Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
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Bouncing forward in challenging times: A rural food distribution cooperative’s experience
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic is a disruption which has posed challenges to food sector organizations. Yet it may also provide an opportunity for growth of and change in these organizations. Our aims were to describe the surge in demand and innovations introduced by a rural food distribution cooperative and to critically assess responses in light of organizational resilience literature. We chose an organizational case study approach with mixed methods. Data sources included: existing reports, newsletters, policies and quantitative indicators; and new stakeholder interviews (n=20). We describe: the development and nature of the cooperative; its consolidation and anticipatory planning; the March 2020 surge in orders (133/week in February to 205/wk in March); the prioritization of health and safety in modifying product receiving and delivery methods; the warehouse reorganization and product aggregation doubling to twice per week; the strains on employees and human resource challenges; yet the growing organizational resilience. We reflect on the small role of the cooperative in the inequitable agri-food system of the counties it serves, yet the strong role it plays with other food security oriented organizations in keep with its values. Further work, both research and practice development, can continue to explore the ways in which complex multi-stakeholder, not-for-profit, socially and environmentally principle food organizations can better navigate disruptions in the coming years, particularly in rural areas
Towards a definition of anti-oppressive dietetic practice in Canada
No full textIncreasingly, dietitians have found ourselves working with racialized clients, communities, and colleagues across the health and food systems in Canada. We are often asked to treat the adverse health outcomes of Black, Indigenous, and racialized communities resulting from these oppressions at the individual level. However, it is the role of dietitians to engage in efforts to "reduce health inequities and protect human rights; promote fairness and equitable treatment" (College of Dietitians of Ontario, 2019). An anti-oppression approach is required for dietitians to understand how their power and privilege shape the dietitian-client relationship. The purpose of this commentary is to propose a shift from cultural competence or diversity and inclusion in dietetics to an explicit intention of anti-oppressive dietetic practice. We begin our exploration from the Canadian context. We draw from our background working in health equity in public health, and our experiences facilitating equity training using anti-oppression approaches with dietetic learners and other public health practitioners. In creating a working definition of anti-oppressive dietetic practice, we conducted a scan of anti-oppression statements by health and social services organizations in Ontario, Canada, and literature from critical dietetics. A literature search revealed anti-oppressive practice frameworks in nursing and social work. However, this language is lacking in mainstream dietetic practice, with anti-oppression only discussed within the literature on critical dietetics and social justice. We propose that "dietitians can engage in anti-oppressive practice by providing food and nutrition care/planning/service to clients while simultaneously seeking to transform health and social systems towards social justice.
The impact of a transitional intervention for youth living with early psychosis: A mixed methods study
No full textOur research team implemented and evaluated a 12-week manual-based intervention focused on sustaining recovery for youth with psychosis, as they transitioned from Early Psychosis Intervention (EPI) to community-based care teams. The study employed a mixed methods prospective cohort design. Statistically significant improvement in functioning was observed for the intervention group participants only; as well as observed improvements in self-esteem and quality of life (SQLS), compared to the comparison group who demonstrated a significant decline in functioning. The qualitative findings revealed a sense of optimism about the future and the value of realistic goal-setting in the intervention group.
Keywords: Early Psychosis, Transitional Intervention, Recovery, Functioning, Goal-Setting
 
Shaping and Sharing Imagination: Designers and the Transformative Power of Stories
No full textChanges in business and social environments have led society towards a complex landscape in which the relationship between mainstream media and participatory culture is completely changed, with a consequential blurring of boundaries between public and virtual space. As audience media habits are changing, a digital vision of reality is rising and engagement practices are evolving. As a consequence, there is the need for a new design methodology based on different skills working together. It is then necessary to adopt a disruptive approach to overcome the contemporary complexity, assuming storytelling activities, narrative practice and relationships among people as driving forces for innovation. The cases of Imagine Milan (2009-2012) and Plug Social TV (2013-ongoing), in which we tested listening and expressive tools, and communication strategies in order to activate a dialogue among communities. On the one hand, there is the aim of experiencing audiovisual languages through different narrative formats. On the other hand, we explored the use of stories in a collaborative process, spreading the narrative worlds across different channels. The aim of this paper is to describe our design approach, merging together tools and skills from different areas: communication design strategies as participative methods are linked to codesign actions; branding strategies, coming from the advertising field, as tools for identity development; audiovisual language considered as a cultural interface for listening to reality; transmedia practice as a cultural paradigm able to involve the audience into meaning-making processes; ultimately, social media advocacy is used to build relationships between virtual and real communities
I-Docs and New Narratives: Meaning Making in Highrise
