My research is grounded in the interdisciplinary field of ecological economics (EE), which examines the intricate relationships between human economies and natural systems. EE challenges the conventional growth-centric, individualistic economic model by situating economic activities within Earth’s finite environmental limits. This perspective is important in the context of current global challenges, such as climate change, as they are exacerbated by traditional growth-based economic practices that often overlook environmental constraints and pose significant threats to human and non-human well-being. EE focuses on solutions to these issues not only by limiting economic growth but also by emphasizing social justice and equitable distribution within economies.
My main research areas:
Click to learn more about my main areas of research.
Community-Driven Resilience in Unama’ki
Focused on identifying and amplifying local solutions, this pillar uses community-based participatory research to bridge the gap between formal government policy and grassroots action.
- Severe Weather & Prosociality: Based on a survey of over 350 residents, this research analyzes how informal support networks and community cohesion function during extreme weather events in Cape Breton.
- The Adaptation Case Book: We are currently producing over 30 vignettes documenting existing climate adaptation strategies across the island to be published as a digital and physical resource.
- Digital Mapping & Visualization: Working with student researchers, we are developing a digital map to document spatial concentrations and thematic gaps in climate readiness, guiding where new interventions are most needed.
- Collaborative Networks: Supported by a SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, this work brings together partners like ACAP Cape Breton, New Dawn, and UINR to build a full-scale partnership for long-term island resilience.
Measuring Well-being in Rural Landscapes
This research stream addresses the critical data gap in understanding the quality of life for aging populations in rural Canada. By moving beyond traditional metrics like GDP, we utilize alternative indicators to capture the true holistic health of a community.
- Homeward Bound: As the economic analysis lead for this seven-year Research Nova Scotia initiative, I model interventions that help seniors remain in their communities.
- Social Return on Investment (SROI): My work utilizes STELLA-based modeling and well-being indicator frameworks to prove how aging-in-place strategies save municipal costs while improving life satisfaction.
- The Rural Dashboard: Building on foundational work with the Rural Ontario Institute, this project is scaling into a national, publicly available Well-Being Platform providing standardized metrics for rural planning.
- JEDI & Metrics: This work integrates Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) into ecological metrics, ensuring that indicators serve as tools for social advocacy and justice.
Craft as Commons and Reclaiming the Tourism Narrative
This pillar explores alternative economies—specifically craft and tourism—as sites of resistance, renewal, and cultural continuity.
- Craft as a Commons: In collaboration with the Cape Breton Centre for Craft & Design, this research positions craft as an economic activity rooted in slow production, reciprocity, and shared knowledge.
- Sustainable Craft Video Series: We are profiling local makers through a five-part video series that blends technical process with the narrative of ecological awareness and an “ethics of care”.
- Island Tourism Governance: Through a SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant, I conduct comparative research across Mackinac Island, Fogo Island, Haida Gwaii, and the Scottish Isles.
- Reclaiming Self-Determination: This work critically examines the tension between economic development and cultural integrity, asking how peripheral islands can assert control over their own narratives and extractive tourism models.
Publications
Books
2022 Kish, K. and Quilley, S. Ecological Limits of Development: Living with the Sustainable Development Goals. Routledge. ISBN 9780367540593 https://www.routledge.com/Ecological-Limits-of-Development-Living-with-the-Sustainable-Development/Kish-Quilley/p/book/9780367540593
2019 Kish, K., Jennings, B., and Orr, C. Liberty and the Ecological Crisis: Freedom on a Finite Planet. Routledge. Url: https://www.routledge.com/Liberty-and-the-Ecological-Crisis-Freedom-on-a-Finite-Planet/Orr-Kish-Jennings/p/book/9780367346775
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
2025 Kish, K. Artisans of Resilience: Crafting’s role in community economic development in Prince Edward Island. Journal of Rural and Community Development. 20: 3. https://doi.org/10.63315/jrcd.v20i3.2528
2025 Kish, K. and Pal, K. Calculating the Biocapacity of Indigenous Land Claims
Using Geographic Information Systems. Journal of Aboriginal Economic
Development. 15: 1. https://doi.org/10.29173/jaed495
2024 Kish, K., Miller, E. Broadening Ecological Footprint and Biocapacity Research: A Co-Developed Research Agenda with Canadian Stakeholders. Journal of Ecological Economics. 227: 108403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108403
2022 Hensher, M., Kish, K. Ecological economics and health: introducing an emerging literature. The Lancet. 6:1. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00125-5
2021 Kish, K. The Current State of Ecological Footprint Research. Alternatives. 45(3).
2021 Dartnell, L., Kish, K. Do responses to the COVID-19 pandemic anticipate a long-lasting shift towards peer-to-peer production or degrowth?. The Journal of Sustainable Production and Consumption. 27:2165-2177 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.05.018
2021 Kish, K., Mallery, D. Burke, M., Larson, J., Melgar-Melgar, R., Orr, C. Sanniti, S., Smolyar, N. Fostering critical pluralism with systems theory, methods, and heuristics. Journal of Ecological Economics. 189:107171 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107171
2021 Kish, K., Farley, J. A Research Agenda for the Future of Ecological Economics by Emerging Scholars. Sustainability. 13(3): 1557 DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031557
2021 Kish, K., Zywert, K., Hensher, M., Davy, B., and Quilley, S. Socio-Ecological Systems Transformation: Lessons from COVID-19. World. 2: 15-31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/world2010002
