Research and teaching interests
Social welfare policy; community organization; community resilience, localism and community-based activism; social development and the environment; social ecology.
About Robert Case
Robert Case's teaching, service and research focus on social policy/policy advocacy, community engagement, and social movement participation.
In Guelph, Ontario, where Rob lives, water has emerged as a significant focal point for policy development, technological innovation, and social action over past decade or so. In the early 2000s, as a volunteer on related community environmental projects, Rob found himself connected to a broad and dense web of diverse professionals, institutions and citizens' groups that were active on water issues in Guelph and beyond.
Returning to academia in 2007 to pursue a PhD in Social Work at Wilfrid Laurier University, Rob immersed himself further still in Guelph's community of water activism. Seeking insight about how communities organize themselves around local concerns, he conducted a dissertation project exploring the norms and social network structures driving collective action on water issues in that context. Unsatisfied with observing the action from an academic distance, Rob joined the Water Watchers, where he served as a member of the board of directors (2012-2021) and board chair (May 2020-November 2021).
Rob's current scholarship focusses the conceptual and practical integration of environmentalism with social justice and social development, with current projects on income security policy and the environment, the development of historical case studies on grassroots environmental activism in Ontario, and comparative study of community organization and water activism in select communities in Canada and the US (SSHRC-funded).
Robert Case (PhD Social Work) is an Associate Professor in Social Development Studies at Renison University College, at the University of Waterloo, and Lead Negotiator and President of the Renison Association of Academic Staff (RAAS: https://www.renisonassociationofacademicstaff.org/).
