the Tree of Life as a Research Methodology

2005 ◽  
Vol 34 ◽  
pp. 44-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian M. Jiménez Estrada
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Indigenous Culture ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
General Overview ◽  
The World ◽  
Negative Impacts

AbstractThis paper is grounded on the premise that research, as a colonising practice, needs constant reconceptualisation and rethinking. I propose a methodology based on some of the values, visions and stories from my own Maya Indigenous culture and knowledge in addition to other Indigenous cultures across the world. I argue that researchers need to constantly acknowledge and change the negative impacts of ignoring multiple ways of knowing by engaging in respectful methods of knowledge collection and production. This paper contributes to the work Indigenous scholars have done in the area of research methodologies and knowledge production. First, a general overview of the values and concepts embedded in the Ceiba or the “Tree of Life” is presented; then, a discussion of what respectful research practices entail follows; finally, it concludes with a reflection on how the Ceiba is a small example of how researchers can adapt their research methodology to the local context.

Shifting Proximities: A Case for Global Reading in US Higher Education

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Hartwiger
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Global Education ◽  
World Literature ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Distant Reading ◽  
Global Knowledge ◽  
Global Issues ◽  
The World ◽  
Literature Class

AbstractThis article argues that US higher education knowledge production remains localized but gets disguised as global. Consequently, local ways of knowing get projected as universal and students’ worldviews are never complicated or expanded. It offers a pedagogical corrective to this trend and situates the world literature classroom as one of the primary locations that is capable of reimagining global knowledge production in U.S. universities. More specifically, the article explores the fluid movement between close and distant reading as well as the potential of Globally Networked Learning Environments (GLNE) as concrete ways of ensuring that global knowledge production is truly global in scope. Utilizing GNLEs in the world literature class provides a pedagogical model that enables critical engagement with the complexity of global issues through the study and discussion of global texts all while in a global environment. While US institutions seek to expand their global footprints, the educational experiences of students too often remain local. Ultimately, through theoretical and practical examples, the article argues that if students in the US academy are to have a truly global education, teachers and administrators must first start by reforming and transforming local sites of learning.

scholarly journals Flip Side of the Coin: Negative Socio-Economic Implications of ICT

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 168
Author(s):  
Sergey Samoilenko
Keyword(s):  
Local Context ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Economic Implications ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Positive Impacts

While positive impacts of ICT have been noted and subjected to numerous academic inquiries, the negative implications are often swept under the proverbial rug and not given much attention. The subject of the negative impacts of ICT, however, is worth considering, for such impacts are observable in a variety of economies of the world and must be dealt with. An intuitive taxonomy of problems could be created based on four dimensions: social vs. economic implications and intra-economy vs. inter-economy impacts. A set of research suggestions could offer assistance in investigating negative impacts of ICT in a rigorous and relevant to the local context manner.

Esoteric Symbolism of the ‘Tree of Life’: A Cross-cultural Perspective

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-80
Author(s):  
Relic Ratka
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Tree Of Life ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
The World ◽  
Ecstatic Experience

The article reviews about esoteric symbolism of the tree of life in shamanic cultures and oriental traditions including classical Hindu and Buddhist systems, together with various esoteric and indigenous traditions. The very idea of the tree of life, in indigenous cultures, which is often called the ‘world tree’ or ‘shamanic tree’, is connected with human illumination process in the form of mystical or ecstatic experience gained through the process of the self-realization. These various forms of mystico-religious experiences could be found in many religious traditions, considered to be cross-cultural phenomena. The author made an attempt to make a classification of chakras and energetic structure of the human body according to cross-cultural analysis of various cultures.

scholarly journals Sharing Knowledge, Transforming Societies: The Norhed Programme 2013-2020

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tor Halvorsen ◽  
Skare Orgeret ◽  
Roy Krøvel
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Capacity Development ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Local Data ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The World ◽  
The Right ◽  
Academic Content

In June 2016, the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Development in Higher Education and Research for Development (Norhed) hosted a conference on the theme of 'knowledge for development'in an attempt to shift the focus of the programme towards its academic content. This book follows up on that event. The conference highlighted the usefulness of presenting the value of Norhed's different projects to the world, showing how they improve knowledge and expand access to it through co-operation. A wish for more meta-knowledge was also expressed and this gives rise to the following questions: Is this way of co-operating contributing to the growth of independent post-colonial knowledge production in the South, based on analyses of local data and experiences in ways that are relevant to our shared future? Does the growth of academic independence, as well as greater equality, and the ability to develop theories different to those imposed by the better-off parts of the world, give rise to deeper understandings and better explanations? Does it, at least, spread the ability to translate existing methodologies in ways that add meaning to observations of local context and data, and thus enhance the relevance and influence of the academic profession locally and internationally? This book, in its varied contributions, does not provide definite answers to these questions but it does show that Norhed is a step in the right direction. Norhed is an attempt to fund collaboration within and between higher education institutions. We know that both the uniqueness of this programme, and ideas of how to better utilise the learning and experience emerging from it, call for more elaboration and broader dissemination before we can offer further guidance on how to do things better. This book is a first attempt.

