scholarly journals Meaning Making Among Older People in the Bible Belt in The Netherlands

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-85
Author(s):  
Pien Bos ◽  
Sylwin Cornielje ◽  
Hanne Laceulle

In this ethnographic study, we examine how older Calvinist Protestants in a conservative rural area of the Netherlands experience “meaning in life.” We aim to contribute to current research on meaning in life within social and religious contexts. Here, we specify the concept of meaning in life as connectedness. The latter is broadly interpreted as an overarching conceptual component of existential meaning. Indeed, connectedness appears to be of paramount importance in these older villagers’ experiences of meaning in life. All three authors of this paper collaborated during fieldwork. We analyzed documents such as local newspapers, websites, and (church) newsletters. We visited farms and attended local meetings and gatherings such as church- and community- services, and we conducted qualitative interviews with 29 people. The outcomes of our research point to three forms of connectedness: (1) social connectedness; (2) physical connectedness; and (3) transcendent connectedness.

Author(s):  
Paul A. Bramadat

Is it possible for conservative Protestant groups to survive in secular institutional settings? Here, Bramadat offers an ethnographic study of the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF) at McMaster University, a group that espouses fundamentalist interpretations of the Bible, women's roles, the age of the earth, alcohol consumption, and sexual ethics. In examining this group, Bramadat demonstrates how this tiny minority thrives within the overwhelmingly secular context of the University.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
D Atobrah

Abstract Background International policy frameworks have strengthened advocacy for gender equality, as agreed in SDG 3. However, gender considerations in research and the related methodological approaches often focus on gender-oriented topics in the global North with little attention on gender perspectives in ostensibly neutral disciplines such as health, and with even less consideration in African societies. The aim is to illustrate how feminist research principles, sensitivity to gender relations and gender performance are cross-cutting and integral in the use of patient-centered methods, ethics and culture. Methods Material was taken from an ethnographic study based on in-depth qualitative interviews conducted with cancer patients in Accra, Ghana. Eight cases studies of women diagnosed of breast cancer, ovarian, endometrium or cervical cancer were selected for the present analysis. Results In highly gendered societies like Africa health research is shaped by the peculiar ethical considerations on gender and cultural issues. This leads to a situation where female researchers may have favourable opportunities for gathering qualitative material because of gender stereotypes. However, they face gendered expectations of their research participants during data collection periods, and this may provoke adverse reactions, if the researcher does not meet the expectations. Education into patient-centred methods, therefore, must strengthen competencies of health professionals to critically reflect their own gendered realities and confront masculinity and femininity reactions by research participants, while being culturally sensitive and ethical at the same time. Conclusions Advocacy for gender approaches in global health education is important but not sufficient. Action is needed to develop a methodological approach sensitive to the gendered conditions of patient-centred research in the Global South.


Author(s):  
Cornell Collin

Is God perfect? The recent volume entitled The Question of God’s Perfection stages a conversation on that topic between mostly Jewish philosophers, theologians, and scholars of rabbinic literature. Although it is neither a work of biblical theology nor a contribution to the theological interpretation of scripture, The Question of God’s Perfection yields stimulating results for these other, intersecting projects. After briefly describing the volume’s central question and contents, the present essay situates the volume’s offerings within the state of the biblical-theological and theological-interpretive fields. In its next section, it considers—and compares— The Question of God’s Perfection with one twentieth-century theological antecedent, the Dutch theologian K.H. Miskotte. In closing, it poses questions for ongoing discussion. The Question of God’s Perfection: Jewish and Christian Essays on the God of the Bible and Talmud, edited by Yoram Hazony & Dru Johnson. Philosophy of Religion – World Religions 8. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 2019. ISBN 9789004387959


2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 567-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hassard ◽  
Paula Hyde ◽  
Julie Wolfram Cox ◽  
Edward Granter ◽  
Leo McCann

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK. Design/methodology/approach This methodological paper elaborates a hybrid approach to the sociological analysis – the critical-action theory – and indicates how it can contribute to the critical health management studies. Findings After exploring the various theoretical, methodological and philosophical options available, the paper discusses the main research issues that influenced the development of this perspective and the process by which the critical-action perspective was applied to the studies of managerial work in four health service sectors – acute hospitals, ambulance services, community services and mental healthcare. Research limitations/implications This methodological perspective enabled a critical analysis of health service organisation that considered macro, meso and micro effects, in particular and in this case, how new public management drained power from clinicians through managerialist discourses and practices. Practical implications Healthcare organisations are often responding to the decisions that lie outside of their control and may have to enact changes that make little sense locally. In order to make sense of these effects, micro-, meso- and macro-level analyses are necessary. Originality/value The critical-action perspective is presented as an adjunct to traditional approaches that have been taken to the study of health service organisation and delivery.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Gillard ◽  
Ceri Dare ◽  
Jackie Hardy ◽  
Patrick Nyikavaranda ◽  
Rachel Rowan Olive ◽  
...  

AbstractPurposeResearch is beginning to quantify the impact of COVID-19 on people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Our paper addresses a lack of in-depth qualitative research exploring their experiences and perceptions of how life has changed at this time.MethodsWe used qualitative interviews (N=49) to explore experiences of the pandemic for people with pre-existing mental health conditions. In a participatory, coproduced approach, researchers with lived experiences of mental health conditions conducted interviews and analysed data as part of a multi-disciplinary research team.ResultsExisting mental health difficulties were exacerbated for many people. People experienced specific psychological impacts of the pandemic, struggles with social connectedness, and inadequate access to mental health services, while some found new ways to cope and connect to community. New remote ways to access mental health care, including digital solutions, provided continuity of care for some but presented substantial barriers for others. People from black and ethnic minority (BAME) communities experienced heightened anxiety, stigma and racism associated with the pandemic, further impacting their mental health.ConclusionThere is a need for evidence-based solutions to achieve accessible and effective mental health care in response to the pandemic, especially remote approaches to care. Further research should explore the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on people with pre-existing mental health conditions. Particular attention should be paid to understanding inequalities of impact on mental health, especially for people from BAME communities.


