Complexity and transformation

From environmental policies to understanding the complex social dynamics of society, our researchers are looking at how to foster these gaps through collaboration and research methods.

Get to know their areas of expertise.

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Advancing two Sustainable Development Goals

sdg 4
sdg 16

Our researchers

Marta Berbes

School of Planning​

  • Environmental justice 
  • Sustainable urban futures
  • Resilience thinking and complexity 
  • Participatory action research and community-led research
  • Human dimensions of environmental change

Bob Gibson

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Applied sustainability

  • Environmental and sustainability assessment law and policy
  • Climate change mitigation in assessments
  • Indigenous communities and authorities in extractive industry planning and assessment
  • Can also supervise graduate students in the School of Planning​

Thomas Homer-Dixon

The Balsillie School of International Affairs

  • Complex threats to global security
  • The structure and change of ideologies
  • Causes and resolution of violent conflict
  • Climate change, energy security, and public policy
  • Growth and decline of social systems
  • Can also supervise graduate students in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability
Daniel McCarthy

Daniel McCarthy

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • The utility of complex systems-based approaches to understanding and intervening in linked social, ecological, epistemological systems 
  • Partnerships that relate to fostering adaptive capacity
  • Social and environmental justice and social innovation in the field of environmental policy
  • Can also supervise graduate students in the School of Planning​
John Mclevey

John McLevey

Department of Knowledge Integration

Katie Plaisance

Katie Plaisance

Department of Knowledge Integration

  • Collaboration & teamwork
  • Multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary research
  • Interdisciplinary expertise
  • The role of diversity in knowledge production
Stephen Quilley

Stephen Quilley

School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability

  • Historical sociology of urban regeneration
  • The long term dynamics of human ecology
  • Policy-related projects relating to sustainability, urban regeneration, food systems, resilience and social-ecological innovation