Journal articles on the topic 'Regional planning – Ontario – York Region'

Government agenda setting has been a focus of research in the field of policy sciences for over two decades. The concept of a policy window is explored as a driver of governmental agenda setting. The Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada was chosen as a case study for exploring the application of strategic environmental assessment at the municipal level through a policy window lens. Problem, policy and political streams converged to provide the necessary conditions for improved environmental assessment and infrastructure planning in York Region. A focusing event and the resulting crisis motivated stakeholders to identify and act on the problem. An SEA-type approach was initiated as one key response. A variety of activities were initiated by York Region including the development of a Sustainability Strategy, synchronisation of master planning, wider consideration of alternatives at the master plan level and improved public consultation. Conclusions are drawn and several recommendations are presented and discussed.

The scale, sectoral composition, and regional economic impact of recent Canadian direct investment in Western New York are examined. Empirical perspectives on the role of the Canada—United States Free Trade Agreement (FTA) are presented, notably with regard to Western New York's growing absorption of Canadian industrial capital. Data from a postal survey of Canadian investors are described. The results suggest that the FTA has not been a strategic factor in recent investment patterns. Instead, the data reveal an important role for locational and market considerations, few of which pertain to official regulations of bilateral commerce. Some of the empirical results suggest an economic synergy between southern Ontario and Western New York. Specifically, both regions appear to have captured significant commercial benefits from recent cross-border investment. The paper concludes with a brief research agenda for future geographical work on the economic impact of more liberal investment relations between the two countries.

This article analyses regional resilience to economic shock in Canada from 1987 to 2012, a period that included severe recessions and major free-trade agreements. Employment is cross-tabulated by region, industry and gender and partitioned cumulatively using three-way multifactor partitioning for each period from 1987–1988 to 1987–2012. Employment loss in each recession is found to be more closely associated with industry-mix in the preceding growth period than with the region effect. At each recession, manufacturing had much bigger employment losses and a much weaker recovery than business services. Thus manufacturing amplifies economic shocks, while business services act as regional shock absorbers. Manufacturing employment decline in Ontario was influenced by trade liberalization and far exceeds what would be expected from the industry and region effects alone. Female employment growth outpaced male employment growth in every region and in every industry group apart from business and appeared to be more resilient to recession. But corrected for their industry composition and regional disparities, these gender differences are substantially reduced.

The Genesee Valley has long been recognized as a center of Iroquois development, but the connection between Owasco sites in the Genesee and Iroquois sequences in the adjacent regions has never been adequately demonstrated. Attempts to identify transitional Owasco-Iroquois sites in this region have been hampered by the use of diagnostic criteria based on data from eastern New York. This article examines ceramic patterns in the Genesee and establishes a regional cultural sequence based on ceramic criteria which have local diagnostic significance. This sequence reveals the transition from Owasco to Iroquois culture begins in the Genesee with a sudden influx of Ontario Iroquois ceramic traits from the west ca. 1250 A.D. This Owasco-Ontario Iroquois connection in the Genesee negates certain assumptions regarding Iroquois origins and alters our current concept of in situ development.

ABSTRACT Lower Paleozoic bedrock strata, in south-central Ontario and the adjacent part of New York State are covered by a thick (100m+) blanket of Pleistocene glacial and interglacial sediments. The form of the buried bedrock surface has been reconstructed from 70,000 waterwell boreholes that extend through the entire Pleistocene cover using GIS data processing techniques. The sub-drift bedrock surface shows linear channels that connect the basins of lakes Huron, Ontario and Erie and which form part of an ancestral mid-continent Great Lake drainage system prior to modification and infilling during successive Pleistocene glaciations. This relict drainage system is cut across Lower Paleozoic carbonates and elastics up to 500 m thick, but the position of several channels is aligned above terrane boundaries, faults and other deep-seated and poorly understood geophysical anomalies in underlying mid-Proterozoic Grenville basement rocks. Other channels are controlled by a dominant northwest and northeast trending regional joint system. A close relationship among deeply seated geophysical lineaments, basement structures and topographic lineaments cut across thick Paleozoic cover strata suggests a history of Phanerozoic reactivation and upward propagation of fractures from the Precambrian basement. Several basement structures and lineaments are seismically active suggesting ongoing neotectonic activity across the 'stable' craton of south-central Ontario.

A growing understanding about the impacts of earthworms (Oligochaeta: Lumbricidae) on ecosystem processes and forest restoration necessitates an examination of their role in Canadian forests where they have become invasive. Little is known about the landscape-scale responses of earthworm populations to different regional characteristics and vegetation types within Canada’s central woodlands. We examined the regional variation of earthworm species richness, biomass, and assemblage composition across a range of four municipal regions (from south to north: Halton, Wellington, York, and Simcoe) and four habitat types (deciduous forest, mixed forest, tree plantation, and meadow) with varying soil characteristics in woodlands of south-central Ontario, Canada. In general, earthworm communities differed by region but not by habitat type. The most southern regions supported the highest earthworm species richness, biomass (i.e., Lumbricus and Octolasion), and density, and this was associated with a south–north gradient in soil characteristics. Assemblage composition differed by region but not by habitat type. The observed south–north gradient suggests an underlying effect of invasion spread associated with human settlement and density. Our results provide baseline information about earthworm communities in south-central Ontario forests and will enable managers to plan for the increasing role of earthworms in Canada’s future forests.

It is hypothesized that the subnational, interregional location of foreign direct investment is influenced by the country of origin, the industry, and the specific functions of the investment. The authors studied these characteristics of 1163 foreign-owned business establishments in New York State, comparing them with the location, industry specialization, and occupational structure of five regions of New York State. Foreign-owned businesses take full part in the spatial division of activities across the state. Indeed, in some cases the special needs of foreign-owned business have led the specialization of regions' industry and activity mixes. Where a region's sectoral or activity mix is not greatly reinforced by the foreign-owned activities in the region, it is usually because of the intervening effects of source-country specialization or source-country locational proclivity.

This paper brie fly describes Regional Plan Association's (RPA) eff orts over the past century to shape the development of the New York–New Jersey–Connecticut metropolitan region. With twenty-four million people and a $2+ trillion economy, this is America's largest urban region. I explore the advantages and drawbacks facing an independent, non-statutory entity like RPA in carrying out this mission. The RPA's history is the subject of a newly published monograph and website prepared by the Association for its Centennial in 2022 (RPA, 2022), and recent feature in Bloomberg CityLab (Scurio, 2022). This paper draws on my twenty- fiveyear personal experience leading RPA and its professional staff (1989–2014). I also conceptualized, led and co-authored RPA's Third Regional Plan, and initiated its Fourth Plan. The paper outlines how an independent civic group can help public bodies achieve important policy and investment outcomes for a large metropolitan region.

The history of deglaciation in the Finger Lakes region since the Valley Heads readvance is questioned by recent research in the Cayuga basin, which concludes that, instead of forming a series of proglacial lakes, drainage during the Mackinaw Interstade was into the Laurentide ice sheet. First suspected in the Dryden–Virgil Valley where there is an absence of a lake outlet or surficial lacustrine deposits, this conclusion was explicitly revealed in the Sixmile–Willseyville trough where ice margin channels funneled water into the ice front. Further support was found in the Cayuga Inlet Valley, where a kettle kame terrane sloped northward into the ice front. Northward drainage was preceded by southerly drainage, with reversal occurring about 16.3 kyr ago. Multi-channel seismic profiles at the south end of Lake Cayuga reveal a south-sourced subaqueous sedimentary fan at the base of the lacustrine sequence. This fan is correlated with a coarse and heterogeneous clastic sequence penetrated in water wells in the City of Ithaca and requires northward drainage into a subglacial lake, which precludes the existence of proglacial lakes Ithaca, Newberry, and Hall. The proposed subglacial flow path is through the Cayuga trough, exiting the ice front eastward in the Mohawk Valley. Subglacial drainage from the Cayuga trough probably was part of a regional subglacial drainage system during the Mackinaw Interstade. Studies north of Lake Ontario have led to the proposal of a subglacial lake in the Ontario basin at that time, which likely also drained into the Mohawk Valley.

The Ottawa Embayment contains erosional remnants of a shallow-water carbonate platform (St. Lawrence Platform) of Late Ordovician (Caradocian) age. Stratigraphy of three Blackriveran formations - in ascending order, Pamelia, Lowville, and Chaumont - documents regional changes in continuity and types of depositional facies. The Pamelia Formation contains two members, each containing basin-wide basal siliciclastic units overlain by interbedded limestone, dolostone, and shale. An alternate division recognizes six shallowing-upward units; regionally extensive, intertidal to supratidal, dolomitic sandstone and (or) sandy dolostone define their tops. Sedimentary structures and isotope (C, O) geochemistry support a syngenetic origin of this stratigraphic (bedded) dolomite. The Lowville Formation contains two facies associations: subtidal to lower intertidal bioclastic and oolitic packstone - grainstone followed by lagoonal to intertidal mudflat facies. Lateral facies continuity is reduced compared to the Pamelia Formation. The Chaumont Formation contains thick beds of burrowed, bioclastic, peloidal mudstone to packstone, and minor shale. No rhythmic pattern is recognized in these subtidal facies. Upsection decrease of rhythmic sedimentation, with a decrease in lateral facies continuity of the studied strata reflects a progressive increase in net accommodation space related to Taconic transgression. Higher order rhythmicity of dolostone and sandstones of the Pamelia Formation can be traced into adjacent regions (New York and Kingston, Ont.). Dolomitic units may identify basin-wide chronostratigraphic markers, potentially useful for future sequence analysis. Regional correlation reveals a good oceanographic linkage between the Ottawa Embayment and the Appalachian Basin during Pamelia time and a restricted access across a paleohigh in the Montréal region. By the time of Lowville deposition, Taconic transgression had breached this restriction.

AbstractCentral New York State, located at the intersection of the northeastern United States and the Great Lakes basin, is impacted by snowfall produced by lake-effect and non-lake-effect snowstorms. The purpose of this study is to determine the spatiotemporal patterns of snowfall in central New York and their possible underlying causes. Ninety-three Cooperative Observer Program stations are used in this study. Spatiotemporal patterns are analyzed using simple linear regressions, Pearson correlations, principal component analysis to identify regional clustering, and spatial snowfall distribution maps in the ArcGIS software. There are three key findings. First, when the long-term snowfall trend (1931/32–2011/12) is divided into two halves, a strong increase is present during the first half (1931/32–1971/72), followed by a lesser decrease in the second half (1971/72–2011/12). This result suggests that snowfall trends behave nonlinearly over the period of record. Second, central New York spatial snowfall patterns are similar to those for the whole Great Lakes basin. For example, for five distinct regions identified within central New York, regions closer to and leeward of Lake Ontario experience higher snowfall trends than regions farther away and not leeward of the lake. Third, as compared with precipitation totals (0.02), average air temperatures had the largest significant (ρ < 0.05) correlation (−0.56) with seasonal snowfall totals in central New York. Findings from this study are valuable because they provide a basis for understanding snowfall patterns in a region that is affected by both non-lake-effect and lake-effect snowstorms.

In Ontario, yield tables for forest management planning have remained relatively unchanged since initial work in the 1950s that was based on a limited number of temporary sample plots. In 2000, the Forestry Research Partnership accelerated work on the Benchmark Yield Curve Project (initiated several years earlier by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, OMNR) to update these tables. The resulting yield curves incorporated data from more than 3000 permanent sample plots (PSPs) maintained in Ontario as well as PSPs from neighbouring and ecologically similar jurisdictions. Two stratifications were considered: OMNR’s Northeast Region standard forest units and leading species. The 10 forest units considered cover the major commercial species in the boreal forest in Ontario. Equations were fit to the data to predict the growth and yield by stratum. The equations were validated against independently collected data and compared to predictions from the current wood supply yield curves in Ontario: Plonski’s yield tables, modified Plonski, and northeast regional curves. Results of the validation showed that, with the exception of the MW2 and SF1 forest units, the new yield curves generally had less bias for gross total volume than Plonski and modified Plonski. Results for net merchantable volume were consistent with those for gross merchantable volume. The MW2 and SF1 forest units are more mixed in terms of species type, species light tolerance, and age. A leading species approach resulted in better predictions and is recommended for these forest units. Key words: wood supply, benchmark yield curves, mixedwood yield, yield model, Forestry Research Partnership

Aim. The article is aimed to show the evolution of approaches and current thinking on metropolitan regions in the context of world urbanization; to analyze the main tendencies of New York metropolitan area development – one of the biggest metropolitan regions in the world with a core in a global city; basing on the case of New York, to illustrate the evolution of the methodology for metropolitan region delineation, its planning and spatial development in long-term perspective. Methodology. The methodology is based on a long-term analysis of the dynamics of New York city as well as spatial organization of the metropolitan region from the viewpoint of the evolution of approaches for delineation of the urbanized areas in the US and spatial planning perspectives, basing on several generations of New York metropolitan area regional plans. Results. The article reflects the evolution of ideas and basic concepts of metropolitan regions development as spatial entities. Basing on the US experience in the methodology of urban areas delineation, the main changes over recent decades and their relation to urbanization processes are reflected, in particular the role of low-density corridors, population density and housing density as criteria for urban areas identification is analyzed. This experience can be used to develop a methodology for identifying metropolitan regions in Ukraine, making delineation process and providing more balanced governance policy for these regions. Using the example of New York, the article shows the need to constantly update and adapt governance and planning policies in such regions, which is reflected in changes of managing growth, now mostly focusing on reducing segregation, preventing climate change, enhancing institutional transformations and strengthening the role of spatial planning. Novelty. Revealing the experience of metropolitan regions delineation, challenges for their spatial development and planning strategy for the case of New York metropolitan area, the article reflects actual methodological approaches to metropolitan regions delineation, making governance policy and spatial planning that can be adapted in Ukraine. Among the key proposed changes aimed at strengthening the sustainable development of such regions in Ukraine - development the methodology for their delineation, elaboration of metropolitan region development strategy and spatial planning for the whole region.

Geographers and other social scientists have paid considerable attention recently to what has been characterized as the increasingly social character of economic activity. Of particular interest has been the rise of more collaborative relations among firms and the formation of territorial production networks predicated upon joint product development and manufacturing, trust-based buyer—supplier interaction, and the freer exchange of proprietary information. Much of the empirical evidence for such claims comes from a relatively small number of regional case studies of particular industries which have enjoyed a high degree of economic success in recent years. At issue, however, is the extent to which such collaborative activity has diffused to other industries and other regions, especially the more mature industrial regions. Furthermore, even in cases where collaborative relationships have been documented, much debate remains over their effectiveness and the kinds of benefits arising from such activity, especially in North America. Previous research on the adoption and implementation of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) in Ontario indicates that strong collaboration between AMT producers (largely outside the region) and AMT users is relatively rare. In this paper this work is deepened and extended by an examination of the frequency of collaboration, the forms such collaboration takes, and the factors which seem to be critical in determining whether or not firms will collaborate with one another. Evaluating the results of a survey analysis of AMT users, follow-up interviews both with users and with producers, and a comparison with the AMT sector in Germany, the authors conclude that the apparent scarcity of collaborative activity in the Ontario AMT industry is closely related to the physical and organizational distance between suppliers and customers, and also arises from the high degree of foreign ownership of AMT users in Ontario. They conclude that, despite the well-recognized rise of global economic players, nationality of ownership and geography still matter.

