Exile, return, record : exploring historical narratives and community resistance through participatory filmmaking in 'post-conflict’ Guatemala

Following previous experiences of violence and forced displacement, ‘the returnees’ from the Guatemalan campesino community ‘Copal AA la Esperanza’ are now defending their territory against the construction of a hydroelectric dam. The returnees unexpectedly mobilized me as a Belgian historian to ‘make’ their ‘shared history’ and produce a documentary about their past and present struggle. The aim of this article is to reflect on how and why I developed a participatory, filmmaking-based methodology to tackle this challenge. I focus on filmmaking, participation and knowledge production to demonstrate the epistemological and ethical benefits of a dialogue between disciplines and methodologies as much as between academic and community practices and concepts. As such, I exemplify my visual participatory approach through its engagement with post-colonial histories and the co-creation of shared knowledge at the intersection of community and research interests. Moreover, I demonstrate how filmmaking can be developed as a grounded, visual, and narrative approach connecting media activism with ‘performative ethnography’. Combining insights from participatory action research (PAR) with Johannes Fabian’s notion of ‘performance’, I argue for ‘nonextractivist methodologies’; ‘knowing with’ instead of ‘knowing-about’. From being a side project and a matter of research ethics, participatory filmmaking turned for me into an investigative tool to explore the collective production and mobilization of historical narratives. I argue that participatory research should not be limited to communities participating in research projects; researchers can equally participate in community projects without this obstructing scientific research. In sum, participatory visual methods challenge us to reconsider the role of academics in (post-conflict) settings

Creative image maker: Edward Gordon Craig’s achievements in the visual arts

In his own lifetime and beyond, Craig’s immediately recognisable wood-engravings, woodcuts and etchings were widely exhibited both domestically and internationally. The speaker will argue that these images also had an important place in the wider creative revolution of content and medium explored by twentieth-century artists

Staff Nurse Ratings of Implementation Self-Efficacy for EBP (ISE4EBP) and Organizational EBP Readiness

There is limited research about nurses' confidence in implementing evidence into clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to further test, refine and strengthen the Implementation Self-Efficacy for EBP (ISE4EBP) scale and gain knowledge about staff nurses' perspectives of their confidence in EBP implementation in relation to the work environment as measured by the Context Assessment Index (CAI). We proposed, higher nurses confident in implementing evidence into practice would result in higher levels of implementing evidence-based practices (EBP). Bandura's theory of self-efficacy, which postulates that task-specific self-efficacy predicts performance guided the study. In a sample of 75 registered nurses, the overall average score for the ISE4EBP scale was 63%, indicating moderate confidence in implementation strategies. This study furthered the construct validity of the ISE4EBP scale by demonstrating associations between the ISE4EBP scores with the CAI.No embargoAcademic Major: Nursin

Pharmaceutical Industry\u27s Effect on Socioeconomic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa in Relation to Family Planning Accessibility

There is a large unmet need for family planning services in sub-Saharan Africa (Goodkind et al, 2018). Pharmaceutical companies contribute to the accessibility of medications in developing countries (Cottingham & Berer, 2011). If the pharmaceutical industry strongly affects access to contraceptives in sub-Saharan Africa, then it is possible that adjustments made to the industry would increase access to contraceptives. I explored how contraceptives change the economic and social development of subSaharan Africa to determine if contraception benefits Africans enough for their shortage to be a serious injustice. This is followed by how the pharmaceutical industry affects access to and types of birth control available in the area. The potential solution of instilling more non-profit medical institutions to increase contraceptive availability is also probed. It was concluded that access to reproductive health services in sub-Saharan Africa should be available due to their overwhelmingly positive economic and social benefits. However, the for-profit pharmaceutical industry creates obstacles for universal access, such as intellectual property rights and a profit-motivated model (Cottingham & Berer, 2011). Though a nonprofit pharmaceutical system and alternative medications may increase availability of reproductive health services, more research should be conducted as to how a more socialized form of medicine would increase universal access to contraceptives

Reactions to Highly Publicized Sexual Assault Cases via Twitter Over Time

In public spaces, do reactions to sexual assault cases depict more of a victim blaming or offender blaming attitude? How has that changed over time? Prior to collecting data, I hypothesized that I would find more Tweets portraying a victim blaming attitude rather than offender blaming. This hypothesis was ultimately derived from the research I did and the other studies I looked at

Examining Factors that Influence Reactions to Human Trafficking

Human trafficking involves the transportation or harboring of individuals under conditions of force or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. Trafficking is a worldwide issue, and involves millions of individuals who cross all gender, racial, and ethnic lines. Previous research has shown that individuals high on the constructs of belief in a just world and human trafficking myth acceptance attribute greater blame to victims than individuals low on these constructs. The results of the present study suggest that belief in a just world, ethical ideologies, and human trafficking myth acceptance are significant predictors of blame attributions toward victims of human trafficking. The results further suggest that belief in a just world and human trafficking myth acceptance are significant predictors of willingness to help victims when the cost associated with helping is high. Implications are discussed

