scholarly journals «Det er så koselig her at jeg tar av meg skoene»: Om betydningen av sted i en flerkulturell barne- og ungdomsfestival

Author(s):  
Elin Sæther ◽  
Joke Dewilde ◽  
Ole Kolbjørn Kjørven ◽  
Thor-André Skrefsrud

In this article, we explore how children and youth participating in a multicultural festival in Norway construct space and place. Such events respond to the call to action for reducing prejudice and stereotypes, and they aim to promote inclusion, participation and community. Nonetheless, researchers have criticized such events for instead promoting categorical understandings of cultural identities; as such, some researchers regard multicultural festivals as counterproductive to the aim of promoting inclusion. However, previous research has directed scarce attention to the participants’ perspective, in particular viewpoints of children and youth. Inspired by perspectives on spatial justice (Soja, 1996, 2010), we interpret young people’s experiences and meaning making while attending a multicultural festival. We collected data through an app, which allowed us to conduct structured interviews with children and youths on site. The findings bring out the significance of space and place when interpreting young people’s participation and meaning making at such events. We conclude the article by reflecting on the potential of perspectives on space and place to nuance an often one-sided criticism of multicultural events.

Dementia ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 147130122110320
Author(s):  
Dovrat Harel ◽  
Tova Band-Winterstein ◽  
Hadass Goldblatt

Background Hypersexuality is one of the behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia. This symptom can lead to poor quality of life for the person who lives with dementia, as well as for his or her caregiver, who might be exposed to sexual assault. Aim This study aimed to highlight the experience of an older woman living and coping with a spouse who exhibits dementia-related hypersexuality. Method A narrative case-study of a single case was designed, composed of four semi-structured interviews conducted over a 10-month period. The data were analyzed through thematic, structural, and performance analysis. Findings Four phases were revealed, depicting the experience of being a partner and caregiver of a spouse with dementia-related hypersexuality: a) “I need help”: A distress call; b) “It depends how long I agree to go on with it”: Living with the ambiguous reality of dementia-related hypersexual behavior within an ongoing intimate relationship; c) “It’s as if I’m hugging someone who’s no longer alive”: The transition from the previous couplehood identity to a new couplehood identity; and d) “I am just taking care of him as if he is a child”: A compassionate couplehood identity construction. Conclusions Living with a partner with dementia-related hypersexuality is a distressing experience for the caregiver-spouse. Yet, positive memories from a long intimate relationship can lead to the creation of a compassionate identity, which supports the caregiving process, and creates a sense of acceptance and meaning making. This, in turn, enables a positive aging experience. These finding have some practical implications for supporting and intervening in such cases.


2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110219
Author(s):  
Aiala Szyfer Lipinsky ◽  
Limor Goldner

Studies dealing with the experiences of non-offending mothers from the general population and minority groups after their child’s disclosure of sexual abuse are scarce, and studies on mothers from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community are non-existent. This study takes an initial step in filling this gap by exploring how the normalization of sexual abuse shapes these mothers’ experiences. A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted on a sample of 21 mothers from the ultra-Orthodox sector whose children had been sexually abused. It consisted of in-depth, semi-structured interviews of the mothers followed by a drawing task on their experience. The analysis of the interviews yielded four central themes: the role of social stigmatization and religion on the mother’s ability to share her child’s abuse; the effect of the disclosure on the mothers’ mental state and maternal competency; the mothers’ ongoing experience in the shadow of this unprocessed/unresolved trauma; and the mothers’ coping strategies, including acceptance, faith, and meaning making. The findings highlight the influence of the tension between the need to adhere to religious norms and preserve the social fabric and the need to enhance mothers’ and children’s well-being.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 728-728
Author(s):  
H Shellae Versey

Abstract Homelessness is a reality for a growing number of Americans living in small towns and rural areas. However, unlike in cities, housing instability may be less visible. Using a photo-elicitation method (i.e., Photovoice), this study explores the meaning of place and obscured visibility to currently and formerly homeless older adults living in a small town in central Connecticut. Participants (N = 27) were recruited from a local service agency, given cameras and asked to photograph areas around town that were meaningful to them. Photographs were developed and followed by in-person, semi-structured interviews with participants in which photos and experiences during the project were discussed. Primary themes included belonging, generativity, social isolation, and place-making as meaning-making. The study culminated in a community photography exhibition in which photographs from the project were displayed in public spaces around town. Implications for community-based interventions to reach homeless groups in rural areas are discussed. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Qualitative Research Interest Group.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Latesha Murphy-Edwards ◽  
Kate van Heugten

This article reports on the qualitative phase of mixed method research conducted in a medium-size city in New Zealand, which examined 14 parents’ experiences of child- and youth-perpetrated domestic property violence (DPV). The research used semi-structured interviews and interpretative phenomenological analysis, enabling parents’ perceptions of the causes and impacts of this form of family violence to be explored in depth. Three superordinate themes were identified in the analysis: damage done, the various impacts of DPV; staying safe and sane; and making sense of DPV, parents’ perspectives. An ecological meaning-making theory emerged from the data and provided an overarching interpretative framework for considering the themes both separately and together. The findings showed that DPV is a distinct form of parent abuse and one that can have serious impacts of a financial, emotional, and relational nature. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed along with ideas for further research into this problem.


