Blog

July 21, 2022 -- What good is urban agriculture?

July 21, 2022- Jake Hawes

Is urban ag environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable? Rao et al. set out to answer this. In their global review of urban ag case studies, they identify six predominant sustainability themes. In the end, they conclude that the relationship between urban ag and sustainability is anything but black and white, and their insights highlight the importance of continued study of this growing urban land use.

June 23, 2022 -- Welcome to Industrial Ecology!

June 23, 2022- Jake Hawes

Last week I attended the 2022 Industrial Ecology Gordon Research Conference - and it was a whirlwind introduction to the industrial ecology community. Since the GRC is a closed-doors conference, I can't share much of the exciting work that was presented, but I can offer my reactions to a very busy, very exciting week in Maine.

June 13, 2022 -- FEW-meter final report published

June 13, 2022- Jake Hawes

For the last three years, I've been the research assistant managing the University's of Michigan's participation in the international FEW-meter project. Last month, the final report from that project went live. In addition to sharing that report, I want to take this opportunity to revisit that project and discuss how it has influenced me as a scholar. Let's dive in.

June 6, 2022 -- Detroit gardens paper featured at WDET

June 6, 2022- Jake Hawes

Really excited to share that our recent analysis of the distribution of urban gardens in Detroit was featured by WDET last week. This was my first radio interview for a publication, and Pat was great to chat with. I'm really pleased with how this turned out and hopeful that the attention this paper is garnering will influence decision makers to more equitable gardening in Detroit.

https://wdet.org/2022/06/02/urban-gardens-dont-lead-to-gentrification-in-detroit-study-says/

May 29, 2022 -- Where are Detroit's gardens? Who has access to them?

May 29, 2022- Jake Hawes

Detroit is, in many ways, synonymous with the modern urban agriculture movement. Since Pingree's potato patches, Detroit has had a vibrant local food culture, and in the second half of the twentieth century, that gardening culture became an important part of Black resilience in the city. As Detroit has reemerged on the national scene, though, the narrative around urban agriculture has also changed. Instead of a local, community-driven force by neighbors, for neighbors, Detroit has become the "next great frontier" - a moniker that has led modern "settlers" to look to co-opt urban lands for new gardens. In the wake of this new age of urban gardening in the city, what does the distribution of Detroit's gardens look like? Who has access to them? And is gardening driving another great change in Detroit - gentrification? (blog cont.)

May 22, 2022 -- What is gentrification? Can we measure it?

May 22, 2022- Jake Hawes

Ahead of our forthcoming research in Detroit studying green gentrification and urban gardening, here's my first blog post summarizing an important topic in the fields of sustainability and urban geography. What is this thing called gentrification that cities and newspapers are always talking about? How do geographers study it? And what does it have to do with gardens? (blog cont.)

April 18, 2022 -- Rackham Newsletter Feature

Apr. 18, 2022- Jake Hawes

My interview with Voters Not Politicians made it to the desks of Rackham's communication team last week, and they decided to run their own version cataloging our work to evaluate VNP's efforts.

April 5, 2022 -- VNP Newsletter Feature

Apr. 05, 2022- Jake Hawes

This semester I'm working with Voters Not Politicians to evaluate their work with Communities of Interest during Michigan's redistricting process. We're planning to publish several reports on lessons learned and best practices for engagement around redistricting - both for work with Communities of Interest and public education more generally. The organization decided to highlight this in their newsletter this month - check it out!

https://votersnotpoliticians.com/our-evaluation-program-the-um-fellow-thats-helping-us-put-it-all-together/

Feb. 03, 2022 -- Resilience engineering - what can we learn from social-ecological resilience?

Feb. 03, 2022- Jake Hawes

What can we learn about designing for resilience from principles developed in the study of social-ecological resilience? - https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13494 (blog cont.)

Jan. 13, 2022 -- Global Service-Learning - How do we create courses where communities benefit as much as students?

Jan. 13, 2022- Jake Hawes

How do you design international service-learning projects to foster the best outcomes in partner communities? That's the question we tackle in our new open-access paper in the International Journal of Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement - https://doi.org/10.37333/001c.31383 (blog cont.)

Jan. 6, 2022 -- Farmer Vulnerability to Irrigation Water Loss in the American West

Jan. 06, 2022- Jake Hawes

New semester, new paper! Our article studying farmer vulnerability to irrigation water loss is in print. An exciting output from my MS work with Dr. Zhao Ma and co-authors Dr. Morey Burnham, Dr. Meg du Bray, Dr. Vicken Hillis, and Dr. Trina Running. Link: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01586-4 (blog cont.)