The factors affecting the inland and orographic enhancement of lake-effect precipitation are poorly understood, yet critical for operational forecasting. Here we use nine cool seasons (16 November–15 April) of radar data from the Montague/Ft. Drum, New York (KTYX), WSR-88D, the North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR), and observations from the Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) field campaign to examine variations in lake-effect precipitation enhancement east of Lake Ontario and over the Tug Hill Plateau (hereafter Tug Hill). Key factors affecting the inland and orographic enhancement in this region include the strength of the incident boundary layer flow, the intensity of the lake-induced convective available potential energy (LCAPE), and the mode of the lake-effect system. Stronger flow favors higher precipitation rates, a precipitation maximum displaced farther downwind, and greater inland and orographic enhancement. The effects of LCAPE depend upon the strength of the flow. During periods of weak flow, higher LCAPE favors lower precipitation rates, a maximum closer to the shoreline, and lesser inland and orographic enhancement. During periods of strong flow, higher LCAPE favors higher precipitation rates, a maximum displaced farther downwind, and greater inland and orographic enhancement. Banded (nonbanded) modes favor higher (lower) precipitation rates, lesser (greater) inland and orographic enhancement, and a maximum closer to the shoreline (over Tug Hill). These results, for both manually measured and radar-estimated precipitation, are robust when many lake-effect events are considered, but substantial variability exists during individual events.

Abstract This study presents a climatological analysis of the frequency and characteristics of lake-effect precipitation events that were initiated or enhanced by lakes within the New York State (NYS) Finger Lakes region for the 11 winters (October–March) from 1995/96 through 2005/06. Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) data from Binghamton, New York, were used to identify 125 lake-effect events. Events occurred as 1) a well-defined, isolated precipitation band over and downwind of a lake, 2) an enhancement of mesoscale lake-effect precipitation originating from Lake Ontario and extending southward over an individual Finger Lake, 3) a quasi-stationary mesoscale precipitation band positioned over a lake embedded within extensive regional precipitation from a synoptic weather system, or 4) a transition from one type to another. Results show that lake-effect precipitation routinely develops over lakes that are considerably smaller than lakes previously discussed as being associated with lake-effect precipitation, such as the Great Lakes. Lake-effect events occurred during each month (October–March) across the 11 winters studied and were identified in association with each of the six easternmost Finger Lakes examined in this study. The frequency of NYS Finger Lakes lake-effect events determined in the current investigation paired with subsequent analyses of the environmental conditions leading to these events will allow for 1) comparative analyses of necessary conditions for lake-effect development across a range of lake sizes (e.g., NYS Finger Lakes, Lake Champlain, Great Salt Lake, and Great Lakes) and 2) an informative examination of the connection between mesoscale processes and climate variability.

The purpose of this study was to examine stakeholder perceptions of climate change and local adaptation strategies in the New York City area. A side-by-side comparison of expert and resident opinions provided a clear picture of the region's climate change attitude in the year following Superstorm Sandy. Semi-structured interviews with regional environmental experts provided material for a structured survey, which was then distributed to 100 experts and 250 residents in coastal NY and northern NJ counties. In the survey both stakeholder groups were asked to choose the top three climate threats to the NYC region and rate adaptation and mitigation strategies on a 1–5 Likert scale regarding their ability to protect the region and their cost-effectiveness. Results show that experts and residents agree that sea level rise, coastal flooding and storm surge, and an increased frequency and intensity of extreme events pose the greatest threats to NYC over the next 25 years. While both groups showed a preference for long-term planning over immediate action, experts and residents could not agree on which specific strategies would best serve the region. The aftermath of Superstorm Sandy had a strong impact on both the expert and resident opinions and efforts to monitor stakeholder opinions continue.

103 Background: Cancer Care Ontario (CCO), a provincial agency responsible for continually improving cancer services in Ontario, Canada, reviews selected services with a view to understanding and resolving issues of access, quality, innovation, and funding. Specialized cancer services are low-volume, high-complexity, high-cost, and are not available in every region. They tend to be high-risk, involve a rapidly evolving scientific knowledge base, and a high degree of specialization. A specialized services oversight (SSO) approach has been implemented to address the challenge for optimization of service delivery while providing equitable access to safe, high-quality, best practice care. Methods: The SSO approach involves 1) establishing a provincial forum for expert clinical advice; 2) A regular and systematic process for literature and jurisdictional reviews; 3) provincial-level demand and capacity forecasting; 4) provincial funding linked to evidenced-based eligibility/quality criteria; 5) communication/awareness strategies for appropriate and equitable access. Enablers are CCO structures for performance management, stakeholder engagement, service planning, data management, and CCO’s guiding principles of "transparency, equity, evidence, performance-oriented, active engagement, and value for money." Results: The SSO approach has been implemented in full for PET scanning services, and in part for stem cell transplant (SCT), sarcoma, molecular oncology, prostate brachytherapy, and selected neuroendocrine cancer care. Stakeholder acceptance of the approach has been high. Outputs include provincial guidelines on indications for SCT, performance metrics and benchmarks, multicentre sharing of information, and inter-regional referral processes. Conclusions: Implementation of the SSO approach has introduced provincial-level system planning, formal evidence scanning, sharing of best practices, and performance measurement for high-complexity services where there was no such oversight in the past. The approach is anticipated to avoid access crises and support timely and equitable access to services of high quality, which make optimal use of resources.

Regional study of Middle-Late Ordovician and Middle-Late Devonian carbonate and siliciclastic deposits in the northern Appalachian foreland basin reveals a prominent pattern of eastward-darkening of marine mudrocks and associated fossils. Exoskeletons of certain trilobite genera transform from a saddle brown coloration in southern Ontario exposures to black and near-black in central and eastern New York. Similar eastward darkening of mudstones and argillaceous carbonate units is observed to be covariant with conodont color alteration (C.A.I.) values across this same region. This pattern is coupled with other lines of evidence for eastward increases in heat-of-burial for strata across New York State, indicating that the darkening is linked to this control. Laboratory heating of thermally “cold”, light-colored samples shows that this process can be simulated under controlled conditions. The darkening of fossils and mudrocks probably occurs due to thermal maturation of organic matter within these materials.Darkening of certain fossiliferous mudrock facies from color values as high as N 7.5 at a C.A.I. of 1.0 to those of N 2.5 at C.A.I. of 3.5 has important implications for paleoecological interpretations. Where obvious fossil-rich beds are absent and field work cursory, it might be tempting to infer a shelf-to-basin transition in the uprank direction where none exists. Where skeletal packstone and grainstone beds are common in thermally mature deposits it is possible that intervening dark-colored shales may be erroneously interpreted as basinal, organicrich (black) shales and the grain-supported beds as turbidites, when, in fact, such beds are shallow-shelf tempestites. We believe that similar value gradients should be present wherever local or regional heat-flow anomalies or differential burial patterns are developed. Foreland basins bordering orogens should contain such gradients and workers must be alert to this illusory color effect when working on complex facies in such settings. It is probable that many paleoenvironmental judgments may have been colored by misinterpretations of this type.

Background: A number of palliative care delivery models have been proposed to address the structural and process gaps in this care. However, the specific elements required to form competent systems are often vaguely described. Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore whether a set of modifiable health system factors could be identified that are associated with population palliative care outcomes, including less acute care use and more home deaths. Design: A comparative case study evaluation was conducted of ‘palliative care’ in four health regions in Ontario, Canada. Regions were selected as exemplars of high and low acute care utilization patterns, representing both urban and rural settings. A theory-based approach to data collection was taken using the System Competency Model, comprised of structural features known to be essential indicators of palliative care system performance. Key informants in each region completed study instruments. Data were summarized using qualitative techniques and an exploratory factor pattern analysis was completed. Results: 43 participants (10+ from each region) were recruited, representing clinical and administrative perspectives. Pattern analysis revealed six factors that discriminated between regions: overall palliative care planning and needs assessment; a common chart; standardized patient assessments; 24/7 palliative care team access; advanced practice nursing presence; and designated roles for the provision of palliative care services. Conclusions: The four palliative care regional ‘systems’ examined using our model were found to be in different stages of development. This research further informs health system planners on important features to incorporate into evolving palliative care systems.

The article attempts to present dilemmas related to shaping metropolitan policy in Canada, and then relate them to problems occurring in Poland. It is a part of the debate on seeking the right governance configurations and discourses in response to the communities’ needs. Particular attention is paid to the characteristics of the scales of governance and socio-spatial relations in the Toronto metropolitan area. The article has been divided into four main parts. Part one outlines the theoretical framework and the context of the conducted analyses. Part two describes the structures and processes of regional and metropolitan governance in Southern Ontario, with the earlier reference to the institutional conditions and directions of reforms characteristic of the whole of Canada. Part three of the study concerns the governance arrangements that may constitute important reference points for the scientific and political discourse taking place in Poland. Part four is an attempt to capture the similarities and universal premises that have a decisive influence on the processes of forming metropolitan structures and policies, both in Canada and in Poland. The assumption was made that, despite different historical and socio-cultural conditions, comparing Canadian and Polish experiences is justified, necessary and possible. Firstly, due to the reason that socio-spatial relations in various territorial systems are subject to the same development processes and the accompanying processes of transformation and adaptation. Secondly, residents (members of local, metropolitan, regional, national and supranational communities) have similar needs and expect a high quality of life. Decision-makers and actors of political scenes in different geographical spaces have (or may have) the same technologies, ways of information processing, access to knowledge and knowledge of socio-economic processes. They also face challenges related to the inclusion of citizens in decision-making processes. The analysis of metropolitan processes in both countries emphasizes the differences resulting from various historical and economic contexts of development and also makes it possible to identify universal mechanisms and regularities independent of these contexts. The practice of metropolitan policy proves that the process of re-territorialization of power structures and governance is shaped as a resultant of the impact of forces and interests at all levels of territorial authorities: central, regional and local. Based on the analysis of the processes of the formation of metropolitan structures in Canada and Poland, it can be stated that the rank and position of regional authorities play a key role in it. In Canada, strong regional authorities initiate actions for the shaping of metropolitan structures and formulate the scope of their competence and organization. The importance of central authorities for the dynamics of metropolitan processes is secondary in this case. The weakness of regional authorities in Poland leads to the inability to give metropolitan processes the dynamics of development and the legislative rank adequate for the role played by urban regions in the socio-economic development of the country. As evidenced by the example of Toronto, the evolution of the governance system in practice initiates the process of self-learning the system which goes from one to another phase of development, improving the quality of its operation. In Poland, however, the process of creation of governance structures adequate for realistically existing functional metropolitan areas has been stopped, notably, due to the unfavourable political decisions at the central level.

This work is a follow-up to Michael Gunter's earlier book, The Kurds of Iraq: Tragedy and Hope (St. Martin's Press, 1992). In that book, which was published shortly after the first democratic elections in Iraqi Kurdistan and the subsequent establishment of the Kurdish regional government (KRG), Gunter was somewhat optimistic about the prospects for realizing Kurdish national aspirations in Iraq. The book under review, however, strikes a more pessimistic tone based on political developments in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. The main focus of the book is on the causes of continuing conflict between the two major Iraqi Kurdish parties—namely, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—since the end of the 1991 Gulf War and the establishment of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The author uses a variety of sources, including interviews with principal Kurdish players and English-language publications.

PurposeThere remains a lack of comprehensive pediatric emergency preparedness planning worldwide. A disaster or mass-casualty incident (MCI) involving pediatric patients could overwhelm existing pediatric resources within the New York City (NYC) metropolitan region. The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) recognizing the importance to plan for a MCI with a large number of pediatric victims, implemented a project (the Pediatric Disaster Coalition; PDC), to address gaps in the healthcare system to provide effective and timely pediatric care during a MCI.MethodsThe PDC includes experts in emergency preparedness, critical care, surgery, and emergency medicine from the NYC pediatric/children's hospitals, DOHMH, Office of Emergency Management, and Fire Department (FDNY). Two committees addressed pediatric prehospital triage, transport, and pediatric critical care (PCC) surge capacities. They developed guidelines and recommendations for pediatric field triage and transport, matching patients' needs to resources, and increasing PCC Surge Capacities.ResultsSurge recommendations were formulated. The algorithm developed provides specific pediatric triage criteria that identify severity of illness using the traditional Red, Yellow, and Green categories plus an Orange designation for continual reassessments that has been adopted by FDNY that has trained > 3,000 FDNY EMS personnel in its use. Triaged patients can be transported to appropriate resources based on a tiered system that defines pediatric hospital capabilities. The Surge Committee has created PCC Surge Capacity Guideline that can be used by hospitals to create their individual PCC surge plans. 15 of 25 NYC hospitals with PCC capabilities are participating with PDC planning; 5 have completed surge plans, 3 are nea completion, and 7 are in development. The completed plans add 92 surge beds to 244 regularly available PICU beds. The goal is to increase the PCC surge bed capacity by 200 + beds.ConclusionsThe project is an effective, multidisciplinary group approach to planning for a regional, large-scale pediatric MCI. Regional lead agencies must emphasize pediatric emergency preparedness in their disaster plans.

The research finds evidence in support of and wide recognition of the practical value of management system standards (MSS) by assisting municipalities in meeting their human health protection, environmental objectives, addressing environmental and property damage risks, and providing an additional mechanism of public accountability and transparency. Semi-structured interviews were applied to assess perceptions with practitioners and environmental non-governmental organizations on whether a similar approach to the legally required drinking water quality management standard (DWQMS) could be applied for the municipal wastewater and stormwater sectors. Twelve Ontario municipalities have adopted or are in the process of adopting an ISO 14001 environmental management system (EMS) standard for their wastewater and/or stormwater systems, which represents 66% of Ontario’s population. With the large urban centres (e.g., Toronto, York Region, Durham Region, Halton Region and Peel Region) adopting the standard, this is likely to influence small to medium-sized cities to follow a similar approach. Although, resources might be a factor preventing the cohort of smaller utilities voluntarily taking this path. Regulations governing Ontario’s municipal drinking water, wastewater and stormwater utilities were compared via gap analysis. Gaps on management of the system, performance monitoring, auditing and having minimum design criteria left the municipal wastewater and stormwater sectors behind in comparison with recently updated (2004–2008) regulatory framework for the drinking water sector. Based on the identification and review of significant gaps in wastewater and stormwater regulation (compared with the drinking water sector), environmental MSS should be incorporated to strengthen the regulatory framework of these sectors. These phenomena also depict a form of sustainable governance with the use of MSS, which are initiated, developed and regulated by non-state actors, recognizing the value of non-state rule instruments in the water, wastewater and stormwater sectors.

This book covers a wide range of issues relating to food security (in order of hierarchy) including the globalisation and liberalisation of trade, the WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Intellectual Property Rights, market reforms, technological options, diversification and research needs, water security, and household food security. Further, recommendations are made to cope with challenges of food insecurity. The authors emphasise the need of continuity of the current trend of reforms and devising new policies for the agricultural, food, and natural resources sectors. The issues of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition are being faced across South Asia. These are important not only on economic grounds but also on ethical grounds. The volume’s twenty one chapters, divided into seven parts, have been contributed by twenty-nine experts. Part I discusses economic reforms, trade, technology, and food security. The authors analyse food security situation in the region in the longrun perspective and discuss policy imperatives to cope with this challenge. Among the recommendations, are the need for investment in human resources, improvement in rural infrastructure, development of pro-poor technologies, and promotion of regional cooperation.

