Auto-Ethnography in a Kabyle Landscape

<p>In this auto-ethnography, as an indigenous man in a Kabyle landscape, I take into account the relational experience that involves the development of a Kabyle identity. The indigenous cultures in North of Africa all come from the same family called the Imazighen (free men). Kabyle live in the North East of Algeria but there are other Imazighen living in the diaspora all over North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, like Touaregs or Mozabites. My inquiry narrates my personal experience as a Kabyle man born of Kabyle parents in France. In this auto-ethnography I return to my father’s village to understand and access my heritage. I hope that this narrative helps my readers to reflect on the effects of globalization on the transmission of indigenous cultures. I portray Algeria, a North African Muslim country in 2010. I draw on critical pedagogy, socio-constructivism and indigenous knowledge and experiences. Looking to Algeria with the perspective of an indigenous person, I explore the social organization in my village and the way values and relationship shape the traditional education of a Kabyle man. My experiences and research in my ancestral village show that the war Kabyle people have fought against France has not resulted in independence. Rather, in my case, decolonization made me twice stranger to myself as Kabyle in an Arabic dominated country but also as an immigrant in France, the old colonial country, and Canada. However, my spiritual and sacred heritage is still alive in me, shaped by both my own experiences and the teachings of other members of my culture, and I have expressed this heritage throughout this narrative.</p>

Auto-Ethnography in a Kabyle Landscape

<p>In this auto-ethnography, as an indigenous man in a Kabyle landscape, I take into account the relational experience that involves the development of a Kabyle identity. The indigenous cultures in North of Africa all come from the same family called the Imazighen (free men). Kabyle live in the North East of Algeria but there are other Imazighen living in the diaspora all over North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, like Touaregs or Mozabites. My inquiry narrates my personal experience as a Kabyle man born of Kabyle parents in France. In this auto-ethnography I return to my father’s village to understand and access my heritage. I hope that this narrative helps my readers to reflect on the effects of globalization on the transmission of indigenous cultures. I portray Algeria, a North African Muslim country in 2010. I draw on critical pedagogy, socio-constructivism and indigenous knowledge and experiences. Looking to Algeria with the perspective of an indigenous person, I explore the social organization in my village and the way values and relationship shape the traditional education of a Kabyle man. My experiences and research in my ancestral village show that the war Kabyle people have fought against France has not resulted in independence. Rather, in my case, decolonization made me twice stranger to myself as Kabyle in an Arabic dominated country but also as an immigrant in France, the old colonial country, and Canada. However, my spiritual and sacred heritage is still alive in me, shaped by both my own experiences and the teachings of other members of my culture, and I have expressed this heritage throughout this narrative.</p>

Digital Appreciative Inquiry: A Whole New Relational Experience

Digital technology can offer a brand new relational experience and an extraordinary opportunity to work in the wholeness of Appreciative Inquiry. In this article, you will find both examples of where wholeness has been experienced to the fullest, sometimes surprisingly, and also some keys to living – and helping your participants live – a joyful and effective wholeness.

Humorous Audio-Visual Lockdown Works

This article is dedicated to humorous audio-visual lockdown works—that is, to short video clips with humorous content that were produced and circulated during the first Corona lockdown in spring 2020. The exploration of the video clips takes place within an autoethnographic approach. It will be examined what kind of humor was included in the videos I received in my WhatsApp bubble. By a rough division of recurring motifs, two exemplary analyses, and research results on humor from clinical psychology, I will describe the humor as complex coping humor. A further question relates to the functions the humorous audio-visual lockdown works were equipped with within the communication space of which I, myself, was a part of. Roger Odin’s semio-pragmatic approach serves as a starting point for first reflections on the functions which the audio-visual lockdown works were able to deploy. Against the background of Odin’s concept of reading modes and communication operators, the humorous audio-visual lockdown works will be conceptualized as relational experience operators. By utilizing social psychological approaches to the study of humor, the videos will furthermore be conceptualized as stress-buffer operators. The videos were used to unleash the communicative energy necessary for the production of a relational affirmation of a shared present, for mutual relief, and for a collective buffer against stress. Finally, I discuss that the humorous audio-visual lockdown works document the positive power of humor, community building, and care and, at the same time, reference a life that is characterized by specific privileges.

