Healing and Rebalancing in the Aftermath of Colonial Violence: An Indigenous-Informed, Response-Based Approach

What is understood as “healing” is often culturally and socially embedded. One’s culture helps to define what it means to be well or unwell, and what it means to heal or recover. Sometimes, one’s culture sits in contrast to the mainstream, western scientific approach to health, often seen as the freedom from illness. A Métis worldview is holistic in itself, and it incorporates notions and practices of well-being that go beyond just being “illness or problem free”. Wellbeing is often directly linked to our relationship with the food that sustains us, to the various animal and plant worlds, to the elements, and to being in “right relationship” to the world and others. Dr. Catherine Richardson Kinewesquao presents an approach to healing which she refers to as transformative, energetic and spiritual. She draws from Cree teachings related to “mamatowisowin”, the life force inherent in all beings and the act of calling forth this energy into the healing process. This life force is connected to dignity, justice and care. Metaphorically, it can be talked about as being released or made available when an individual opens to discussing/facing fears and sorrows, distressing events and losses, and to finding a way to integrate them into their whole being. It is a form of energy transmutation, of becoming more emotionally fluid and liberated from the negativity of what is “acting upon them”. When energy is unblocked or released, particularly in the presence of a compassionate listener, the person may then have more energy for their chosen life projects. By using a response-based approach in the aftermath of violence and degradation, and by contextualizing events through exploratory conversations, one may transform stress into productive energy to fuel life, growth and action. Kinewesquao articulates the use of cultural processes for stress management and working with the natural world to enhance well-being. Ultimately, she makes a case that “positive social responses” (e.g., love, care, compassionate listening, support and cultural rituals) to one’s suffering can be some of the best healing medicines.

call for ethnographic investigation of justice and care in language and gender research

This paper argues for an ethnographic approach to the study of principles of justice and care in language and gender research. My focus is on language practices in two basic human socialites: children’s peer groups and the family. By examining interactions in the everyday lives of peers and in families, the creativity with which humans orchestrate their everyday activities becomes visible. I problematise two prominent ideas put forward by psychologists that have influenced studies of gender and language for some time: Jean Piaget’s (1965[1932]) writings about children’s games and Carol Gilligan’s (1982) ideas about a ‘different voice’ among women.

Towards construction of the richer concept of justice and the effective concept of care

Professor Tetsuhiko Shinagawa is a professor of philosophy and ethics at the Faculty of Letters, Kansai University, Japan, who is interested in the foundations of ethics. He believes that modern orthodox ethical theories such as liberalism and deontology are founded on justice and right. But he sees flaws in these theories as they presuppose that society consists of equal and self-sufficient members, which is not the case. He is interested in ethical theories that are founded on norms other than justice and can be applied to relation with asymmetry of power, specifically Carol Gilligan's ethic of care and Hans Jonas' principle of responsibility. The former is a normative ethical theory that stems from the interconnected nature of the human condition and surrounds the need for responsiveness to the vulnerability of human beings, while the latter posits that human survival is dependent on our ability to care for the planet as the home of future generations, with our actions having a direct impact on the Earth's future. Shinagawa is investigating how the ethical norms of justice and care can be applied to social issues and aid vulnerable members of society. The two ethical norms are contrasted but mutually supplementing and Shinagawa is interested in how they can lead to overlapping guidelines for aiding the needy as an actual social issue, transforming their respective conceptions. This research is looking to overcome limitations associated with the two social norms and combine the two norms in order to arrive at a richer concept of justice and an effective concept of care.

Rural Health for Pregnant and Birthing People: Access and Advocacy

Midwifery care is a safe and cost-effective care model; producing excellent outcomes especially for vulnerable and isolated people due to its one-on-one continuity of care and family-centered model. Recent research studies have shown out of hospital birth to have numerous benefits; shorter labors and lower rates of interventions, without an increase in adverse outcomes. These outcomes are more reliable when midwifery care is fully supported and integrated into existing maternity care systems. There are significant barriers to the provision of equitable reproductive health care to pregnant and birthing people in rural and remote areas. This, in the context of the United States being the only country where maternal mortality rates are on the rise. Midwifery care has been proposed as a potential solution but the need for working models of such care exists. The article showcases a working and replicable midwifery care practice model; showing how it can function to address inequity by building collaborative partnerships with other providers to advocate on clients’ behalf and reduce vulnerability to health disparities. This has practice implications for maternity providers and policy makers, introducing how advocacy can help remove the systemic barriers affecting reproductive justice and care.

Building Projects on the Local Communities’ Planet: Studying Organizations’ Care-Giving Approaches

This study examines local communities’ lived experiences and organizations’ care-giving processes regarding four oil and gas projects deployed in three countries. Analyzing the empirical data through the lens of ethics of care reveals that, together with mature justice, the inclination to care conceived at the focal organization creates an ethical culture encouraging caring activities by individuals at the local level. Through close communications with communities, project decision makers at the local level recognize the demanded care of local communities and develop organizations’ caring capacity. The empirical analysis revealed that the care-giving process can also be influenced by the power dynamics of the network of stakeholders. This research emphasizes on the success of a bottom-up approach in caring for local communities, and sheds light on the capability of large organizations in giving care to their distal stakeholders by adopting this approach. Furthermore, it indicates that justice and care both have some useful characteristics and are complementary but, most importantly, are socially constructed and not mutually exclusive.

Service Learning and Teacher Education

Although teacher education actively promotes the ideals of social justice and care, finding ways of enculturating student teachers into what these values mean in education remains a challenge. Additionally, the literature abounds with the struggles of teacher educators to prepare student teachers with the knowledge and competencies required for the complex task of teaching. A way to address this is through the inclusion of service learning (SL) in initial teacher education programs. SL, as a form of experiential learning, with reflection at its core, serves as a means of deepening student learning about the practice of social justice and care and as a way of both drawing on, and informing, student teachers’ practical and situational learning of teaching. SL also holds potential for preparing teachers with the competencies required for the 21st century. The research on SL in teacher education draws on theoretical perspectives of experiential learning, democracy education, social transformation, multicultural education, critical reflection, and education for civic responsibility. A limitation is that the literature within developing contexts is underrepresented, limiting access to useful lessons from the research in these contexts and preventing wider theorization in the field.

Working Co-operatively for Sustainable and Just Food System Transformation

Co-operative ways of working can be understood as people-centred approaches. This article considers how co-operative ways of working have the potential to support the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems in the context of Wales through people-centred change. Drawing upon a series of interviews with stakeholders involved in the sustainable and the co-operative food sector within Wales and international case studies, opportunities and challenges facing the scaling-out of sustainable and just food systems are considered. Findings demonstrate the potential of co-operative and community-based approaches to sustainable production, processing, distribution, and trading of healthy food that is affordable, culturally appropriate, and based upon an ethic of justice and care for land, workers, and animals. Community supported agriculture, incubator farms, food hubs, and platform co-operatives are identified as key mechanisms for sustainable and just food systems. Capacity building through education, information, and training are further critical foundations for co-operative and people-centred ways of working. In order to accelerate sustainable and just food futures, community-based participation, networks for training, access to resources and land, and transformative forms of governance, including legislative change, are key. We conclude by highlighting implications for future research into policy transfer and food system transformation.