This paper provides a snapshot of the key findings of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) review of flood risk prevention policies in the Paris metropolitan area. With an innovative flood risk assessment, the study shows that a major flooding of the Seine River, similar to the flood disaster of 1910, could affect up to 5 million residents in the greater Paris area and cause up to 30 billion (109) euros worth of damage. Economic growth, jobs and public finances could also be significantly affected at the national level. The OECD Review on Flood Risk Management of the Seine River – commissioned by the basin organisation Seine Grands Lacs with the French Ministry of Ecology and Île-de-France regional council – recommends raising risk awareness among citizens and businesses, and improving the resilience of the metropolitan area to flood risks. Recent floods in Europe and New York City's Hurricane Sandy disaster in 2012 illustrated the vulnerability of today's ever-denser cities to flooding and the need to adapt critical infrastructure systems to be able to cope with extreme weather events. The OECD review suggests ways to minimise the risks and better prepare the Île-de-France region. It notes that proposed projects to develop and expand the city's transport and logistics networks offer an opportunity to put some of its suggestions into practice.

Xinjiang: China's Muslim Far Northwest is, as the preface notes, primarily a work of synthesis. The author gathers together an impressive amount of documentary data from a range of sources, including domestic Chinese and world news media, Han Chinese scholarship, and, to a lesser extent, reports by Uighur émigré organizations. These data are employed to illustrate patterns of separatist opposition and state reaction in Xinjiang, particularly since the 1990 Baren riots, identified as the ‘turning point’ in regional state-minority relations. In this, the book might be characterized as the extension of Dillon's earlier paper “Xinjiang: ethnicity, separatism and control in Chinese Central Asia’ (1995).Part one, an introduction to Xinjiang, is the section that most closely approaches the stated goal of providing an updated ‘survey of breadth and depth’ in the style of Owen Lattimore's celebrated Pivot of Asia (1950). In it, the author sketches a broad outline of Xinjiang's geography, history, ethnic make-up, and economy. As he forewarns, the result of his attempt to cover such a wealth of topics may disappoint the specialist. It nonetheless provides a timely snapshot of a rapidly developing society and political economy in a region of growing strategic importance; this is likely to be of interest to non-specialists from a wide range of disciplines.

Research on the changing geography of metropolitan corporate headquarters (CH) influence has pointed to a decrease in importance for national centers and an increase in the importance of regional centers throughout the country. Theoretical explanations of this change have posited a linear evolutionary sequence from spatial and hierarchical concentration to dispersal. In this paper, the nature of change in metropolitan CH influence between 1974 and 1989 is examined, with a focus on three aspects of this process. First, the detailed sequence of dispersal within types of metropolitan region is explored. Second, the issue of how metropolitan CH influence changes over space is examined. Third, the impact of the recent restructuring of the US economy on metropolitan corporate influence is investigated. The results suggest that the linear evolutionary sequence model needs some modification. The major proportional shifts in CH influence are from New York to a select set of diversified regional centers that may be emerging as national centers in their own right. Dispersion of CH influence is not simply a matter of shifts from one level of the hierarchy to another, rather it is the outcome of a continuous struggle by existing and new corporations in metropolises among and within all levels of the hierarchy to capture new growth opportunities as older opportunities decline. Finally, the impact of restructuring was twofold. Among some metropolitan regions dominated by sectors that declined during the period 1974–89 the consequences were a dramatic decrease in influence. The CHs of the new growth sectors were concentrated among national centers and hence contributed to increased influence at the apex of the hierarchy.

Climate change-driven forces and anthropogenic interventions have led to considerable changes in coastal zones and shoreline positions, resulting in coastal erosion or sedimentation. Shoreline change detection through cost-effective methods and easy-access data plays a key role in coastal management, where other effective parameters such as land-use/land-cover (LULC) change should be considered. This paper presents a remotely sensed shoreline monitoring in Sandbanks Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, from 1984 to 2021. The CoastSat toolkit for Python and a multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network classifier were used for shoreline detection, and an unsupervised change detection framework followed by a postclassification change detection method was implemented for LULC classification and change detection. The study assessed the recent coastal erosion and accretion trends in the region in association with spatiotemporal changes in the total area of the West and East Lakes, the transition between LULC classes, extreme climate events, population growth, and future climate projection scenarios. The results of the study illustrate that the accretion trend apparently can be seen in most parts of the study area since 1984 and is affected by several factors, including lake water-level changes, total annual precipitations, sand movements, and other hydrologic/climatic parameters. Furthermore, the observed LULC changes could be in line with climate change-driven forces and population growth to accelerate the detected accretion trend in the East and West Lakes. In total, the synergistic interaction of the investigated parameters would result in a greater accretion trend along with a lower groundwater table amid even a low carbon scenario. The discussed findings could be beneficial to regional/provincial authorities, policymakers, and environmental advocates for the sustainable development of coastal communities.

IntroductionSenior high-cost users (HCUs) are estimated to represent 60% of all HCUs in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province. To improve our understanding of individual and health system characteristics related to senior HCUs, we will examine incident senior HCUs to determine their incremental healthcare utilisation and costs, characteristics of index hospitalisation episodes, mortality and their regional variation across Ontario.Methods and analysisA retrospective, population-based cohort study using administrative healthcare records will be used. Incident senior HCUs will be defined as Ontarians aged ≥66 years who were in the top 5% of healthcare cost users during fiscal year 2013 but not during fiscal year 2012. Each HCU will be matched to three non-HCUs by age, sex and health planning region. Incremental healthcare use and costs will be determined using the method of recycled predictions. We will apply multivariable logistic regression to determine patient and health service factors associated with index hospitalisation and inhospital mortality during the incident year. The most common causes of admission will be identified and contrasted with the most expensive hospitalised conditions. We will also calculate the ratio of inpatient costs incurred through admissions of ambulatory care sensitive conditions to the total inpatient expenditures. The magnitude of variation in costs and health service utilisation will be established by calculating the extremal quotient, the coefficient of variation and the Gini mean difference for estimates obtained through multilevel regression analyses.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (ID#1715-C). The results of the study will be distributed through peer-reviewed journals. They also will be disseminated at research events in academic settings, national and international conferences as well as with presentations to provincial health authorities.

Full TextThe Barn Owl The Barn Owl (Tyto alba) is a medium-sized, tawny coloured owl that, with the exception of Antarctica, has worldwide distribution. Like most owls the Barn Owl is considered to be nocturnal. Like all owls, it is predatory bird. In the Barn Owl’s case, members of the species are said to enjoy (or specialize, in the biological parlance) in small ground mammals—rodents, for example. In Eastern North America, the majority of their diet would include Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus) and Deer Mice (Peromyscus maniculatus). Barn Owls strike a distinct-look with their lack of ear tufts (a misnomer of sorts as the tufts—the “horns” of a Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus—are not ears and not associated with hearing at all) and their distinct heart-shaped facial disc (which is associated with hearing, but that’s another story for another time). As their common name suggests they can be found living in barns, on a nest made from the regurgitated un-digestible remains of those Meadow Voles and Deer Mice they hunt. Of course Barn Owls are not just limited to barns, but nest in silos, abandoned buildings and tree cavities too. Arguably, this should make their name “Barn, Silo, Abandoned Building & Tree Cavity Owl” but that doesn’t really roll off the tongue in the same way. These attributes and distinguishing features are all things to keep in mind if you find yourself out birdwatching near a barn in Southern Ontario. During your explorations, while there are certain to be Rock Pigeons (Columba livia) fluttering about, if you happen to come across a Barn Owl in this setting, you should take notice. Seeing a Barn Owl in Southern Ontario (especially a living Barn Owl) is something to make special note of—it’s not a regular occurrence. Part of the significance of seeing a Barn Owl lies in its relative in-abundance. While individuals identified as Tyto alba enjoy a cosmopolitan reputation, Southern Ontario has been considered the northern range of the species (“Ontario Barn Own Recovery Project,” 2005) and it has been suggested that Barn Owls have always found, say, other places more to their liking. Because of this, the Barn Owl is a special bird in Canada: it is officially endangered, recognized by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) (“Ontario Barn Own Recovery Project,” 2005). It seems as though Barn Owls living in Ontario have had bad luck of late— of the “handful” (“Ontario Barn Own Recovery Project,” 2005 ¶ 4) that have been seen since 1999, two were roadkills (“Ontario Barn Own Recovery Project,” 2005) and no breeding pairs have been “confirmed.” The Barn Owl of February 27th 2006 If you are a serious birder in Ontario, with a computer and internet access, it is likely that you are aware of the electronic mailing list called Ontbirds. Ontbirds is presented by the self-proclaimed provincial birding association, the Ontario Field Ornithologists. The electronic mailing list (or listserv) is meant to be a clearing-house of bird sightings and directions for interested birders: you read about a bird you would like to see, get the directions and off you go on a (perhaps literal) wild goose chase. On average, four to seven sightings are posted daily. As might be expected, more posting occurs on the weekend, and more postings occur seasonally during spring and fall migration. Typical emails follow a standard form: the subject line contains the bird or birds seen and their location while the body of the email contains more specific information about the birds and precise directions to the location they might be found. While thorough, the information shared is, generally speaking, pretty uncontentious stuff. So, it was with interest that a seemingly normal post on February 28th, 2006 took on new dimensions: whispers of deception, accusation of fraud and, more interestingly for my work, questions of what is normal, known and natural all emerged. On February 28th, 2006, a simple posting appeared in mailboxes of subscribers outlining how a photograph had been taken of a Barn Owl and posted on a webbased photography site. A URL was given linking to the photograph. It was noted that the photographer had not reported seeing the bird on the Ontbirds listserv, but that there was a link to the location where the bird was seen. That same day, the moderator of the listserv posted reminding the subscribers that the Barn Owl was considered “endangered” on breeding territory and that there were rules about posting about endangered birds on the listserv; all of the requirements that needed to be met prior to posting were created in order to reduce the likelihood that an observed bird would abandon a nest or breeding attempt. The following day, March 1st, a conversation had begun via the listserv. Another respondent was interested in knowing more details about the sighting and if the bird had been seen again. The next email later that day was from the photographer himself. In the email, he explained that though he did not remember exactly where he saw the bird, he used Google maps to locate the general location and road names. According to his directions, the Barn Owl was seen in Eastern Ontario, in the Ottawa region. As well, he shared the story of finding the owl, taking the photograph and watching the bird fly away from him. The author also stated that his initial reason for going out birding that day was to find Snowy Owls to photograph and that he had no luck in finding those birds that day. On March 2nd, another email arrived from another Ontbirds subscriber. In it, the author began to question the authenticity of the photograph. This email suggested that the owl’s feet have been “doctored,” as though something was removed after the photograph had been taken. The author reminded those reading that the Barn Owl is rare for Ontario and especially so where the photograph was taken—the implication being that the bird is so rare that it most likely didn’t exist. A third email followed on March 2nd in which the author suggests that there is nothing in the photograph that appears unusual or doctored. The author offered another suggestion about the authenticity of the owl. He reminded us that there was a Barn Owl sighting in a different part of Ontario earlier in the winter and attributes the owl’s presence not to digital photographic magic, but to efforts undertaken on the part of humans to help the species recover. Yet, this claim to reality does not seem to be working. Later in the afternoon on March 2nd, a fourth email arrived that supports the initial hypothesis that the photograph has been doctored. The author shared that the bird looks like one he had seen at Parc Omega, a wildlife park in Québec, and provides a URL to a photograph of the Parc Omega Barn Owl. The pull of the network to make the photograph unauthentic, and in turn, the owl, continues to mount. In a fifth email, the author shared the contention that the fencepost the Barn Owl is pictured perching on was specially made for captive birds to land on. The author also suggested that given the lighting of the photograph and kind of weather that was observed on the day that the photograph was supposed to have been taken, the photograph could not be discounted as being genuine. This is where the conversation ends on Ontbirds. At 5:30 pm on March 2nd, the listserv co-ordinator posted a message that states that the current conversation on the photographed Barn Owl is inappropriate. The coordinator reminded readers that Ontbirds is not a discussion list and is for “reporting birds period.” The closing line in the email reminds readers that not following the guidelines could result in the restriction or loss of being able to post to the listerv. This does not mean, however, that the conversation ended. In following the network thread to a website that catalogues rare birds from the Ottawa area, the sighting details for the Barn Owl seen on February 27th is prefaced with the words “LIKELY HOAX.” The page author outlines a litany of evidence that supports his claim that the image has been manipulated. The webpage author concludes his outline with the statement “let the viewer beware.” Enacting birds: reflection on the Barn Owl of February 27th I have spent some time thinking about the birders and the Barn Owl. I have read and reflected on the emails and the allegations. From this, themes have emerged concerning the construction of what is natural as well as insights into the creation of what Donna Haraway (2003) calls "naturecultures." Most importantly, this event, be it framed as authentic bird sighting or elaborate hoax, helps enact and make visible a topology of inter-species ethical relations between those who watch birds and the birds they watch. Networks Ontbirds operates within an established network of relations. People post their sightings to share with other interested birders. The process through which experiences are transcribed from embodied encounters to textual references is seemingly an invisible one. In this case, there were visible deviations from the established network. Within the birding community that posts to Ontbirds, the claim to have "found" a bird is an important one. In posts where the author is reporting a first-sighting and they did not find the bird themselves, the name of the bird finder (skilled, lucky or otherwise, as it is never suggested the kind of effort it took to come across the bird) is included. In this example, the finder did not make a submission to Ontbirds to report a rare bird. Rather, it seems like in this case, the original post came via an on-line gallery created by the finder that had the photograph and birding information on it. While never overtly stated, I believe that the authenticity of the Barn Owl was partially called into question due to the fact that the finder of the bird did not post his sighting to the listserv. Additionally, I find interesting to note that in the finder's one email to the Ontbirds listserv, he did his best to fit into the established network. However, problematic for him, he was not familiar with the area where he took the photograph. Part of the established Ontbirds network is knowing where you observed a bird; the more detailed the description of location and directions, the better. In networks, effort is required to maintain the relationships of the actors. The listserv tends to operate with little of what I would call boundary policing on the part of the co-ordinator. What is particularly interesting about the Barn Owl postings was the need of the Ontbirds co-ordinator to make comments concerning the type and quality of postings over the three day period, all referencing the mail about the Barn Owl. In well-established networks, subtle deviations from the established routine lead to powerful reactions: networks tend to become visible when they are threatened. The questioning of the authenticity seems to be such a reaction. What this suggests for a birding network is the power that lies in the focus on names, dates and details. This hybridity that exists between birders and the electronic mailing list certainly has implications in shaping what is considered normal, known and natural for those who subscribe to the list. Birds are enacted through Ontbirds as realities "out there" to be discovered, recorded and reported. While this is not necessarily that surprising, it does, in turn have an impact on other enactments of birds, especially visible in the multiple objects created. Multiple objects In this case there was an exceeding focus by birders on the rarity of the bird, to the point where I believe that the Barn Owl became a multiple object. Emerging from the field of Science and Technology studies, the idea of multiple objects opens a different way to think about the taken-for-granted: objects are often thought of as rigid and immobile in their existence - a Barn Owl will always be a Barn Owl (for a detailed discussion of multiple objects, see Law, 2004; Mol, 2002). In response to this, a multiple version of the object counters this notion of singularity. In focusing on the fractal nature of "reality" and in attending to difference, I believe that this perspective requires attention be paid to the enactment of objects. Enactment, in this sense, is the claim that "relations, and so realities and representations of realities...are being endlessly or chronically brought into being in a continuing process of production and reproduction, and have no status, standing or reality outside those processes" (Law, 2004, p. 159). Enactment is different than constructivism as it does not "imply convergence to singularity," in opposition to the fixing of objects' identities, "but takes difference and multiplicity to be chronic conditions" (Law, 2004, p. 158). Difference suggests that multiple versions of the same object can exist simultaneouslythis occurs because while objects are enacted in practice, these practices can be different. If the practices are different, then so too must be the objects (Law, 2004). Yet these multiple versions-or multiple objectsare, more often than not, able to cohere together. So, if these coherences shape our reality, then reality: is not in principal fixed or singular, and truth is no longer the only ground for accepting or rejecting a representation. The implication is that there are various possible reasons, including the political, for enacting one kind of reality rather than another, and that these grounds can in some measure be debated. (Law, 2004, p. 162) As such, a focus on the enactment of objects is filled with attention to the many ways that actors, human and otherwise, engage to create a reality: a reality described through investigation, a reality that is not the only one "out there" and a reality that focuses on heterogeneity and difference. In the move to collapse multiple realities into one, a distinctly political move is made, where one reality, one particular enactment of an object gains primacy over the others. In this particular becoming of the Barn Owl, the enactment of rarity overshadowed the other ways the bird was known (see Figure 1). Rather than having to pass judgement on if I think the Barn Owl was properly enacted, I think it is more valuable to examine the ways the bird was enacted. Let me outline the different ways (that I can see): - as a rare bird species (through the Ontbirds coordinator, external web pages and some birders' previous knowledge) - as a biological reality (through the email that suggested the Owl was a result of species rebound and human conservation efforts) - as digital magic (many of the claims to digital alteration of the photograph enacted this Barn Owl) - as an Eastern Ontario Barn Owl (through the initial posting) - as an Québec Barn Owl (through the claims it came from Parc Omega) There have also been subtle and tacit ways that the authenticity has been enacted, framed through the network of discovery, recording and reporting previously described. Through these discourses, the Barn Owl has been enacted as a: - valuable, wild bird - feral bird of ambivalent worth - wildlife park captive and therefore does not count In this multiplicity, the Barn Owl lost value in the eyes of some birders as its authenticity was called into question. What is implicit in this questioning is the understanding that there is some kind of a continuum that reported birds are judged against. It seems that the gold standard of authenticity is one that is wild, rare and (relatively) easy to find. It goes without saying that this perspective is not entirely unproblematic. This, in part, helps explain why there are not any postings to Ontbirds describing a flock of Pigeons seen in a ubiquitous habitat, such as the urbanized core of Anytown, Ontario. A Pigeon simply does not match up to the gold standard of valuable birds. In deciding what gets to "count" in knowledge-making endeavours, and what counts as the gold standard, other birds disappear from what is noticed. In that disappearance, the bird moves to the hinterland. I turn to that next. The hinterland and otherness Hinterland's are an attempt to engage with the act of disappearing. Law puts forward three kinds of Hinterland's: the first, he suggest are "in-here objects" (Law, 2004, p. 55); the second are "visible or relevant out-there contexts" (Law, 2004, p. 55); and the third are "out-there processes, contexts, and all the rest, that are both necessary and necessarily disappear from visibility or relevance" (Law, 2004, p. 55). I would deploy an artistic metaphor of positive space and negative space here: that which is present is the positive space of an image and that which is absent is negative space of an image. It is often difficult to decide if it is the negative or positive space that bounds the image: each side depends on the other such that if one is not there, the known image would disappear. Perhaps, if I expand the metaphor, the hidden absent is that which is not within the frame of the image. Importantly, all that lies outside the frame, while unnecessary in the composition of the image, is only unnecessary because it has been selectively ignored in the composition of the image. Emerging from this perspective on the hinterland is the acknowledgement that a relationship with the unknown, or the other, is necessary; rather than simply ignoring the disappearance, it is an attempt to acknowledge that disappearance is integral to any kind of knowing. Thus, if birding, as an act, continues the "process [of] enacting necessary boundaries between presence, manifest absence and Otherness" (Law, 2004, p. 144), then the various activities taken up in the name of coming to know these organisms are each a distinctly political move, moves that shape and reaffirm (mostly conventional) ways of knowing the nonhuman. For example, the second post in this chain made explicit that the individual Barn Owl was, in fact, part of larger species, Tyto alba and that species was considered to be an endangered one. The term endangered species does just that: focus on species, at the expense of the individual. In this organism's identification as a member of a species, it loses any ability to be something else; what could be has been othered. This act of othering is at times common in birdwatching. It occurs more than once in the Barn Owl discussion: through the questioning about the validity of the sighting, the focus subtly shifts from the sighting to determining the authenticity of the photograph. Again, in this move the individual owl disappears. The Barn Owl was not the only member of the order Aves to be othered in this particular natureculture assemblage. It is also interesting to note that the Snowy Owls, the birds that were the original objective of the outing that produced the Barn Owl, have disappeared. Likely, there were other birds seen during that trip, but for whatever reason (perhaps not rare, not big, not charismatic), they were ignored. For my purposes, I consider this othering problematic, in part, because it does little to acknowledge the lived experiences of nonhuman individuals. The challenge here is that the act of othering, in and of itself, is not inherently wrong. Rather than focusing on what might be out there, I believe that it is important to be able to recognize enactments that are politically aligned with the kind of relationships that ought to exist. So, one needs to develop the skill of attending to what is observably cast to the hinterland and what is brought to the forefront. In a sense, this is what I've attempted to do with my analysis of the Barn Owl narrative and the creation of the enacted set of relations in Figure 1. In creating this particular map of relations, I attempt to move beyond the established frame and re-focus on those multiple enactments that have been cast aside. In so doing, political actions and entrenched positions are more easily visible, while others can re-emerge from obscurity. It is true that there might be other unknowable enactments that exist in the hinterland-but let me suggest that acknowledging that, at best, partial perspectives (Haraway, 1991) are our best version of reality (as a nod to multiplicity does) offers more space for other realities to emerge. Thinking more generally about our dominant cultural relationship with the nonhuman, the promise of attentiveness to the various enactments of animals offer the opportunity to intentionally enact a reality that is more in line with one's own ethics. In asking what practices of birding are good or which practices ought we to be enacting, attention can be turned to current enactments to ask: "Ought they be enacted in this way?" This simple question, paired with the knowledge that there are other enactments hidden, could be enough to continue to question some of our Western culture's taken-forgranted assumptions about what it is to be human and otherwise. References Haraway, D. (1991). Situated knowledges: The science question in feminism and the privilege of partial perspective. In Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: the reinvention of nature (pp. 183-202). Routledge: New York. Haraway, D. (2003). The companion species manifesto: dogs, people, and significant otherness. Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press. Law, J. (2004). After method: mess in social science research. London: Routledge. Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple: ontology in medical practice. Durham: Duke University Press. Ontario Barn Own Recovery Project. (2005, February 7). Retrieved March 4, 2006, from http://www.bsc-eoc.org/regional/barnowl.html