2021 Kish, K. Commodified Attention: Social advertising’s impact on consumption and wellbeing. Alternatives. 45(3).
2020 Farley, J., Kish, K. Evolutionary Cooperation for the Next 30 Years of Ecological Economics. Ecological Economics. 190:107211 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107211
2020 Kish, K. Paying Attention: big data and social advertising as barriers to ecological change. Sustainability. 12(24): 10589. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410589
2020 Hensher, M., Kish, K., Farley, J., Quilley, S., Zywert, K. Open knowledge commons versus privatized gain in a fractured information ecology: lessons from COVID-19 for the future of sustainability. Global Sustainability. 3:E26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/sus.2020.21
2019 Kish, K. The Revolution Will Be Handmade. Solutions. 10:91-96. URL: https://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/article/revolution-will-hand-made-prince-edward-island-canada-demonstrates-power-making-local-economic-development-contexts/
2018 Kish, K. School of Thought: Green Teacher founder and veteran Tim Grant explains five trends that are transforming education. Alternatives. 43(4):66-70. https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA547075883&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12057398&p=AONE&sw=w
2017 Kish, K., Quilley, S. Wicked Dilemmas of Scale and Complexity in the Politics of Degrowth. Ecological Economics. 142:306-317. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2017.08.008
2017 Kish, K., Quilley, S. D.I.Y.: How to Put Meaning Back into Your Work. Alternatives. 43(1):46-50. URL: https://go.gale.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CA504784954&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=12057398&p=AONE&sw=w
2016 Hawreliak, J., Kish, K., Quilley, S. Finding an Alternative Route: Towards an Eco-Cyclical and Distributed Production. Journal of Peer Production. 9:1-17. URL: http://peerproduction.net/editsuite/issues/issue-9-alternative-internets/peer-reviewed-papers/finding-an-alternate-route-towards-open-eco-cyclical-and-distributed-production/
2015 Kish, K., Bunch, M., Xu, J. Soft Systems Methodology in Action: Environment, Health, and Shanghai’s Elderly. Systems Practice and Action Research. 29:61-77. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-015-9353-4
Book Chapters
2025 Kish, K. and Quilley, S. “After Modernism: Redefining Global Development in a Post-Imperial World” Conceptualizing an Alternative Political Economy of Sustainability: The Contributions of Radical Ecology and Heterodox Economics. Hermann, A. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383796
2025 Kish, K. and Quilley, S. “Pulse-Rebalance-Network: New Trajectories for Sustainable Development and Global Balance” Conceptualizing an Alternative Political Economy of Sustainability: The Contributions of Radical Ecology and Heterodox Economics. Hermann, A. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003383796
2020 Kish, K. “Work, Labour, and Regenerative Production” Sustainable Wellbeing Futures. Costanza, R., Erickson, J., Farley, J., Kubiszewski, I. Edward Elgar. 27-44.
2020 Kish, K., Bliss, S. “Ecological Economic Goals from Emerging Scholars” Sustainable Wellbeing Futures. Costanza, R., Erickson, J. D., Farley, J., Kubiszewski, I. Edward Elgar. 409-426.
2020 Kish, K. “What About My Pineapples?: The Wicked Implications of Nonlinearity, Embedded Systems, and Transformative Social Goals” Health in the Anthropocene: Living Will on a Finite Planet. Zywert, K., Quilley, S. University of Toronto Press. 140-154.
2019 Kish, K. “Reclaiming Freedom Through Prefigurative Politics” Liberty and the Ecological Crisis. Orr, C., Kish, K., Jennings, B. Routledge. 49-64.
2019 Jennings B., Kish, K., Orr, C. “The Ecological Crisis and the Future of Liberty” Liberty and the Ecological Crisis. Orr, C., Kish, K., Jennings, B. Routledge. 1 – 14.
2019 Quilley, S., Kish, K. “The Ecological Limits of the Sustainable Development Goals” Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. Dalby, S., Horton, S., Mahon, R., Thomaz, D. Routledge. 170-189.
Policy Briefs, News Articles, and Reports
2026 Kish, K. and Linden, M. Roll for Resistance: How a Fantasy Game Defended the Commons. Sufficiency and Well-Being Magazine. Jan 27. https://www.sufficiencywellbeing.com/p/roll-for-resistance-how-a-fantasy?utm_medium=email
2025 Kish, K. The Revolution Will be Hand-spun: Craft as Degrowth Practice. Sufficiency and Well-Being Magazine. July 6. https://www.sufficiencywellbeing.com/p/the-revolution-will-be-hand-spun
2021 Kish, K. Victor, P., Miller, E., Bunch, M., Milnes, M. Ecological Footprint Knowledge Synthesis Report. https://footprint.info.yorku.ca/canada_carrying_capacity/
2020 Kish, K. Toward Degrowth Production. Journal of Peer Production. Submitted.2020 Kish, K. Guelph Green’s Statement to the City of Guelph – Adopting the Doughnut Economy Model. Guelph Greens.