3ci is currently engaged in a range of exciting projects generating interest and participation from the nonprofit, government, and business sectors. Please see the specific projects’ pages for more information on each initiative.
Led by Dr. Charles Levkoe from Lakehead University, alongside 3ci director Peter Andree, and research fellow Dr. Patricia Ballamingie, this SSHRC Insight Grant-funded research project aims to identify effective, innovative and collaborative approaches to food governance for building healthy, equitable, and sustainable food systems. It is developing a deeper understanding of the possible trade-offs, limitations and paradoxes associated with civil society organizations’ (CSO) active participation in multi-stakeholder and collaborative governance arrangements.
We ask: How do food movement actors and organizations engage in food systems governance, while also modeling alternative food futures?
With a focus at on Canada/Indigenous Territories, the research team is critically analyzing the social history, current context and future possibilities for building healthy, equitable and sustainable food systems.
Objectives
- To advance our understanding of how civil society organizations engagement in place-based initiatives has evolved to address food systems governance at the national scale (1977-2018)
- To contribute to the development of innovative strategies led by food movements that facilitate more democratic and integrated food systems governance
- To advance academic-community engagement in food systems work through community-based, participatory research
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Reaching for net-zero carbon emissions while reckoning with settler-colonialism: the case of dairying in Aotearoa New Zealand
Working with collaborators in Aotearoa New Zealand, this project focuses on how the dairy sector is responding to the challenge to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions (25% of the country’s GHGs), putting that response into the context of the shifting dynamics of settler-colonialism in Aotearoa. The project is funded by SSHRC’s Insight Development Grant program (2020) as well as a SSHRC Knowledge Mobilization grant.
While initially targeting the dairy sector, this research has expanded to consider the leadership Indigenous experts are providing to agri-food system sustainability discussions in Aotearoa more generally.
The project has led to an ongoing relationship between Ka Waimaero/ Ngai Tahu Research Centre at U of Canterbury and 3ci. This partnership has resulted in several events, including the Sustainability Challenge Transition Wananga, an event held in Otautahi / Christchurch in June 2023, the Future of Māori and First Nations Fisheries (June 2023), as well as a presentation entitled “The Quiet Environmental Revolution” by Dr. John Reid from Ka Waimaero (September 2023)
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Community-Based Research Virtual Roundtables
3ci seeks to support and mentor community-based researchers at Carleton University through its projects. For many years, we also organized brown-bag round-table discussions to share experiences and lessons in CBR among graduate students, faculty, community partners, and support staff. As of 2022, these roundtables have gone virtual. Videos of past roundtables can be found here.
Rebuilding First Nations Governance (RFNG) is a national alliance of First Nation communities and Tribal Councils, academic researchers and public sector practitioners created to support First Nations leadership and rights holders that have made the decision to transition out from under the Indian Act to their own inherent rights governance. This 6 year applied action research project is supported by a $2.5M SSHRC Partnership Grant.
RFNG will:
- Develop a transitional inherent rights governance model and tools to guide and inspire First Nations
- Build a deeper understanding of the impact of the Indian Act and the reasons for its persistence
- Create a Nation Re-Building Action Network through which First Nations will document and share knowledge and experience.
- Contribute to the necessary Canada-wide dialogue on implementation of Indigenous jurisdiction and Section 35 of the Constitution Act
- Contribute to a growing body of Indigenous scholarship and help form the basis for new programs and curriculum in academia across the country
- Train and mentor students, particularly Indigenous students, and citizens of First Nation communities to conduct transformative research, gain meaningful experience working amongst the people in the community.
For more information contact: Frances Abele and Catherine MacQuarrie
This national, $2.5M project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, will fund high-quality scholarly research examining how Treaties are implemented in Canada. The project is guided by academics and Indigenous governments, who share co-leadership of research themes.
Carleton University is the academic host organization for the project, while the Tłı̨chǫ Government is the Land Claims Agreement Coalition host of the project’s National Hub.
The Common Approach to Impact Measurement project is a new type of impact measurement standard for social purpose organizations.
The lack of a standard measure impedes social purpose organizations from effectively telling its story, communicating with a wide variety of stakeholders and operating in a high impact manner. And yet, forcing all organizations into the same way of measuring their impact will also impede this ability. Between too little uniformity and too much uniformity is the sweet spot that the common approach will satisfy.
The Common Approach to Impact Measurement project is building on great work already done by the social finance and social innovation ecosystem, connecting it to cutting-edge globally recognized research.
CFICE is an action research project that aims to strengthen Canadian non-profits, universities and colleges, and funding agencies to build more successful, innovative, resilient and prosperous communities.
The project carries out its research through the work of five self-managing research hubs, on Poverty Reduction; Community Food Security; Community Environmental Sustainability; Violence Against Women; and Knowledge Mobilization.
Community Campus Engage Canada is a living legacy of CFICE.
The Ecopolitics Podcast is an episode-based audio series covering a range of themes central to the study of environmental politics in a Canadian context, from environmental justice to federalism to climate action and more. The show is created and co-hosted by Dr. Ryan Katz-Rosene (University of Ottawa) and Dr. Peter Andrée (Carleton University), and funded by the Shared Online Projects Initiative. All episodes are freely available for use under a Creative Commons Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).
Please see our list of past projects for links to further resources.