Investment in capacity for implementation of leading practices in regional-level health workforce planning is essential to support equitable distribution of resources and deployment of a health workforce that can meet local needs. Ontario Health Toronto and the Canadian Health Workforce Network (CHWN) co-developed and operationalized an integrated workforce planning process to support evidence-based primary care workforce decision-making for the Toronto region. The resultant planning toolkit incorporates planning processes centred around engagement with stakeholders, including environmental scanning tools and a quantitative planning model. The outputs of the planning process include estimates of population need and workforce capacity and address challenges specific to Toronto, such as patient mobility, anticipated rapid population growth, and physician retirement. We highlight important challenges and key considerations in the development and operationalization of workforce planning processes, particularly at the regional level.

IntroductionGeographic disparities in health indicators, such as premature mortality, may reveal area-level weaknesses in health system performance. Monitoring geographic trends can therefore have powerful implications for system evaluation and planning. However, attempts to understand patterns of population health can be complicated by underlying regional differences in demographics and behaviours. Objectives and ApproachThis study aimed to identify regional disparities in premature mortality (defined as death before age 75), and to investigate how fully these disparities can be explained by population-level characteristics. Ontario’s 76 administrative Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) sub-regions, which vary in geographic and population size, were analyzed using linked population-level data from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences and Cancer Care Ontario. Spatially structured, sex-stratified Bayesian hierarchical models were used to estimate standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) for each LHIN sub-region in the 2011-2015 period. Models were adjusted for key population-level demographic and behavioural risk factors. ResultsLarge disparities in premature mortality presented at the sub-region level in males and females. Low premature mortality clustered around large, urban population centers in Ottawa and Toronto. Premature mortality was comparatively higher throughout the rest of the province, particularly in northern and southeast Ontario. Higher prevalence of material deprivation, overweight and obesity, sedentary behaviour, and smoking were all significantly (α=0.05) associated with elevated premature mortality risk, while increased alcohol consumption and immigrant population were associated with decreased risk. Adjusting for model covariates reduced variance of sub-region SMR estimates by 87% in males and 89% in females. Population-level characteristics thus explain a large proportion of geographic inequality in premature mortality. However, residual spatial variation suggests that systematic regional differences in premature mortality extend beyond population-level traits. Conclusion/Implications This study represents a novel application of small-area analytic techniques to Ontario mortality data, made possible by comprehensive linkage of vital statistics. The findings highlight the importance of population composition to geographic disparities in health. Future work should investigate the influence of system-level factors in areas with elevated premature mortality.

Cannabis production has expanded significantly across southern Ontario with the legalisation of theindustry. Much of this expansion has occurred within the rural countryside, through the utilisation of existinggreenhouse infrastructure. While the growth of this sector provides economic benefits to rural communities, complaints from adjacent residents related to lighting and odour issues are common and mitigation of such issues is complex. Land use planning policies have been established across southern Ontario to manage the development of cannabis greenhouses; however, policies vary by region and countyand the appropriateness of these policies have not been tested. This study seeks to analyse municipalplanning policies that regulate cannabis production and understand the impacts of these policies on sector,adjacent land owners and rural communities. Planning policies will be analysed at the municipal, regional orcounty level, with the creation of a database to highlight consistency and differences between communities. Case studies will be utilised to gain better insights into the challenges and opportunities related to cannabis production and planning mitigation. This presentation will provide a summary of current research findings, including highlights of a municipal scan of zoning by-law policies and informalinsights into policy appeals in southern Ontario.

As cases of COVID-19 began to increase in Ontario, Canada, throughout 2020, early evidence from surveillance and media highlighted disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and mortality among racialized and low-income populations. This disproportionate impact on underserved populations calls for a shift in approach away from what has traditionally occurred in health protection, that is the use of a universal approach which assumes everyone is affected and benefits equally from the same type and intensity of interventions. In this article, public health agencies are, therefore, being called to consider moving away from using a purely universal approach, often used in the control of communicable diseases, and apply a more tailored approach and use principles of health equity and proportionate universalism to reduce COVID-19 cases and their impacts among underserved groups and address health inequities exacerbated by the pandemic. We highlight examples from York Region Public Health, one of the largest health units in Ontario, to demonstrate areas of possible impact of this paradigm shift. It is clear that with a health equity lens applied to the pandemic response, the impact of COVID-19 can be further reduced and health inequities that predated the global pandemic can improve.

In 2019, the New York Olympic Region received the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Communities Certification (gold) for a rural multi-jurisdictional region comprised of Lake Placid Village, North Elba Town, the Olympic Regional Development Authority, and the Lake Placid School System. Much of the work involved in this initiative was executed by 14 undergraduate students and two faculty members from Clarkson University working in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council, and four local jurisdictions. The endeavor was successful and unique in several facets. First, it provided an experiential project-based education in the application of a sustainable holistic planning system, LEED for Communities/Cities. Second, it demonstrates the value of a university collaboration with a rural region and its communities. Third, it developed the first rural regional model for smart community planning that integrated multiple jurisdictions and stakeholders. Finally, it provides a replicable template for implementation and operation by other communities with institutions of higher learning. A variety of challenges remain, however, for emerging sustainable holistic planning systems in metrics development, civic and stakeholder engagement, determination of efficacy, and implementation optimization. Readers will emerge with an improved understanding of sustainable holistic planning systems, knowledge of multi-jurisdictional planning concerns in sustainability metrics, and insight into implementation of these systems as a pedagogical tool and partnership mechanism.

Introduction: Regional environmental risk assessment is a practical approach to understanding and proactively addressing the cumulative effects of resource development in areas of regional importance. However, regional assessment is methodologically complex, and frameworks to identify and prioritize regional risk issues to guide effective management decisions are lacking. This research develops a risk and impacts-based cumulative effects assessment framework for scoping regional cumulative effects issues to guide present and future project and regional assessment. We operationalized the framework dubbed Risk Assessment Framework for Cumulative Effects (RAFCE) to assess the risks and impacts of proposed mining development in the Ring of Fire region of Northern Ontario, Canada.Methods: Methodologically, we built on existing studies to understand the key valued ecosystem components (VECs) impacted by mining; organized an expert Bowtie Risk Assessment Tool workshop and interviews to identify regional risks and define the VECs impacted by mining; and developed an impact prioritization model that helped quantify and prioritize impacts of mining.Results and Discussion: RAFCE enabled us to: a) identify drivers and impacts of cumulative effects and potential preventive and mitigation measures for effective cumulative effects management and b) describe, quantify, and rank the major impact and components of regional interest. Using RAFCE, we can identify and prioritize impacts that are cross-cutting, multisector‐driven, synergistic, and relevant to a region, visualize and understand the risk management process, identify policy and management issues to prevent risks or mitigate impacts, and ultimately inform resource allocation for effective regional cumulative effects assessment outcomes. RAFCE is suitable for engaging diverse stakeholders in planning for regional cumulative effects assessment.

