Guiding sustainability actions
Through a transdisciplinary approach, my knowledge-to-action research aims to help tackle critical issues reshaping the Arctic and our oceans. This focus area builds on close collaborations with stakeholders to foster sustainability actions that are adapted to local contexts.
For instance, I developed an expertise in participatory scenario planning, a collaborative approach designed to study the future of social-ecological systems and guide sustainability actions forward. This approach pairs different types of information, from quantitative models to Indigenous and Local Knowledge, to produce scenarios, which are plausible and coherent descriptions of the future aimed to inform today's planning.
From left to right: Art activity during a participatory scenario planning workshop in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut; Community engagement activity following up the scenario workshop; Output from a scenario activity; Participatory scenario planning activity (Photo credit: Navalik Helen Tologanak).
In my PhD research, for example, I used participatory scenario planning to explore potential futures for the Kitikmeot Marine Region by 2050 under different trends of climate change, marine development, and governance. I developed a novel participatory scenario development approach (methodological paper in Sustainability Science) that combined a traditional scenario planning approach aimed to align scenarios with plausible environmental trends, with positive visioning inspired by Arctic Seeds of Good Anthropocenes which sought to explore people’s agency to shape positive futures.
Painting representing one of the scenarios, by Inuit artist Janielle Vandenbrink.
The participatory scenario development process spanned about two years and culminated with a workshop bringing together Inuit community members, managers, and scientists. We co-developed three scenarios about potential futures for the region by 2050. I produced a film about this project, available in the video section of my portfolio.
The report
"Hivunikhavut - Our Future"
presents the scenarios
and our participatory
approach
I am grateful to the community of Cambridge Bay for the guidance, support, and all the fun time. Here is a short video that I made to thank the community. Quanaqutin!
If you have any questions or want to learn more
about my research:
As part of my current projects, we will use participatory scenario planning to look into the future of fisheries and food security in Nunavik, including the Belmont Forum project Marine Arctic Resilience, Adaptations and Transformations (MARAT), the Genome Canada project Fostering Indigenous Small-scale fisheries for Health, Economy and food Security (FISHES), and the Sentinel North project Sustainable and resilient country food systems for future generations of Nunavimmiut - promoting food security while adapting to changing northern environments.