Reflexivity in the negotiation of participation: Insights from a culturally-embedded community project in Vietnam

<p>This research aims to explore the possible negotiation of participation within development practice in Vietnam based on different understandings of reflexivity among different development actors. Specifically, it adopts a qualitative approach, using a sustainable community livelihoods project in Central Vietnam as a case study, to ask the following questions: (1) How do Western and local development facilitators understand reflexivity in participatory development in Vietnam?; and (2) How do Western and local development facilitators negotiate and practice reflexivity in participatory development in Vietnam? These questions are important because while participation and fieldwork partnerships in community projects promise mutually-beneficial opportunities for shared learning, they also involve negotiations of power. The reflexivity of development practitioners assumes that they can obtain thorough understanding and knowledge of the local culture and facilitate participation appropriately, which may not actually be the case. Secondly, little is known about how participants think or practice their own culturally-embedded understandings of reflexivity in their interactions with non-local practitioners. Thirdly, there is a knowledge gap about how participation intersects with reflexivity as “Western” development discourses and local understandings are negotiated. Semi-structured interviews were employed with three groups of people positioned differently within the case study project: international development practitioners, Vietnamese development practitioners and local community members. Interpretative methods of auto-ethnography and reflexive writings were used to analyse the researcher’s own understandings of reflexivity and the working of power from his prior work as a translator in this project. Building on existing critiques of reflexivity, and through careful analysis, the thesis interrogates assumed links between reflexivity and better facilitation in community projects. The negotiations explored in this research include rethinking the principle of reflexivity in the context of local cultural norms as these significantly shape values of development work and likely benefits for practitioners and participants. From extracted perspectives of research participants through semi-structured interviews and the researcher’s reflections by means of auto-ethnography, an alternative approach is suggested to aid development practitioners in reflecting upon notions of “self” and “others” in order to examine various conceptions of participation in theory and practice.</p>

Reflexivity in the negotiation of participation: Insights from a culturally-embedded community project in Vietnam

<p>This research aims to explore the possible negotiation of participation within development practice in Vietnam based on different understandings of reflexivity among different development actors. Specifically, it adopts a qualitative approach, using a sustainable community livelihoods project in Central Vietnam as a case study, to ask the following questions: (1) How do Western and local development facilitators understand reflexivity in participatory development in Vietnam?; and (2) How do Western and local development facilitators negotiate and practice reflexivity in participatory development in Vietnam? These questions are important because while participation and fieldwork partnerships in community projects promise mutually-beneficial opportunities for shared learning, they also involve negotiations of power. The reflexivity of development practitioners assumes that they can obtain thorough understanding and knowledge of the local culture and facilitate participation appropriately, which may not actually be the case. Secondly, little is known about how participants think or practice their own culturally-embedded understandings of reflexivity in their interactions with non-local practitioners. Thirdly, there is a knowledge gap about how participation intersects with reflexivity as “Western” development discourses and local understandings are negotiated. Semi-structured interviews were employed with three groups of people positioned differently within the case study project: international development practitioners, Vietnamese development practitioners and local community members. Interpretative methods of auto-ethnography and reflexive writings were used to analyse the researcher’s own understandings of reflexivity and the working of power from his prior work as a translator in this project. Building on existing critiques of reflexivity, and through careful analysis, the thesis interrogates assumed links between reflexivity and better facilitation in community projects. The negotiations explored in this research include rethinking the principle of reflexivity in the context of local cultural norms as these significantly shape values of development work and likely benefits for practitioners and participants. From extracted perspectives of research participants through semi-structured interviews and the researcher’s reflections by means of auto-ethnography, an alternative approach is suggested to aid development practitioners in reflecting upon notions of “self” and “others” in order to examine various conceptions of participation in theory and practice.</p>

Queering Indoor Swimming in the UK: Transgender and Non-binary wellbeing

This paper draws from a research project that was initiated in 2017 and continued in to 2020. It followed on from previous University-LGBT + community projects (e.g., football versus homophobia 2012–2018) and involved working with a local transgender social group, specifically, their engagement with once-a-month recreational swim sessions. The research findings that are discussed come from sixty-three research participant's ‘drawings’, three focus groups including a professionally drawn illustration of two of these focus groups, and nine semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the qualitative data demonstrates the significance of play and pleasure, feeling free, and transgender and non-binary imaginations to physical activity participation, and wellbeing. These three themes are presented through the lens of queer/queering and transfeminism. As such, the paper has two aims: to document the experiences of physical activity by an often-excluded group; and to evaluate the concept of queering to an understanding of indoor recreational swimming and wellbeing.

Does economic policy in Nigeria enhance sustainable water and sanitation facilities?