Farmland is an essential resource for the sustainability and security of human food systems. Preserving an agricultural land base is critical, as it is significantly affected by local, national, and global urbanization. This research introduces a case of farmland preservation in southern Ontario. This area contains some of Canada's most finite and productive soils but has an agricultural system facing enormous pressure from urban expansion. This paper reviews the farmland preservation policy framework within Ontario and provides insight into the role of different levels of government in protecting this critical resource. It also provides data at a regional level that provides the basis to evaluate the success of provincial and local policies. By tracking agricultural land conversion through local Official Plan Amendments (OPAs), this study documents farmland loss across southern Ontario between 2000 and 2017. Implemented and approved by local government and designed with public input, municipal Official Plans outline and describe land-use planning policies on how municipalities should use lands to meet community needs and desires. OPAs are formal and legally binding administrative changes to a municipal Official Plan decided through an open public process, which are required to change local land-use designations that conform with the long-term vision for growth and physical development. These OPAs may include the conversion of farmlands for non-farm uses (or, in contrast, the protection of agricultural lands). Over time, they will reveal the loss of farmlands in each community for different uses (and reflect changing priorities). Using OPAs to track the conversion of prime agricultural land is an innovative and rigorous methodological contribution, given the lack of data documenting long-term changes to the availability of agricultural lands and the impacts of urbanization on farmland conversion. Measuring farmland loss with this approach can be transferred and applied to contexts where municipalities are the entities responsible for agricultural land-use planning, outside of Ontario and beyond. Data from 36 counties/regions shows that the provincial policies and local planning framework have worked in tandem to affect the agricultural land base in southern Ontario significantly. In Central Ontario, the most urbanized area of Canada, the Province's Greenbelt Plan has significantly reduced the rates of farmland loss since 2005, while the Growth Plan and other policies contributed to enhanced municipal control over agricultural land conversion. Specifically, the Inner Ring municipalities have played increasingly active roles in agricultural land protection with both planning approaches and local initiatives. Outer Ring municipalities have seen increasing urbanization pressure. Data on farmland loss for non-agricultural use showed large-scale municipal-led urban boundary expansions and small-scale individual applications on policy changes. In Western Ontario, over the past two decades, there has been no obvious upward or downward trend of farmland loss. Most of the farmland conversion cases in this region were small-scale applications to create small lots on existing agricultural land to allow non-agricultural uses such as commercial, recreational, residential, and agricultural-related facilities. Since 2000, Southeastern Ontario, which has the smallest provincial share of prime agricultural land, has experienced limited farmland loss, consisting primarily of small-scale, individual applications on land-use re-designations (partially reflecting reduced acreages of prime agricultural land). The provincial policy impact on farmland preservation is not as evident in this region. The findings and methodology of this study contribute to the groundwork on farmland availability and land-use planning policy development and research by providing a baseline enumeration of farmland availability and the effect of farmland protection policies at provincial and municipal levels within Ontario's land use planning regime.

IntroductionThe impact of the built environment on health and chronic disease outcomes is increasingly being recognized. As Public Health develops interventions to transform the health-promoting potential of built environments, effective monitoring and evaluation will require the creation and baseline measurement of key health-promoting urban elements. Objectives and ApproachThe Healthy Development Monitoring Project aims to assess health-promoting aspects of the existing built environment across the Region of Peel, a large region of 1.382 million people in Southern Ontario comprised of three local municipalities (the Cities of Mississauga, Brampton and Town of Caledon). Project objectives include: Produce evidence-informed indicators to measure health-promoting built form elements at a neighbourhood-scale across the region Produce a GIS-based visualization that incorporates these indicators into a single model to measure their combined impact on the built form Reproduce these indicators over time to monitor for changes in Peel’s built form ResultsThe resulting Healthy Development Monitoring Map (HDMM) is an interactive online mapping tool that includes twenty built form indicators characterizing the region’s built environment, including: density, service proximity, land use mix, street connectivity, streetscape characteristics and efficient parking. These indicators were created through extensive cross-sectoral collaboration with regional and municipal staff in land-use and policy planning, transportation, internal data centers and academic institutions. This collaborative approach enabled the linking of data sets from land-use planning, urban design and transportation to allow the health-promoting potential of existing built environment conditions to be objectively described. The HDMM demonstrates considerable progress in producing precise, neighbourhood-level built environment indicators at a regional scale by integrating census and local data into a comprehensive set of empirically-derived measures. Conclusion/ImplicationsThe HDMM is a novel approach to quantifying a social determinant of health through collaborative data acquisition and analysis. The HDMM benefits public health, planning and non-governmental decision-makers by creating a holistic presentation of key infrastructure and design elements that contribute to healthier urban environments.

ObjectiveThe James and Hudson Bay Region, consisting of six remote Indigenous communities, have experienced barriers accessing regional health data. To inform local health planning, the Minomathasowin Healthy Living department in the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA), ICES and Laurentian University developed a Collaboration, to co-create enhanced Indigenous data stewardship. ApproachThe Collaboration combines expertise in Indigenous knowledge with quantitative and qualitative analyses to develop relevant data intended for public dissemination. Through a community-driven and strength-based approach, local knowledge guides the direction of the research. Indigenous data governance principles are applied, supporting local data ownership, and supplementing local knowledge on population health issues. This ensures the development of research projects that have meaningful impacts. The Collaboration is part of a larger partnership and is continually engaging local Indigenous stakeholders. Protocols ensure research is done in a manner that respects and reflects community well-being and is undertaken in a good way. ResultsThe Collaboration is an ongoing, living initiative and has enabled WAHA to become a local hub for Indigenous stakeholders to obtain health data for their respective communities. It adheres to the importance of following protocols within Indigenous communities, acknowledging qualitative research activities can be undertaken at the community-level. Projects from this Collaboration identify and prioritize the most pressing health issues impacting the Region including mental health and addictions, COVID-19 surveillance, hospitalization trends, and the prevalence of lupus. The success of the Collaboration is demonstrated through increased requests from the Region to WAHA for support on health planning and decision-making. Data access barriers in the Region are being addressed through the combined expertise of the Collaboration and local knowledge. This approach is enhancing Indigenous data stewardship. ConclusionsThe Collaboration advocates for Indigenous-led and -driven research that recognizes the value of combining local knowledge with quantitative and qualitative data analyses to put communities first. The Collaboration supports equitable data access and the development of relevant research projects. This is leading to sustainable, impactful health planning for the Region.

We describe the development and implementation of an operational human-caused wildland fire occurrence prediction (FOP) system in the Province of Ontario, Canada. A suite of supervised statistical learning models was developed using more than 50 years of high-resolution data over a 73.8 million hectare study area, partitioned into Ontario’s Northwest and Northeast Fire Management Regions. A stratified modelling approach accounts for different seasonal baselines regionally and for a set of communities in the far north. Response-dependent sampling and modelling techniques using logistic Generalized Additive Models are used to develop a fine-scale, spatio-temporal FOP system with models that include non-linear relationships with key predictors. These predictors include inter and intra-annual temporal trends, spatial trends, ecological variables, fuel moisture measures, human land use characteristics and a novel measure of human activity. The system produces fine-scale, spatially explicit maps of daily probabilistic human-caused FOP based on locally observed conditions along with point and interval predictions for the expected number of fires in each region. A simulation-based approach for generating the prediction intervals is described. Daily predictions were made available to fire management practitioners through a custom dashboard and integrated into daily regional planning to support detection and fire suppression preparedness needs.

Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic is a major public health problem. Subsequently, emergency medical services (EMS) have anecdotally experienced fluctuations in demand, with reports across Canada of both increased and decreased demand. Our primary objective was to assess the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on call volumes for several determinants in Niagara Region EMS. Our secondary objective was to assess changes in paramedic-assigned patient acuity scores as determined using the Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale (CTAS). Methods We analyzed data from a regional EMS database related to call type, volume, and patient acuity for January to May 2016–2020. We used statistical methods to assess differences in EMS calls between 2016 and 2019 and 2020. Results A total of 114,507 EMS calls were made for the period of January 1 to May 26 between 2016 and 2020, inclusive. Overall, the incidence rate of EMS calls significantly decreased in 2020 compared to the total EMS calls in 2016–2019. Motor vehicle collisions decreased in 2020 relative to 2016–2019 (17%), while overdoses relatively increased (70%) in 2020 compared to 2016–2019. Calls for patients assigned a higher acuity score increased (CTAS 1) (4.1% vs. 2.9%). Conclusion We confirmed that overall, EMS calls have decreased since the emergence of COVID-19. However, this effect on call volume was not consistent across all call determinants, as some call types rose while others decreased. These findings indicate that COVID-19 may have led to actual changes in emergency medical service demand and will be of interest to other services planning for future pandemics or further waves of COVID-19.

Over the past decades, there has been a rapid expansion in the number of Food Policy Groups (FPG) (including food policy councils, strategies, networks, and informal alliances) operating at municipal and regional levels across North America. FPGs are typically established with the intent of bringing together food systems stakeholders across private (e.g., small businesses, industry associations), public (e.g., government, public health, postsecondary institutions), and community (e.g., non-profits and charitable organizations) sectors to develop participatory governance mechanisms. Recognizing that food systems challenges are too often addressed in isolation, FPGs aim to instill integrated approaches to food related policy, programs, and planning. Despite growing interest, there is little quantitative or mixed methods research about the relationships that constitute FPGs or the degree to which they achieve cross-sectoral integration. Turning to Social Network Analysis (SNA) as an approach for understanding networked organizational relationships, we explore how SNA might contribute to a better understanding of FPGs. This paper presents results from a study of the Thunder Bay and Area Food Strategy (TBAFS), a FPG established in 2007 when an informal network of diverse organizations came together around shared goals of ensuring that municipal policy and governance supported healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems in the Thunder Bay region in Ontario, Canada. Drawing on data from a survey of TBAFS organizational members, we suggest that SNA can improve our understanding of the networks formed by FPGs and enhance their goals of cross-sectoral integration.

Understanding impacts of climate change on water level fluctuations across Earth's large lakes has critical implications for commercial and recreational boating and navigation, coastal planning, and ecological function and management. A common approach to advancing this understanding is the propagation of climate change scenarios (often from global circulation models) through regional hydrological models. We find, however, that this approach does not always fully capture water supply spatiotemporal features evolving from complex relationships between hydrologic variables. Here, we present a statistical approach for projecting plausible climate-related regional water supply scenarios into localized net basin supply sequences utilizing a parametric vine copula. This approach preserves spatial and temporal correlations between hydrologic components and allows for explicit representation and manipulation of component marginal and conditional probability distributions. We demonstrate the capabilities of our new modeling framework on the Laurentian Great Lakes by coupling our copula-derived net basin supply simulations with a newly-formulated monthly lake-to-lake routing model. This coupled system projects monthly average water levels on Lake Superior, Michigan-Huron, and Erie (we omit Lake Ontario from our study due to complications associated with simulating strict regulatory controls on its outflow). We find that our new method faithfully replicates marginal and conditional probability distributions, as well as serial autocorrelation, within and among historical net basin supply sequences. We find that our new method also reproduces seasonal and interannual water level dynamics. Using readily-available climate change simulations for the Great Lakes region, we then identified two plausible, transient, water supply scenarios and propagated them through our model to understand potential impacts on future water levels. Both scenarios result in an average water level increase of &lt;10 cm on Lake Superior and Erie, with slightly larger increases on Michigan-Huron, as well as elevated variability of monthly water levels and a shift in seasonal water level modality. Our study contributes new insights into plausible impacts of future climate change on Great Lakes water levels, and supports the application and advancement of statistical modeling tools to forecast water supplies and water levels on not just the Great Lakes, but on other large lakes around the world as well.

ObjectivesTo gain an understanding of the attribution of patients to newly introduced Ontario Health Teams (OHT). OHTs are responsible for organizing and delivering health local care based on established connections between patients, their primary care providers, and hospitals. Furthermore, we aim to identify areas with poor geographic access to care. ApproachWe used GIS analyses and maps to depict the attribution of patients to OHTs based on their uptake of primary care and hospital referral patterns. Residents of a specific local area can be attributed to different OHTs based on their prevailing health seeking choices. This leads to a creation of non-unique OHT ‘capture zones’, which may pose challenges in primary health care planning and delivery. The range of spatial analyses and maps used in this study helps to overcome some of these limitations and provides healthcare administrators with important geographic layer of information not available through other data summary methods. ResultsThe distribution of patients and patterns of the primary care seeking vary greatly between urban, rural and remote areas. Many of the rural and remote OHTs have their patients clustered in areas surrounding the main hospital. These areas can be quite large geographically but their extents are still unique from other OHTs. OHTs in urban areas show substantial overlaps of their patient base. The urban patients are in most cases highly clustered around the main hospital location for hospitals providing primary and secondary care. The distribution of patients attributed to OHTs with hospitals providing tertiary care is quite spread out throughout the region or even the province. All these unique patterns reflect complex ways of primary care seeking behavior and referral patterns for hospital care. ConclusionThese attribution maps and data tables are an essential resource for planners and decisions makers in identifying priorities within the regional provision of primary care. This knowledge is essential to a better understanding of health care needs of local populations, and to implementing improvements in health care access.

