Research

Addressing Intersecting Crises: Climate, Housing, and Compounding Health Vulnerabilities for Senior Tenants

In cities around the world, the uneven impacts of climate change-induced extreme events such as heatwaves and wildfires are acutely felt indoors. Research on indoor environmental quality is emerging but often overlooks the social, political, and legal determinants of the built environment and health. An important co-determinant of health is housing. In many cities, housing is increasingly unaffordable and unfit for a changing climate. Senior tenants who are low-income, disabled, and/or racialized are particularly vulnerable – compounding their compromised physiological response to environmental threats. We strategically combine the insights of environmental health and climate justice to study the indoor environments of senior tenants’ homes and foster equitable climate action in Barcelona, New York City, and Vancouver. We aim to provide environmental, health, and social data to 1) inform public discourse that propels adaptation and mitigation efforts without displacing or disempowering senior tenants, and 2) safeguard the right to secure, high-quality housing in the context of climate change especially for those facing environmental and social injustices.

Lead researcher: Liv Yoon

Exercise and Air Pollution

With climate change, we can expect air quality to continue to get worse. The adverse health effects of air pollution are incontrovertible. Air pollution increases mortality and causes or worsens a multitude of diseases, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, dementia and heart disease. By contrast, physical activity and exercise are powerful tools for both prevention and treatment of disease. However, exercise increases our metabolism, and therefore the amount of air pollution that gets ingested. Fortunately, the evidence is strong that, even in areas of poor air quality, a physically active lifestyle leads to significant health benefits. The focus of our research is to study the interaction between physical activity and air pollution and to develop strategies to reduce the risks of air pollution while enabling individuals to stay physically active. We use a variety of methods including direct exposure studies in the laboratory, field studies, and epidemiological methods to help to understand the complex interaction between pollution and exercise.

Lead researcher: Dr. Michael Koehle

Women in Paralympic Sport: Past, Present and Future

Women have been part of the Paralympic Movement since the first sports games for the disabled were held at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in 1948. Historically, there are many examples of women taking on central roles in the movement as athletes, coaches, policy-makers and ambassadors. Yet there are growing concerns that women’s progress in all roles within disability sport is in decline. This project, funded by an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) explores the involvement of women in Paralympic sport in the past, present and future.

Research Team: Andrea Bundon, David Howe (Loughborough University), Nikolaus Dean, Natalie Scadden

Barriers and Facilitators Encountered by Canadians with Disabilities when Pursuing Sport Coaching Opportunities

A key element of the integration of para-sport within the mainstream Canadian sport system included ensuring that coaches were in place to support para-athletes. Accordingly, in recent years, the Coaching Association of Canada has worked with National Sport Organizations to develop and implement training models and other resources specific to coaches working with para-athletes. However, a significant deficit in these approaches is an assumption that the coaches themselves are able-bodied. This research explores the experiences of people with disabilities who pursue coach training and certification. This work is funded by a Hampton New Faculty Research Grant (UBC).

Research Team: Andrea Bundon, Natalie Scadden

Level the Field: Disability Inclusion in the BC Sport Sector

In partnership with viaSport BC, the School of Kinesiology and UBC Recreation, this project explores the inclusion/exclusion of people with disabilities in the BC sport sector. Over three years, the research team will be engaging with communities of people with disabilities to gain their insights into what is needed to make sport inclusive. We will simultaneously be working with sport organizations province-wide to understand how they currently engage people with disabilities in their organizations and programs and what they need to adopt more inclusive policies and practices.

Research Team: Andrea Bundon, Shawna Lawson (viaSport BC), Caitlin Pentifallo Gadd (viaSport BC), Andrew Hammond, Tim Konoval, Joseph O’Rourke, Ljudmila Zaletelj

Past Team Members: Erica Bennett, Amy McDonald

Disability in the Gym: Perceptions and Understandings About Individuals with Disabilities

We are interested in learning about how personal trainers understand disability and individuals with disabilities. Findings from this study will allow us to gain valuable insight into the way(s) that disability and individuals with disabilities are understood within the gym environment. Moreover, findings from this study will further our understandings of disability within this sporting context and will serve as an important step in creating a more inclusive environment for individuals with disabilities.

