The Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies is proud to present the Shaw-Mannell Leisure Research Award Lecture featuring 2023 recipient, William Stewart.
The award recognizes international career contributions to the study of leisure, broadly defined, and influence on leisure scholarship at the University of Waterloo. The award is named in honour of retired faculty members Sue Shaw and Roger Mannell to recognize their outstanding individual career achievements.
Place-making for protected areas: searching for stability in the face of climate change
Over the past decade, global climate change has become a commonly accepted explanation for a general lack of predictability of weather patterns, including more intense rainfalls, longer droughts and increasing heat waves. Protected areas, like all landscapes of the world, are being reshaped due to shifting global climate patterns.Whereas protected areas were once viewed as landscapes preserved for future generations, as intact ecosystems and/or nature reserves that safeguard a set of biotic relationships, such cultural meanings about protecting various kinds of social and ecological relationships needs re-thinking. In general, conservation scholars have developed useful insights, generally focused on technical processes and managerial strategies to engage climate change impacts. Less attention has been focused on the implications of climate change for shifting meanings of protected areas that re-thinks socio-ecological systems to identify conservation priorities. What may have seemed like a protected landscape marked by stability and permanence, now appears as a dynamic landscape with an evolving set of conditions coupled with shifting senses of place.
The purpose of this presentation is to understand the social impacts of climate change from the ground up, that is, from the standpoint of nearby communities and stakeholders. In what ways has climate change influenced their senses of place to engage landscape change, and to envision a future “protected area” different than the present? With evidence from Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, USA, the findings provide insight to the voices of those who may know protected areas the best – the stakeholders who live and work around them. The contribution draws attention to the goals of protected area management in the face of climate change, and reflects on the roles of nearby communities as proactive voices in their place-making.
William Stewart
- Professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism - at University of Illinois. Dr. Stewart's teaching and research is related to the development of parks and protected areas to improve quality of life and enhance sense of place. His research is concerned with landscape change in urban and rural areas, and recognizes the need to integrate community-based voices into environmental decision-making.
- At the University of Illinois, Dr. Stewart is associated with the Parks and Environmental Behavior Research Group, adjunct faculty with the Department of Landscape Architecture, and serves as the Director of the undergraduate program in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences.
- Dr. Stewart co-edited a book entitled Place-based Conservation: Perspectives from the Social Sciences along with Drs. Daniel Williams and Linda Kruger published by Springer-Verlag.
- Dr. Stewart publishes his research in journals related to recreation, tourism, and landscape planning, such as Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, and Landscape and Urban Planning.
- Research program has been continuously supported by sponsors such as the USDA Forest Service, the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture, and the US National Park Service, as well as other agencies related to landscape change and park development.
- Dr. Stewart is a Fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences and has served as Treasurer for the Academy since 2010 and serves as the Executive Director for the International Association for Society and Natural Resources.
This lecture is offered in person.
Lecture and award presentation will take place in Sun Life Auditorium - Lyle S. Hallman Institute (LHS) 1621, starting at 2:00 p.m. We will conclude with a short reception in the adjacent Fireplace Lounge with refreshments.
The Shaw-Mannell Lecture is funded by the Lyle S. Hallman Professorial Endowment.