Introduction The academic area known as food studies—incorporating elements from disciplines including anthropology, folklore, history, sociology, gastronomy, and cultural studies as well as a range of multi-disciplinary approaches—asserts that cooking and eating practices are less a matter of nutrition (maintaining life by absorbing nutrients from food) and more a personal or group expression of various social and/or cultural actions, values or positions. The French philosopher, Michel de Certeau agrees, arguing, moreover, that there is an urgency to name and unpick (what he identifies as) the “minor” practices, the “multifarious and silent reserve of procedures” of everyday life. Such practices are of crucial importance to all of us, as although seemingly ordinary, and even banal, they have the ability to “organise” our lives (48). Within such a context, the following aims to consider the influence and significance of an important (although largely unstudied) professional figure in rural and regional economic life: the country food preparer variously known as the local chef or cook. Such an approach is obviously framed by the concept of “cultural economy”. This term recognises the convergence, and interdependence, of the spheres of the cultural and the economic (see Scott 335, for an influential discussion on how “the cultural geography of space and the economic geography of production are intertwined”). Utilising this concept in relation to chefs and cooks seeks to highlight how the ways these figures organise (to use de Certeau’s term) the social and cultural lives of those in their communities are embedded in economic practices and also how, in turn, their economic contributions are dependent upon social and cultural practices. This initial mapping of the influence and significance of the rural and regional chef in one rural and regional area, therefore, although necessarily different in approach and content, continues the application of such converged conceptualisations of the cultural and economic as Teema Tairu’s discussion of the social, recreational and spiritual importance of food preparation and consumption by the unemployed in Finland, Guy Redden’s exploration of how supermarket products reflect shared values, and a series of analyses of the cultural significance of individual food products, such as Richard White’s study of vegemite. While Australians, both urban and rural, currently enjoy access to an internationally renowned food culture, it is remarkable to consider that it has only been during the years following the Second World War that these sophisticated and now much emulated ways of eating and cooking have developed. It is, indeed, only during the last half century that Australian eating habits have shifted from largely Anglo-Saxon influenced foods and meals that were prepared and eaten in the home, to the consumption of a wider range of more international and sophisticated foods and meals that are, increasingly, prepared by others and eaten outside the consumer’s residence. While a range of commonly cited influences has prompted this relatively recent revolution in culinary practice—including post-war migration, increasing levels of prosperity, widespread international travel, and the forces of globalisation—some of this change owes a debt to a series of influential individual figures. These tastemakers have included food writers and celebrity chefs; with early exponents including Margaret Fulton, Graham Kerr and Charmaine Solomon (see Brien). The findings of this study suggests that many restaurant chefs, and other cooks, have similarly played, and continue to take, a key role in the lives of not only the, necessarily, limited numbers of individuals who dine in a particular eatery or the other chefs and/or cooks trained in that establishment (Ruhlman, Reach), but also the communities in which they work on a much broader scale. Considering Chefs In his groundbreaking study, A History of Cooks and Cooking, Australian food historian Michael Symons proposes that those who prepare food are worthy of serious consideration because “if ‘we are what we eat’, cooks have not just made our meals, but have also made us. They have shaped our social networks, our technologies, arts and religions” (xi). Writing that cooks “deserve to have their stories told often and well,” and that, moreover, there is a “need to invent ways to think about them, and to revise our views about ourselves in their light” (xi), Symons’s is a clarion call to investigate the role and influence of cooks. Charles-Allen Baker-Clark has explicitly begun to address this lacunae in his Profiles from the Kitchen: What Great Cooks Have Taught Us About Ourselves and Our Food (2006), positing not only how these figures have shaped our relationships with food and eating, but also how these relationships impact on identities, culture and a range of social issues including those of social justice, spirituality and environmental sustainability. With the growing public interest in celebrities, it is perhaps not surprising that, while such research on chefs and/or cooks is still in its infancy, most of the existing detailed studies on individuals focus on famed international figures such as Marie-Antoine Carême (Bernier; Kelly), Escoffier (James; Rachleff; Sanger), and Alexis Soyer (Brandon; Morris; Ray). Despite an increasing number of tabloid “tell-all” surveys of contemporary celebrity chefs, which are largely based on mass media sources and which display little concern for historical or biographical accuracy (Bowyer; Hildred and Ewbank; Simpson; Smith), there have been to date only a handful of “serious” researched biographies of contemporary international chefs such as Julia Child, Alice Waters (Reardon; Riley), and Bernard Loiseux (Chelminski)—the last perhaps precipitated by an increased interest in this chef following his suicide after his restaurant lost one of its Michelin stars. Despite a handful of collective biographical studies of Australian chefs from the later-1980s on (Jenkins; O’Donnell and Knox; Brien), there are even fewer sustained biographical studies of Australian chefs or cooks (Clifford-Smith’s 2004 study of “the supermarket chef,” Bernard King, is a notable exception). Throughout such investigations, as well as in other popular food writing in magazines and cookbooks, there is some recognition that influential chefs and cooks have worked, and continue to work, outside such renowned urban culinary centres as Paris, London, New York, and Sydney. The Michelin starred restaurants of rural France, the so-called “gastropubs” of rural Britain and the advent of the “star-chef”-led country bed and breakfast establishment in Australia and New Zealand, together with the proliferation of farmer’s markets and a public desire to consume locally sourced, and ecologically sustainable, produce (Nabhan), has focused fresh attention on what could be called “the rural/regional chef”. However, despite the above, little attention has focused on the Australian non-urban chef/cook outside of the pages of a small number of key food writing magazines such as Australian Gourmet Traveller and Vogue Entertaining + Travel. Setting the Scene with an Australian Country Example: Armidale and Guyra In 2004, the Armidale-Dumaresq Council (of the New England region, New South Wales, Australia) adopted the slogan “Foodies thrive in Armidale” to market its main city for the next three years. With a population of some 20,000, Armidale’s main industry (in economic terms) is actually education and related services, but the latest Tourist Information Centre’s Dining Out in Armidale (c. 2006) brochure lists some 25 restaurants, 9 bistros and brasseries, 19 cafés and 5 fast food outlets featuring Australian, French, Italian, Mediterranean, Chinese, Thai, Indian and “international” cuisines. The local Yellow Pages telephone listings swell the estimation of the total number of food-providing businesses in the city to 60. Alongside the range of cuisines cited above, a large number of these eateries foreground the use of fresh, local foods with such phrases as “local and regional produce,” “fresh locally grown produce,” “the finest New England ingredients” and locally sourced “New England steaks, lamb and fresh seafood” repeatedly utilised in advertising and other promotional material. Some thirty kilometres to the north along the New England highway, the country town of Guyra, proclaimed a town in 1885, is the administrative and retail centre for a shire of some 2,200 people. Situated at 1,325 metres above sea level, the town is one of the highest in Australia with its main industries those of fine wool and lamb, beef cattle, potatoes and tomatoes. Until 1996, Guyra had been home to a large regional abattoir that employed some 400 staff at the height of its productivity, but rationalisation of the meat processing industry closed the facility, together with its associated pet food processor, causing a downturn in employment, local retail business, and real estate values. Since 2004, Guyra’s economy has, however, begun to recover after the town was identified by the Costa Group as the perfect site for glasshouse grown tomatoes. Perfect, due to its rare combination of cool summers (with an average of less than two days per year with temperatures over 30 degrees celsius), high winter light levels and proximity to transport routes. The result: 3.3 million kilograms of truss, vine harvested, hydroponic “Top of the Range” tomatoes currently produced per annum, all year round, in Guyra’s 5-hectare glasshouse: Australia’s largest, opened in December 2005. What residents (of whom I am one) call the “tomato-led recovery” has generated some 60 new local jobs directly related to the business, and significant flow on effects in terms of the demand for local services and retail business. This has led to substantial rates of renovation and building of new residential and retail properties, and a noticeably higher level of trade flowing into the town. Guyra’s main street retail sector is currently burgeoning and stories of its renewal have appeared in the national press. Unlike many similar sized inland towns, there are only a handful of empty shops (and most of these are in the process of being renovated), and new commercial premises have recently been constructed and opened for business. Although a small town, even in Australian country town terms, Guyra now has 10 restaurants, hotel bistros and cafés. A number of these feature local foods, with one pub’s bistro regularly featuring the trout that is farmed just kilometres away. Assessing the Contribution of Local Chefs and Cooks In mid-2007, a pilot survey to begin to explore the contribution of the regional chef in these two close, but quite distinct, rural and regional areas was sent to the chefs/cooks of the 70 food-serving businesses in Armidale and Guyra that I could identify. Taking into account the 6 returns that revealed a business had closed, moved or changed its name, the 42 replies received represented a response rate of 65.5per cent (or two thirds), representatively spread across the two towns. Answers indicated that the businesses comprised 18 restaurants, 13 cafés, 6 bistro/brasseries, 1 roadhouse, 1 takeaway/fast food and 3 bed and breakfast establishments. These businesses employed 394 staff, of whom 102 were chefs and/cooks, or 25.9 per cent of the total number of staff then employed by these establishments. In answer to a series of questions designed to ascertain the roles played by these chefs/cooks in their local communities, as well as more widely, I found a wide range of inputs. These chefs had, for instance, made a considerable contribution to their local economies in the area of fostering local jobs and a work culture: 40 (95 per cent) had worked with/for another local business including but not exclusively food businesses; 30 (71.4 per cent) had provided work experience opportunities for those aspiring to work in the culinary field; and 22 (more than half) had provided at least one apprenticeship position. A large number had brought outside expertise and knowledge with them to these local areas, with 29 (69 per cent) having worked in another food business outside Armidale or Guyra. In terms of community building and sustainability, 10 (or almost a quarter) had assisted or advised the local Council; 20 (or almost half) had worked with local school children in a food-related way; 28 (two thirds) had helped at least one charity or other local fundraising group. An extra 7 (bringing the cumulative total to 83.3 per cent) specifically mentioned that they had worked with/for the local gallery, museum and/or local history group. 23 (more than half) had been involved with and/or contributed to a local festival. The question of whether they had “contributed anything else important, helpful or interesting to the community” elicited the following responses: writing a food or wine column for the local paper (3 respondents), delivering TAFE teacher workshops (2 respondents), holding food demonstrations for Rotary and Lions Clubs and school fetes (5 respondents), informing the public about healthy food (3 respondents), educating the public about environmental issues (2 respondents) and working regularly with Meals on Wheels or a similar organisation (6 respondents, or 14.3 per cent). One respondent added his/her work as a volunteer driver for the local ambulance transport service, the only non-food related response to this question. Interestingly, in line with the activity of well-known celebrity chefs, in addition to the 3 chefs/cooks who had written a food or wine column for the local newspaper, 11 respondents (more than a quarter of the sample) had written or contributed to a cookbook or recipe collection. One of these chefs/cooks, moreover, reported that he/she produced a weblog that was “widely read”, and also contributed to international food-related weblogs and websites. In turn, the responses indicated that the (local) communities—including their governing bodies—also offer some support of these chefs and cooks. Many respondents reported they had been featured in, or interviewed and/or photographed for, a range of media. This media comprised the following: the local newspapers (22 respondents, 52.4 per cent), local radio stations (19 respondents, 45.2 per cent), regional television stations (11 respondents, 26.2 per cent) and local websites (8 respondents, 19 per cent). A number had also attracted other media exposure. This was in the local, regional area, especially through local Council publications (31 respondents, 75 per cent), as well as state-wide (2 respondents, 4.8 per cent) and nationally (6 respondents, 14.3 per cent). Two of these local chefs/cooks (or 4.8 per cent) had attracted international media coverage of their activities. It is clear from the above that, in the small area surveyed, rural and regional chefs/cooks make a considerable contribution to their local communities, with all the chefs/cooks who replied making some, and a number a major, contribution to those communities, well beyond the requirements of their paid positions in the field of food preparation and service. The responses tendered indicate that these chefs and cooks contributed regularly to local public events, institutions and charities (with a high rate of contribution to local festivals, school programs and local charitable activities), and were also making an input into public education programs, local cultural institutions, political and social debates of local importance, as well as the profitability of other local businesses. They were also actively supporting not only the future of the food industry as a whole, but also the viability of their local communities, by providing work experience opportunities and taking on local apprentices for training and mentorship. Much more than merely food providers, as a group, these chefs and cooks were, it appears, also operating as food historians, public intellectuals, teachers, activists and environmentalists. They were, moreover, operating as content producers for local media while, at the same time, acting as media producers and publishers. Conclusion The terms “chef” and “cook” can be diversely defined. All definitions, however, commonly involve a sense of professionalism in food preparation reflecting some specialist knowledge and skill in the culinary arts, as well as various levels of creativity, experience and responsibility. In terms of the specific duties that chefs and professional cooks undertake every day, almost all publications on the subject deal specifically with workplace related activities such as food and other supply ordering, staff management, menu planning and food preparation and serving. This is constant across culinary textbooks (see, for instance, Culinary Institute of America 2002) and more discursive narratives about the professional chef such as the bestselling autobiographical musings of Anthony Bourdain, and Michael Ruhlman’s journalistic/biographical investigations of US chefs (Soul; Reach). An alternative preliminary examination, and categorisation, of the roles these professionals play outside their kitchens reveals, however, a much wider range of community based activities and inputs than such texts suggest. It is without doubt that the chefs and cooks who responded to the survey discussed above have made, and are making, a considerable contribution to their local New England communities. It is also without doubt that these contributions are of considerable value, and valued by, those country communities. Further research will have to consider to what extent these contributions, and the significance and influence of these chefs and cooks in those communities are mirrored, or not, by other country (as well as urban) chefs and cooks, and their communities. Acknowledgements An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Engaging Histories: Australian Historical Association Regional Conference, at the University of New England, September 2007. I would like to thank the session’s participants for their insightful comments on that presentation. A sincere thank you, too, to the reviewers of this article, whose suggestions assisted my thinking on this piece. Research to complete this article was carried out whilst a Visiting Fellow with the Research School of Humanities, the Australian National University. References Armidale Tourist Information Centre. Dining Out in Armidale [brochure]. Armidale: Armidale-Dumaresq Council, c. 2006. Baker-Clark, C. A. 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Redden, G. “Packaging the Gifts of Nation.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999) accessed 10 September 2008 http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/gifts.php. Riley, N. Appetite For Life: The Biography of Julia Child. New York: Doubleday, 1977. Ruhlman, M. The Soul of a Chef. New York: Viking, 2001. Ruhlman, M. The Reach of a Chef. New York: Viking, 2006. Sanger, M. B. Escoffier: Master Chef. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1976. Scott, A. J. “The Cultural Economy of Cities.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 212 (1997) 323–39. Simpson, N. Gordon Ramsay: The Biography. London: John Blake, 2006. Smith, G. Nigella Lawson: A Biography. London: Andre Deutsch, 2005. Symons, M. A History of Cooks and Cooking. Urbana and Chicago: U of Illinois P, 2004. Tairu, T. “Material Food, Spiritual Quest: When Pleasure Does Not Follow Purchase.” M/C: A Journal of Media and Culture 2.7 (1999) accessed 10 September 2008 http://www.uq.edu.au/mc/9910/pleasure.php. White, R. 