PLANKTasjen

´PLANKTasjen´ – Historien om Aurelia Oline Ebeltoft er en fortelling om hvordan kraften og oppfinnsomheten ved kvinnelig ledelse og globalt samarbeid kan bidra til å finne løsninger på problemer skapt av alvorlige globale miljøforandringer. Med mål om å løse problemet med luft-forurensning og dens konsekvenser for folks helse og lungefunksjon, har Aurelias oppfinnelse av PLANKTasjen – algeoppdrett for oksygenproduksjon – bokstavelig talt blåst nytt liv i mennesker og miljø. Oppdrett av alger utforskes faktisk med håp om å oppnå en rekke fordeler innenfor helse, teknologi og miljø, og fortellingen ligger dermed nærmere nåtiden enn man skulle tro. Innvevd er imidlertid også en følelse av å bli lei av motstand mot endring og en oppfordring til å ta ansvar, som enkeltindivid, samfunn og helsepersonell. Å kjenne igjen og åpne oss for de mange forskjellige mulighetene for å bidra til folks helse og velvære.

Physiotherapy 2.0: Necessity is the mother of innovation

The first part of the title paraphrases Web 2.0, which refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture, and interoperability for end users. The eight physio sci-fi stories can be appreciated as fragments of Physiotherapy 2.0, where users are understood to be physiotherapists, co-workers, patients, citizens, or other stakeholders, who take initiative and responsibility for launching physiotherapy 2.0.

Toekomsten met fysiotherapie

Opeens bevind ik mij in een andere werkelijkheid, in andere werkelijkheden. Overvallen door een mengeling van bewondering en bevreemding. Bewondering voor de creativiteit van deze (aankomende) collegae. Bewondering voor de inkijk in mogelijkheden, wensen en behoeften. Maar tegelijkertijd ook bevreemding door de confrontatie met andere realiteiten met daarin een mix van bekende en onbekende elementen, in een variatie van contexten. Een geheel van indrukken, welke gedachten en emoties oproepen. De 8 verhalen en het inleidend schrijven van “Physiopunk initiatief”, laten een rijkheid zien aan mogelijkheden. Mogelijkheden niet zo zeer ten aanzien van wat ze nu zijn, maar juist naar wat kan gaan zijn, wat kan worden. Door het lezen van de verhalen merk ik dat ik mijzelf beweeg tussen verschillende plateaus. Deze plateaus hebben voor mij wel een relatie, maar geen directe hiërarchie. Ik zal hieronder de verschillende plateaus toelichten.

Life under domes

‘Life under domes’ is set in a futuristic world after considerable further destruction has led to inhospitable, unstable weather conditions. While this has pushed human, animal and plant life into new urban settings inside domes that are safe for living, there seems to be a positive and hopefully energy contained within these domes. Technology is highly advanced and humans, robots, and artificial intelligence seem to live and work peacefully side-by-side, ensuring healthy ecosystems, fostering biodiversity, and good mental and physical health alike. Building domes and a variety of ecosystems within them becomes a healthcare intervention in itself, as it provides shelter and rehabilitative spaces for humans, plants and animals. In its exploration of new tasks for both well-established and new reasons, ‘Life under domes’ transports a sense that future societies cannot repeat what has happened ‘out there’ before. To have good health, the environmental must be protected wherever we are.

PLANCTation

‘PLANCTation’ – The story about Aurelia Oline Ebeltoft is a story about how the power and ingenuity of female leadership and large-scale collaboration can help find solutions to the health and existential problems created by severe global environmental change. With a focus on solving air-pollution and its consequences for people’s health and lung function, Aurelia’s invention of PLANCTation – an algae farm for oxygen generation – has given people and planet a new lease on life. Algae farming is, in fact, being increasingly explored for a variety of health and environmental benefits, so this story is incredibly close to some very real developments. Woven into, however, is also a sense of getting fed up with resistance to change and a call to take responsibility, as people and healthcare professionals. To recognize and open ourselves to the many different possibilities to contribute to people’s health and wellbeing and take action.

Physiopunk Vol 1 Norsk

Dagens sosiale og miljømessige kriser Miljø- og bærekraftsutdanning blir derfor stadig mer integrert i internasjonale folkehelse- og helsepersonell-utdanninger (Barna, Maric, Simons, Kumar & Blankestijn, 2020). Den norske «Forskrift om nasjonal retningslinje for fysioterapeututdanning» støtter integrering av disse temaene og sier at fysioterapeuter «skal [...] bidra på gruppe- og systemnivå for å fremme folkehelsen og samfunnets bærekraft [...] med kompetanse i tverrfaglige og målrettede samarbeidsprosesser innenfor helse- og omsorgssektoren og i andre sektorer [...] for å møte samfunnets eksisterende og fremtidige behov» (Forskrift om nasjonal retningslinje for fysioterapeututdanning, 2019).

Deeply touching

In many ways, this remarkable collection of eco-fiction essays, produced by students at UiT Norges arktiske universitet, commissioned and curated by Filip Maric, Liv Johanne Nikolaisen, and Åse Bårdsen, and beautifully illustrated by Heike Jane Zimmermann, reflect a lot of our present thoughts about the social and environmental crises that can already be ‘glimpsed in the distance along existing thought pathways’ (Morton 2016, p.1). ‘This is the future’, Tim Morton tells us, ‘that is simply the present, stretched out further’.

A diary from the future

‘A diary from the future’ thinks through the positive social, environmental and health effects of a large-scale transition to plant-based diets. These include positive changes for food production, consumption and food security, and with that, also social justice, equity, education, poverty and the co-existence with other species. Even just the way the story thinks through and recognises these complex relationships and effects is an achievement and a novelty for physiotherapists in itself. Reaching well beyond this, however, this is also a story about how fear and darkness can turn into hope, optimism and curiosity for the future as a result of learning and thinking about these complex relationships. Finally, ‘A diary from the future’ is also a reflection on the possibilities of broadening our understanding of physiotherapy, of the need for change, resistance to it, and the creative potential that is released when these resistances are overcome.

The lungs of the world

‘The Lungs of the World’ begins by questioning the values and actions that have led to a world in which deforestation, carbon emissions, greed, the misuse of power and the pursuit of profit that have worsened air pollution even more than today. Leaving these behind, the story describes a global shift in values towards collaboration and genuine care for human, plant and animal life alike. ‘The Lungs of the World’ reminds us that environmental problems will affect the health and wellbeing of healthcare professionals and patients alike, and so require us to work together beyond these boundaries. In this story, understanding and celebrating the intertwined relationships between all people, anatomy, physiology, today’s social and environmental problems, seems to release a new energy, creativity and novel opportunities. It feels as though thinking and acting at much larger scales than the individual body enables dealing with well-known problems in entirely new ways and doing so with a strong sense of purpose and meaning.