psychology (Terror Management Theory and disgust) and communications literatures, Stephanie is investigating how communication tools and messages can be designed to address automatic, emotional disgust responses to water reuse project proposals. This barrier must be managed for water reuse to become a viable water supply solution.
Project Funding: Stephanie’s research is supported by funding from SSHRC’s Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship (2020-2023), Canadian Federation of University Women’s Dr. Alice E. Wilson Award (2021-2022), and Royal Roads University’s Entrance Award (Jan-2020) and Doctoral Entrance Award (Jan-2020). This research has also been supported by Wolfe’s Canada’s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) through their Insight Grant (2018: 435-2018-0142)
Gender, emotions, and planetary care
Researcher: Lauren Smith
Project Description: Environmental climate crises are increasing in frequency and severity worldwide (Pörtner et al., 2023; Zscheischler et al., 2018) and pro-environmental action is needed at all scales, from the individual to societal (Fritsche & Masson, 2021; Newell et al., 2021). Effective climate solutions require pro-environmental behaviour and planetary care activities in formal (e.g., paid) and informal (e.g., unpaid) settings. Climate action is needed by policy-makers, managers, and industries, as well as among individuals (IPCC, 2023). Yet, social psychologists find mixed responses to persistent, life-threatening climate communications (Akil et al., 2018; Naidu et al., 2022; Pyszczynski et al., 2015; Smith et al., 2019; Stollberg & Jonas, 2021; Vess & Arndt, 2008). Psychosocial responses to dire climate messages can at times lead to increased or decreased environmental care (Fritsche et al., 2010; Harrison & Mallett, 2013; Kasser & Sheldon, 2000; Koole & Van Den Berg, 2005). These responses to persistent climate messaging and the implications for long-term environmental care must be understood. Moreover, care work remains highly gendered, particularly in informal, unpaid contexts (McCarthy, 2018; Rundblad, 2019).
To address this challenge, I will investigate formal (e.g., paid) and informal (e.g., unpaid) environmental work as care activities and how varying emotional contexts (e.g., fear or threat vs. awe or compassion) can influence engagement in these activities. Gender intersections of planetary care will also be explored. Thus, my post-doctoral research combines three major fields: social psychology; feminist care ethics; environmental communications.
Project Funding: This research funding comes from a two-year SSHRC post-doctoral fellowship.
Farm Status: Exploring dimensions of rural values and character on Southern Vancouver Island, Canada
Researcher: Dee Woods
Project Description: The competing issues of housing needs, agricultural preservation, climate change and environmental management have placed southern Vancouver Island’s rural-residential communities under immense pressure. Governments, municipalities, and planning departments need knowledge and tools to move through conflicts and reach solutions that will allow communities to grow and thrive sustainably. Planning for effective and equitable land use in rural-residential communities poses unique challenges for municipalities (Simon, 2014; McGregor et al., 2006), particularly within the context of globalization and climate change. Unlike distinct urban areas, planned suburbs, and fully rural areas, rural-residential communities exist at contested boundaries between the urban settlements and the fringe, blurring the lines between the traditional “city/country” dichotomy (Simon, 2014).
One of the challenges in trying to protect rural areas is the difficulty in defining the term “rural character” (Tilt et al., 2007; Heyer, 1990; Walker & Ryan, 2008). Rural sociologists have attempted to explore the meaning of “ruralness” with local residents, but their focus was concentrated on social relationships and constructs, rather than on physical settings (Beggs et al., 1996; Halfacree, 1995). Meanwhile, research conducted in Maine emphasized the physical and cultural landscape features, but did not investigate social relationships and resident emotions or behaviour (Ryan, 2002; Walker & Ryan, 2008). Other research from Sturzaker (2002) on land use change in the English (UK) countryside focused on oppositional behaviour from the “rural elite” and how resident associations leveraged rhetoric-laden sustainability arguments to oppose development. Because the mobilisation to rural areas—particularly in the Global North—is accessible only by those with sufficient economic means and may actually exacerbate environmental degradation, climate-related counterurbanisation has been proposed as a social maladaptation (Scott et al., 2024; Gkartzios & Halfacree, 2023).
My work will complement existing research on rural-residential communities grappling with landscape change (Tilt et al., 2007; Brook, 2018; Beiling, 2013; Gobster et al., 2022; Iversen et al., 2022; Walker & Ryan, 2008). Using a framework grounded in relational thinking (Eyster, et al., 2023; Chan et al., 2018) and an interdisciplinary research design, I hypothesize that preference for and definition of rural values and character is an emotionally loaded Relational Value (RV) that is both personal and contextual. I propose that “rural values and character” is a variable notion that concerns not just the physical landscape features but also one’s place attachment, perceptions of environmental change, identity, social status, economic circumstance, relationships, values, worldview, age, and gender.
Project Funding: This research funding comes from the Insight Development Grant, RRU’s “SSHRC Institutional Grant” (SIG) and the Internal Grants for Research (IGR)