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Physiotalk: Connectedness and constructive change – An explanatory theory
Get PDFIntroductionContinuing Professional Development (CPD) is mandatory for UK physiotherapists and valued internationally. In an increasingly digital age social media may provide a source of up–to-date knowledge and professional development. This study aims to explore impacts of taking part in Physiotalk tweetchats on CPD and professional practice, from participants’ perspectives. MethodsStage 1 involved an online semi-structured focus group through a #physiotalk tweetchat. Questions addressed meaning and use of Physiotalk, influences on participation, and impacts on CPD and practice. Stage 2 enabled people to respond more fully through email or direct messages. Thematic analysis of tweets was undertaken. Results683 tweets were sent during 75 minutes of discussion between 73 tweeting participants. The tweet analysis resulted in themes that described a tweetchat as enabling social media skill development and engagement, facilitating ring-fenced time and structured interactions. Participants felt that chats focused on topics relevant to practice and generated a supportive, non-hierarchical international community. Participants reported that this virtual environment enabled constructive change at an individual level, such as increased confidence, broadening views and engagement with research and evidence. ConclusionsThe results of this Twitter focus group demonstrate that where people feel facilitated and welcomed in an online discussion forum, there is great potential for constructive change at many levels. This is, but also goes beyond, CPD for participants. Tweetchats can be promoted as a valid and freely available form of CPD, enabling international viewpoints to be shared. Networks and collaborations formed through these chats can lead to wider constructive change in practice and within the profession. SummaryThe benefits of tweetchats as a professional development tool should be explored by more individuals and organisations seeking skills development, as well as those trying to overcome barriers to social media engagement by students and qualified professional
Tricks of the Counter-Trade: An Evaluation of the Utility of Countertrade Transactions in Developing States Through an Analysis of the Sino-Congolese Barter Deal
Get PDFThis study aims to examine the development and trend of countertrade transactions and assess their utility in state development by first examining the emergence and current trend of countertrade practice. It will then provide background on Congo and the events leading up to its current state of underdevelopment before presenting a case study on the Sino-Congolese countertrade deal, wherein both China and Congo’s stakes will be discussed, along with a comparison of this deal with another countertrade deal China has undertaken with a developing state. An examination of countertrade’s role in state development will follow. Finally, points will be made about some adverse effects of countertrade and its impression on the international community as a whole.
Degrowth: a sign that something had to change in the development debate
No full textThe traditional understanding of the development discourse has relied for centuries on the imperativeness of economic growth. In this context, the de-growth movement represents an alternative approach that highlights the limits of the current policies and their threatening effects on human life in the social, economic and environmental fields. This paper analyses the stages through which the growth-oriented approach has revealed its unsustainability but also the aspects that the de-growth community has failed to consider, exposing the movement to harsh criticism. Nonetheless, the disruptive effect of de-growth and the subsequent new terms of the debate have allowed scholars to explore new ideas. In particular, in the field of international development, de-growth has led to the collapse of the system developed-underdeveloped and as a result, third world countries are slowly regaining their own voice in determining the best paths to improve their lives. Keywords: de-growth, economic, environment, international, development, underdevelope
Indigenous Activism, Community Sustainability, and the Constraints of CANZUS Settler-Colonial Nationhood.
No full textIn Mohawk Interruptus, Audra Simpson describes the process of settler-colonial nationhood as incomplete because of the continued presence of Indigenous peoples who will “defend what they have left” and “persist, robustly.” Within that framework, this paper will look at how Indigenous environmental and sustainability activism in the Anglo-settler CANZUS states restricts and impedes the processes of absolute settler-nationhood. Using four case studies to provide an analytical focal point, I will interrogate the overtly paramilitary state-sanctioned response of North Dakota to the #NoDAPL Standing Rock Sioux and allied water protectors; and comparative state responses and violence to the recent Maori protests against TPPA in Aotearoa; the Nunatsiavut/Inuit Make Muskrat Right Again campaign in Canada; and the wave of Invasion Day protests in Australia.
I argue that while these state responses sustain and emblemize the power and dominance of settler-colonial nationhood, they also also prove Simpson’s argument that continued Indigenous defense undermines and corrupts the absolutism of settler-colonial nationhood. Each instance of forced settler nation interaction with Indigenous community resistance and persistence, and every state engagement with the issues of unceded land and treaty rights, demands an acknowledgement from these states that the settler-colonial process is still a work in progress. The final aspect of the paper will ask whether these acknowledgment that the settler-colonialism process is a work in progress, and the choice of state violence as a response to these acknowledgements. create enough spaces to terminally undermine this process, and thus enable the re-interpretation and affirmation of Indigeneity as equal to, rather than underneath, these settler-colonial CANZUS nation states.  
Evil Dead Center (Carol LaFavor)
No full textWith the 2017 republication of Anishinaabe two-spirit novelist Carole laFavor's mystery novel Evil Dead Center, readers finally have access to a literary work that uses fiction to highlight real-world crises that darkly affect tribal communities, and especially indigenous women and girls, throughout North America. The novel also addresses serious problems that affect Native American children, without sacrificing the pleasure that comes from genre fiction. 
Kuei, My Friend: A Conversation on Race and Reconciliation (Deni Ellis Béchard and Natasha Kanapé Fontaine )
No full textKuei, My Friend: A Conversation on Race and Reconciliation (2018) is en epistolary exchange between Innu writer, slam poet, and artist Natasha Kanapé Fontaine and Québécois/American writer, journalist, and photographer Deni Ellis Béchard, originally published in French in 2016 under the title Kuei, je te salue: conversation sur le racisme. The authors reflect on a multitude of issues, ranging from the Oka Crisis, Idle No More, residential schools, genocide, and racism in Canada and in the world, while also sharing stories about their childhood, parents, friends, and respective communities. Ultimately, they highlight the importance of listening, bearing witness to story, and the responsibilities that come with it
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