Research Team: Andrea Bundon, Ljudmila Zaletelj

Fisher River Cree Nation Project

An Intergenerational Examination of Indigenous Physical Cultures and Masculinities (aka, Indigenous Wellbeing of Boys and Men)

This project uses physical culture (i.e., sport, physical activity, and human movement) as a lens for examining place-specific Indigenous masculinities within Fisher River Cree Nation. Physical activity and exercise are often narrowly conceptualized in terms of their mental and physical health benefits. However, this project shows that the resurgence of place-specific Indigenous physical cultural practices has the potential to decolonize Indigenous identities, foster inter-generational mentoring relations, revitalize Cree values, roles and responsibilities, all of which nurture holistic Cree ways of living well. Working in close collaboration with the community, this project was organized around repeating cycles of knowledge gathering and community sharing. Methods used in this study include sharing circles, intergenerational interviews, a community feast and a community cultural heritage camp. In collaboration with Fisher River Cree Nation and Manitoba First Nations Education Resource Centre (MFNERC), we are currently working on a book that features Elders’ stories of local physical cultural practices. This project was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Lead researcher: Moss Norman

Indigeneity, Hockey, and Canadian Nationhood

This SSHRC-funded project uses a decolonizing framework to explore the ambivalent relationship between hockey, indigeneity, and settler colonialism in Canada. Specifically, we analyze the role of hockey in the naturalization of the settler Canadian nation state and the simultaneous mobilization of the sport as a vehicle for libratory self-expression and community building by Indigenous players, coaches, and fans. The phrase “decolonizing” is employed here in two senses: the first pertains to the need for hockey to be decolonized, given its colonialist baggage and its saturation with racist, sexist, and homophobic discourse; the second pertains to the capacity for the sport to be exercised in ways that serve Indigenous resurgence. The project brings together eminent and upcoming Indigenous and settler-allied scholars with expertise in Sport History, Gender Theory, Narrative Studies, Sociology, and Filmmaking. For this project, my team is working to develop a counter-statistical reality for Indigenous youth hockey in Canada. You can find more information about this project on the Indigenous Hockey Research Network website.

Lead researchers: Sam McKegney, Janice Forsyth, and Robert Henry

Corporate Environmentalism and the Canadian Golf Industry: Examining Industry Responses to Social, Cultural, Economic, and Political Pressures Related to the Environment

This project focuses on the study of golf and environmental issues, focusing especially on how stakeholders in the golf industry respond to environmental concerns. The project also considers the ways in which the issues highlighted in the study of golf relate to questions about sport’s relationship with environmental issues more generally.

Lead researchers: Brian Wilson & Brad Millington

Decarbonization and Sport

Lead researchers: Julia Lawrence & Brian Wilson

Wheels of Change? Exploring ‘Bicycles for Development’ for Women and Girls in the (Post-)Pandemic Contexts of Canada, Uganda and Nicaragua

The bicycle’s capacity to respond to pressing social issues (e.g., gender inequality, access to education) and facilitate social change has inspired both interest and optimism, especially in the context of COVID-19. For example, in May 2020, the United Nations formed a taskforce to assess how to “make post-COVID-19 mobility more environmentally sound, healthy and sustainable” with an eye to “bicycles as driver[s] of post-COVID-19 ‘green recovery’” (UN, 2020). At the same time, there are a number of non-governmental organizations around the world that utilize bicycles to address social issues, including for instance: reducing gender-based violence; promoting social entrepreneurship for women and girls in bicycle-related work; and considering the roles of women and girls in achieving the aforementioned ‘green recovery’ in a (post-)COVID context.

The ‘Wheels of Change’ study builds on the activities, findings and community partnerships developed during the research team’s recently-completed five-year study (2017-2021) on ‘bicycles for development’ (BFD) — the use of bicycles to achieve community-level, national and global development objectives in Canada, Uganda, Nicaragua, South Africa, and India.

Lead researchers: Lyndsay Hayhurst, Brian Wilson, Francine Darroch, Cathy van Ingen and Brad Millington

Cycling, marginalization, and mobility justice

In response to growing concern around climate change, cycling is growing as a mode of transportation that is environmentally-friendly. Many cities, including Vancouver, promote cycling as part of climate and transportation strategies. However, some groups continue to experience barriers to cycling as a result of historic and ongoing systemic inequities in urban planning. This research project explores the experiences of marginalized groups who cycle, including unhoused people and people with disabilities. By considering whether sustainable transportation like cycling is truly accessible to all, this research critically engages with discussions around urban space, sustainability, equity, and mobility.

Lead researcher: Jeanette Steinmann