A Blackgirl Artivisionary Mosaic: Art-Based Participatory Refusals to School Punishment

The study participants were co-research partners and engaged in a Project Based Learning six-week summer project in an urban northeastern metropolis community-based non-profit where they received stipends for participation. This dissertation explored how Blackgirls (aged 14 -21) express their experiences with disparate school punishment through community-based participatory artmaking. We called the photos, poems, collages, sculptures, storyboards, digital art, visual art, songs, spoken word, and videos Artivisions (art I vision). In the Jam Sessions, a subset of the partners we called curators discussed the pieces, shared their experiences, and offered insight into Blackgirls’ responses, coping skills, and decision-making regarding school punishment. In the Jam Sessions, the curators explored their artwork and the art of their partners. Elements borrowed from A-BYPAR, the mosaic approach, (re)storying, and play, we centered the voices of Blackgirls, provided space for alternate mediums of expression, and recognized youth as experts in their lives. The study identifies a Black Artivisionary Mosaic as an innovative methodological and practice-based inquiry that explores the approaches Blackgirls use to generate refusals through A-BYPAR, to express their artistic creativity through the mosaic approach, and to create counternarratives /(re)storying in opposition to dominant narratives through play. We co-created a space to engage Blackgirls in the exploratory processes to acknowledge, interrogate, disrupt, and contemplate alternative narratives about their disproportionate school punishment. We incorporated A-BYPAR and artivism as pedagogical tools that Blackgirls use to disrupt, unhinge, and unthink the state through arts-based activist strategies to resist, refuse, and reclaim their humanity in the pursuit of collective liberation. The following questions were explored: 1. What stories do Blackgirls tell about their experiences with school punishment? 2. How do Blackgirls use their stories to cope with the social, psychological, emotional, and mental health consequences of school punishment? And 3. How do Blackgirls engage multimodal literacies to create stories of resistance and refusal in response to school punishment? This study was composed of three parts: (1) ethnographic observations to understand school punishment issues from a social justice perspective; (2) arts-based participatory action research focused on the concept of disparate school punishment of participants including self-identified Blackgirl participants, Blackgirl/women staff, and me, a Black woman social worker; 3) Transcriptions of the Jam Session focus group sessions with curators reflecting on Artivisions (member checking / triangulation); 4) ten audio recordings of reflection, spoken word (poems), and songs. Collective analysis with the curators identified six themes across three larger domains: 1. Feelings: Blackgirls experience feelings of invisibility and unprotection by their peers and teachers in school. 2. Freeze: Blackgirls experience the trauma response of freezing and are isolated and silenced when they advocate for themselves or other Blackgirls. 3. Freedom: In response to feeling and freezing, Blackgirls pursue freedom v unapologetically and with imagination to cope with the stressors of school punishment. The Blackgirl Artivisionary Mosaic process contributed to four outcomes: (1) it validated shared experiences of power and control relations for Blackgirls who are disproportionately punished in schools; 2) it encouraged a shift in perspective about systematic misogynoir in institutions; 3) it affirmed identity, cultivated solidarity, built confidence and pride; (4) it promoted a discipline of hope, futurity, and possibility for Blackgirls’ needs to be centered in school settings. Findings from this study have implications for school administrators to integrate critical consciousness development in curricula, to promote abolitionist pedagogies and living curricula, and to identify safe third spaces outside of the home and school that specifically address the needs of Blackgirls

Mambila traditional religion : Sua in Somie

This work is an analysis of Mambila religion based on fieldwork in Somie village, Cameroon. An ethnographic and historical introduction to the Mambila is followed by an account of their religious concepts. It is argued that, despite their adherence to Christianity (and to Islam), traditional practices continue to be of great importance in everyday life. In order to examine traditional practice descriptions are given of divination and oath-taking rites. Translated transcripts of the different forms of the sua-oath form the empirical core of the thesis. The transcripts illustrate the way that Mambila experience and understand the meaning of sua. Descriptions are also given of the sua masquerades. Finally I examine problems inherent in the analysis of non-literate societies lacking a reflective tradition, and in particular, societies lacking precise, structured religious concepts. This allows for discussion of resulting implications on the relationships between religion, politics and `symbolic power.

Painkiller (ab)use : the discursive construction and lived experience of non-medical consumption

