ID: 2144
Presenting Author: Anna Kessler
Session: 681 - Gender and Intersectional Analysis in IA: Showcasing theory and practice
Status: pending
Understanding what is getting in the way of intersectional Gender Based Analysis Plus in project Impact Assessments in Canada - and how to do better - through institutional ethnography.
Federal impact assessments (IA) in Canada apply Gender Based Analysis (GBA) Plus to examine the potential effects of major projects on diverse populations. Supports exist for IA practitioners, from federally published training, policy, and guidance to theoretical and applied academic research; however, challenges remain with actually delivering robust analysis, let alone creating emancipatory outcomes (as intersectional theory and practice intends). During a time of rapidly evolving IA in Canada, including a Supreme Court of Canada reference case declaring much of the original Impact Assessment Act unconstitutional and an election in 2025 that brought in promises of even faster approvals, exploring the gap between theory and practice for GBA Plus can elucidate the very reasons for this gap’s existence, and ways forward. Using institutional ethnography, including analysis of interview and textual data, this research focuses on the work of, and systems affecting, the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada. I seek understand to what makes it so challenging to do good GBA Plus in project-specific IA, and how can we practically overcome these challenges. Early findings suggest that GBA Plus in IA also exists at an intersection - of methodological confusion, pro-industry culture, efficiency narratives, colonial constructs, project-focused myopia, and capacity. Emerging “solutions” range from incremental tools to wholescale shifts, prompting important discussions about how best to do right by / with the simultaneously vulnerable and resilient populations affected by development.
PhD Candidate in Environmental Sociology at the University of Alberta's Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology; IA practitioner of 15 years with the Government of Canada.