Research
Overarching questions inspire my research:
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How can we understand human action across individual, collective and institutional scales?
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What strategies, such as green jobs, foster interactions among neighbourhood organizations, non-profits, and government bodies and thereby promote sustainable communities?
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How can catalytic interventions, such as mega-events, be planned to offer “creative solution-making” for existing social problems?
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How can pedagogy make common cause with progressive social movements by incorporating action theory?
My research can be categorized into the following broad topics:
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Sustainability education
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Sport mega-events
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Green economy
I employ diverse strategies and tools to study each of these areas, such as indicator-based measurements, multi-stakeholder engagement, cultural models, cross-case analysis, and simulation technology. My research and educational interests are interdisciplinary, participatory, and sensitive to local problems.
Please see below for more information on my current and past research and research-related projects.

Inquiry into the Nexus of Socially Effective Learning for Sustainability (INSELS)
Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Amount: $41,000
Co-Investigators: Rob VanWynsberghe, Samia Khan
Olympic Games Impact (OGI) Project
Funded by: 1) Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) ($300,000); and 2) VP-Research ($40,000) and VP-Academic, UBC ($300,000)
Amount: $640,000 (total)
Primary Investigator: Rob VanWynsberghe
Cross-Case Comparisons and Contrasts or Foresee (4C) database
Funded by: 1) Learning Technologies Grant, Faculty of Education, UBC; and 2) Rex Boughton Award
Amount: $10,000
Principal Investigators: Rob VanWynsberghe, Samia Khan
Co-Investigator: Vanessa Mirzaee
Impact of Health Policy Interventions in Inner-cities: A Case Study of Inner-city Inclusivity Commitments (ICI) and Vancouver's 2010 Olympics
Funded by: Canadian Population Health Initiative, Canadian Institute for Health Information
Amount: $180,000
Principal Investigator: Jim Frankish
Co-Investigator: Rob VanWynsberghe
Strengthening Health Disparities Research in BC
Funded by: 2003 Research Unit Award, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Amount: $450,000
Principal Investigator: Annalee Yassi
Co-Investigators: Rob VanWynsberghe, Reva Adler, Ellen Balka, Philip Bigelow, William Bowie, Gwenneth Chapman, Barbara Crocker, James Frankish, Judith Globerman, Eduardo Jovel, Arminée Kazanjian, Susan Kennedy, Rena Levy-Milne, Chris Lovato, Aleck Ostry, Gary Poole, Danielle Papineau, Laurie Pearce, Mohammad Iraj Poureslami, Irving Rootman, Samuel Sheps, Jerry Spiegel, Elvin Wyly, and Bruno Zumbo
Transdisciplinary Training in Community Partnership Research: Bridging Research to Practice
Funded by: 1) Canadian Institutes of Health Research; and 2) Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research
Amount: $1,800,882
Principal Investigator: Jim Frankish
Co-Investigators: Rob VanWynsberghe, Ellen Balka, Allan Best, Nancy Christine Edwards, Penelope Hawe, Jacek Andrzej Kopec, Francis Lau, Gary Douglas Poole, Kim Denise Raine, Pamela Anne Ratner, Irving Rootman, Samuel Barry Sheps, Sally Elizabeth Thorne, Douglas R. Wilson, Andrew V. Wister, and Annalee Yassi
Agency, Social Capital and Sustainable Development
Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Amount: $80,292
Principal Investigator: Ann Dale
Co-Investigators: Rob VanWynsberghe, Kevin S. Hanna
Community-Based Coalitions and Mega-Events: A Case Study of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics as a Healthy Communities Initiative
Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)
Amount: $109,000
Principal Investigator: Rob VanWynsberghe
Co-Investigators: Bob Wollard, Jim Frankish, Elvin Wyly, Trevor Hancock, and Meg Holden
“Indeed the future has already broken into the present. We each live in many times. The present of one is the past of another, and the future of yet another. We are called to live, knowing and showing that the future exists and that each one of us can call it in, when we are willing, to redress the balance of the past.”
– Ivan Illich, Celebration of awareness (1970)