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Introduction The counterculture that arose during the 1960s and 1970s left lasting social and political reverberations in developed nations. This was a time of increasing affluence and liberalisation which opened up remarkable political opportunities for social change. Within this context, an array of new social movements were a vital ingredient of the ferment that saw existing norms challenged and the establishment of new rights for many oppressed groups. An expanding arena of concerns included the environmental damage caused by 200 years of industrial capitalism. This article examines one aspect of a current environment movement in Australia, the anti-Coal Seam Gas (CSG) movement, and the part played by participants. In particular, the focus is upon one action that emerged during the recent Bentley Blockade, which was a regional mobilisation against proposed unconventional gas mining (UGM) near Lismore, NSW. Over the course of the blockade, the conventional ritual of waving at passers-by was transformed into a mechanism for garnering broad community support. Arguably, this was a crucial factor in the eventual outcome. In this case, we contend that the wave, rather than a countercultural artefact being appropriated by the mainstream, represents an everyday behaviour that builds social solidarity, which is subverted to become an effective part of the repertoire of the movement. At a more general level, this article examines how counterculture and mainstream interact via the subversion of “ordinary” citizens and the role of certain cultural understandings for that purpose. We will begin by examining the nature of the counterculture and its relationship to social movements before discussing the character of the anti-CSG movement in general and the Bentley Blockade in particular, using the personal experience of one of the writers. We will then be able to explore our thesis in detail and make some concluding remarks. The Counterculture and Social Movements In this article, we follow Cox’s understanding of the counterculture as a kind of meta-movement within which specific social movements are situated. For Cox (105), the counterculture that flourished during the 1960s and 1970s was an overarching movement in which existing social relations—in particular the family—were rejected by a younger generation, who succeeded in effectively fusing previously separate political and cultural spheres of dissent into one. Cox (103-04) points out that the precondition for such a phenomenon is “free space”—conditions under which counter-hegemonic activity can occur—for example, being liberated from the constraints of working to subsist, something which the unprecedented prosperity of the post WWII years allowed. Hence, in the 1960s and 1970s, as the counterculture emerged, a wave of activism arose in the western world which later came to be referred to as new social movements. These included the civil rights movement, women’s liberation, pacifism and the anti-nuclear and environment movements. The new movements rejected established power and organisational structures and tended, some scholars argued, to cross class lines, basing their claims on non-material issues. Della Porta and Diani claim this wave of movements is characterised by: a critical ideology in relation to modernism and progress; decentralized and participatory organizational structures; defense of interpersonal solidarity against the great bureaucracies; and the reclamation of autonomous spaces, rather than material advantages. (9) This depiction clearly announces the countercultural nature of the new social movements. As Carter (91) avers, these movements attempted to bypass the state and instead mobilise civil society, employing a range of innovative tactics and strategies—the repertoire of action—which may involve breaking laws. It should be noted that over time, some of these movements did shift towards accommodation of existing power structures and became more reformist in nature, to the point of forming political parties in the case of the Greens. However, inasmuch as the counterculture represented a merging of distinctively non-mainstream ways of life with the practice of actively challenging social arrangements at a political level (Cox 18–19; Grossberg 15–18;), the tactic of mobilising civil society to join social movements demonstrates in fact a reverse direction: large numbers of people are transfigured in radical ways by their involvement in social movements. One important principle underlying much of the repertoire of action of these new movements was non-violence. Again, this signals countercultural norms of the period. As Sharp (583–86) wrote at the time, non-violence is crucial in that it denies the aggressor their rationale for violent repression. This principle is founded on the liberal notion, whose legacy goes back to Locke, that the legitimacy of the government rests upon the consent of the governed—that is, the people can withdraw their consent (Locke in Ball & Dagger 92). Ghandi also relied upon this idea when formulating his non-violent approach to conflict, satyagraha (Sharp 83–84). Thus an idea that upholds the modern state is adopted by the counterculture in order to undermine it (the state), again demonstrating an instance of counterflow from the mainstream. Non-violence does not mean non-resistance. In fact, it usually involves non-compliance with a government or other authority and when practised in large numbers, can be very effective, as Ghandi and those in the civil rights movement showed. The result will be either that the government enters into negotiation with the protestors, or they can engage in violence to suppress them, which generally alienates the wider population, leading to a loss of support (Finley & Soifer 104–105). Tarrow (88) makes the important point that the less threatening an action, the harder it is to repress. As a result, democratic states have generally modified their response towards the “strategic weapon of nonviolent protest and even moved towards accommodation and recognition of this tactic as legitimate” (Tarrow 172). Nevertheless, the potential for state violence remains, and the freedom to protest is proscribed by various laws. One of the key figures to emerge from the new social movements that formed an integral part of the counterculture was Bill Moyer, who, in conjunction with colleagues produced a seminal text for theorising and organising social movements (Moyer et al.). Many contemporary social movements have been significantly influenced by Moyer’s Movement Action Plan (MAP), which describes not only key theoretical concepts but is also a practical guide to movement building and achieving aims. Moyer’s model was utilised in training the Northern Rivers community in the anti-CSG movement in conjunction with the non-violent direct action (NVDA) model developed by the North-East Forest Alliance (NEFA) that resisted logging in the forests of north-eastern NSW during the late 1980s and 1990s (Ricketts 138–40). Indeed, the Northern Rivers region of NSW—dubbed the Rainbow Region—is celebrated, as a “‘meeting place’ of countercultures and for the articulation of social and environmental ideals that challenge mainstream practice” (Ward and van Vuuren 63). As Bible (6–7) outlines, the Northern Rivers’ place in countercultural history is cemented by the holding of the Aquarius Festival in Nimbin in 1973 and the consequent decision of many attendees to stay on and settle in the region. They formed new kinds of communities based on an alternative ethics that eschewed a consumerist, individualist agenda in favour of modes of existence that emphasised living in harmony with the environment. The Terania Creek campaign of the late 1970s made the region famous for its environmental activism, when the new settlers resisted the logging of Nightcap National Park using nonviolent methods (Bible 5). It was also instrumental in developing an array of ingenious actions that were used in subsequent campaigns such as the Franklin Dam blockade in Tasmania in the early 1980s (Kelly 116). Indeed, many of these earlier activists were key figures in the anti-CSG movement that has developed in the Rainbow Region over the last few years. The Anti-CSG Movement Despite opposition to other forms of UGM, such as tight sands and shale oil extraction techniques, the term anti-CSG is used here, as it still seems to attract wide recognition. Unconventional gas extraction usually involves a process called fracking, which is the injection at high pressure of water, sand and a number of highly toxic chemicals underground to release the gas that is trapped in rock formations. Among the risks attributed to fracking are contamination of aquifers, air pollution from fugitive emissions and exposure to radioactive particles with resultant threats to human and animal health, as well as an increased risk of earthquakes (Ellsworth; Hand 13; Sovacool 254–260). Additionally, the vast amount of water that is extracted in the fracking process is saline and may contain residues of the fracking chemicals, heavy metals and radioactive matter. This produced water must either be stored or treated (Howarth 273–73; Sovacool 255). Further, there is potential for accidents and incidents and there are many reports—particularly in the United States where the practice is well established—of adverse events such as compressors exploding, leaks and spills, and water from taps catching fire (Sovacool 255–257). Despite an abundance of anecdotal evidence, until recently authorities and academics believed there was not enough “rigorous evidence” to make a definitive judgment of harm to animal and human health as a result of fracking (Mitka 2135). For example, in Australia, the Queensland Government was unable to find a clear link between fracking and health complaints in the Tara gasfield (Thompson 56), even though it is known that there are fugitive emissions from these gasfields (Tait et al. 3099-103). It is within this context that grassroots opposition to UGM began in Australia. The largest and most sustained challenge has come from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales, where a company called Metgasco has been attempting to engage in UGM for a number of years. Stiff community opposition has developed over this time, with activists training, co-ordinating and organising using the principles of Moyer’s MAP and NEFA’s NVDA. Numerous community and affinity groups opposing UGM sprang up including the Lock the Gate Alliance (LTG), a grassroots organisation opposing coal and gas mining, which formed in 2010 (Lock the Gate Alliance online). The movement put up sustained resistance to Metgasco’s attempts to establish wells at Glenugie, near Grafton and Doubtful Creek, near Kyogle in 2012 and 2013, despite the use of a substantial police presence at both locations. In the event, neither site was used for production despite exploratory wells being sunk (ABC News; Dobney). Metgasco announced it would be withdrawing its operations following new Federal and State government regulations at the time of the Doubtful Creek blockade. However it returned to the fray with a formal announcement in February 2014 (Metgasco), that it would drill at Bentley, 12 kilometres west of Lismore. It was widely believed this would occur with a view to production on an industrial scale should initial exploration prove fruitful. The Bentley Blockade It was known well before the formal announcement that Metgasco planned to drill at Bentley and community actions such as flash mobs, media releases and planning meetings were part of the build-up to direct action at the site. One of the authors of this article was actively involved in the movement and participated in a variety of these actions. By the end of January 2014 it was decided to hold an ongoing vigil at the site, which was still entirely undeveloped. Participants, including one author, volunteered for four-hour shifts which began at 5 a.m. each day and before long, were lasting into the night. The purpose of a vigil is to bear witness, maintain a presence and express a point of view. It thus accords well with the principle of non-violence. Eventually the site mushroomed into a tent village with three gates being blockaded. The main gate, Gate A, sprouted a variety of poles, tripods and other installations together with colourful tents and shelters, peopled by protesters on a 24-hour basis. The vigils persisted on all three gates for the duration of the blockade. As the number of blockaders swelled, popular support grew, lending weight to the notion that countercultural ideas and practices were spreading throughout the community. In response, Metgasco called on the State Government to provide police to coincide with the arrival of equipment. It was rumoured that 200 police would be drafted to defend the site in late April. When alerts were sent out to the community warning of imminent police action, an estimated crowd of 2000 people attended in the early hours of the morning and the police called off their operation (Feliu). As the weeks wore on, training was stepped up, attendees were educated in non-violent resistance and protestors willing to act as police liaison persons were placed on a rotating roster. In May, the State Government was preparing to send up to 800 police and the Riot Squad to break the blockade (NSW Hansard in Buckingham). Local farmers (now a part of the movement) and activist leaders had gone to Sydney in an effort to find a political solution in order to avoid what threatened to be a clash that would involve police violence. A confluence of events, such as: the sudden resignation of the Premier; revelations via the Independent Commission against Corruption about nefarious dealings and undue influence of the coal industry upon the government; a radio interview with locals by a popular broadcaster in Sydney; and the reputed hesitation of the police themselves in engaging with a group of possibly 7,000 to 10,000 protestors, resulted in the Office for Coal Seam Gas suspending Metgasco’s drilling licence on 15 May (NSW Department of Resources & Energy). The grounds were that the company had not adequately fulfilled its obligations to consult with the community. At the date of writing, the suspension still holds. The Wave The repertoire of contention at the Bentley Blockade was expansive, comprising most of the standard actions and strategies developed in earlier environmental struggles. These included direct blocking tactics in addition to the use of more carnivalesque actions like music and theatre, as well as the use of various media to reach a broader public. Non-violence was at the core of all actions, but we would tentatively suggest that Bentley may have provided a novel addition to the repertoire, stemming originally from the vigil, which brought the first protestors to the site. At the beginning of the vigil, which was initially held near the entrance to the proposed drilling site atop a cutting, occupants of passing vehicles below would demonstrate their support by sounding their horns and/or waving to the vigil-keepers, who at first were few in number. There was a precedent for this behaviour in the campaign leading up to the blockade. Activist groups such as the Knitting Nannas against Gas had encouraged vehicles to show support by sounding their horns. So when the motorists tooted spontaneously at Bentley, we waved back. Occupants of other vehicles would show disapproval by means of rude gestures and/or yelling and we would wave to them as well. After some weeks, as a presence began to be established at the site, it became routine for vigil keepers to smile and wave at all passing vehicles. This often elicited a positive response. After the first mass call-out discussed above, a number of us migrated to another gate, where numbers were much sparser and there was a perceived need for a greater presence. At this point, the participating writer had begun to act as a police liaison person, but the practice of waving routinely was continued. Those protecting this gate usually included protestors ready to block access, the police liaison person, a legal observer, vigil-keepers and a passing parade of visitors. Because this location was directly on the road, it was possible to see the drivers of vehicles and make eye contact more easily. Certain vehicles became familiar, passing at regular times, on the way to work or school, for example. As time passed, most of those protecting the gate also joined the waving ritual to the point where it became like a game to try to prise a signal of acknowledgement from the passing motorists, or even to win over a disapprover. Police vehicles, some of which passed at set intervals, were included in this game. Mostly they waved cheerfully. There were some we never managed to win over, but waving and making direct eye contact with regular motorists over time created a sense of community and an acknowledgement of the work we were doing, as they increasingly responded in kind. Motorists could hardly feel threatened when they encountered smiling, waving protestors. By including the disapprovers, we acted inclusively and our determined good humour seemed to de-escalate demonstrated hostility. Locals who did not want drilling to go ahead but who were nevertheless unwilling to join a direct action were thus able to participate in the resistance in a way that may have felt safe for them. Some of them even stopped and visited the site, voicing their support. Standing on the side of the road and waving to passers-by may seem peripheral to the “real” action, even trivial. But we would argue it is a valuable adjunct to a blockade (which is situated near a road) when one of the strategies of the overall campaign is to win popular backing. Hence waving, whilst not a completely new part of the repertoire, constitutes what Tilly (41–45) would call innovation at the margins, something he asserts is necessary to maintain the effectiveness and vitality of contentious action. In this case, it is arguable that the sheer size of community support probably helped to concentrate the minds of the state government politicians in Sydney, particularly as they contemplated initiating a massive, taxpayer-funded police action against the people for the benefit of a commercial operation. Waving is a symbolic gesture indicating acknowledgement and goodwill. It fits well within a repertoire based on the principle of non-violence. Moreover, it is a conventional social norm and everyday behaviour that is so innocuous that it is difficult to see how it could be suppressed by police or other authorities. Therein lies its subversiveness. For in communicating our common humanity in a spirit of friendliness, we drew attention to the fact that we were without rancour and tacitly invited others to join us and to explore our concerns. In this way, the counterculture drew upon a mainstream custom to develop and extend upon a new form of dissent. This constitutes a reversal of the more usual phenomenon of countercultural artefacts—such as “hippie clothing”—being appropriated or co-opted by the prevailing culture (see Reading). But it also fits with the more general phenomenon that we have argued was occurring; that of enticing ordinary residents into joining together in countercultural activity, via the pathway of a social movement. Conclusion The anti-CSG movement in the Northern Rivers was developed and organised by countercultural participants of previous contentious challenges. It was highly effective in building popular support whilst at the same time forging a loose coalition of various activist groups. We have surveyed one practice—the wave—that evolved out of mainstream culture over the course of the Bentley Blockade and suggested it may come to be seen as part of the repertoire of actions that can be beneficially employed under suitable conditions. Waving to passers-by invites them to become part of the movement in a non-threatening and inclusive way. It thus envelops supporters and non-supporters alike, and its very innocuousness makes it difficult to suppress. We have argued that this instance can be referenced to a similar reverse movement at a broader level—that of co-opting liberal notions and involving the general populace in new practices and activities that undermine the status quo. The ability of the counterculture in general and environment movements in particular to innovate in the quest to challenge and change what it perceives as damaging or unethical practices demonstrates its ingenuity and spirit. This movement is testament to its dynamic nature. References ABC News. Metgasco Has No CSG Extraction Plans for Glenugie. 2013. 30 July 2014 ‹http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-22/metgasco-says-no-csg-extraction-planned-for-glenugie/4477652›. Bible, Vanessa. 