Fight the biopower! Mixed martial arts as resistance

Globally, mixed martial arts has seen a staggering level of growth in participation and fandom over the past 20 years. This paper presents the results from an immersive participant ethnography of an urban mixed martial arts gym in England’s North West and the experience of some of its members. Emergent is that the practices of mixed martial arts can be viewed as acts of resistance against neoliberal norms and expectations that permeate the diverse yet everyday lives of participants outside the gym’s walls. This paper applies the sociological imagination of and through the body and draws from the Foucauldian notion of biopower to discuss how, in the search for athletic solidarity, an authentic community is built and maintained around this transgressive pursuit. It is evident that a diverse range of individuals are making and remaking a space in which neoliberal norms, labels and expectations are rejected in favour of a renewed connection with the body and each other.

Authentic African community development practices in a diverse society: A transdisciplinary approach

The South African people continuously engage in social actions characterised by intolerance, pointing to frustrations and disillusionment in a post-apartheid era. A need to find creative ways to engage diverse communities to work together to participate in their own development and well-being was identified. This article is based on long-term transdisciplinary discourse and work. The aim is to explore how the disciplines of social work, theology and the arts could contribute together towards the development of communities where participation, collaboration and cooperation as key principles of authentic community development are actively implemented. Within a transdisciplinary framework, the disciplines engaged in participatory research projects that resulted in findings that informed the development of a process where people at grassroots level become aware and more tolerant of each other, begin to work together and as such become involved in their own futures. It is concluded that by encouraging participation, collaboration and cooperation in social change processes, the South African people can be empowered towards working together and becoming involved in their own futures.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The disciplines of social work, theology and the arts entered into a transdisciplinary dialogue and work over the past years. The transdisciplinary team engaged in four participatory research projects to include input from grassroots levels to inform their understanding of how the different disciplines can better contribute towards a process of authentic community development in the diverse South African society. This resulted in the process

A Qualitative Exploration of Indicators of Health Equity Embeddedness Among Public Health Policy Advocacy Campaigns

There are socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health disparities that warrant policy change to advance health equity. The purpose of this qualitative study was to elucidate primary activities and/or tangible characteristics that indicate that a policy advocacy campaign has an embedded health equity focus. Researchers interviewed policy advocacy experts ( n = 13) and campaign leaders ( n = 9), transcribed audio recordings of interviews, and conducted a thematic analysis to examine health-equity-related processes within policy campaigns. Based on experiences of policy advocacy experts and campaign leaders, mostly within the Voices for Healthy Kids initiative, several objective aspects and activities were identified that indicate that a policy campaign, and the coalition that conducts the campaign, has an embedded health equity focus. It should be stressed that these activities are not intended to represent the extent of all campaign activities, only the subset of activities and aspects of a campaign that indicate a health equity orientation. Broadly, aspects identified were related to what had the campaign done to engage with the community, who in the community was providing input about direction of the campaign, and how had that community input been used. Authentic Community engagement was seen as the foundation of a campaign’s health equity focus. A model synthesizing these findings is included in the results. A major strength of this study is that factors associated with health equity in campaign functioning are not typically assessed. These findings support identification of associated constructs to inform measurement development, and can help guide organizations, campaigns, and researchers working to advance health equity.

Building Trust in COVID-19 Vaccines and Beyond Through Authentic Community Investment

COVID-19 vaccine development has advanced at lighting speed. Research that would normally require years has been completed in months. As a result of this unprecedented effort, two vaccine candidates, mRNA-1273 (Moderna, Cambridge, MA) and BNT162b2 (Pfizer, New York, NY), have been found to be safe and more than 90% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 shortly after vaccination. These vaccines are extremely promising and will eventually be distributed widely. Unfortunately, as the science of vaccine development has swiftly progressed, the equally important science of community engagement, which should guide the establishment of mutually beneficial partnerships and promote eventual vaccine uptake, has lagged behind. Research methods focused on the development of effective public health interventions place communities—groups with shared culture, norms, beliefs, or language—at their core and emphasize the primacy of community ownership as essential for uptake and sustainability.1 Yet, communities of color (i.e., Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities), who remain at highest risk for infection, have been peripheral, not central actors in the pursuit of COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, the tripartite relationship between industry, government, and academia has dominated the research enterprise related to COVID-19. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print December 10, 2020: 1–3. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306087 )

Community Response to Settlement Relocation After Liquefaction in Petobo Village

<p><em>The liquefaction disaster caused loss of compact settlements in Petobo, the attention of the government to relocate community settlements to permanent residences. The purpose of this study was to knowing the response community of relocated settlement post liquefaction disaster in petobo. This study of type a qualitative description for purposive sampling. The general results analysis studies that </em><em>25 (83,33 %) to knowing the response community and 30 (100 %) the community response agree with for plan the relocated settlement’s post liquefaction disaster in Petobo, Palu City. For 28 (98,33 %) the community response disagrees with the government policy due to move the settlements another place. Generally, the community hope if the relocated settlements to do as soon as possible and still in petobo. Disagree process due too the community will not leave from petobo because they are authentic community in petobo.</em></p>