Over the years, economic policy in Nigeria has been a subject of concern for policymakers. The effectiveness of this policy in providing basic necessities for Nigerians has also been in question. There have been several controversies in terms of its implementation and sustainability over the years. In this paper, we investigate the impact of economic policies on providing sustainable water and sanitation facilities in Nigeria. In our analysis, the binary logistic model is adopted to understand how effective these policies are in providing these facilities. The results show that expenditure on social and community service leads to an increase in the use of unsafe sanitation facilities in the country. Furthermore, our study also shows that expenditure in the health services sector helps in reducing the use of such unsafe facilities. From the results, we recommend that policies aimed toward providing sustainable water and sanitation facilities need proper checks, improvement, and effective implementation so as to achieve viable results. These can be done by implementing supervised community projects on sanitation facilities and also by educating local communities through organized symposiums and workshops in rural and certain urban areas in the country.

Sahelian Transnational Networks and Diasporas

This chapter examines the establishment of Sahelian diasporas in Europe and the United States, their remittances, and the return patterns that have become so important for sending households and communities. Large sums of money are sent by Sahelian migrants to support household budgets that have often come to depend on these remittances. The chapter also addresses the development interventions of hometown associations and other migrant networks that fund community projects and provide social services to their sending communities, and the importance of return migration and its effects on local economies. It examines the sustainability of these vital connections between Sahelian diasporas and their home communities in a context where migration out of the Sahel is increasingly restricted. It concludes with questions about the sustainability of these patterns, given the declining commitment and attachment to place of second- and third-generation migrants.

The Dark Continent: «African Tales by Shakespeare» and the Experience of Transitional Community

This text is an analysis of Krzysztof Warlikowski’s 2011 production, African Tales by Shakespeare, tracing the project of community taken up in the performance. The central thesis takes this to be neither a national community nor a dispersed, intersectional coalition, as Bryce Lease has formulated the difference between Polish political and traditional theater, but rather a transitional community—unstable, unsuccessful, and rooted in the experience of political transition. The author, by invoking references to the visual arts present in the performance, points to other community projects emerging from the experience of transition while showing how, when appropriated for the purposes of performance, their meanings change radically. In the masculine, phallic, and violent world of African Tales, art and philosophy born of the experience of femininity are lost, twisted, and forgotten. Among the most important threads of analysis, however, is the way racialization and racism function in the play. From this perspective, the problematic status of the community the play establishes is most clearly seen: as a community of phantasmic, aspirational, transitional whiteness

Advancing Neurolinguistics in Russia: Experience and Implications of Building Experimental Research and Evidence-Based Practices

Russia has rich theoretical and behavioral research traditions in neurolinguistics and neuropsychology, but at the beginning of the twenty-first century contemporary experimental research in these disciplines remained limited, leading to proliferation of non-evidence-based approaches in education, healthcare, and public beliefs. An academic response to this was the establishment of the Center for Language and Brain at the HSE University, Moscow, which focused on experimental psycho- and neurolinguistic research and related evidence-based practices. The Center has grown from a small group of young researchers to a large interdisciplinary unit that conducts cutting-edge research utilizing multi-site settings and novel structural and functional neuroimaging methods. The overarching aim of the Center's research is to promote scientifically grounded treatment of the language-brain relationship in the educational, clinical, and industry settings. Specifically, translational research at the Center is contributing to the advancement of clinical practice in Russia: from providing the first standardized aphasia language test to implementing protocols for intraoperative language mapping in neurosurgery departments across the country. Within research projects, a new generation of scientists is successfully being fostered, while a broader student audience is reached via courses taught by staff of the Center to students of different majors. Notable examples of public outreach programs at the Center are the Annual Summer Neurolinguistics School attracting hundreds of attendees from different countries each year, and community projects focused on raising awareness about aphasia. Together, these efforts aim to increase scientific knowledge in a multi-professional audience. In this paper, we will share our joint experiences in establishing, building, and promoting a neurolinguistics research center in Russia and the impact that this work has had on the broader public. We will delineate specific milestones of this journey and focus on the main pillars that have contributed to our progress: research, clinical work, teaching, and public outreach programs. We hope that this critical appraisal of our experiences can serve simultaneously as an inspiration and a practical guide for other groups developing research, clinical, and educational programs in different neuroscientific disciplines across the globe and aiming to improve the quality of the neuroscientific information available to the public.

How to Build Sustainable Online Communities: Implications from Lithuania Urban Communities Case Study

This research aims to extend our knowledge about the factors for increasing participation and sustainability of digitally enhanced communities. Thus, the subject of the research is online community projects which act as the catalysts for collective behaviors exhibited through the crowd effect. Typical to online communities and their social orientation is the use of new forms of self-regulation and self-governance. Sustainable online communities can improve public services and lead to broader civic participation. The communities were analyzed in the course of experimental qualitative research that was conducted in Lithuania. Participants in digital urban communities and initiators of such platforms were interviewed face-to-face. Analysis of the empirical data revealed different motivational, socio-cultural, and organizational factors influencing the sustainable online community ecosystem. According to the research results, community organizers and IT developers should focus on online collaborations through technologies that create social value (collective decision-making tools, gamification, virtual brainstorming, and other technological solutions).