scholarly journals DE USUNDE: Sundhedsantropologens møde med multisyge ældre på Lolland

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Ryborg Jønsson
Keyword(s):  
Older People ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Chronically Ill ◽  
Local Context ◽  
Health Perceptions ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Critical Awareness ◽  
The World ◽  
Inequality In Health

Alexandra Ryborg Jønsson: The Unhealthy. Anthropological Encounters with Priorities and Health Perceptions of Older People Living with Multimorbidity Based on ethnographic research among the chronically ill elderly in Lolland, the article demonstrates how “health” as a morally weighted concept is reproduced by the fieldworker. Recognition of such positionality emerges gradually throughout the author’s fieldwork, and the article shows how increasing critical awareness is reflected in the fieldwork itself. It is argued that medical anthropological studies require constant reflection on how the fieldworker produces empirical objects. Owing to this, the perspective termed “empathic research” is introduced; “empathic” refers to the anthropologist’s responsibility to make practices, experiences and narratives understood within the specific local context. The analysis stresses the need for anthropologists to remain critical towards positioning and normative groundings within the research project and seek for knowledge on how individuals are embedded within a society sat in a contextual frame of time and politics. Following this, a focus towards social inequality in health must become a commitment to engage in the world as anthropologists. The discussion establishes grounds for an empathetic way of collecting knowledge that entails an epistemological focus on situational existence. Keywords: research ethics, empathic knowledge production, fieldwork, multimorbidity, Denmark   Alexandra Ryborg Jønsson: De usunde. Sundhedsantropologens møde med multisyge ældre på Lolland Med udgangspunkt i feltarbejde blandt ældre på Lolland med flere samtidige kroniske sygdomme vises, hvordan forestillingen om sundhed som noget moralsk befæstet ubevidst reproduceres af antropologen. Erkendelsen af denne positionering kommer gradvist, og artiklen viser, hvordan en stigende kritisk bevidsthed afspejles i feltarbejdet. Der argumenteres for, at medicinsk-antropologiske studier kræver en konstant refleksion over skabelsen af det empiriske objekt. Derfor introduceres empatisk vidensproduktion som forskningsposition. Med empatisk refereres til antropologiens ansvar for at gøre lokale praksisser, erfaringer og udsagn forståelige i deres kontekst. Artiklen fremhæver antropologens forpligtelse til at forholde sig kritisk over for normative indlejringer i sit projekt og i stedet søge at skabe viden om det enkelte menneskes indlejring i og bidrag til fællesskabet set i en kontekstuel og subjektiv optik. Der argumenteres for, at et fokus på social ulighed, her i sundhed, er en forpligtelse, vi som antropologer bør tage på os og dermed bruge vores fag til at engagere os i verden. Det foreslås, at empatisk vidensproduktion som forskningsstrategi med fokus på de situationelle eksistenser kan modvirke berøringsangst over for politisk og moralsk ladede felter. Søgeord: forskningsetik, empatisk vidensproduktion, feltarbejde, multisygdom, Lolland  

Critical Pedagogy in Community Practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurie A. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Community Engagement ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Community Practice ◽  
Underrepresented Groups ◽  
Social Work Values ◽  
The World ◽  
Diverse Groups

Contemporary community engagement pedagogies require critical frameworks that facilitate diverse groups working collaboratively toward socially just outcomes. Critical frameworks acknowledge different ways of knowing and experiencing the world, as well as many means to achieve the desired outcomes. Indigenous values focused on relationship, respect, reciprocity, responsiveness, relevance, and responsibility inform key community engagement principles that are often applicable across many groups. Instructors who center Indigenous and other perspectives of groups that experience marginalization and oppression in social work curriculum are able to create community-engaged and socially just outcomes via institutional change and knowledge production efforts. Contemporary community engagement work embedded in social work values requires frameworks that are strengths based, center historically underrepresented groups working toward social justice on their own terms, and include an analysis of power, positionality, systemic causes of disparities, needed institutional changes, and critiques inclusion assumptions.

