This blog was researched in Kjipuktuk and written in M’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw nation.
Dissertation by JC Gerrits
Going Down the Drain
Techno-political narratives and the remediation of pollution in
Halifax Harbour, NS, 1832-2010
Purpose of this Website
- To share my doctoral research in environmental studies.
- That research examined the socio-natural complexities surrounding the long history of pollution and the eventual cleanup of Halifax harbour, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
- The title of the blog is taken from the working title of the thesis, which has various iterations that are now irrelevant but which always contained the idea of ‘Going down the drain’
Central Argument
My central argument posits that technological path dependence and policy networks are counterparts of one another in their respective tendencies to create rigid systems that, once installed or adopted, become very difficult to alter or change direction on the chosen path. Further, the interaction between physical technologies and policies mutually reinforces this reactivity. Consequently, the impacts of technological path dependence and rigid policy networks may be evaluated as a single theory. The creation of that single theory is the central outcome of this research.
Research Problem
While the most common understanding of a ‘research problem’ in academics is that it is a synonym for a ‘thesis statement,’ I apply the idea of a research problem in another sense.
The first part of the research problem was practical, involving the disappointing grith of research materials recording the installation of the sewerage system in Halifax, NS.
As one of Canada’s oldest cities, this problem was particularly acute.
The philosophical part of the research problem constituted of how to manage a lack of research ‘materials.
There were, from a scholarly point-of-view, several ways in
which the problem could or should have been dealt with:
- Examining why a lack of materials exists;
- Re-working the research question to accommodate the lack of materials.
The first two options above reflect an a posteriori worldview that works with the available materials, maintaining a natural flexibility that is a trait of natural environments and good scholarship.
My Solution to "The Research Problem"
I outlined a perceived lack of research materials and noted my doctoral committee’s unwillingness to accept that fact.
Their refusal to allow me to develop a feasible plan for navigating a lack of material led to the collapse of my PhD process.
As research materials are a primary source of contention in my PhD process, I devote the next series of blogs to sharing a portion of that material.
Introduction:
More often than not, sewage pollution became as much a political and jurisdictional issue as a technical problem.