Janice Astbury

Buenos Aires

Janice Astbury is a Research Associate at the University of Sheffield where she is working on the Breathing Infrastructures project undertaking action research related to green infrastructure, air quality, wellbeing and connecting schools with urban nature in Buenos Aires. Prior to this, she led Participatory City’s Participation Frameworks and Narratives research, working with a team to conduct and analyse in-depth interviews with residents of Barking and Dagenham (London) who participate in Every One Every Day in order to understand their various pathways and outcomes, and use these findings to reflect on the program model and adjust approaches as required. This followed work with the University of Manchester on Learning Loops in the Public Realm (LOOPER) which brought together residents, neighbourhood organisations and local government in a social learning process to identify and understand challenges (i.e. air quality, traffic safety, neighbourhood greening) and co-design interventions to be tested and collectively evaluated for longer term or larger scale implementation. She also worked with Durham University conducting a case study of Nature-Based Solutions to water challenges in Mexico City within the EU project NATURVATION and case studies of community engagement in low-carbon transition in London and maker spaces in Sheffield within the EU project Governance of Urban Sustainability Transitions through Urban Living Labs (GUST). This follows or parallels a series of other projects involving co-produced research with community organizations and local government in Edinburgh, London and Manchester, including PhD research in the latter culminating in a thesis entitled ‘Inviting Landscapes: resilience through engaging citizens with urban nature’. Prior to shifting more toward academic research, Janice spent two decades developing and managing national and international programmes to support community-based initiatives from within organizations like Canada’s McConnell Foundation and the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (Canada, Mexico, US). Janice has also been an educator in many different contexts, as well as a lifelong active citizen.