Teachers Work ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1and2) ◽  
pp. 10-26
Author(s):  
Janette Patricia Kelly-Ware

Socially relevant curriculum and the importance of opening up spaces for negotiation and meaning making to occur are increasingly common ideas in my academic writing. This article reports on student teachers making meaning in an online discussion forum in the aftermath of the terrorist massacre at Christchurch mosques in Aotearoa New Zealand last year. Dominant discourses and critical questions are highlighted for teachers in early childhood and tertiary education settings about religion, racism and cultural otherness. The central argument is that these issues are highly pertinent to us all: they speak to the things that matter in all of our lives at this time, and in this space and place. Cultural otherness, anti-racism, spirituality and religion are fundamental to contemporary socially relevant curriculum. Courageous teachers committed to a more socially just world need to facilitate learning about these issues in ‘age-appropriate’ ways.  


2018 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 306-314
Author(s):  
Valentini Moniarou-Papaconstantinou

The library and information science field attempts to legitimize its position in higher education, in a ‘culture of uncertainty’, where boundaries are fluid. The position of LIS in the hierarchical classification of academic subjects is influenced by the changes in both the field of higher education and in the information environment, creating expectations for the emergence of new fields of study, research and professional practices. The purpose of this paper is to examine how LIS students position themselves in their field of study and the resources they use in processes of meaning-making. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews with students from the three LIS departments operating in Greece at the undergraduate level. The results showed that the academic knowledge content of the object, the assignment of scientific characteristics to it, the signifier of the book, the form of professional practice and, above all, technology are the most prominent resources among those that most young people utilized in their effort to negotiate the symbolic class (i.e. the dominant cultural categories which give meaning to the social world).


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 290-316
Author(s):  
Ciaran B. Trace ◽  
Yan Zhang

Purpose The purpose of this article is to examine the ways in which self-tracking data have meaning and value in and after the life of the creator, including how such data could become part of the larger historical record, curated in an institutional archive. In doing so, the article expands upon existing shared interests among researchers working in the areas of self-tracking, human–computer interaction and archival science. Design/methodology/approach A total of 18 people who had self-tracked for six months or more were recruited for the study. Participants completed a survey which gathered demographic data and characteristics vis-à-vis their self-tracking behavior. In-person semi-structured interviews were then conducted to ascertain the beliefs of the participants regarding the long-term use and value of personal quantified-self data. Findings The findings reveal the value that people place on self-tracking data, their thoughts on proper modes for accessing their archive once it moves from the private to the public space, and how to provide fidelity within the system such that their experiences are represented while also enabling meaning making on the part of subsequent users of the archive. Originality/value Today’s quantified-self data are generally embedded in systems that create a pipeline from the individual source to that of the corporate warehouse, bent on absorbing and extracting insight from a totality of big data. This article posits that new opportunities for knowing and for design can be revealed when a public interest rationale is appended to rich personalized collections of small data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 545-561
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Huynh ◽  
Ashley Stewart-Tufescu

Over the past decade there has been a call to action for researchers to explore children’s subjectivities in the context of well-being. How children understand and experience well-being in a Canadian context was examined in this study. Twenty-one children between 8 and 12 years of age participated in semi-structured interviews facilitated by the Life Story Board™. Three main themes emerged: (1) freedom and control, (2) child rights and social supports, and (3) children’s participation as social actors. Results from this study highlighted the importance of children needing to feel heard by parents and teachers; children being recognised as rights-holders with opportunities to actualise their rights; and children having meaningful opportunities to participate in matters which concerns them in everyday life as important components of subjective well-being. Results may serve to inform child-serving professionals, policymakers, and parents and guardians about how school-aged children from this Canadian context conceptualize and experience well-being.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 205520761984544 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loni Ledderer ◽  
Anne Møller ◽  
Antoinette Fage-Butler

Objective This article explores how a diabetes app called Diapplo affected adolescents’ participation in their healthcare by investigating adolescents’ meaning-making in relation to their use of the app. Methods Using a qualitative single case-study design, we adopted a multimethod responsive approach to data generation that included written data from the app development process, individual and group interviews and observations of the adolescents in the clinical situation. This article presents the results from a qualitative content analysis of group and individual semi-structured interviews conducted with five adolescents diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during and after the four-week test phase of a prototype of the app. Results The adolescents appreciated the diabetes app’s design and interface and having an overview of their blood glucose values. However, they stated that the app’s content only partly met their needs and they considered several of its features unnecessary. They would have liked the app to have a social platform and emphasized that the app should be compatible with their blood glucose monitors and pumps for them to continue using it. Conclusions The participants in our study highlighted the value of social platforms integrated in health apps for patient participation, as well as their preference for health app features that reduced the effort of managing their chronic condition and facilitate greater knowledge. Theories of sociomateriality and material participation helped to account for the challenges of integrating users’ perspectives, suggesting the value of early, comprehensive identification and prioritization of users’ values when developing mobile health technologies.


2019 ◽  
pp. 135910531988274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianbin Xu

This article explores how older Buddhists in Singapore use Buddhist beliefs and practices to cope with stress. Semi-structured interviews with six older Buddhists were conducted. Interview transcripts were analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Data analysis identified three ways of Buddhist-oriented religious coping: meaning-making coping, meditative coping, and ego-transcendence coping. In meaning-making coping, participants employed the notions of karma and duḥkha to make sense of stress. Participants’ meditative coping methods included visualization and mantra meditation. During ego-transcendence coping, participants drew on the notion of non-attachment to the ego. The three ways of Buddhist-oriented religious coping can be examined in a Buddhism-as-cognitive-schema perspective.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document