‘Working relationships’ across difference - a realist review of community engagement with malaria research

Background: Community engagement (CE) is increasingly accepted as a critical aspect of health research, because of its potential to make research more ethical, relevant and well implemented. While CE activities linked to health research have proliferated in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs), and are increasingly described in published literature, there is a lack of conceptual clarity around how engagement is understood to ‘work’, and the aims and purposes of engagement are varied and often not made explicit. Ultimately, the evidence base for engagement remains underdeveloped. Methods: To develop explanations for how and why CE with health research contributes to the pattern of outcomes observed in published literature, we conducted a realist review of CE with malaria research – a theory driven approach to evidence synthesis. Results: We found that community engagement relies on the development of provisional ‘working relationships’ across differences, primarily of wealth, power and culture. These relationships are rooted in interactions that are experienced as relatively responsive and respectful, and that bring tangible research related benefits. Contextual factors affecting development of working relationships include the facilitating influence of research organisation commitment to and resources for engagement, and constraining factors linked to the prevailing ‘dominant health research paradigm context’, such as: differences of wealth and power between research centres and local populations and health systems; histories of colonialism and vertical health interventions; and external funding and control of health research. Conclusions: The development of working relationships contributes to greater acceptance and participation in research by local stakeholders, who are particularly interested in research related access to health care and other benefits. At the same time, such relationships may involve an accommodation of some ethically problematic characteristics of the dominant health research paradigm, and thereby reproduce this paradigm rather than challenge it with a different logic of collaborative partnership.

Ethnic Tension of the Bangladeshi Santal

This chapter aims to do a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of ethnic tension in Bangladesh and the constitutional provisions on the Santal Indigenous community in establishing social justice. First, why are Indigenous groups instead ethnic groups in Bangladesh, and how many are groups? This chapter then tries to answer who is justifying whose social justice in ethnic tension, and, essentially, what is the guiding philosophy. This chapter picks education policy and the constitutional provision of state inventions policy on ethnic groups in Bangladesh the Santal's space in it. Along with CDA, the argument leans on bio-politics, historical ontology (Foucault), Indigenous research paradigm. The findings show that this community is historically subjugated under ontological guidance and understanding. So, it recommends adopting Santal Indigenous standpoint for establishing a right-based harmonized society.

A Discourse Analysis of Accounting Syllabuses to Assess the Extent of Curriculum Change: The Case of Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education

This study was undertaken to assess the extent of changes brought by the Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education (LGCSE). The LGCSE replaced the British General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCE O level). The new system was hailed as modern and progressive, recognizing wider ability performance. The study employed a comparative research methodology within qualitative research paradigm, comparing two Accounting syllabuses from GCE O level and LGCSE. Document and discourse analysis was used to obtain data. The study found that despite the educational rhetoric accompanying the introduction of the LGCSE, the syllabuses did not reflect any substantial changes or shifts.

Infinite Capital Accumulation Through the Endless Harvesting of Limitless Dead Souls. Criminogenic Asymmetries, Structural Inequalities, Mimesis, and Parallel Oligarchies

This article is neither an empirical nor an analytical study; rather, it is a concise statement of a research paradigm that reflects the personal (and perhaps idiosyncratic) concerns of its author, which he wishes to continue and elaborate upon in much further detail at some point in the near future (if any). The general concern is with devising a functional criminological taxonomy of the multitudinous mutabilities migrating between neo-liberal political economy and organised and semi-organised criminality, here defined as criminogenic asymmetries. My central premise is this: although frequently associated in the scholarly literature with corruption, underdevelopment, anomie, and the breakdown of the brokerage of trust, neo-liberalism itself is the sufficient explanation for criminogenic asymmetries. As should be expected, the “moral panic” over the “death of democracy”, already part of our post-1989 history but currently symbolised by the “power crime” presidency of Donald J. Trump, w ill be utilised as the primary empirical example of these trends, both concurrent and convergent.

A Research Paradigm to Investigate Event-Related Shame and Guilt: Preliminary Findings

Our aim was to study effects of different psychotherapeutic treatment components on event-related emotions and psychological symptoms. In this pilot study, we wanted to evaluate if our audiotaped memory retrieval task (MRT) is able to elicit event-related emotions. Also, we made a first attempt to compare the effects of two standardized mini-interventions based on IRRT and PE on event-related shame and guilt, general distress and affective state.

Utilisation of Budget as a Monitoring and Evaluation Tool and Sustainability of Community Agricultural Projects Supported by Caritas in Meru County, Kenya

The objective of the study was to establish the influence of utilisation of project budget as a monitoring and evaluation tool and sustainability of community agricultural projects supported by Caritas in Meru County, Kenya. A pragmatic research paradigm was adopted and a descriptive survey research design was utilised. A pragmatic research paradigm was adopted and a descriptive survey research design was utilised. The target population was 59 smallholder farmer groups and 24 Caritas Meru staff. The sample size was 51 smallholder farmer groups and the total sample size was 177 respondents. The data collection tools were questionnaires and interview guides. The collected data were coded and entered into the SPSS version 26 program for analysis. The qualitative data was analysed by way of grouping similar responses together and identifying the main themes from them. The linear regression and Pearson’s correlation (r) methods were utilised to evaluate the link between various variables. The multiple linear regression models determined the link between dependent and independent variables together with the moderating effect of the moderating variable. It is also used as the inferential statistics that inform the decision to reject or not reject the alternative hypothesis for the research study. The study found out that an increase in the utilisation of project budgets leads to an increase in the sustainability of the community agricultural project by Caritas in Meru County and vice versa. The study concludes that there is a significant relationship between utilisation of project budget as monitoring & evaluation and sustainability of community agriculture projects. The study recommends that to ensure the sustainability of community-based agricultural projects, the organisation should train farmers’ group leaders on leadership and management skills. The organisation should train farmers on best farming practices, record keeping and conflict management practices to avoid the collapse of groups.