2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Hendrik L. Bosman

Jacobus Eliza Johannes Capitein (1717-1747) was a man of many firsts-the first black student of theology at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, the first black minister ordained in the Dutch Reformed Church in the Netherlands, the author of the first Fante/Mfantse-Dutch Grammar in Ghana as well as the first translator of the Ten Commandments, Twelve Articles of Faith and parts of the Catechism into Fante/Mfantse. However, he is also remembered as the first African to argue in writing that slavery was compatible with Christianity in the public lecture that he delivered at Leiden in 1742 on the topic, De Servitute Libertati Christianae Non Contraria. The Latin original was soon translated into Dutch and became so popular in the Netherlands that it was reprinted five times in the first year of publication. This contribution will pose the question: Was Capitein a sell-out who soothed the Dutch colonial conscience as he argued with scholarly vigour in his dissertation that the Bible did not prohibit slavery and that it was therefore permissible to continue with the practice in the eighteenth century; or was he resisting the system by means of mimicry due to his hybrid identity - as an African with a European education - who wanted to spread the Christian message and be an educator of his people?


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 120-139
Author(s):  
Magdalena Wojciechowska

The aim of this paper is to shed light on how various interactional and interpretational contexts arising from specific researcher—research participants relationship established in the course of doing ethnographic study on sensitive, and thus often enough resistant to immediate cognition, phenomenon, namely, lesbian parenting in Poland, as well as different ways of embracing these, may factor into the research process. Drawing on specific dilemmas I encountered while doing the study at hand—from engaging a hard-to-reach population that, in a sense, wished to be reached, and the consequences thereof; through being pushed out of the comfort zone as the women under study, in the wake of becoming acquainted with the analysis I offered, “switched” from narrating their “in-orderto motives” to reflecting on the “because motives” behind their actions; to contextualizing emotions arising as my response to experiencing the issues they face (on a daily basis), to name a few—my goal here is to discuss how different ways of collecting and analyzing data—in the context of developing rapport with the women under study—have had an impact on conceptualizing and (re)framing the data at hand.


2021 ◽  
pp. 146394912110423
Author(s):  
Sirene Lim

In the field of early childhood education, play has become synonymous with curriculum but is sometimes viewed narrowly as a pedagogical tool to enhance child development. However, it is known from a range of multidisciplinary work that child-initiated and child-guided forms and contexts of playing can offer rich insight into diversity in childhood(s), peer cultures and children's meaning-making. This article draws on an ethnographic study that was conducted in a full-day childcare centre in Singapore and focused on children's everyday world of self-initiated play, improvisation and peer culture. Specifically, it presents examples of songs and rhythmic chants created by a group of 4-year-olds . Such ‘musicking’ is a form of social play that illustrates children’s ways of teasing, relating with others and sense-making within their contemporary social world. The article argues for educators to look beyond the instrumental value of play in the preschool curriculum, inviting all to take some time to allow children's multifarious play activities to influence their adult sensibilities.


The three texts of this section deal with translation, a field where Meschonnic is of particular influence and importance. Meschonnic’s own experience of translating the Bible, and a very particular understanding of meaning-making procedures in biblical Hebrew, establishes in fact the basis for his theory. The exposure to the semantic accent system of biblical Hebrew allowed Meschonnic to develop a theory of language which saw meaning as residing not only in linguistic reference but in what he called a ‘serial semantics’: motivated forms of verbal patterning, chains of signifiers, prosodic contours, distributions of and connections between speech sounds and motifs across a longer text. He posits that, more than what a text says, it is what a text does that is to be translated: its force. The third text on translation then offers a demonstration of how Meschonnic applies the continuous of his theory of language to a text.


BMJ Open ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. e029107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Rapley ◽  
Albert Farre ◽  
Jeremy R Parr ◽  
Victoria J Wood ◽  
Debbie Reape ◽  
...  

ObjectiveThe WHO has argued that adolescent-responsive health systems are required. Developmentally appropriate healthcare (DAH) for young people is one approach that could underpin this move. The aim of this study was to explore the potential for DAH to become normalised, to become a routine, taken-for-granted, element of clinical practice.DesignQualitative ethnographic study. Analyses were based on procedures from first-generation grounded theory and theoretically informed by normalisation process theory.SettingTwo tertiary and one secondary care hospital in England.Participants192 participants, health professionals (n=121) and managers (n=71) were recruited between June 2013 and January 2015. Approximately 1600 hours of non-participant observations in clinics, wards and meeting rooms were conducted, alongside 65 formal qualitative interviews.ResultsWe observed diverse values and commitments towards the care of young people and provision of DAH, including a distributed network of young person-orientated practitioners. Informal networks of trust existed, where specific people, teams or wards were understood to have the right skill-mix, or mindset, or access to resources, to work effectively with young people. As young people move through an organisation, the preference is to direct them to other young person-orientated practitioners, so inequities in skills and experience can be self-sustaining. At two sites, initiatives around adolescent and young adult training remained mostly within these informal networks of trust. At another, through support by wider management, we observed a programme that sought to make the young people’s healthcare visible across the organisation, and to get people to reappraise values and commitment.ConclusionTo move towards normalisation of DAH within an organisation, we cannot solely rely on informal networks and cultures of young person-orientated training, practice and mutual referral and support. Organisation-wide strategies and training are needed, to enable better integration and consistency of health services for all young people.


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