Ph.D. Research Profile: Siti Mazwin Kamaruddin
Developing a framework using social learning approach towards sustainability: Case study :Solid waste management under LA21 programme Malaysia
Contact Details:
Room: 402
Telephone: +64 3 364-2987, ext: 8839
Email: smk45@student.canterbury.ac.nz
Mail: Department of Geography,
University of Canterbury,
Private Bag 4800,
Christchurch 8140, New Zealand
Education
BSc. Urban and Regional Planning ( ECU North Carolina USA)
MSc. Planning (USM Penang, Malaysia)
Research Overview
The aim of my research is to develop a framework of best practice in sustainable solid waste management focusing on community and other stakeholders’ involvement. This research is proposed to find alternative solutions to solid waste management issues that differ from conventional technical approaches. Solid waste continues to be generated daily and with the increase comes the pressure to collect, treat and dispose of waste. This situation puts further pressure on the capacity of current landfills in Malaysia to store the waste. Incinerators have been proposed to treat waste but the environmental impacts associated with this kind of treatment facility add to other social and environmental issues such as deteriorating of health and pollution to the atmosphere.
An approach that is currently being applied in places like India and Africa that involves the community to reduce, reuse and recycle waste in order to meet the goal of zero waste is applying the concept of social learning or learning by the society. This approach is derived form the theories of organisational, behavioural and collective learning. This approach also acknowledges that communities should interact, participate and strategise towards decision making of a natural resource or environmental management. This can actually affect towards transformation of communities behaviour towards sustainability. This transformation of sustainable behaviour is complemented with actions to become more aware of the responsibilities of every individual in the community towards a sustainable management of the environment.
In this research, a social learning approach will be investigated towards achieving more efficient solid waste management. For this research it is important to obtain the views of stakeholders about solid waste management practices in daily life, especially on recycling, reducing and reusing waste It is also important to obtain their views about sustainability and how they think communities can collectively move towards sustainability in solid waste management. The method to obtain primary data about stakeholders’ perception is by conducting household surveys, and expert interviews. Workshops will be organised and focus group will be invited to discuss current issues regarding solid waste management and their discussions will be recorded and observed. This is necessary to evaluate what learning has occurred, when it has occurred and how it occurred. Secondary data in the form of archive documents, media reports, minutes and communities log book with records of past discussions and decision or policy making will be analysed to evaluate how the process of learning by the stakeholders help them to derive towards decision making and if any sustainable actions were implemented. A model based on best practice guide using this approach in solid waste management will be developed. It has to suit the concept of sustainability within the Malaysian social, cultural and political context.
Recent Publications
Kamaruddin, S. M. (2010). Factors that Influence Urban Secondary Students’ Recycling Participation in Selangor, Malaysia.The International Journal of Learning, Volume 17 (6), 215-230.
Supervisors
Professor Eric Pawson
University of Canterbury
Assoc. Prof. Simon Kingham
University of Canterbury