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 CUHI Environmental Health Justice in the City RIG Seminar Series

 

Research at the Cross-section of Community Psychology and Global Climate
Change 

 

Thursday October 22nd, 2009, 4:00pm -5:30pm

University College UC256, University of Toronto

 

Presentation Abstract

The root causes of today's environmental crisis are linked powerfully with
other societal realities, including growing social inequality, loss of
community, and neglect and erosion of democratic governance and popular
control. Thus, to carryout effective climate change mitigation and adoption
we need to create transformative change that targets these different
realities simultaneously. This requires different more complex strategies as
compared to those which target one behaviour at a time with traditional
psychological and social marketing strategies. Community psychology as an
interdisciplinary field has much to offer to develop and study these complex
strategies. In this seminar session Dr. Riemer will present his ideas for
community-based environmental change which apply community psychology
principles. He will illustrate his ideas by presenting some of his current
research which includes an evaluation of an environmental organization, the
development and analysis of a regional university community environmental
collaboration, the development of a critical consciousness raising workshop
for high school students, and an action research project addressing the
vulnerability to climate change of people facing homelessness in urban
settings.

 

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Riemer, born and raised in Germany, is an assistant professor in the
community psychology program of Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario,
Canada. He received his Master's and PhD in Psychology from Vanderbilt
University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Dr. Leonard
Bickman. From 2004 to 2008 he was the Director of Research and System
Development for a large NIMH funded research project at the Center for
Evaluation and Program Improvement. This project is t esting a theory of
change, the Contextualized Feedback Intervention Theory, which is derived
from Dr. Riemer's Master's thesis. Dr. Riemer is also co-editor of the book
"International Community Psychology: History and T heories". Currently, Dr.
Riemer's research interests include community-based change for the promotion
of environmentally sustainable behaviours, networks and c ollaboration,
change within complex social systems, evaluation research, and
implementation and sustainability of social programs. In his work he applies
theories and principles of community psychology and applied social
psychology to environmental issues especially the mitigation and adaptation
of global climate change. He is the editor of the upcoming special issue of
the American Journal of Community Psychology on Community Psychology and
Global Climate Change. Dr. Riemer is actively engaged in the environmental
movement. For example, he has been trained by former U.S.-Vice- President Al
Gore to give his presentation on global climate change.

 

Visit us on www.EHJiC.ca or www.utoronto.ca/CUHI/ or

www.urbancentre.utoronto.ca/communitydevelopment.html

 

 

UPCOMING ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH JUSTICE SEMINARS

 

Catching the Unspoken: The Use of Theatre for Community Based Research - an
Experience Informing Policies for Controlling HIV/AIDS in South Africa

Presenter: Jennifer Jimenez (Aiding Dramatic Change in Development)

November 19, 2009

 

Community Capacity for Reducing Pesticide Harm in an Indigenous Community in
Equador

Presenter: Fabio Cabarcas (University of British Columbia)

December 5, 2009

 


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