University of Humanistic Studies OAI Repository
Not a member yet
11294 research outputs found
Sort by
“He is never ever going to pay off.”:A relational care ethical response to ideas of ‘worthy mothering’ for a child with profound intellectual disability
No full textThe experiences and practices of caregivers and care receivers, as well as the emerging moral understandings that arise in those practices, have always been at the heart of care ethics. In the early years the focus was on practices of mothering (Ruddick 1989; Gilligan 1982; Noddings 1984), before Joan Tronto shifted the focus to the political context of the ethics of care in her pathbreaking Moral Boundaries (1993). In our research into practices of care for people with profound and multiple impairments, however, we discover that the informal care given predominantly by mothers, offers insights into care that have political power. We recognize their stories as profound critical counterstories against neoliberalism and against neoliberalist negative valuations of care. In this chapter we claim that reproductive justice – the theme of this volume – is non-existent when the voices remain unheard of mothers who give demanding care to their children with profound impairments and for this reason bring sacrifices, also of themselves. Their experiences and practices are often questioned, as well as the worthiness of their children’s existence. Mothers and other parents experience criticisms of dedicating their lives to caring for their children and their experiences are sometimes discarded or dismissed as unworthy or the result of unacknowledged subordination in a patriarchal society. These responses attribute passivity to them and rob them of their voices and subjectivity (see also Van Nistelrooij 2015, 87). Such simplifying dismissals fail to recognize mothers and other caregivers as moral and political subjects. <br/
Goals and outcomes of chaplaincy in varying outpatient, primary, and community care contexts
No full textSeveral studies have examined the goals and outcomes of chaplaincy within institutional settings. Our study contributes to the literature by examining whether chaplaincy goals and outcomes are specific to different outpatient, primary, and community care contexts. We conducted a round of 9 and one of 8 focus groups, with clients, chaplains, and other professionals from five contexts: the Dutch earthquake zone, general healthcare, pediatric palliative care, care for the unhoused, and veteran care. Using an explorative, descriptive and quantitative design, 77 goals and 59 outcomes are compared and categorized in a four-quadrant framework. Our findings show few differences between goals and outcomes of different contexts. However, the goals of care for the unhoused and veterans focus more on the inner experience of the relationship with the chaplain. Non-context-specific goals and outcomes might be related to how chaplaincy is approached, and the context-specific ones to existential concerns in the care contexts.</p
In the Minor Key: The Minuscular Mycelium and its Implications for Citizen Science
No full textIn an era marked by ecological precarity and growing demands for knowledge systems that are more inclusive, situated, and responsive, grassroots initiatives have begun to challenge dominant models of science and expertise. Among these, citizen science has emerged as a powerful mode of inquiry that brings together university-based scientists with communities to highlight lived experience, local knowledge, and collective sense-making. One such initiative, which is grounded in a commitment to care, justice, and co-creation is the project Diamonds on the Soles of our Feet (DSF) which originated as a locally rooted water literacy project in the province of Limpopo in South Africa. Since its inception in 2019, the project has evolved in unexpected, generative and at times even unfathomable ways. From its start in one rural village, it grew into a multi-sited, transnational, and increasingly entangled exploration of environmental justice and relational care. This paper seeks to make sense of these developments through the conceptual lens of a ‘fungal turn’ and the aesthetics of care. Engaging with the entanglements of citizen science, we found, can open up forms of learning that stretch beyond conventional scientific frameworks. Here the image of the fungal as a (dis)organizing principle allows us to contrast it with the more rigid image of science as a container. As DSF networ(ld)s extend into uncharted geographical terrains, the application of an ethics of care, coupled with fungal imagery, offers a valuable lens to interpret the unexpected and indeterminate textures that characterize our unfolding DSF journey. By equipping both learners and educators, DSF aims to create a collaborative model that supports long-term behavioral change and where authentic, value-transparent conversations become the fertile ground for meaningful engagement. We thus aim to create a pedagogy of connection, one that links ecology, identity, and imagination, resisting the impulse to fix, explain away or simplify, but instead to cultivate the capacity to remain present with the troubling complexity of it all. Once we took citizen science out of the container, we began to inhabit a space where encounters became unpredictable, often uncomfortable and occasionally deeply troubling. By resisting the impulse to command, to classify and to control and by resting instead in the minor key, meaning in the unfolding process rather than the singular event, we allowed ourselves to become entangled. Mushrooms offer more than a biological metaphor; they become a lens to reimagine ecological entanglement and the often-invisible networks that shape our understanding of science, learning, and care
Navigating life when a loved one's (euthanasia) death is near:A narrative interview study from the Netherlands
No full textIn this article, we describe our empirical research that started out as an exploration of "family involvement" in the Dutch practice of euthanasia, in the broader context of end-of-life decision-making and care under guidance of GPs in the home-setting. Informed by care-ethical insights and narrative approaches to qualitative research, we performed an in-depth interview study with 18 close relatives of people with incurable metastasized cancer (9 prospective, 9 retrospective). We came to understand how relatives' involvement-not only in euthanasia but in any mode of dying-cannot be separated from relatives' efforts to navigate through many dimensions of life when the death of loved one is near. Relatives have to navigate different spaces, decision-dynamics and the unfolding of professional care, strong emotional experiences, and intimate relationships ("the I-you-we"). This study brought to the fore that relatives and patients first and foremost accompany each other on this journey. The role of the GP can be valuable but vulnerable, and relatives' broader social network and other professionals can be of enormous importance. The results of this study invited us to shift our perspective: it is not family members who get involved in euthanasia as a primarily medical affair. Instead, medical professionals are taking part in the profoundly social-relational experience of death and dying within families, whether that entails euthanasia or not. With this shift of perspective, specific practical and ethical questions start to receive more attention, for example questions about the available support for both patients and relatives regardless of the mode of dying.</p
Chaplaincy for a plural world:Humanistic perspectives
No full textChaplaincy for a Plural World provides a theoretical foundation for an inclusive understanding of chaplaincy and lays out key chaplaincy methods for providing spiritual care in a modern context. Inspired by recent humanist chaplaincy in the Netherlands and based on the interdisciplinary science of humanistic studies, the book explains chaplaincy as a multifaceted profession in which supporting people’s search for meaning in life is intertwined with the pursuit of humanizing organizations and society.The book offers a wide range of methods and practical tools for use by a diverse group of readers: chaplains, other professionals or volunteers, and students in higher education who prepare themselves for spiritual care work in secularizing and pluralizing societies. These methods include such key areas of work as individual counseling, group work, ritual, educational activities, supporting the moral development of individuals, teams, and organizations, conducting research, and doing sociopolitical work. The book fills the meaning gap that secularization has left in Western societies and offers a hopeful perspective for all who strive for a humane and meaningful world