Work in progress

This page links to projects I am currently working on, or I’m planning to undertake.

Cultural perceptions of drinking water in Vancouver

In collaboration with Dr. Rachel Black and with the assistance of Julia Ko, I am currently in the process of launching a project to explore the perceptions of drinking water in the Greater Vancouver area. We might focus only in Vancouver, although given the geographical proximity of other municipalities and the fact that they are all served by the Greater Vancouver Water District, we might collect data in more than one municipality. Reservoirs in the Capilano, Seymour and Coquitlam watersheds provide freshwater that is distributed within the municipal supply system.

The Tap Water Pledge is a campaign initiated by Metro Vancouver in order to reduce the amount of plastic bottles being disposed of in local landfills. The primary focus of this campaign is discouraging purchases of water in recyclable or disposable plastic bottles, though. In this project we will explore whether there are significant cultural factors that (a) increase bottled water consumption and (b) decrease consumption of tap water. We will be approaching this question both from a qualitative (ethnographic) and a quantitative (structured survey) perspective.

Convergence in Latin American energy and environmental policies

In a joint project with Dr. Claudia S. Gomez-Lopez (Universidad de Guanajuato, Mexico), we are exploring environmental policies within 12 Latin American countries. Using non-parametric tests, convergence analysis and panel data, we analyze  behavioral patterns at the economy level in air pollutant emissions as well as national energy use. These analyses have potential implications at the national and supra-national environmental policy level. We examine these implications in light of current climate and energy policy frameworks.