1,720,969 research outputs found
Toward cultural epidemiology : beyond epistemological hegemony
No full textIt is more than 10 years since the anthropologist DiGiacomo (1999) answered the question “Can there be a cultural epidemiology?” with disappointment, concluding ethnographic and epidemiological narratives are divergent not complementary. In the same year, the epidemiologist Krieger (1999, p. 1151) asked related questions about the epistemological foundations of epidemiology: “Epidemiology is–or is not—the basic science of public health. Epidemiology is—or is not—an objective science. Science and advocacy are—or are not—distinct and contrary endeavours.” Again in the same year the Indigenous researcher Smith (1999, p. 1) wrote, “From the vantage point of the colonized, a position from which I write, and choose to privilege, the term ‘research’ is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colonialism.” The act of conceptualizing and practicing cultural epidemiology thus brings with it a series of deep epistemological questions about the nature of knowledge production. The Western academy of health research assumes an intellectual and moral privilege to fill gaps in knowledge aimed at yielding improvements in health status. With such privilege comes responsibility, since the power to conceptualize health problems and their solutions deserves considerable critical, historical, and political reflexivity, particularly at the boundaries between dominant and oppressed cultural spaces..
Strong in the City: Toward a Strength Based Approach in Indigenous Health Promotion
No full textIssues Addressed: To describe the potential for strength based approaches in health promotion with the example of an urban Indigenous community\ud
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Method: Qualitative methods were used to describe an Indigenous perspective about community strength. The results were then used to inform a community development approach to health promotion.\ud
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Results: Five key strengths were described: 1) Extended Family; 2) Commitment to Community; 3) Neighbourhood Networks; 4) Community Organisations; and 5) Community Events. Working with these strengths, five kinds of resourcing strategies were pursued through various community development activities. These included: 1) professional support and development; 2) Networking Resources; 3) Management Support; 4) Specialist Support; and 5) Financial Support.\ud
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Conclusion: Standard needs assessment logic generally focuses our attention on gaps and weaknesses. This does not allow health promotion practice to acknowledge the existing social resources within communities which should be supported to promote better health. We suggest there are significant lessons here for community capacity building agendas, currently popular in social policy
Review of Australian health related social work research 1990-2009
No full textSocial workers form a critical component of the Australian health workforce. Whilst their roles as practitioners are very strategic within the health system, less clear is their contribution to health research. This paper reviews the published record of social work research in Australian health from 1990-2009 in order to discern the patterns of the social work contribution to new knowledge in health. The results of this review indicate a tendency to focus on discursive commentary rather than empirical research as well as a less than expected focus on client studies. Given the rise of evidence based practice, there are potentially serious implications for social work in terms of how it positions itself as a contributor to new knowledge within the health field
Little theory, big plans : social capital and community building in Aboriginal Australia
No full textThe discourse surrounding recent Aboriginal social policy regularly refers to pragmatism and partnership. In a simpler world, we might call this ‘getting things done with Aboriginal people.’ To that extent, the discourse draws on\ud
an indisputable common sense, and it is not surprising that a variety of political agendas can be packaged within such language. While many things need to be done, the quantity and particularly the quality of social networks required to take effective policy into effective practice is something we ought to consider more carefully. This is where the concept of social capital could be useful, since it focuses attention on the social resources required to construct\ud
social policy, as well as the social resources that could be produced by effective social policy. Partnerships and pragmatism are therefore related at a most fundamental level in terms of social policy. We question whether this\ud
important conceptual bedrock has been fully explored. Hence we review here some recent ‘big plans’ for Aboriginal Australia, and ask whether the size of the theory matches the size of the plans
The Meaning of Culture within Public Health Practice - Implications for the study of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health
No full textThis paper critically examines the conceptualisation of culture within public health practice, and considers implications for our understandings of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health status. There is no doubt that culture is a popular concept within public health, particularly in describing health differentials between populations distinguished by race, ethnicity and culture. However, this popularity is not matched by critical self-reflection upon the ways in which the concept of culture has been constructed within this space. This paper suggests a number of conceptualisations are apparent each reflecting a limited and problematic portrayal of the richness of culture
Children in inner-city suburbia: The case of New Farm, Brisbane
No full textThis case study uses various lenses to explore the question of 'how child friendly is New Farm?' and what can be done to enhance it from this perspective. This case study has highlighted that even in localities of relative advantage children's needs are insufficiently regarded. The pace and nature of inner city urban development requires attention to be given to the social sustainability of these areas and in particular to how these can be positive environments for children of various ages. The inner city is not simply the province of 'empty-nesters'. In a variety of ways children of various ages, their parents and caregivers are utilising inner city areas as either residences or as venues of regional significance
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Producing solidarity : a settlement strategy of the Karen refugee community in Brisbane, Australia
No full textThis paper explores the link between experience and context. It places the lived experiences of Karen refugees during settlement in Brisbane, Australia within the socio-political context of Burma, or particularly the historical context of persecution. Two key events – the Wrist-tying Ceremony and the Karen New Year – provide a link between experience and context. The findings of this study show a community strategically at work in a new and ongoing settlement process. This process pays respect to the complexities of cultural integrity whilst also engaging with the challenges of integration. The complexities are local (in terms of cultural, linguistic and religious diversity), national (maintaining a broader sense of community that includes linkages across Australia, as well as an engagement with the Australian socio-political context), and transnational (participating in a global Karen community). This transnational community encompasses Karen settling elsewhere in the world, Karen in refugee camps neighbouring Burma, and Karen living inside Burma. This paper argues that substantial “identity work” is involved in Karen settlement. The two key community events are useful vignettes of this identity work. Both events demonstrate how Karen cultural practices can meaningfully negotiate deeply historical ideas of Karen identity with contemporary challenges of settlement. In addition, they set out a version of settlement that departs from traditional settlement constructs; they show how the lived experience of settlement is messy, complex and dynamic, and not reflective of the neat, idealistic models that immigration policy and settlement theory project
Making sense of mental illness as a full human experience : Perspective of illness and recovery held by people with a mental illness living in the community.
No full textRecovery is a highly contextualized concept amid divergent interpretations and unique experiences. There is substantial current interest in building evidence about recovery from mental illness in order to inform best practice founded in the ways people find to live productive and meaningful lives. This paper presents some accounts related to recovery and illness expressed by eight people through a Participatory Action Research project. The research facilitated entry to the subjective experiences of living in the community as an artist with a mental illness. The people in the research shared an integrated understanding of illness, recovery and identity. Their understanding provided insight into mental illness as an inseparable aspect of who they were. Further, specific issue was raised of recovery as a clinical term with a requirement to meet distinct conventions of recovery. This paper emphasizes that being ill and being well, for the person with a mental illness, is a dynamic and complex development not easily explained or transformed into uniform process or outcomes. Attempts to establish an integral or consensual approach to recovery has, to date, disregarded mental illness as a full human experience. This paper argues that broader frameworks for thinking and responding to the dynamic processes of mental illness and recovery are needed and require acknowledgment of competing and contradictory ideas
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