Robert VanWynsberghe

Redefining Case Study

In this paper the authors propose a more precise and encompassing definition of case study than is usually found. They support their definition by clarifying that case study is neither a method nor a methodology nor a research design as suggested by others. They use a case study prototype of their own design to propose common properties of case study and demonstrate how these properties support their definition. Next, they present several living myths about case study and refute them in relation to their definition. Finally, they discuss the interplay between the terms case study and unit of analysis to further delineate their definition of case study. The target audiences for this paper include case study researchers, research design and methods instructors, and graduate students interested in case study research.

Community mapping as a research tool with youth

This article provides a detailed description of the in-field experience of using community mapping as a participatory action research tool with youth. It describes a case study, the Youth Friendly Health Services project (YFHS project), in which a team of Vancouver youth carried out a participatory evaluation of health clinics by mapping out criteria for evaluation and then creating an evaluation tool based on the maps that were created. Community mapping proved to be an inclusive and appropriate tool to engage youth perspectives. The major challenges faced in the process were in determining how to represent and act upon the findings of the mapping process. Their experience suggests that while such innovative data collection tools such as community mapping can successfully engage youth, not just as participants, but as facilitators of research, they must be accompanied by equally creative and innovative approaches to formulating research results and outcomes.

Mapping the Olympic growth machine

Theories of growth machines and urban regimes have informed the study of urban political economy for more than three decades, but these theories remain focused on intra‐urban processes. Using a case study of the bidding process and the planning of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, we explore the transnational dimensions of the urban growth machine and explore common aspects between the growth machine and regime theory literature and the literatures on the entrepreneurial city and transnational urban policy transfers. Through its evolving networks with other urban regimes, Vancouver’s growth machine provides a ready forum in which local elites can acquire specialized knowledge on new urban entrepreneurial strategies elsewhere. Actors situated in different parts of the local growth machine are establishing various connections with urban regimes in other cities, in what is best understood as a nascent growth machine diaspora. Growth machine and regime theories remain valid in their basic conceptualization and maintain their strength through their adaptability to various contexts, but can be enriched by analyses of policy circuits, travelling theories and learning networks.

The Future Is Not What It Used To Be: Participatory Integrated Assessment In The Georgia Basin

Integrated assessment (IA) is a rapidly evolving field and in recent years the introduction of participatory methods has resulted in the development of a more diverse set of tools. The Georgia Basin Futures Project is presented and reviewed in the context of this expanding portfolio of IA methodologies. The project is an ambitious attempt to combine qualitative scenario methods with a computer-based gaming tool on a regional scale. The paper suggests that the particular combination of methods and the scale of the analysis represent a viable model for the future regional IAs.

Vancouver's Promise of the World's First Sustainable Olympic Games

Vancouver has committed to host the worlds first sustainable Olympic Games in 2010. This promise is in keeping with local policy trends in the Vancouver region toward visions of sustainability and with growing attention by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to environmental sustainability concerns. We demonstrate that interests in sustainability at local and international scales may differ markedly, however, resulting in a range of possible legacies for Vancouver and the international Olympic movement from the 2010 Winter Olympics. To move beyond the fruitless search for a universally acceptable definition of sustainability, we investigate different meanings of sustainability using the tool of the ‘language game’, originally devised by philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein. Examining sustainability as a language game in the planning phase of the 2010 Olympics allows us to consider the potential and likely scenarios for sustainability wins and losses, internationally and in the local context. Four possible scenarios are considered. In the most optimistic scenario, sustainability language converges across the international and local language systems, aiding the development of sustainability in Vancouver policy, charting a course for Olympic cities to follow, and creating institutional change within the IOC as well. In the contrasting scenario, the failure to find common ground in sustainability pursuits could doom the concept both for future Olympic cities and for policy practice in Vancouver. Two other mixed outcome scenarios are considered as well. This analysis leads to insight into the boundaries of the meaning of sustainability in the context of a megaevent, in which, more than any particular demonstration project, the communicated message of sustainability may be the most lasting legacy.

Towards community engagement: six steps to expert learning for future scenario development

Abstract This paper describes a variety of facilitated exercises for use in collaborative workshops where experts are brought together to create archetypes that feed into the design of alternative scenarios for the future of their area of expertise (e.g., forestry, housing, transportation, food systems and waste). In this case, these workshops were designed to aid in the development of a computer-based sustainability tool (GB-Quest) that supports a larger process of community engagement and dialogue focused on sustainability in the southwestern portion of British Columbia, Canada. Value-focused thinking and a narrative-based structure provided the framework for this dialogue and a template for asking hard questions about the assumptions and biases related to the alternatives. Using examples, this paper outlines and details this process and then suggests possible next steps in this ongoing process.

