Ralph Matthews, University of British Columbia
Professor
Sociology
Vancouver, British Columbia
ralphm@interchange.ubc.ca
Office:
(604) 822-4386
Expert In
Bio/Research
Dr. Matthews' primary research interests focus on the relationship between social change and economic development at a community and regional level, and in assessing the ways in which public policy influences that relationship. In that research area he has published five books including, Communit...
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Bio/Research
Dr. Matthews' primary research interests focus on the relationship between social change and economic development at a community and regional level, and in assessing the ways in which public policy influences that relationship. In that research area he has published five books including, Communities in Decline; There's No Better Place Than Here; The Creation of Regional Dependency; and Controlling Common Property. He has also published nearly 100 research papers. Dr. Matthews has also on-going research interests related to the sociology of health and the sociology of science. In this general area he has conducted research and published on: the social aspects of infertility and infertility treatment; social capital and blood donation; issues of risk perception and the social constructions of knowledge and the environment related to finfish aquaculture; and the social aspects of climate change adaptation.
Dr. Matthews' current research focuses primarily around issues of social capital, community resilience, sustainable resource development, blood donation and climate change. He is the Principal Investigator of the Resilient Communities Project (funded by SSHRC), that is examining the relationship between social capital, community resilience, and economic development in coastal British Columbia communities (see www.resilientcommunitiesproject.ca). He is also Principal Investigator of the Coastal Communities Project (www.coastalcommunitiesproject.ca) a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) project (also funded by SSHRC) that is working with, and providing research capacity to, six civic communities and their adjacent First Nations in coastal British Columbia. In addition, Dr. Matthews leads several other research projects including: the C5 Project (funded by NRCan) dealing with the Co-Management of Climate Change in Coastal Communities (www.coastalclimatechange.ca): the Canadian Blood Donor Research Project (funded by the Bayer Partnership Fund) that is examining the social capital basis of blood donation in Canada; and, the City of Whitehorse - Climate Change and Institutional Adaptive Capacity Project, funded through the Climate Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions (CAVIAR) research network based at the University of Oslo and International Polar Year (IPY).
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Dr. Matthews' current research focuses primarily around issues of social capital, community resilience, sustainable resource development, blood donation and climate change. He is the Principal Investigator of the Resilient Communities Project (funded by SSHRC), that is examining the relationship between social capital, community resilience, and economic development in coastal British Columbia communities (see www.resilientcommunitiesproject.ca). He is also Principal Investigator of the Coastal Communities Project (www.coastalcommunitiesproject.ca) a Community-University Research Alliance (CURA) project (also funded by SSHRC) that is working with, and providing research capacity to, six civic communities and their adjacent First Nations in coastal British Columbia. In addition, Dr. Matthews leads several other research projects including: the C5 Project (funded by NRCan) dealing with the Co-Management of Climate Change in Coastal Communities (www.coastalclimatechange.ca): the Canadian Blood Donor Research Project (funded by the Bayer Partnership Fund) that is examining the social capital basis of blood donation in Canada; and, the City of Whitehorse - Climate Change and Institutional Adaptive Capacity Project, funded through the Climate Adaptation and Vulnerability in Arctic Regions (CAVIAR) research network based at the University of Oslo and International Polar Year (IPY).
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