“It changed the atmosphere surrounding the baby I did have”: Making sense of reproduction during sustained uncertainty

Objective: This study examines the schemas that women employed during the COVID-19 pandemic to make sense of their reproductive experiences. Background: Existing research on reproduction during epidemics suggests that there are variable population responses to periods of long-term social uncertainty and that individuals and couples can respond to these circumstances in unexpected ways. However, less is known about how individuals make sense of their reproductive experiences during periods of social upheaval.Method: Twenty-nine women aged 25-35 from a mid-sized Midwestern county were recruited and were interviewed about their experiences during the first eight months of the 2021 COVID-19 pandemic. They were asked about their daily lived experiences and about their partnership and reproductive goals during in-depth interviews. These interviews were transcribed and analyzed using thematic coding of the three main schemas that participants used to describe their reproductive experiences.Results: Participants used three main schemas to describe their reproductive experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Heteronormative schemas were used by many participants to articulate their commitment to a heteronormative aged-staged progression of life events. Affective schemas were used by participants, primarily those who were currently or recently pregnant, to express grief and loss over the relational experience of having a new baby. Medical schemas were expressed by most participants to describe feelings of fear and risk at real or imagined encounters with medical institutions during the pandemic.Conclusion: The schema that participants use to make sense of their reproductive experiences have real and enduring consequences for their current and future reproduction.

Experiences of Divine Grace Among Christian Friends

Although topics of prayer, forgiveness, and gratitude have received attention in the psychology of religion, there is sparse literature regarding the concept of grace. Thirty interviews were conducted with Friends (Quakers) in the Pacific Northwest, using a semi-structured interview developed for a larger study of how Christians from various denominations experience grace. Four organizing themes were derived from the interview questions and then grounded theory was used to uncover associated subthemes within each organizing theme. Participants emphasized the loving nature of God and how grace is a transforming relational experience with God that helps people move toward wholeness and completeness. Although participants sometimes linked grace with questions of eternal destiny, it was also associated with being fully accepted and loved by God in the present moment. Many expressed concerns about conservative Christian perspectives of grace that seem to overly focus on being saved from hell, instead preferring views of grace that are inclusive and available to all. Ongoing disciplines of grace included being in nature, community relationships, creative expressions, prayer, quiet, and reading sacred texts. These findings are consistent with historical and contemporary distinctives of Friends. Implications for future research are considered.

Analytical framework, typology and retail experience design process for integrated relational brand experience

PurposeThis study aims to explore how a relational brand experience can be designed using an integrated retail experience. It addresses the research gap between relational brand experience strategy, retail experience design, as well as online-offline integration, by providing applicable tools and knowledge.Design/methodology/approachBased on a literature review, a relational experience analytical framework (REAF) was developed as a diagnostic tool for relational brand experience. A case study was then conducted using the REAF to determine the relational brand experience factors, strategies in practice and related initiatives.FindingsThree distinguishing integrated relational brand experience factors were identified (online-offline integration, overall activeness and the centre of relationships). A typology for an integrated relational brand experience was established with clarifying experiential characteristics and the required initiatives for each type. Based on the findings, a framework was proposed for an integrated brand experience design and its application in the retail experience design process.Practical implicationsThe frameworks and strategies proposed can serve as a guide to industry professionals in designing integrated relational brand experiences.Originality/valueThe theoretical contributions of this study are in clarifying the relational brand experience dimensions and an integrated relational brand experience strategy typology. It also illustrates the strategic application of integrated retail experience based on a brand experience strategy using the proposed framework and the process.

Learning from the Past: How Prior Experience Impacts the Value of Innovation After Scientist Relocation

There is growing interest in management and organizational research to study the relocation of knowledge workers, defined as a move by the knowledge worker to a different place of work. Relocation has been well studied as a potential source of losses or gains in human and social capital. However, our understanding of whether and how it disrupts a scientist’s innovation activities is limited. Relocation could disrupt innovation activities in the new workplace by making it difficult for a scientist to coordinate work with prior collaborators with whom the scientist has relational experience and forcing the scientist to work with new collaborators. In this study, we develop a conceptual framework assessing the effectiveness of the scientists’ research and development (R&D) experience to counter these disruptions arising from relocation and develop valuable patented innovations. We hypothesize that both the scientist’s relational experience and working with new collaborators decrease the value of innovations the scientist creates after relocation. Scientist R&D experience, however, is double-edged in nature: It leads to less valuable innovations prior to relocation but facilitates the creation of more valuable innovations after it. Our theory suggests that this is because R&D experience facilitates the scientist’s adaptation to the new context and helps coordinate her or his activities in new collaborations. Nevertheless, R&D experience is less effective in sustaining the efficacy of relational experience with prior collaborators after relocation. Using a longitudinal dataset from the knowledge-intensive genomics industry, we find support for our hypotheses. This study yields important managerial and policy implications.