Research in the Service of Co-Learning: Sustainability and Community Engagement [Abstract]

This research, conducted with an introductory sociology class at the University of British Columbia during the 2001 ‐ 2002 academic year, explored community service ‐ learning as a pedagogy and philosophy. The theoretical focus of this paper is Nancy Fraser’s (1997) criticisms of Jurgen Habermas’ (1992) bourgeois liberal model of the public sphere. We analyzed the class experiences with community service that emerged from students’ contributions to a database of community organizations, concept maps, and a student ‐ driven course evaluation. The outcomes of this research include a description of potentially useful course strategies and a narrative of a unique type of community ‐ service learning. Key words: community ‐ service learning, public sphere, citzenship, learning Cette recherche menee dans le cadre d’un cours d’introduction a la sociologie a l’Universite de Colombie ‐ Britannique au cours de l’annee universitaire 2001 ‐ 2002 portait sur l’apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire en tant que pedagogie et philosophie. La theorie sous ‐ jacente a cet article est tiree des critiques de Nancy Fraser (1997) au sujet du modele liberal bourgeois de la sphere publique de Jurgen Habermas (1992). Les auteurs ont analyse les experiences du service communautaire qu’ont pu vivre les etudiants a travers leurs contributions a une base de donnees d’organisations communautaires, a des cartes conceptuelles et a une evaluation du cours. Les resultats de cette recherche comprennent une description de strategies pedagogiques potentiellement utiles et un recit portant sur un type unique d’apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire Mots cles: apprentissage par l’engagement communautaire, sphere publique, citoyennete, apprentissage

Blame it on Rio: isomorphism, environmental protection and sustainability in the Olympic Movement

This article will effectively place blame on Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as it represents the latest Olympic host city to raise the stakes in matters of environmental protection and sustainability. Subject to isomorphic pressures operating within the organizational field, Bid Organizing Committees (BOCs) are encouraged to prescribe environmental programmes that are not only similar to, but are increasingly more ambitious than, previously successful bids. Rios bid, by extension, represents the latest Olympic host city that has been driven to replicate, and then expand upon, elements of environmental protection and sustainability. This article will apply a range of institutional and organizational management theories to explain why BOCs have emerged as the actor responsible for enhancing the prospect of sustainability in the Olympic Movement while the International Olympic Committees attempts at doing so have been considerably less effective.

Community capacity and the 2010 Winter Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committees (IOC) adoption of a third pillar of the environment marked the prospect of a new standard in sustainable mega-events. In this article, case study research of a community-based coalition formed to monitor the sustainability mandate of the 2010 Olympic Games offers an inside view into community capacity building in the planning, organizing and hosting of mega-events. Evidence of community capacity building was gathered from video, questionnaires and participant observations of this coalition. According to a conceptual framework of community capacity, the evidence suggests that, although a mega-events sustainability mandate is a good prospect for community capacity, precise timing, binding commitments and clear consequences for mega-event organizers are necessary for a community-based coalition to gain capacity. A generative model of the conditions for building community capacity is proposed to promote successful mega-events.

The Olympic Games Impact (OGI) study for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games: strategies for evaluating sport mega-events’ contribution to sustainability

This paper aims to contribute to a burgeoning dialogue on evaluating the sustainability of sport mega-events by introducing three strategies for implementing the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) Olympic Games Impact (OGI) study. The three techniques are bundling/leveraging, before–after control and sustainability scorecards. This paper begins by offering a twofold definition of OGI, one based on the OGI Technical Manual and one based on the author’s experience undertaking this initiative. Second, it presents and discusses the OGI critiques that exist in the sport mega-event impact literature. Although only recently implemented, critical analyses of the OGI methodology have already produced a handful of critiques. Third, the experience of applying OGI in an examination of the 2010 Games is the grounds for suggesting two new critiques. Fourth, the paper describes, using empirical data from 2010, how the OGI researchers have addressed the methodological critiques by: (1) connecting indicator data to public policy objectives; (2) positing a provisional means to create a sustainability standard; and (3) comparing changes in the indicator data in the host to non-host jurisdictions. This article would be of interest to future prospective Olympic host cities, researchers of mega-events and their impacts and practitioners who evaluate urban sustainability.