Environment, Sustainability, and Society

Through research, knowledge mobilization, and policy advocacy, researchers in the Faculty of Social Sciences aim to confront the local and global challenges of a changing environment and its impact on societies, as well as prospects for sustainability and responsible growth that can provide opportunities for all peoples.
Examples include:
- Climate change
- Urban growth and sustainability
- Agriculture, food security and nutrition
- Human and non-human animals and their environments
- Economic prosperity and growth
- Anthropocene

Ryan Katz-Rosene
Assistant Professor, Political Studies
Champion - Environment, Sustainability & Society
"The science is clear: Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate, biodiversity decline is accelerating, and human activity is the driving force behind these changes. How we react to these daunting challenges is very much a question for the social sciences. How do we ensure our efforts to confront environmental degradation are socially just and genuinely sustainable? How do climate change and ecological damage relate to inequalities across gender, race, and class? What political and economic tools will get us out of this mess? As researchers, we have an important role to play in uncovering the interconnections between environment, sustainability and society to inform sound decision-making and effective citizen action."
Our videos are often available in one language, however, we always try provide closed captioning in French or English.
Additional resources:
- The Institute of the Environment recently joined FSS
- uOttawa Office of campus sustainability
- Interdisciplinary Research Group on Territories of Extractivism
- The Future of Sustainable Protein: A Research Project led by Dr. Ryan Katz-Rosene
- Teaching Students to Think Ecologically about the Global Political Economy, and Vice Versa,” Review of International Political Economy
- Flying Less in Academia: A Resource Guide
- EcoPolitics Podcast
- Historic Waterways Research
- The Political Economy of Hydropower in Southwest China and Beyond (Jean-François Rousseau, SIDGS)
- Beyond participation and distribution: a scoping review to advance a comprehensive justice framework for impact assessment (Kelly Bronson, SOC)
- Consulted to death: personal stress as a major barrier to environmental co-management (Nathan Young, SOC)
- State-led Efforts to Reduce Environmental Impacts of Artisanal and Small-scale Mining in Tanzania: Implications for Fulfillment of the Sustainable Development Goals (Christopher Huggins, SIDGS)