Mexico

About ACCES : Academic and Community Cooperation for Environmental Sustainability

Mission: Environmental Sustainability and Social Justice

Working towards environmental sustainability and social justice requires the commitment, skills, action and cooperation of many sectors of society. ACCES' objectives are based on the conviction that participatory research between academic researchers and community groups can be a valuable tool for facilitating environmental and social change. ACCES is a non-profit organization dedicated to encourage and strengthen academic-community partnerships based on collaborative research for action.

Objectives:

1. To provide forums for academics and community groups to jointly explore the challenges and opportunities for collaboration and find processes, tools and practices that support it.
2. To provide support to academic-community partnerships in the practice of popular education and participatory research.
3. To increase the capacity of researchers in the practice and theory of applied and participatory research.
4. To carry out participatory research projects that contribute to environmental sustainability and social justice.

History:

ACCES' history goes back to 1996 when the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at McGill established a partnership with a Mexican environmental popular education group, GEMA

(Grupo de Educación para el Medio ambiente). This partnership was financed by the Canadian Development Research Agency (CIDA). The joint initiative had ACCES as its name and its main objective was to develop a process for integrating scientific information and environmental popular education with the purpose of strengthening community based environmental decision-making. The CIDA funded project came to an end in 1999, however some of the researchers involved in this initiative continued to work as a QPIRG working group with the objective of sharing their learning experience and supporting researchers and community groups in their partnership adventures. In 2002 ACCES became an independent group.

Coordinating Committee

Gisela Frias

My name is Gisela and I have been a member of ACCES since its beginnings in 1996. I was one of its founding members. I completed a Bachelor of Arts (Economics and Political Science) from the University of Western Ontario in 1994. Wanting to expand and deepen my knowledge I later pursued a Masters in Public Policy and Public Administration at Concordia University with a focus on international political economy. The title of my Master's thesis was "The Growth of a Myth: a Case Study of Chile's accession to the North American Free trade Agreement", a study of the Chilean neo-liberal economic model. In 1997 I enrolled in a Ph. D. program at McGill. At this point of my academic life I was looking to explore qualitative and participatory research methodologies. For my Ph.D. dissertation I carried out research in Mexico, in the forest community of Huitzilac, looking at issues of community based environmental decision-making.
During 2002 I received the IDRC Internship award. I worked with IDRC's Minga Initiative carrying out research on indigenous peoples and the environment. I was fortunate to be given the opportunity to design a participatory research project in collaboration with Mapuche communities in Chile. ACCES is for me a means to share my interest and experience in participatory research and popular education. It is a forum to continue to learn and share with other individuals also passionate about social justice, environmental sustainability and research as a tool for change.
- See C.V.

Kathy Lesperance

Thom Meredith

Dr. Thom Meredith is a geography professor at McGill University. For a detailed description of his interests and activities please see his web site.

Beatriz Oliver

I have participated in ACCES since 1997 when I began a M.A. thesis (Department of Anthropology, McGill) based on collaborative research with the Grupo de Educación para el Medio Ambiente, a Mexican popular education group that had a partnership with ACCES. Later, I entered into PhD work following the same research interests; in popular education, social movements, environmental knowledge, and ideas about development.
I am writing my dissertation about the emerging collaboration between environmental organizations and small-scale farmers in Uruguay, and the proposals for agricultural sustainability which are being proposed as a result of this exchange. The research project is linked to a non-governmental organization in Uruguay, the Red de Ecología Social (REDES), and a program called “Uruguay Sustentable” (Sustainable Uruguay). For more information, please see Partnerships.
Through ACCES, I have been encouraged by colleagues to engage in participatory action research. It is challenging but very rewarding. Response from ACCES events indicates a high level of interest from academics and community organizations to improve collaborative research. The university is a source of information and energy the latter can tap into, while an important benefit for academics is in the increased utility of their research.

Brian Sarwer-Foner

I have been involved with ACCES since September, 2001, as a collaborator and presenter for the participatory research workshop series, "Bridging Community and University: Research Tools for Social Justice and Environmental Sustainability". I am currently a PhD candidate in Communications at McGill University. My research involves collaborative work with the Anishnabe (Algonquin) native family community Kokomville, in La Verendrye Park, concerning conserving forest ecosystem integrity and traditional lifestyles while harmonizing industrial forestry practices to respect and meet these essential needs. My research also involves tracking the evolution of the environmental movement in Quebec and the convergence of networks for forest stewardship and protecting the Boreal forests. I first became a practitioner of PAR in 1995 at the beginning of my MSc research project, "Strategies of Canadian Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations for Protecting Biodiversity: A Participatory Action Research Study", which received funding from Environment Canada. My BSc is in Biology from McGill University. I am the proud father of two children and I play sax and clarinet as a passionate hobby. I have been a teaching assistant for many courses in the McGill School of Environment (MSE) and taught a Special Topics seminar course for the MSE in Fall 2003,"Building Change Through Sustainable Communities", which engaged an excited and dedicated group of top-notch students in a collaborative learning process geared at designing the community structure for the McGill Urban Community Sustainment (MUCS) project.

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