Transnational Research Collectives as “Constellations of Co-Resistance”: Counterstorytelling, Interweaving Struggles, and Decolonial Love

Settler colonialism and coloniality dominate and dismember the truths, the bodies, and the lands of the colonized. Decolonization and decoloniality involve intergenerational, embodied, and emplaced pathways of resistance, rehumanization, healing, and transformation. In this article, we uplift the healing and transformative power of transnational stories and embodied knowledges that are rooted in four research collectives: the Palestinian Resilience Research Collective (PRRC) in the West Bank; the Mapuche Equipo Colaborativo para la Investigación de la Resiliencia (MECIR) in Chile; the Community Action Team (CAT) in Boston, USA; and the Miya Community Research Collective (MCRC) in Assam, Northeast India. We, the co-authors of this article, are directly connected to these four research collectives. Across our collectives, we work to defend the right to exist, to belong, and to express our full range of humanity as racialized and colonized communities in distinct, yet connected, sites of struggle. Our transnational focus of this article is premised on a fundamental rejection of borders, even as we recognize the material and psychosocial realities of borders. In co-writing this article, we bring decolonial solidarity into life through “constellations of co-resistance,” a concept used by Indigenous scholars such as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson to describe complex connective fabrics across decolonial struggles. We share our reflections on three practices of decolonial solidarity that shine through each of our transnational research collectives as three constellations of co-resistance: counterstorytelling, interweaving struggles, and decolonial love.

The Application of Salutogenesis in Communities and Neighborhoods

Communities and neighborhoods have reemerged as important settings for health promotion; they are particularly effective for encouraging social processes which may shape our life-chances and lead to improved health and well-being; consequently, as Scriven and Hodgins, (2012) note, of all the settings (cities, schools, workplaces, universities, etc.), communities are the least well defined. Indeed, within the health literature, they are frequently referred to in terms of place, identity, social entity, or collective action.This chapter on communities and neighborhoods distinguishes between settings as a place (natural and built environment), identity (sense of community), social entity (cohesion, social capital), and collective action (reactive-resilience; proactive-community action) – all meaningful categories of generalized resistance resources (GRRs). Such clearly defined GRR categories would allow the study of their relative importance for developing the sense of coherence (SOC) and a newer concept – setting-specific SOC.

Evaluation of crime pattern in Khanna local government using geographic information system

Sustainable development can only take place in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility. The state of insecurity in Rivers State and Nigeria at large has been on the rise over the past decade. The Nigerian security agencies have not been able to effectively tackle and nib crime activities in the bud. This has led to the loss of lives, businesses, and other attendant socio-economic effects. The distribution of crime across the landscape is geographically random since crime is a human phenomenon, hence geography plays an important role in law enforcement and criminal justice. Geographic information system (GIS) can help the security agency in tactical planning and response; allocating resources quickly and more effectively, determine mitigation priorities, analyze historical events, and predict future trends and patterns. The main aim of this paper is crime modeling and analysis using the Geo-information system. This paper uses GIS to visualize, analyze, and explain criminal activities within Khanna local government in a spatial context. To achieve this, crime data and records covering over seven years were obtained from the Nigerian Police Force in Bori. Supplementary and attribute data were collected through fieldwork using the Global Positioning System (GPS) to provide the coordinates of crime points and scenes in the local government and other associated data. A spatial database was created using ArcGIS software. The crime hotspot map and crime density map of the study area was produced using the ArcGIS pro tool- Gi-Bin fixed 234-FDR at 99%,95%, and 90% confidence level respectively for the hot spots and cold spots respectively. The maps and results from the spatial analysis performed can help the police to carry out patterns and trends analysis across multiple jurisdictions; enlist community action, enhancing implementation of various policies to reduce crime in the study area. It can also provide tools and techniques to capture, forecast future crime occurrence in the area and reduce crime incidences.

