Identity and memory as resilience: Applications of liberation psychology in a rural Maya Achi community

2022 ◽  
pp. 136346152110673
Author(s):  
Heidi Mitton

This study sought to understand interpretations of interconnections between historical trauma, contemporary violence, and resilience in a Maya Achi community currently engaged in promoting peace and social change through popular education. In particular, the ways in which participants drew upon identity and memory in articulating characteristics of community distress and resilience are discussed. The research is informed by liberation psychology and critical perspectives of mental health, particularly considering the challenges inherent in the promotion of collective memory of trauma and resistance in contexts of violence and humanitarian settings. Participant reflections on historical and contemporary violence highlight elements of collective distress, connecting identity and memory with acts of both oppression and resistance. Education and development are signaled as possible sites of resilience but also experienced as sites of power upholding the status quo. Diverse experiences and applications of identity and memory provide insight into the ways in which community organizations working in contexts of political violence might navigate polarizing and paradoxical discourses in order to subvert, co-opt, or adapt to hegemonic cultural, political, and economic power relations in the process of transformation for collective resilience.

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 596-608
Author(s):  
Ahmed Mansoor ◽  
Manu Luksch

In May 2016, artist, researcher and activist, Manu Luksch, travelled to the United Arab Emirates (USE) to conduct research on ‘smart city’ initiatives in the region, and also to interview renowned human rights defender, Ahmed Mansoor. In March 2017, Mansoor was re-arrested, and on May 28th 2017, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment. Organisations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many others are campaigning for his release and #FreeAhmed has become a call online and on the streets in the form of graffiti and posters. Meanwhile the UAE has been one of 4 Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia, who have extended their authoritarian campaign against dissidence beyond their borders to target other states who they regard as threatening the status quo, in particular the small but very wealthy state of Qatar, home of the Al-Jazeera news network that has, like Mansoor, championed opposition movements in the Middle-East. In this context, Surveillance & Society decided it was important to publish this interview almost in full as it gives unique insight into the personal and professional experience of a human rights defender in an authoritarian state that is at the same time extremely wealthy, technologically advanced and highly integrated into global capitalism.


2019 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 209-212
Author(s):  
Phillip Joy ◽  
Brandon Gheller ◽  
Daphne Lordly

Purpose: In Canada, few men are dietitians. Literature is sparse regarding why so few men are drawn to dietetics. This study, part of a larger qualitative study, explores the experiences of men who are dietitians throughout their training and careers using a phenomenology framework. The study examines the meanings participants make about dietetics in relation to recruitment.Methods: Semi-structured individual interviews with 6 men who are dietitians were completed, transcribed, and analyzed.Results: An overarching theme, “experiences and outcomes of a gendered profession”, was related to the participants’ perspectives concerning recruitment into the dietetic profession. Four sub-themes are reported: (i) societal gender division, (ii) gender division within the profession, (iii) isolation from men who are mentors and other men, and (iv) the need to deconstruct and change. The results provide insight into recruitment barriers and potential approaches for increasing the number of men within dietetics, including changing the perceptions of the profession, increasing role models for men, and dismantling gendered practices.Conclusion: Participants believed that increasing men within dietetics would be beneficial and would increase diversity. It is unlikely that recruitment of men will increase if the status quo and gender norms of the profession are not disrupted and challenged.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sujit Raghunathrao Jagadale ◽  
Djavlonbek Kadirov ◽  
Debojyoti Chakraborty

The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
SR Jagadale ◽  
Djavlonbek Kadirov ◽  
D Chakraborty

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.


Author(s):  
Svetlana Feigin ◽  
Richard Glynn Owens ◽  
Felicity Goodyear-Smith

This study explored personal experiences of animal rights and environmental activists in New Zealand. The stories of participants provided insight into the challenges activists face in a country where the economy is heavily dependent on animal agriculture. A qualitative methodology was utilised and several major themes emerged: (1) emotional and psychological experiences, (2) group membership, (3) characteristics of activism and liberation, (4) the law and its agents, and (5) challenge to society. Participants of the study represent a group of individuals engaged in acts of altruistic offending triggered by exposure to the suffering of non-human animals. Their moral philosophy and conscience overrode all considerations for legal repercussions, and through their activism they not only challenged the status quo, but also called upon non-activist members of society to make meaningful contributions to the world around them.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Gilmour

The Bible is ubiquitous in pop and rock music of the 1960s through to the present. This is surprising given that the art forms subsumed under these catchall categories are typically oppositional in nature. They resist the status quo and are often antiestablishment in posture, and by their very nature inclined to push back against the conservative values and authoritarian tendencies of organized religion. This chapter examines reasons why biblical and religious language is so persistent a feature in the popular music of recent decades, emphasizing the collective memory of the biblical story among songwriters and their audiences and the fragmentary nature of these “readings” of sacred texts and traditions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (9) ◽  
pp. 81
Author(s):  
Amandeep Kaur ◽  
Garima Gupta ◽  
Kanishka Anon

Author(s):  
Andria D. Timmer ◽  
Máté Erős

AbstractThe segregated nature of education for the Hungarian Roma has been well-documented. Solutions to overcoming this segregation are often focusing on adding education interventions tailored to Roma youth. We argue that although education can be empowering, it can also be used as a tool to maintain the status quo. Education is dualistic and paradoxical in that it can both empower and enslave. In this chapter we use a philosophical lens to examine how the dualistic nature of education and humans can cause impediments to equal access to quality education for the Hungarian Roma. We identify some of the real obstacles to providing education to Hungarian Roma and disadvantaged youth, outline the philosophical underpinnings of these obstacles, and propose potential solutions. We use a school that has had success in providing educational tools for Roma and disadvantaged youth, MÁV School in Budapest, as a model to explain both the paradoxes and the solutions to overcome these paradoxes. Our goal is to provide insight into the educational situation for the Hungarian Roma and to make space for the reader to implement different attitudes and strategies to succeed in creating a sustainable model of education for Roma and other marginalized youth.


Cough ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kefang Lai ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Guangqiao Zeng ◽  
Nanshan Zhong

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
SR Jagadale ◽  
Djavlonbek Kadirov ◽  
D Chakraborty

© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017. The subaltern quandary refers to the failure of a fast-growing economy to improve the abysmal living conditions of marginalized groups. To gain a better insight into this issue, we investigate the subaltern group’s experiences of marketing systems in the context of neo-liberal reforms in rural India. The qualitative analysis of subaltern narratives shows that subaltern experiences are shaped by marketization processes that imbue market relations with new stylized meanings of dignity. Despite these meanings perpetuating limited and distorted constructions, subalterns use them, exemplified in their attempts to minimize their perceived dissimilarity to other marketing system actors, in order to gain access to predominant, albeit flawed, marketing systems. Thus, the status quo is rarely challenged. This research suggests that the subaltern quandary can only be resolved when market development initiatives take human worth as a main goal, while subalterns are empowered with market system creation, design and governance capabilities.


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