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Introduction Utopia has always been countercultural, and ever since technological progress has allowed, utopia has been using alternative media to promote and strengthen its underpinning ideals. In this article, I am seeking to clarify the connections between counterculture and alternative media in utopian contexts to demonstrate their reciprocity, then draw together these threads through reference to a well-known figure of the Rainbow Region–Rusty Miller. His trajectory from iconic surfer and Aquarian reporter to mediator for utopian politics and ideals in the Rainbow Region encompasses in a single identity the three elements underpinning this study. In concluding, I will turn to Rusty’s Byron Guide, questioning its classification as alternative or mainstream media, and whether Byron Bay is represented as countercultural and utopian in this long-running and ongoing publication. Counterculture and Alternative Media in Utopian Contexts Counterculture is an umbrella that enfolds utopia, among many other genres and practices. It has been most often situated in the 1960s and 1970s as a new form of social movement embodying youth resistance to the technocratic mainstream and its norms of gender, sexuality, politics, music, and language (Roszak). Many scholars of counterculture underscore its utopian impulses both in the projection of better societies where the social goals are achieved, and in the withdrawal from mainstream society into intentional communities (Yinger 194-6; McKay 5; Berger). Before exploring further the connections between counterculture and alternative media, I want to define the scope of countercultural utopian contexts in general, and the Rainbow Region in particular. Utopia is a neologism created by Sir Thomas More almost 500 years ago to designate the island community that demonstrates order, harmony, justice, hope and desire in the right balance so that it seems like an ideal land. This imaginary place described in Utopia (1516) as a counterpoint to the social, political and religious shortcomings of contemporary 16th century British society, has attracted accusations of heresy (Molner), and been used as a pejorative term, an insult to denigrate political projects that seem farfetched or subversive, especially during the 19th century. Almost every study of utopian theory, literature and practice points to a dissatisfaction with the status quo, which inspires writers, politicians, architects, artists, individuals and communities to rail against it (see for example Davis, Moylan, Suvin, Levitas, Jameson). Kingsley Widmer’s book Counterings: Utopian Dialectics in Contemporary Contexts reiterates what many scholars have stated when he writes that utopias should be understood in terms of what they are countering. Lyman Tower Sargent defines utopia as “a non-existent society described in considerable detail and normally located in time and space” and utopianism as “social dreaming” (9), to which I would add that both indicate an improvement on the alternatives, and may indeed be striving to represent the best place imaginable. Utopian contexts, by extension, are those situations where the “social dreaming” is enhanced through human agency, good governance, just laws, education, and work, rather than being a divinely ordained state of nature (Schaer et al). In this way, utopian contexts are explicitly countercultural through their very conception, as human agency is required and their emphasis is on social change. These modes of resistance against dominant paradigms are most evident in attempts to realise textual projections of a better society in countercultural communal experiments. Almost immediately after its publication, More’s Utopia became the model for Bishop Vasco de Quiroga’s communitarian hospital-town Santa Fe de la Laguna in Michoacan, Mexico, established in the 1530s as a counterculture to the oppressive enslavement and massacres of the Purhépecha people by Nuno Guzmán (Green). The countercultural thrust of the 1960s and 1970s provided many utopian contexts, perhaps most readily identifiable as the intentional communities that spawned and flourished, especially in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand (Metcalf, Shared Lives). They were often inspired by texts such as Charles A. Reich’s The Greening of America (1970) and Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopia (1975), and this convergence of textual practices and alternative lifestyles can be seen in the development of Australia’s own Rainbow Region. Located in northern New South Wales, the geographical area of the Northern Rivers that has come to be known as the Rainbow Region encompasses Byron Bay, Nimbin, Mullumbimby, Bangalow, Clunes, Dunoon, Federal, with Lismore as the region’s largest town. But more evocative than these place names are the “rivers and creeks, vivid green hills, fruit and nut farms […] bounded by subtropical beaches and rainforest mountains” (Wilson 1). Utopian by nature, and recognised as such by the indigenous Bundjalung people who inhabited it before the white settlers, whalers and dairy farmers moved in, the Rainbow Region became utopian through culture–or indeed counterculture–during the 1973 Aquarius Festival in Nimbin when the hippies of Mullumbimby and the surfers of Byron Bay were joined by up to 10,000 people seeking alternative ways of being in the world. When the party was over, many Aquarians stayed on to form intentional communities in the beautiful region, like Tuntable Falls, Nimbin’s first and largest such cooperative (Metcalf, From Utopian Dreaming to Communal Reality 74-83). In utopian contexts, from the Renaissance to the 1970s and beyond, counterculture has underpinned and alternative media has circulated the aims and ideals of the communities of resistance. The early utopian context of the Anabaptist movement has been dubbed as countercultural by Sigrun Haude: “During the reign of the Münster (1534-5) Anabaptists erected not only a religious but also a social and political counterculture to the existing order” (240). And it was this Protestant Reformation that John Downing calls the first real media war, with conflicting movements using pamphlets produced on the new technology of the Gutenberg press to disseminate their ideas (144). What is striking here is the confluence of ideas and practices at this time–countercultural ideals are articulated, published, and disseminated, printing presses make this possible, and utopian activists realise how mass media can be used and abused, exploited and censored. Twentieth century countercultural movements drew on the lessons learnt from historical uprising and revolutions, understanding the importance of getting the word out through their own forms of media which, given the subversive nature of the messages, were essentially alternative, according to the criteria proposed by Chris Atton: alternative media may be understood as a radical challenge to the professionalized and institutionalized practices of the mainstream media. Alternative media privileges a journalism that is closely wedded to notions of social responsibility, replacing an ideology of “objectivity” with overt advocacy and oppositional practices. Its practices emphasize first person, eyewitness accounts by participants; a reworking of the populist approaches of tabloid newspapers to recover a “radical popular” style of reporting; collective and antihierarchical forms of organization which eschew demarcation and specialization–and which importantly suggest an inclusive, radical form of civic journalism. (267) Nick Couldry goes further to point out the utopian processes required to identify agencies of change, including alternative media, which he defines as “practices of symbolic production which contest (in some way) media power itself–that is, the concentration of symbolic power in media institutions” (25). Alternative media’s orientation towards oppositional and contestatory practices demonstrates clear parallels between its ambitions and those of counterculture in utopian contexts. From the 1960s onwards, the upsurge in alternative newspaper numbers is commensurate with the blossoming of the counterculture and increased utopian contexts; Susan Forde describes it thus: “a huge resurgence in the popularity of publications throughout the ‘counter-culture’ days of the 1960s and 1970s” (“Monitoring the Establishment”, 114). The nexus of counterculture and alternative media in such utopian contexts is documented in texts like Roger Streitmatter’s Voices of Revolution and Bob Osterlag’s People’s Movements, People’s Press. Like the utopian newspapers that came out of 18th and 19th century intentional communities, many of the new alternative press served to educate, socialise, promote and represent the special interests of the founders and followers of the countercultural movements, often focusing on the philosophy and ideals underpinning these communities rather than the everyday events (see also Frobert). The radical press in Australia was also gaining ground, with OZ in Australia from 1963-1969, and then from 1967-1973 in London. Magazines launched by Philip Frazer like The Digger, Go-Set, Revolution and High Times, and university student newspapers were the main avenues for youth and alternative expression on the Vietnam war and conscription, gay and lesbian rights, racism, feminism and ecological activism (Forde, Challenging the News; Cock & Perry). Nimbin 1973: Rusty Miller and The Byron Express The 1973 Aquarius Festival of counterculture in Nimbin (12-23 May) was a utopian context that had an alternative media life of its own before it arrived in the Rainbow Region–in student publications like Tharnuka and newsletters distributed via the Aquarius Foundation. There were other voices that announced the coming of the Aquarius Festival to Nimbin and reported on its impact, like The Digger from Melbourne and the local paper, The Northern Star. During the Festival, the Nimbin Good Times first appeared as the daily bulletin and continues today with the original masthead drawn by the Festival’s co-organiser, Graeme Dunstan. Some interesting work has been done on this area, ranging from general studies of the Rainbow Region (Wilson; Munro-Clark) to articles analysing its alternative press (Ward & van Vuuren; Martin & Ellis), but to date, there has been no focus on the Rainbow Region’s first alternative newspaper, The Byron Express. Co-edited by Rusty Miller and David Guthrie, this paper presented and mediated the aims and desires of the Aquarian movement. Though short-lived, as only 7 issues were published from 15 February 1973 to September 1973, The Byron Express left a permanent printed vestige of the Aquarian counterculture movement’s activism and ideals from an independent regional perspective. Miller’s credentials for starting up the newspaper are clear–he has always been a trailblazer, mixing “smarts” with surfing and environmental politics. After graduating from a Bachelor of Arts in history from San Diego State College, he first set foot in Byron Bay during his two semesters with the inaugural Chapman College affiliated University of the Seven Seas in 1965-6. Returning to his hometown of Encinitas, he co-founded the Surf Research accessory company with legendary Californian surfer Mike Doyle, and launched Waxmate, the first specially formulated surf wax in 1967 (Davis, Witzig & James; Warshaw 217), selling his interest in the business soon after to spend a couple of years “living the counterculture life on the Hawaiian Island of Kauai” (Davis, Witzig & James), before heading back to Byron Bay via Bells Beach in 1970 (Miller & Shantz) and Sydney, where he worked as an advertising salesman and writer with Tracks surfing magazine (Martin & Ellis). In 1971, he was one of the first to ride the now famous waves of Uluwatu in Bali, and is captured with Steven Cooney in the iconic publicity image for Albe Falzon’s 1971 film, Morning Of The Earth. The champion surfer from the US knew a thing or two about counterculture, alternative media, advertising and business when he found his new utopian context in Byron Bay. Miller and Guthrie’s front-page editorial of the inaugural issue of The Byron Express, published on 15 February 1973, with the byline “for a higher shire”, expressed the countercultural (cl)aims of the publication. Land use, property development and the lack of concern that some people in Byron had for their impact on the environment and people of the region were a prime target: With this first issue of the Byron Express, we hope to explain that the area is badly in need of a focal point. The transitions of present are vast and moving fast. The land is being sold and resold. Lots of money is coming into the area in the way of developments […] caravan parts, hotels, businesses and real estate. Many of the trips incoming are not exactly “concerned” as to what long term effect such developments might have on the environment and its people. We hope to serve as a focus of concern and service, a centre for expression and reflection. We would ask your contributions in vocal and written form. We are ready for some sock it to ya criticism… and hope you would grab us upon the street to tell us how you feel…The mission of this alternative newspaper is thereby defined by the need for a “focal point” that inscribes the voices of the community in a freely accessible narrative, recorded in print for posterity. Although this first issue contains no mention of the Aquarius Festival, there were already rumours circulating about it, as organisers Graeme Dunstan and Johnny Allen had been up to Main Arm, Mullumbimby and Nimbin on reconnaissance missions beginning in September 1972. Instead, there was an article on “Mullumbimby Man–Close to the Land” by Nicholas Shand, who would go on to found the community-based weekly newspaper The Echo in 1986, then called The Brunswick Valley Echo and still going strong. Another by Bob McTavish asked whether there could be a better form of government; there was a surf story, and a soul food section with a recipe for honey meade entitled “Do you want to get out of it on 10 cents a bottle?” The second issue continues in much the same vein. It is not until the third issue comes out on 17 March 1973 that the Aquarius Festival is mentioned in a skinny half column on page four. And it’s not particularly promising: Arrived at Nimbin, sleepy hamlet… Office in disused R.S.L. rooms, met a couple of guys recently arrived, said nothing was being done. “Only women here, you know–no drive”. Met Joanne and Vi, both unable to say anything to be reported… Graham Dunstan (codenamed Superfest) and John Allen nowhere in sight. Allen off on trip overseas. Dunstan due back in a couple of weeks. 10 weeks to go till “they” all come… and to what… nobody is quite sure. This progress report provides a fascinating contemporary insight into the tensions–between the local surfies and hippies on one hand, and the incoming students on the other–around the organisation of the Aquarius Festival. There is an unbridled barb at the sexist comments made by the guys, implicit criticism of the absent organisers, obvious skepticism about whether anyone will actually come to the festival, and wonderment at what it will be like. Reading between the lines, we might find a feeling of resentment about not being privy to new developments in their own backyard. The final lines of the article are non-committal “Anyway, let’s see what eventuates when the Chiefs return.” It seems that all has been resolved by the fifth issue of 11 May, which is almost entirely dedicated to the Aquarius Festival with the front page headline “Welcome to the New Age”. But there is still an undertone of slight suspicion at what the newcomers to the area might mean in terms of property development: The goal is improving your fellow man’s mind and nourishment in concert with your own; competition to improve your day and the quality of the day for society. Meanwhile, what is the first thing one thinks about when he enters Byron and the area? The physical environment is so magnificent and all encompassing that it can actually hold a man’s breath back a few seconds. Then a man says, “Wow, this land is so beautiful that one could make a quid here.” And from that moment the natural aura and spells are broken and the mind lapses into speculative equations, sales projections and future interest payments. There is plenty of “love” though, in this article: “The gathering at Nimbin is the most spectacular demonstration of the faith people have in a belief that is possible (and possible just because they want it to be) to live in love, through love together.” The following article signed by Rusty Miller “A Town Together” is equally focused on love: “See what you could offer the spirit at Nimbin. It might introduce you to a style that could lead to LOVE.” The centre spread features photos: the obligatory nudes, tents, and back to nature activities, like planting and woodworking. With a text box of “random comments” including one from a Lismore executive: ‘I took my wife and kids out there last weekend and we had such a good time. Seems pretty organized and the town was loaded with love. Heard there is some hepatitis about and rumours of VD. Everyone happy.” And another from a land speculator (surely the prime target of Miller’s wrath): “Saw guys kissing girls on the street, so sweet, bought 200 acres right outside of town, it’s going to be valuable out there some day.” The interview with Johnny Allen as the centrepiece includes some pertinent commentary on the media and reveals a well-founded suspicion of the mediatisation of the Aquarius Festival: We have tried to avoid the media actually. But we haven’t succeeded in doing so. Part of the basic idea is that we don’t need to be sold. All the down town press can do is try and interpret you. And by doing that it automatically places it in the wrong sort of context. So we’ve tried to keep it to people writing about the festival to people who will be involved in it. It’s an involvement festival. Coopting The Byron Express as an “involved” party effects a fundamental shift from an external reporting newspaper to a kind of proponent or even propaganda for the Aquarius festival and its ideas, like so many utopian newspapers had done before. It is therefore perhaps inevitable that The Byron Express should disappear very soon after the Aquarius festival. Fiona Martin and Rhonda Ellis explain that Rusty Miller stopped producing the paper because he “found the production schedule exhausting and his readership too small to attract consistent advertising” (5). At any rate, there were only two more issues, one in June–with some follow up reporting of the festival–and another in September 1973, which was almost entirely devoted to environmentally focused features, including an interview with Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonuccal). Byron Bay 2013: Thirty Years of Rusty’s Byron Guide What Rusty did next is fairly well known locally–surfing and teaching people how to surf and a bit of writing. When major local employer Walkers slaughterhouse closed in 1983, he and his wife, social geographer Tricia Shantz, were asked by the local council to help promote Byron Bay as a tourist destination, writing the first Byron guide in 1983-4. Incorporating essays by local personalities and dedicated visitors, the Byron guide perpetuates the ideal of environmental awareness, spiritual experimentation, and respect for the land and sea. Recent contributors have included philosopher Peter Singer, political journalist Kerry O’Brien, and writer John Ralston Saul, and Miller and Shantz always have an essay in there themselves. “People, Politics and Culture” is the new byline for the 2013 edition. And Miller’s opening essay mediates the same utopian desires and environmental community messages that he espoused from the beginning of The Byron Express: The name Byron Bay represents something that we constantly try to articulate. If one was to dream up a menu of situations and conditions to compose a utopia, Australia would be the model of the nation-state and Byron would have many elements of the actual place one might wish to live for the rest of their lives. But of course there is always the danger of excesses in tropical paradises especially when they become famous destinations. Australia is being held to ransom for the ideology that we should be slaves to money and growth at the cost of a degraded and polluted physical and social environment. Byron at least was/is a refuge against this profusion of the so-called real-world perception that holds profit over environment as the way we must choose for our future. Even when writing for a much more commercial medium, Miller retains the countercultural utopian spirit that was crystallised in the Aquarius festival of 1973, and which remains relevant to many of those living in and visiting the Rainbow Region. Miller’s ethos moves beyond the alternative movements and communities to infiltrate travel writing and tourism initiatives in the area today, as evidenced in the Rusty’s Byron Guide essays. By presenting more radical discourses for a mainstream public, Miller together with Shantz have built on the participatory role that he played in launching the region’s first alternative newspaper in 1973 that became albeit briefly the equivalent of a countercultural utopian gazette. Now, he and Shantz effectively play the same role, producing a kind of countercultural form of utopian media for Byron Bay that corresponds to exactly the same criteria mentioned above. Through their free publication, they aim to educate, socialise, promote and represent the special interests of the founders and followers of the Rainbow Region, focusing on the philosophy and ideals underpinning these communities rather than the everyday events. The Byron Bay that Miller and Shantz promote is resolutely utopian, and certainly countercultural if compared to other free publications like The Book, a new shopping guide, or mainstream media elsewhere. Despite this new competition, they are planning the next edition for 2015 with essays to make people think, talk, and understand the region’s issues, so perhaps the counterculture is still holding its own against the mainstream. References Atton, Chris. “What Is ‘Alternative’ Journalism?” Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism 4.3 (2003): 267-72. Berger, Bennett M. The Survival of a Counterculture: Ideological Work and Everyday Life among Rural Communards. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers, 2004. Cock, Peter H., & Paul F. Perry. “Australia's Alternative Media.” Media Information Australia 6 (1977): 4-13. 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