Religion, Culture and Habits: Boundaries Within a Global Village

McLuhan’s idea of a “global village” theory is idealistic. It assumes that the globe shares a single history, economy, and culture. Whereas a common history and economy are arguably present, a shared culture is less realistic. How can the world be a village when war, poverty, indifference, and ignorance have led to the ruin of so many people

Review of current practices in recording road traffic incident data: with specific reference to spatial analysis and road policing policy

Road safety involves three major components: the road system, the human factor and the vehicle element. These three elements are inter-linked through geo-referenced traffic events and provide the basis for road safety analyses and attempts to reduce the number of road traffic incidents and improve road safety. Although numbers of deaths and serious injuries are back to approximately the 1950s levels when there were many fewer vehicles on the road, there are still over 100 fatalities or serious injuries every day, and this is a considerable waste of human capital. It is widely acknowledged that the location perspective is the most suitable methodology by which to analyse different traffic events, where by in this paper, I will concentrating on the relationship between road traffic incidents and traffic policing. Other methods include studying road and vehicle engineering and these will be discussed later. It is worth noting here that there is some division within the literature concerning the definitions of ‘accident’ and ‘incident’. In this paper I will use ‘incident’ because it is important to acknowledge a vast majority of ‘road accidents’ are in fact crimes. However I will use the term ‘accident’ where it is referred to in the literature or relevant reports. It is important to mention here that a road traffic accident can be defined as ‘the product of an unwelcome interaction between two or more moving objects, or a fixed and moving object’ (Whitelegg 1986). Road safety and road incident reduction relates to many other fields of activity including education, driver training, publicity campaigns, police enforcement, road traffic policing, the court system, the National Health Service and Vehicle engineering. Although the subject of using GIS to analyse road traffic incidents has not received much academic attention, it lies in the field of crime mapping which is becoming increasingly important. It is clear that studies have been attempted to analyse road traffic incidents using GIS are increasingly sophisticated in terms of hypotheses and statistical technique (for example see Austin, Tight and Kirby 1997). However it is also clear that there is considerable blurring of boundaries and the analysis of road accidents sits uncomfortably in crime mapping. This is due to four main reasons: - Road traffic incidents are associated with road engineering, which is concerned with generic solutions while road traffic analysis is about sensitivity to particular contexts. - Not all road traffic incidents are crimes - It is not just the police who have an interest in reducing road traffic incidents, other partners include local authorities, hospitals and vehicle manufacturers - The management of road traffic incidents is not just confined to the police GIS has been used for over thirty years however it has only been recently been used in the field of transportation. The field of transportation has come to embrace Geographical Information Systems as a keytechnology to support its research and operational need. The acronym GIS-T is often employed to refer to the application and adaptation of GIS to research, planning and management in transportation. GIS-T covers a broad arena of disciplines of which road traffic incident detection is just one theme. Others include in vehicle navigation systems. Initially it was only used to ask simple accident enquiries such as depicting the relative incidence of accidents in wet weather or when there is no street lighting, or to flag high absolute or relative incidences of accidents (see Anderson 2002). Recently however there has been increased acknowledgement that there is a requirement to go beyond these simple questions and to extend the analyses. It has been widely claimed by academics and the police alike that knowing where road accidents occur must lead to better road policing, in order to ensure that road policing becomes better integrated with other policing activities. This paper will be used to explore issues surrounding the analysis of road traffic accidents and how GIS analysts, police and policy makers can achieve a better understanding of road traffic incidents and how to reduce them. For the purpose of this study I will be trying to achieve a broader overview of the aspects concerning road accident analysis with a strong emphasis on data quality and accuracy with concern to GIS analysis. Data quality and accuracy are seen as playing a pivotal role in the road traffic management agenda because they assist the police and Local Authorities as to the specific location whereby management can be undertaken. Part one will consider the introduction to road incidents and their relationship with geography and spatial analysis and how this were initially applied to locating ‘hotspots’ and the more recent theory of ‘accident migration’. Part two will address current data issues of the UK collection procedure. This section will pay particular reference to geo-referencing and the implication of data quality on the procedure of analysing road incidents using GIS. Part three addresses issues surrounding the spatial analysis of road traffic incidents, including some techniques such as spatial autocorrelation, time-space geography and the modifiable area unit problem. Finally part four looks at the role of effective road traffic policing and how this can be achieved due to better understanding of the theory and issues arising from analysing road traffic incidents. It will also look at the diffusion and use of GIS within the police and local authorities

No Small Change: Pension Funds and Corporate Engagement

[Excerpt] At its best corporate engagement offers a long-term view of value that both promotes higher environmental, social, and governance standards and adds share value, thus providing long-term benefits to future pension beneficiaries. At its worst it diverts the attention of pension fund officials from their primary responsibility of ensuring the retirement benefits of their members, and encourages pension funds to usurp the rightful responsibilities of corporate managers. This book examines corporate engagement and its impacts on firms in an effort to see how the potential from this newly emerging force is being realized