Seeds of hope, seeds of resistance: Cultivating food justice and community economies through urban agriculture

<p>Grounded on the experiences and discourses of volunteers and members of Southern Garden located in the Southern suburbs of Wellington and Wesley Community Action in Cannons Creek, I explore the work these community projects to contest the current corporate agrifood system using ethnographic and participatory approaches. This thesis is an attempt to show the often unrecognised and underestimated revolutionary work community activist are doing through UA. This research seeks to advance the discussions around food justice, and community economies in UA in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand since the literature around these topics is limited. The main aim of this thesis is to open spaces for these conversations to happen both in academia and among grassroots groups in order to push forward for a more just system. Using food sovereignty, food justice, community economies and the right to the city as my theoretical framework, I highlight the power of everyday politics to change and challenge the status quo without being complacent and uncritical about the limitations and contradictions of such work. Both projects open spaces of possibility and freedom where we can all build better futures to come. I have tried in this thesis to make justice to their work and to help move forward in search of more radical spaces of transformation.</p>

Seeds of hope, seeds of resistance: Cultivating food justice and community economies through urban agriculture

<p>Grounded on the experiences and discourses of volunteers and members of Southern Garden located in the Southern suburbs of Wellington and Wesley Community Action in Cannons Creek, I explore the work these community projects to contest the current corporate agrifood system using ethnographic and participatory approaches. This thesis is an attempt to show the often unrecognised and underestimated revolutionary work community activist are doing through UA. This research seeks to advance the discussions around food justice, and community economies in UA in the context of Aotearoa New Zealand since the literature around these topics is limited. The main aim of this thesis is to open spaces for these conversations to happen both in academia and among grassroots groups in order to push forward for a more just system. Using food sovereignty, food justice, community economies and the right to the city as my theoretical framework, I highlight the power of everyday politics to change and challenge the status quo without being complacent and uncritical about the limitations and contradictions of such work. Both projects open spaces of possibility and freedom where we can all build better futures to come. I have tried in this thesis to make justice to their work and to help move forward in search of more radical spaces of transformation.</p>

“History is Illuminating”: Public memory crises and collectives in Richmond, Virginia

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests and calls to remove Confederate statuary in Richmond, Virginia, during the summer of 2020, the History Is Illuminating project constructed public signs that replicated the traditional historical markers used throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. The signs were placed along Richmond’s historic Monument Avenue in conversation with the still-standing Confederate monuments. They challenged the monuments’ representation of public memory by re-introducing narratives about prominent Black Richmonders and informing readers of the Jim Crow legislation that enabled the monuments to be constructed and venerated. This edited and condensed interview with organizers from the project describes the multiple crises of collective memory that public historians confront in the American South, as well as the strategies the History Is Illuminating project used to counter dominant narratives about public memory. Finally, the interview highlights the importance of community action and a multiplicity of public memory projects in order to ensure a democratic approach to collective memory.

Protocol for #iBeatCRC: a community-based intervention to increase early-onset colorectal cancer awareness using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach

IntroductionTh last two decades have seen a twofold increase in colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence among individuals under the recommended screening age of 50 years. Although the origin of this early-onset CRC (EOCRC) spike remains unknown, prior studies have reported that EOCRC harbours a distinct molecular and clinical phenotype in younger individuals. The sharp increase in EOCRC incidence rates may be attributable to a complex interplay of factors, including race; lifestyle; and ecological, sociodemographic and geographical factors. However, more research that address psychosocial experiences and accounts for lifestyle-related behaviours before, during and after an EOCRC diagnosis are warranted. This study aims to develop and pilot test a theory-driven, community-based intervention to increase awareness of EOCRC, reduce its associated risk factors and improve early detection among adults aged 18–49 years.Methods and analysisGuided by the Behaviour Change Wheel, we will use a multistage mixed-methods study design. We will pilot a sequential mixed-methods intervention study as follows: (1) First, we will analyse linked quantitative data from the Utah Cancer Registry and National Cancer Institute Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results registry, linked to state-wide demographic and vital records in the Utah Population Database to identify EOCRC hotspots in Utah by examining the EOCRC incidence and survival variance explained by personal and county-level factors. (2) Next, we will conduct one-on-one interviews with 20 EOCRC survivors residing in EOCRC hotspots to ascertain psychosocial and lifestyle challenges that accompany an EOCRC diagnosis. (3) Finally, we will consider existing evidence-based approaches, our integrated results (quantitative +qualitative) and community action board input to design a community-based intervention to increase EOCRC awareness that can feasibly be delivered by means of outdoor mass media, and via social media. We will pilot the multicomponent media campaign with a quasiexperimental design among 17 EOCRC hotspot residents and 17 EOCRC ‘coldspot’ residents.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval was obtained from the University of Utah Institutional Review Board (IRB_00138357). Signed informed consent will be obtained from all participants prior to any data collection. Study results will be disseminated through CRC community blogs, targeted infographics, conference presentations at national and international professional conferences and publications in peer-reviewed journals. Final intervention-specific data will be available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.Trial registration numberNCT04715074.