No full textDigital media make it possible to move from a conventional storytelling medium to other avenues that allow open stories to be told, maintaining the traditional basis of narratives while also adding other elements that enrich and deepen storytelling innovation. Therefore, it is important to analyze how the characteristics of digital storytelling work together in order to create meaning through new narratives. Recent documentary projects show how new ways of telling stories involve new ways of relating meaning and form, multiple platforms, and strong interaction and engagement from the side of the viewer. Interactivity and participation change the way in which a story is told and received, thus changing its nature as a narrative. To delve deeper into this field, I will analyze Highrise. The Towers in the World. World in the Towers, (http://highrise.nfb.ca) by Katerina Cizek. This is a complex project produced by the National Film Board of Canada, a multiyear, many-media collaborative documentary experiment that has generated many projects, including mixed media, interactive documentaries, mobile productions, live presentations, installations and films. I will develop a textual analysis on part of the project, the interactive documentary Out My Window, by focusing on its ways of meaning-making and the specific narrative implications of the relationship between meaning and form. The project is ambitious: Cizek\u27s vision is "to see how the documentary process can drive and participate in social innovation rather than just to document it, and to help reinvent what it means to be an urban species in the 21st"
Alpenprojekt
No full textAlpenprojekt videos register the action of cutting the skyline in the alpine mountains. The footage was taken at different sites in the Alps. The cutouts evoke the European tradition from the 18th century to depict portraits with scissors and paper. A deliberate intent to apprehend the landscape within a unique line in a reduced dimension is the main issue in Alpenprojekt I and II. To react in the face of this specific landscape as an effort to embrace what is not controllable became a fundamental issue in the Alpenprojekt series of works. Alpenprojekt began with artistic research related to the southern German region closely connected with its physical landscape. Its representation was then perceived as a memory heritage of historical facts, either forgotten or intentionally lost. The entire project is called Trilogy of the Mountains, and it is related to memory and history. Trilogy of the Mountains comprises three phases: Alpenprojekt, based on the alpine landscape; the second one approaches Beckton Alps, an artificial mountain in east London; and the third part is related to artificial mountains made with war debris in Germany. Each piece of the Trilogy comprises a series of works. The project was initially developed based on landscapes where the notion of Romanticism is still present. Then the project was set toward the post-industrialization period—and finally related to reshaping the topography in Germany after WWII. In Trilogy of Mountains, the tension between natural and artificial is a central issue, being rather complementary than the opposite
Cooking up an injustice: A critical examination of the role of cooking programs in reducing health inequalities
No full textThe way we eat is one of the biggest causes of preventable illness and death, particularly for those living in more deprived areas. Public health interventions often include courses teaching cooking ‘from scratch’ as an affordable means of dietary improvement, but this paper questions the effectiveness of such programs. Using an in-depth case study of a leading healthy cooking programme, including ethnographic observations of seven cooking classes and interviews with 35 participants and three members of staff, we show that the impact of this programme was limited by its adherence to conventional ‘nutrient-focused’ framings of healthy eating. Teaching based on this framing created confusion by separating nutrients from foods, hampered embodied learning of skills and ultimately failed to address how learnings could be integrated into the everyday lives of participants Unable to engage with inequities in access, preparation time, food environments or other sociocultural influences on eating habits, courses built on similarly nutricentric foundations will never be able to address the major barriers to healthy eating faced by their target participants. As an alternative, we propose that cooking courses grounded in a more ‘practice-based’ understanding of healthy eating would be more effective at changing dietary behaviours, especially in areas of higher deprivation
Intuitive eating and Health at Every Size in community settings: Dietitian\u27s perceptions of practice barriers
No full textIntuitive Eating (IE) and Health at Every Size (HAES) are health promotion paradigms used by dietitians in private practice more commonly than in community-based practice where more diverse and vulnerable populations are served. The primary objective of this study was to examine the perceived barriers and facilitators that dietitians encounter when using IE and HAES in community nutrition practice settings. This phenomenological, qualitative study applied a grounded theory analysis to identify emergent themes from transcripts of semi-structured interviews with 27 dietitians working in community settings in the United States. Dietitians reported the following perceived barriers to the use of IE/HAES: diet culture which was often expressed as inconsistent messages patients receive from the media and other professionals that conflict with nutrition providers’ messages; legislative restrictions and weight-centric administrative policies; and personal beliefs of clients and colleagues concerning weight and health. Dietitians reported occupational autonomy as a salient factor facilitating the use of IE/HAES in community practice and identified the need for shifts in attitudes about weight and its relation to health achieved through research and dissemination of information on weight-inclusive practices. Collectively, respondents experienced more systemic barriers than individual barriers and identified several macro-level facilitators that remain elusive. The unique experiences of RDNs in community practice provide a roadmap for ongoing research to establish the evidence base for best practices, inform education and training, and achieve cultural shifts that move towards weight-inclusive practice in this setting. More research is needed to explore the generalizability of these experiences
