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Research

Environmental history: Oral history of the Wellington Water Watchers

The Wellington Water Watchers is a volunteer-led community group that formed in 2006 in response to risks to local drinking water presented by quarrying and water bottling in the area. From its inception as a small group of friends sharing concerns, the Wellington Water Watchers has become a leading voice on groundwater issues in Ontario, attracting international attention and stimulating regulatory change at the provincial level.

Objectives: Using media and archival review, participant observation, and life-history interviews, this project aims to document and analyze the history and evolution of the Wellington Water Watchers, and to draw lessons from this case study for scholarship and practice in community organization and social change.

Funder: unfunded.

Timeline: ongoing.

Community organization: Case studies in water activism

  • COVID adaptation and campaign resilience: A Case study of the Wellington Water Watchers' Peoples' Water Campaign

Qualitative interviews and social media analysis exploring adaptation strategies, and impacts on community engagement, campaign outcomes and longer-term capacities of the shift to on-line organizing and campaign activity. Objective: to generate theory and practice propositions regarding on-line organizing strategies and campaign/organizational resilience.

Funder: UW/SSHRC Robert Harding/Lois Claxton Humanities and Social Sciences Endowment Grant.

Timeline: Sep. 2020-May 2021

  • NestlĂ© Tracker: Comparative case studies of community-based water activism

Mixed methods case studies of opposition to Nestlé Waters groundwater taking for bottling in various communities in Canada and US. Objective: to document the stories and strategies used by activists and their opponents in communities opposing corporate water bottling, and to draw lessons about community organization and the operations of corporate and state power from them.

Funder: SSHRC Insight Development Grant (PI: Andrea Muelebach, UofT Mississauga)

Timeline: June 2021-May 2022