Membership Category
- Regular
Institution
- Université du Québec à Montréal - UQAM
Discipline(s)
- Human Geography
- Urban Studies
Expertises
- Regional development
- Urban and regional economy
- Urban studies
- Evaluation of programs, projects and policies
- Circular cities and regions
- Urban indicators of sustainable development
Biography
Juste Rajaonson is a geographer and professor at the Université du Québec à Montréal's École des sciences de la gestion, where he teaches sustainable development in management. A former federal public servant with the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the Regions of Quebec, his current research interests lie at the intersection of public policy evaluation and urban and regional sustainability. In the field of circular economics, he is beginning a research project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada on urban and regional conditions conducive to various circularity strategies, as well as two partnership projects with the City of Montreal and the City of Victoriaville.
Affiliated research axes
Change and Transition Management
Planning Optimization
Resource and Product Maximization
Policy levers
Projects funded by the RRECQ
Co-construction of a local understanding of the circular economy: vision, assessment and governance in Saint-Hyacinthe
Description
The project examines the CE vision, governance and practices at a municipal level.
It focuses on three key CE sectors: food, energy (including transportation) and waste (Keblowski et al 2020). Two key research issues are raised:
- How do stakeholders understand CE as a concept and what is their understanding of CE practices and assessment in a city and region like Saint-Hyacinthe?
- How is CE governed and practiced by different political and social stakeholders?
The questions will be explored from the perspectives of the concepts of the socio-technological vision and the governance of the socioecological transition.
Themes
- Agri-food
- Energy
- Governance
- Public policy
- Territory
Circular cities and regions in Canada: exploratory analysis of policy instruments and territorial and political-administrative conditions inherent in various circularity strategies
Description
This project is led within the context of the latest report by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement, entitled L’état des lieux et la gestion des résidus ultimes, which identifies circular economy as the first strategy to implement to reduce ultimate waste in Québec.
Based on an approach rooted in urban geography and political science, it aims to develop operationalizable tools for the design and implementation of area circular economy initiatives by local and regional governments. With these tools, cities will not only be able to identify optimal areas of excellence adapted to their particular territorial contexts but also target public interventions (e.g., zoning) to create conditions conducive to the circularity initiatives they seek to set in motion.
The project explores the key question of the processes, policies and instruments that could enable cities and regions to design and deploy circular economy policies tailored to their spatial and socio-economic contexts.
Themes
- Governance
- Public policy
- Territory
