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Dalhousie Killam Lecture Series 07/08 Resilient Communities: Envisioning and Acting for Sustainable Futures – Clive Doucet, Jan.30

Monday, January 28, 2008 : Halifax, Nova Scotia

The decisions we make today about the character and form of our communities shape options for generations in the future. Will our descendants look back as they celebrate a millennium of urban life in Canada and thank us for our choices? Will our communities still be thriving and healthy? Perceptions of insecurity, a growing gap between north and south and rich and poor, a rise in new diseases and a resurgence in established ones, climate change, and environmental devastation are a few of the challenges facing contemporary communities.

Through this year’s Killam Lecture Series, Resilient Communities: Envisioning and Acting for Sustainable Futures, we will explore what it takes to create resilient and sustainable communities and to build the political will to respond to contemporary challenges. Each of the speakers will address this theme from three perspectives: learning from the past, evaluating the present, and envisioning the future.

Ottawa City Councillor and author/poet Clive Doucet, the second lecturer in this series, will speak on Wednesday Jan. 30 at 7pm in the Potter Auditorium in the Dalhousie University Rowe Management Building (6100 University Avenue, reception to follow). Throughout his ten-year period in office, Councillor Doucet has shown a commitment to sustainable development with tangible results. Doucet’s most recent non-fiction publication, Urban Meltdown: Cities, Climate Change and Politics as Usual, addresses issues of urban mismanagement, environmental change, political inaction, and the need to build sustainable communities. In his book, Doucet asks the question, ‘Why do we keep making the same mistakes over and over when we really should know better?’ Through his political and published work Doucet has gained a reputation as an activist fighting to change the way we build our cities.

“Over the next century our communities will face many challenges: natural, social, political, and technological,” explains Jill Grant, Director of Dalhousie’s School of Planning. “The ones that are most resilient throughout these challenges will be the ones that remain healthy and sustainable. Everyone has an interest in healthy and resilient communities, and all of us will play a role in making decisions that will help keep our city viable in the future. We can learn a great deal from these speakers.”

The last speaker in the series, Randolph Hester, landscape architect/professor/urban designer, presents on February 12. This year’s series is hosted by the Dalhousie Faculty of Architecture and Planning. More information on the series is available at: http://architectureandplanning.dal.ca/current_events/killam.shtml

Media inquiries, contact:
Amber Nicol, Lecture Coordinator/Lecturer, Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Dalhousie University, ph: (902) 494-1378 or (902) 494-3260, email: amber.nicol@dal.ca