Exposure to a Multilevel, Multicomponent Obesity Prevention Intervention (OPREVENT2) in Rural Native American Communities: Variability and Association with Change in Diet Quality

The OPREVENT2 obesity prevention trial was a multilevel multicomponent (MLMC) intervention implemented in rural Native American communities in the Midwest and Southwest U.S. Intervention components were delivered through local food stores, worksites, schools, community action coalitions, and by social and community media. Due to the complex nature of MLMC intervention trials, it is useful to assess participants’ exposure to each component of the intervention in order to assess impact. In this paper, we present a detailed methodology for evaluating participant exposure to MLMC intervention, and we explore how exposure to the OPREVENT2 trial impacted participant diet quality. There were no significant differences in total exposure score by age group, sex, or geographic region, but exposure to sub-components of the intervention differed significantly by age group, sex, and geographical region. Participants with the highest overall exposure scores showed significantly more improvement in diet quality from baseline to follow up compared to those who were least exposed to the intervention. Improved diet quality was also significantly positively associated with several exposure sub-components. While evaluating exposure to an entire MLMC intervention is complex and imperfect, it can provide useful insight into an intervention’s impact on key outcome measures, and it can help identify which components of the intervention were most effective.

Digital Genre: a Mechanism for Knowledge Sharing and Reuse in Business Clusters

<p>The purpose of this study was to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms in project bidding for two business clusters in New Zealand, and how ICT played a role in facilitating a "virtual space" for sharing and re-use of these mechanisms. Genre Systems was the theoretical framework adopted to guide this inquiry and to build on further theory. Within the context of this study, genres are the knowledge transfer mechanisms that communicate information and knowledge to members of the community, following specific social rules. The genres and the way they are being employed contribute towards explaining how knowledge is shared and reused by a community. Action research methodology was used to direct data collection and analysis, and validate how the study was carried out. The study comprised of one action research cycle, which has been divided in five stages: Diagnosis, Planning, Development, Evaluation, and Specifying Learning. Mapping the clusters' collaborative interactions during project bidding helped to identify the knowledge transfer mechanisms. This allowed the identification of an ICT solution that could improve project bidding, and identification of how this knowledge could be stored for reuse in future bids. One of the clusters decided to work together with the researcher towards the design of a new portal to address their project bidding needs. The portal took six iterations to complete and went live in November 2005. A database, several "digital genres" (since these genres exist in an electronic medium), and some procedures were created to facilitate knowledge transfer for the cluster's project bidding process. The team had the opportunity to reflect on the whole experience, identify potential features and genres to incorporate in the portal, and start thinking how they could improve the development process in future interventions. The introduction of ICT encouraged the cluster to develop digital genres that were more dynamic and flexible than the ones used before then. The main finding of the study is a five-step process to create digital genres based on the activities carried out by the team: finding reference points for the digital genre; defining the social rules for the digital genre; embedding the social rules in the template; testing the template; and legitimising the digital genre. Further findings discussed the "natural" and "induced" ways for a cluster to increase its knowledge-base. The first instance takes place during the normal practices of cluster members working together towards business opportunities over a period of time, whereas the later instance is triggered by a specific event or initiative. In this study, the decision by the cluster to introduce website and database technology to assist in managing their knowledge-base provided an opportunity to explore the role of ICT in increasing the cluster's knowledge-base. Final findings showed that a project of this nature not only has to overcome the common IT development challenges (budget, project management, user buy-in), but also those derived from working with a team of volunteer people from different organisations, such as in the case of a cluster.</p>