Sociology in a crisis: Covid-19 and the colonial politics of knowledge production in Aotearoa New Zealand

2020 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 693-703
Author(s):  
Simon Barber ◽  
Sereana Naepi
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
The Political ◽  
Aotearoa New Zealand ◽  
The World ◽  
Critical Edge ◽  
The University

Rather than being exceptional for Māori and Pacific Peoples, Covid-19 is the latest iteration of virulent disease that arrived with European colonisation. The various pandemics are connected; they exacerbate and intensify existing conditions of colonial inequality and injustice. The political and economic marginalisation of Māori and Pasifika within Aotearoa New Zealand ensures that Covid-19 will have disproportionate impacts upon them. Covid-19’s impacts will be felt in the academy as everywhere else. The immediate issue will be the culling of less popular ‘uneconomic’ courses, and of precarious instructors (where Māori and Pacific teachers are over-represented). Colonisation never ended. Ongoing domination is secured through the reproduction of social life, including via social institutions like the university. While sociology likes to think of itself as the critical edge, it often fails to be so in relation to its own assumptions. In order for sociology to be part of the solution, instead of simply perpetuating the problem of racism as it is wont to do, its practitioners must recognise our place in the world, must speak to our ways of knowing and being, and must validate the aspirations of Māori and Pacific communities, Māori and Pacific students and Māori and Pacific staff.

scholarly journals Schizoanalysis and collaborative critical research

Aporia ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIKA BIDDLE
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Collaborative Work ◽  
Critical Research ◽  
Deleuze And Guattari ◽  
Research Methodologies ◽  
Traditional Research ◽  
The World ◽  
The Way

    For researchers working within a critique of capitalism and its relation to knowledge production, it is problematic to use traditional research methodologies endemic to the very system being critiqued unless they are somehow altered. This article investigates the potential of schizoanalysis to provide conceptual tools for such an approach. Developed through the collaborative work of Deleuze and Guattari, schizoanalysis operates from the organic principle that knowledge is an indivisible part of the way we live in the world. However, schizoanalysis is not a research methodology; it inserts itself into research methodologies, warpsthem, and reproduces itself through them.

scholarly journals ‘Canadian Rangers: Community, Autonomy, and Sovereignty’

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 8-40
Author(s):  
Samantha Stevens
Keyword(s):  
Ways Of Knowing ◽  
Indigenous Communities ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Canadian Forces ◽  
Indigenous Cultures ◽  
The World ◽  
Full Time Employment ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Community Autonomy

Indigenous members of the Canadian Forces (CF) are an integral part of the organization, working and fighting alongside their non-Indigenous colleagues all over the world. As a non-combative sub-set of the CF, however, the Canadian Rangers are a unique branch of the Reserves that are without compare. Functioning primarily for their communities, the Rangers represent the potential for the CF to effectively work with Indigenous communities and culture, while maintaining CF operational objectives in the Arctic. This article explores how the Rangers balance the sovereignty of their communities with the aims of the CF by integrating Indigenous cultures, language, and ways of knowing into their operational and capabilities, while remaining semi-autonomous from the CF culture and hierarchy. This article concludes that while the Rangers are an example of the potential for Indigenous and Canadian partnerships, there is also an alarming disparity and inequitable access to secure full-time employment and healthcare. Moreover, Rangers face many of the same issues as those in the communities they strive to serve. Therefore, this article argues that if Canada is serious about reconciliation and creating more opportunities for Indigenous persons in the Arctic, then part of that aim should also include providing the Rangers with the same support other areas of the CF are privileged to receive.

Ethnography

2020 ◽  
pp. 328-358
Author(s):  
Anthony Kwame Harrison
Keyword(s):  
Research Methods ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Research Tradition ◽  
Field Note ◽  
Oriented Research

This chapter introduces ethnography as a distinct research and writing tradition. It opens with a discussion of ethnography’s current fashionability within transdisciplinary academic spaces and some of the associated challenges. The next section provides a historical overview of ethnography’s emergence as a professionalized research practice within the fields of anthropology and sociology. Focusing on ethnography as a research methodology, the chapter outlines several key attributes that distinguish it from other forms of participant observation–oriented research; provides a general overview of the central paradigms that ethnographers claim and/or move between; and spotlights three principal research methods that most ethnographers utilize—namely, participant observation, field-note writing, and ethnographic interviewing. The final section of the chapter introduces a research disposition called ethnographic comportment, defined as a politics of positionality that reflects both ethnographers’ awarenesses of and their accountabilities to the research tradition they participate in.

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