Chris Buse Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto CPHA May 27, 2014 Toronto ON

1. The emergence of the transition movement in Canada: Implications for public health Chris Buse Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto CPHA May 27, 2014 Toronto ON

2. Outline • Emerging threats to health equity and public health practice in the 21st CE • Transition Towns: A social movement preparing people to meet the challenge? • Transition Emerging Study • Overview • Preliminary findings • Next Steps

3. Emerging Threats (to health equity)

4. Implications for Public Health Practice “Public health's role is to protect and promote health, prevent disease and reduce inequalities in health: Encouraging and supporting the transition to a sustainable, just and healthy future is entirely consistent with this role.” CPHA (2013) Global Change and Public Health: Addressing the Ecological Determinants of Health (Draft Report – August 9). Ottawa.

5. Integrated Healthy Settings Approach Parkes et al. 2012

6. The Transition Town Movement: A Technology for Building Resilience • Transition initiatives “are an emerging response: in essence, a powerful carbon reduction ‘technology’ and a new way of looking at responding to climate change and peak oil” (Hopkins 2008, p.1).

7. Goals of Transition Initiatives

8. Resilience, Equity and the Development of Ecological Social Practices: Examining The Transition Town Movement in Canada FUNDER: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), 2012-2015 RESEARCH TEAM: Blake Poland (PI)(UofT), Paul Antze (YorkU), Randy Haluza-Delay (KingsUCollege), Cheryl Teelucksingh (Ryerson), Chris Ling (RRU), Lenore Newman (UFV), André-Anne Parent (ULaval), Chris Buse (UofT), Rebecca Hasdell (UofT), Rivka Kushner (UofT) MOVEMENT ADVISORY GROUP CHAIR: Michelle Colussi (CCCR) www.transitionemergingstudy.ca

9. Research Goal: "To understand the Transition Town movement in Canada as an attempt to meet a series of looming environmental and economic challenges by forming more resilient, equitable and locally engaged ‘communities of practice’ that foster a new ‘culture of sustainability’ among participants."

10. Components of TES Methodology    

11. Distribution of Canadian Transition Initiatives by Province/ Region, up to and including 2012 (N=60)

12. Descriptive Statistics for Canadian TIs (N=47)

13. Event Focus (N=4695)

14. Interest in health and well-being from a national survey of Transition participants (N=289)

15. Situating Health in Transition: Findings from a National Survey of Movement Participants (N=289) • Relationship between: • Interest in health and food (Spearman’s = 0.281, p<0.01 • Interest in health and enviro degradation (Spearman’s = 0.233 , p<0.01) • Health also associated with alternative transportation, energy issues, inner transition, housing, planning • Longer lived in community, greater interest in health (Spearman’s = 0.104, p<0.05) • Relationship not explained by age

16. Still a work in progress… • Lessons for public health include: • Reframing of environmental threats as opportunities for community building and social connectedness • Emphasize transformative learning, connectedness, resilience • Emphasis on entire communities as settings for health promotion • How do sustainable practices scale up and out? • It is a global movement, but to what extent does change in one neighbourhood influence change in a city? • How can strong interests related to health be leveraged for social change?

17. Thanks! contact@transitionemergingstudy.ca

18. To what extent have initiatives discussed diversity?

19. Education 21% Food 20 % The Arts 15%