The ‘misuse’ or ‘abuse’ of pharmaceutical pain medications is of growing interest among medical practitioners and has received increasing media attention over the last decade. Concerned with the health harms of non-medical consumption, medical and media attention has focussed on the potential to ‘abuse’ and become ‘addicted’ to pharmaceutical opiates. This thesis seeks to contextualise this emerging discourse of pharmaceutical ‘abuse’ within the social and political histories from which it has emerged. It is divided into two parts: the first addresses the discursive construction of painkiller (ab)use as it is articulated in dominant and expert accounts; the second part provides an empirical investigation that draws on the lived experience of those who actually engage in non-medical consumption. This thesis critically analyses expert knowledge by asking how it constructs substance use, addiction, medical authority, the body and pain. It canvasses history, research and policy to articulate how dominant understandings of drug consumption and pain shift over time and within different contexts. The thesis outlines the way official accounts of drug consumption not only describe but also constitute non-medical consumption as a ‘social problem’ for policy intervention. It articulates how research about non-medical consumption often conflates a range of levels of drug consumption and can exaggerate its relationship with criminality. This increased criminalisation of painkiller consumption in policy and research is juxtaposed with a social context in which the definition of pain has begun to encompass a broader range of human experiences. Broadening definitions of pain have contributed to increased cultural expectations about the therapeutic potential of pharmaceuticals. The narratives and life experiences of people who engage in non-medical consumption are also explored. An empirical investigation in the thesis builds on qualitative traditions of drug research that indicate that drug use is a social practice inseparable from the context in which drugs are consumed. It reveals a range of practices that are not limited to ‘abuse’ and which occur in everyday contexts often at a distance from the criminalised image of policy and research accounts. Pain medications are an ideal complement to everyday cycles of restraint and release. This also extends to people who use opiates to treat chronic pain and who use medications for recreation. Analysis of interview data indicates that neoliberal and commercial discourse, which argue for individualised modes of medication consumption, are in tension with official accounts that posit the need for the strict control of opiates and those who consume them. The work conducted in this thesis demonstrates that painkillers are intermediary objects that slip between the categories of legal and illegal, medical and non-medical, and moral and immoral, depending on the context of consumption. For those who use these medications, an intimate relationship between pleasure seeking, health practice and productive citizenship appears to dominate motivations for consumption

Marketing for Sustainable Tourism

The aim of the Special Issue is to discuss the main current topics concerning marketing for sustainable tourism with reference to territories (i.e., tourism destinations, protected areas, parks and/or natural sites, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, rural regions/areas, etc.) and tourism enterprises and/or organisations (i.e., destination management organisations, hospitality enterprises, restaurant enterprises, cableway companies, travel agencies, etc.). In destinations where natural resources are pull factors for tourism development, the relationships among local actors (public, private, and local community), as well as marketing choices, are essential to develop sustainable tourism products. To this end, the Special Issue encourages papers that analyse marketing strategies adopted by tourism destinations and/or tourism enterprises to avoid overtourism, to manage mass sustainable tourism (as defined by Weaver, 2000), and to encourage and promote sustainable tourism in marginal areas or in territories suffering lack of integration in the tourism offer. Special attention will be given to contributions on the best practices to manage territories and/or enterprises adopting sustainable marketing strategies

Safety and Reliability - Safe Societies in a Changing World

The contributions cover a wide range of methodologies and application areas for safety and reliability that contribute to safe societies in a changing world. These methodologies and applications include: - foundations of risk and reliability assessment and management - mathematical methods in reliability and safety - risk assessment - risk management - system reliability - uncertainty analysis - digitalization and big data - prognostics and system health management - occupational safety - accident and incident modeling - maintenance modeling and applications - simulation for safety and reliability analysis - dynamic risk and barrier management - organizational factors and safety culture - human factors and human reliability - resilience engineering - structural reliability - natural hazards - security - economic analysis in risk managemen

Plants and Plant Products in Local Markets Within Benin City and Environs

AbstractThe vulnerability of agriculture systems in Africa to climate change is directly and indirectly affecting the availability and diversity of plants and plant products available in local markets. In this chapter, markets in Benin City and environs were assessed to document the availability of plants and plant products. Markets were grouped into urban, suburban, and rural with each group having four markets. Majority of the plant and plant product vendors were women and 88 plant species belonging to 42 families were found. Their scientific and common names were documented as well as the parts of the plant and associated products available in the markets. Most of the plant and plant products found in local markets belong to major plant families. Urban markets had the highest diversity of plants and plant products. Three categories of plants and plant products were documented. Around 67% of the plants and plant products were categorized as whole plant/plant parts, 28% as processed plant parts, while 5% as reprocessed plant/plant parts. It was revealed that 86% of these plants are used as foods, 11% are for medicinal purposes, while 3% is used for other purposes. About 35% of plants and plant products across the markets were fruits, which is an indication that city and environs are a rich source of fruits. The local knowledge and practices associated with the plants and plant products can contribute towards formulating a strategic response for climate change impacts on agriculture, gender, poverty, food security, and plant diversity

Triple Helix as a Strategic Tool to Fast-Track Climate Change Adaptation in Rural Kenya: Case Study of Marsabit County

AbstractThe lack of affordable, clean, and reliable energy in Africa's rural areas forces people to resort to poor quality energy source, which is detrimental to the people's health and prevents the economic development of communities. Moreover, access to safe water and food security are concerns closely linked to health issues and children malnourishment. Recent climate change due to global warming has worsened the already critical situation.Electricity is well known to be an enabler of development as it allows the use of modern devices thus enabling the development of not only income-generating activities but also water pumping and food processing and conservation that can promote socioeconomic growth. However, all of this is difficult to achieve due to the lack of investors, local skills, awareness by the community, and often also government regulations.All the above mentioned barriers to the uptake of electricity in rural Kenya could be solved by the coordinated effort of government, private sector, and academia, also referred to as Triple Helix, in which each entity may partially take the other's role. This chapter discretizes the above and shows how a specific county (Marsabit) has benefited from this triple intervention. Existing government policies and actions and programs led by nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international agencies are reviewed, highlighting the current interconnection and gaps in promoting integrated actions toward climate change adaptation and energy access