Hei Puāwaitanga: Sustainability, Citizenship and Civic Imagination Research Group’s researchers include staff from across four Colleges of the University of Canterbury and research collaborators from other institutions, nationally and internationally. Our research is organised in four themes.
Theme One: CYCLES Children and youth in cities and sustainability
This theme is lead by Professor Bronwyn Hayward (UC) and Dr Kate Prendergast, Research Manager (UC) with Dr Sylvia Nissen (Lincoln) and 6 world city collaborators: Prof Tim Jackson (Director of our partner organisation CUSP, University of Surrey) with Dr Kate Burningham (Surrey) and Dr Sue Venn (Surrey); Dr Ingrid Schudel (Rhodes, SA); Helio Mattar (Akatu, Brazil); Vimlendu Jha (Swechha, India); Dr Midori Aoyagi and Dr Aya Yoshida (National Institute for Environmental Studies Japan) and Mehedi Hasan UC Politics PhD candidate and lecturer Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh). More information about our CYCLES project is available here.
The CYCLES Children and Youth in Cities Lifestyles Evaluation and Sustainability team meets for global workshops twice a year, face to face or virtually to coordinate and share our insights.
Theme Two: Civics Lab - democratic innovations for a fairer future
This project is led by Professor Bronwyn Hayward, Dr Lindsey Te Ata o Tu MacDonald, Associate Professor Sacha McMeeking, Dr Hilary Dutton and Dr Kate Prendergast. In the CIVICs Lab we are working on the campaign to “Make it 16”, lowering the age of the vote in New Zealand. The two outreach events below were chaired by our team with the NZ Political Science Association.
Where to Now? Civics, Citizenship & Political Literacy education in NZ (2020)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miPwnLF8GYA
Lowering the Voting Age to 16, lessons from Scotland and Austria for NZ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRdHKVjbCv4
Busting Myths About Voting At 16
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300749422/busting-the-myths-about-voting-at-16
Theme Three: Mana Rangatahi - how do we support young people in a changing climate?
This project is funded by the Deep South National Science Challenge and co-lead by Assc Prof Sacha McMeeking, Prof Steven Ratuva, Prof Bronwyn Hayward and Assc Prof Yvonne Crichton-Hill
With advisors: Professor Angus Macfarlane, Associate Professor Sara Tolbert, Dr Bronwyn Wood (Victoria University ) and Prof Niki Harre (Auckland University). The project identifies indigenous strengths-based leadership approaches for youth aged 12-14 and whanau to lead in a changed climate. Find out more about Mana Rangatahi.
Theme Four: Wellbeing, Sustainability and Future Generations
With Dr Kate Prendergast, Professor Bronwyn Hayward, Dr Emily Beausoleil (Victoria University Wellington), Professor Angus Macfarlane, Professor Steven Ratuva, Dr Yvonne Crichton Hill (Social Work), Dr Naimah Talib (Political Science), Dr Francis Yapp (Music), Associate Professor Natalie Baird (Law), Dr Matt Scobie (Business), Dr Mahdis Azarmandi (Education), Victoria Escaip (Spanish) and Susan Bouterey (Japanese).
SDG6: In 2019 our research group hosted the first of a series of ongoing public conversations to create community connections across difference the first about the sustainable development goal 6 water: Ko te wai te ora nga mea katoa: water is the life giver of all things, Six youth leaders from Hei Puāwaitanga in conversation with cellist Yo-Yo Ma in November 2019 about the value of water to wellbeing across our cultures.
SDG16: In 2020 we were funded by UNESCO to develop courageous community conversations to promote the SDG16 peace building in the wake of the 2019 attacks to build community understanding and we have worked in partnership funding PYLAT Pacific Youth leadership and Transformation with Josiah Tualamali'i https://www.facebook.com/PYLATCOUNCIL1/ to develop a forum for all young people in the region to discuss hate speech laws, and we supported and the Inspired Summit with the Muslim Students association and Bariz Shah to support conversations about leadership for peace across cultures. We also funded the July 2021 issue of Anti-racist Soup a zine with Dr Mahdis Azarmandi.
SDG 3 Good health and wellbeing: What does good health and wellbeing mean across generations, diverse communities and cultures? A research project lead by Dr Kate Prendergast with Victoria Escaip, Dr Susan Bouterey, Ana Terra Amorim-Maia, Bronwyn Hayward and Lindsey McDonald.
