Sexual and reproductive health among indigenous Mexican adolescents: a socio-representational perspective

In this thesis I advance a socio–representational perspective on sexual and reproductive health as constructed by indigenous Mexican adolescents. The social and psychological literature on health among indigenous populations and on adolescent sexual health is reviewed. It is argued that a socio–psychological perspective is needed to understand the resources through which contemporary indigenous youth, a population overlooked by research, make sense of their sexual and reproductive health. In generating the theoretical tools to tackle this issue, I adopt a dialogical approach to social representations theory to sharpen Jovchelovitch’s (2007) model of knowledge encounters by proposing a typology of potential outcomes of these encounters. The empirical research involved female and male indigenous adolescents in two social contexts: rural and urban. In–depth individual interviews, focus group discussions and unstructured observations were employed for data elicitation. Results from the interpretative thematic analysis performed are presented through a ‘funnelling’ approach whereby the interdependent engagements of indigenous adolescents with their social context, their partners and specific health beliefs are discussed by highlighting nuanced differences in relation to social context and gender. Key findings are related to the understanding of romantic relationships in terms of stability and continuity, which impacts on the way that sex and contraception are perceived and experienced. Results also reveal that, in dialogue with others, adolescents come to identify alternative ways of positioning themselves with regards to customary discourses about sexual health. Focus group discussions are further examined through a dialogical analysis of interactions that aim to identify, in sociodialogue, the outcomes of knowledge encounters initially proposed. A further data–driven outcome is subsequently added to the typology and analytical categories are refined. Implications for health promotion in terms of the reflexion entailed in dialogue are offered in the conclusion chapter

Book review: art, culture and international development: humanizing social transformation by John Clammer

This exciting book aims to place the arts at the centre of debates in development studies by introducing new ways of conceptualizing art in relation to development. Jacqueline Priego-Hernandez is impressed by case studies including theatrical performances “of the oppressed” in India and “third world cinema” in Brazil. This book is recommended reading for both seasoned practitioners and development studies students alike

Participatory workshops with non-academics foster positive social impact and work as a research validation mechanism.

Non-academic research users are often powerless in the decision-making processes for how research is communicated. Jacqueline Priego-Hernandez shares lessons from a knowledge exchange toolkit which aims to address this imbalance through participatory workshops. Drawing on a Freirean approach to learning, interactions between participants and researchers are seen as a key objective in itself. She argues that plans for impact need to be devised for the benefits to be shared, so that research end-user engagement can go beyond the limited number of participants in a dissemination event

Social transformations in Brazil: continuing a dialogue on bottom-up experiences of social development

In the first post of the Favelas@LSE Blog, Sandra Jovchelovitch and Jacqueline Priego discuss recent transformations in social development and civic engagement in Brazil. Drawing inspiration from previous research on NGOs in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, they explain why the current climate of social change in Brazilian society lays the grounds for a productive knowledge exchange initiative

Desarrollo social de base en favelas de Río de Janeiro: un manual práctico

Este manual provee información, recursos y herramientas basadas en las lecciones y resultados de la investigación Sociabilidades Subterráneas, una colaboración internacional e interinstitucional que estudió la identidad, cultura y resistencia de favelas en Río de Janeiro

From the favelas of Rio to the Kasbah of Algiers, community participation is the key to urban regeneration

The perceptions, behaviour, dreams, and aspirations of human communities need to be studied and recognised as a crucial source of urban expertise without which urban transformations remain partial and unsustainable, write Sandra Jovchelovitch (LSE) and Jacqueline Priego Hernández (University of Portsmouth)

Bottom-up social development in favelas of Rio de Janeiro: a toolkit

This toolkit provides information, resources and tools based on the lessons and research findings of Underground Sociabilities, an international and interinstitutional partnership that studied the identity, culture and resilience of favela communities in Rio de Janeiro

Talleres participativos con usuarios noacadémicosde la investigación promueven elimpacto social positivo y funcionan como unmecanismo de validación de la investigación

Fuera de la academia, quienes hacen uso de las investigaciones se encuentran frecuentemente impotentes dentro del proceso de toma de decisiones sobre cómo la investigación es comunicada. Jacqueline Priego-Hernández comparte lecciones de un manual para intercambio de conocimientos que tiene como objetivo encarar este desequilibrio por medio de talleres participativos. Basándose en el abordaje de Freire hacia el aprendizaje, las interacciones entre los participantes e investigadores son vistas como un objetivo clave en sí mismo. Ella propone que la planificación del impacto de una investigación tiene que producirse para que los beneficios sean compartidos. De este modo, la captación de usuarios de investigación puede ir más allá del número reducido de participantes en un evento de difusión

Desenvolvimento social em favelas do Rio de Janeiro: um guia prático

Este guia prático traz informações, recursos e instrumentos baseados em lições e resultados da pesquisa Sociabilidades Subterrâneas, uma parceria internacional e interinstitucional que estudou a identidade, a cultura e a resiliência de favelas no Rio de Janeiro

Imagination in children entering culture

Although children are born in a world of already established cultural practices and social representations, the appropriation and internalisation of culture is not a task of reproduction but one of imaginative construction. The cultural development of the child offers an empirical opportunity to examine the role of the imagination in the practices whereby human children enter culture. In this chapter we focus on three such practices – care, play, and storytelling – to observe the imagination at work. We start by revisiting understandings of the imagination and propose a positive view that sees it as the human capacity to go beyond the immediate situation and play with possible realities. We suggest that the interplay between presence and absence, grounded in the interactions between self and other established by culture, is the defining feature of the imagination. Drawing on our research on children’s representations of the public sphere we explore the complexity of children’s imagination and propose a typology of engagement with the absent: the not yet there, impinged by anticipation and desire; the nowhere, pertaining to the fictional and the fantastic; and the elsewhere, characterised by absent elements the child is aware of through direct or indirect experience. Throughout the chapter, we are guided by the question of how these types of engagement with absence, which are central to the imagination, play out in practices of care, play, and storytelling. This exploration helps us understand the imagination as both an engine and a consequence of development, central for the cognitive, emotional and cultural development of the child and for the development of culture itself. By imagining the world both as what it is and as different from the way it is, we show that 1) children’s imaginative engagement guides the micro-genesis of cognition and macro-processes of cultural development and 2) it establishes the freedom to create as a key process in the realisation of self and society