Action Research (Indigenous Health) Research Papers (original) (raw)

"This project involved several components: a review of the national and international literature in regard to the transition to school; an analysis of quantitative data, and consultations with a range of key stakeholders including a series of case study visits to different kinds of prior-to-school education settings. The objective of these research elements was to ensure the reports and guidelines developed through the project are well grounded in practice".
The project also involved visits to a range of settings where Aboriginal children were transitioning into school that were recommended as best practice by the state and territory based education departments. These are written up as case studies within the report.

The following text attempts, without pretending completeness, to analyze approaches to action research based on where and how they position themselves socially , on how they work, and on their actual basic distinctions. The result is a tentative typology presented roughly historically, which cuts through the many labels typical of current action research. Different approaches are useful, each for different purposes. Still, most circle consciously or subconsciously around some form of "practice" which works as a standard of measurement or quality criterion. The conclusion is that there is a certain sine qua non in the field of action research, i.e. a form "toward which, ways of doing things tend to evolve from a wide variety of starting points".

This chapter discusses some of the most recent studies that have been conducted among the indigenous Xavante people in Central Brazil by members of the research group Health, Epidemiology and Anthropology of Indigenous Peoples, coordinated by Ricardo Ventura Santos and Carlos E. A. Coimbra Jr., from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio de Janeiro. Members of this research group first studied the Xavante in 1990 and have since published on such diverse topics such as nutrition, subsistence, demography, epidemiology of infectious and parasitic diseases, and social organization. Recently, the group has focused on the relationship between health profiles and emergent forms of socioeconomic differentiation internal to specific Xavante communities. Additionally, they have begun publishing the results of longitudinal studies that document phenomena that had not yet been evident in cross-sectional approaches. In this chapter, they illustrate these new directions with examples of recent research on dental health, demography, and nutrition transition. These examples demonstrate the interrelatedness of health and various ecological, political, economic, and sociocultural transformations of different temporal scales.

- by Carlos E . A . Coimbra, Jr and +1
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- Human Ecology, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Food and Nutrition, Indigenous Peoples

INTRODUCTION Indigenous communities across Canada report that transformations in Indigenous health research are needed, where the benefits of research shift intentionally, collaboratively, and with transparency from the researchers directly to Indigenous communities and partners. Despite its challenges and potential for harm, research, if done ethically and with respect and partnership, can be a force for change and will strengthen the efficacy of data on Indigenous Peoples' health and wellbeing. PURPOSE To characterize the nature, range, and extent of Indigenous health research in Atlantic Canada, and to identify gaps. METHODS Eleven databases were searched using English-language keywords that signify Indigeneity, geographic regions, health, and Indigenous communities in Atlantic Canada between 2001 and May 2020. All references were reviewed independently by two reviewers. Of the 9056 articles identified, 211 articles were retained for inclusion. Data were extracted using a col...

Reclaiming ancient Middle Eastern spiritual-pharmacopeias, agricultural and architectural environmental engineering practices (such as tree amber for wounds or the Medieval Iraqi aquifers—qanats—still in practice today) can be one resolution for systemic oppressions inherent in our triple pandemic of ethnic cleansing/racism, climate crisis, and Covid-19. While encouraging individuals and communities to collectively resist industrialized convenience-culture and its self-destructive consequences, this presentation offers behavioral and infrastructural design shifts that embody Islamic wisdom/spiritual intelligence. In the tradition of hakawatis (Arab storytellers), I offer this tapestry as a strategy to ignite social justice
dialogue, ecological consciousness, and collective action. I contend that the alternative to industrial-waste consumer-convenience culture is not inconvenience, nor sacrifice. I suggest we redefine “convenience” by following principles found in Islamic texts and laws that can be antidotes to our consumer-waste culture. I ask: How can we transform habitual behaviors of entitlement and obsessive accumulation, so that we embody the ways we are all interconnected as a model and resource for
compassionate living? How can citizen-activists exemplify symbiotic solutions as we transition from our Anthropogenic, petroleum-pharmaceutical-addicted cyber-culture to a biocentric Commons—one
that inspires, educates, and mobilizes peoples of diverse cultural backgrounds? How can we hold ourselves and corporations accountable to toxic production / consumption / disposal habits that poison
life on earth? I explore principles found in ancient Islamic texts and laws as antidotes to our consumer-waste culture: water politics/infrastructure, architectural heating/cooling, the sacred embodied in bioregional agricultural systems, medico-magical rituals, and zero-waste/creative-waste living. Additionally, Islamic oral traditions that incorporate the ambiguity, contradiction, and the voice of the trickster are central to uprooting the intersections of our triple pandemic. Transformation and shifting identities are integral to how understanding how we can proactively engage with the sacred and the world around us.

- by Cara Judea Alhadeff
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- Climate Change, Cultural Heritage, Agribusiness, Liturgy

In this paper I examine how the use of Indigenous digital storytelling (DST) within the framework of Indigenous research methodology, allowed Indigenous women to share their health stories in a safe and respectful context. This decolonizing methodology allowed for self-representation that challenged stereotypes and allowed Indigenous women to prioritize their own social and community needs and to protect their identities and cultural values in the process (Iseke & Moore, 2011). The digital storytelling participant interviews, which is the data this paper is based upon, reveals several key aspects of conducting culturally relevant and ethically sound DST with Indigenous women including: findings and discussion on the process of DST, and the Indigenous knowledge translation (iKT) event, Legacy: Indigenous Women’s Health Stories. In the last chapter, I will situate myself within this re-search and share my self-reflectivity through Absolon’s (2011) Petal Flower framework starting with “The Flower Centre: Self as Central” to the Indigenous research process (pp.67-69). I will also highlight my “relational responsibility” to my co-creators – my continued advocacy for Indigenous women’s health using their digital stories - and how I included them in this process as much as possible (Gaudry as cited Strega and Brown, 2015, p. 256).

Back cover text: Real Social Science presents a new, hands-on approach to social inquiry. The theoretical and methodological ideas behind the book, inspired by Aristotelian phronesis, represent an original perspective within the social sciences, and this volume gives readers for the first time a set of studies exemplifying what applied phronesis looks like in practice. The reflexive analysis of values and power gives new meaning to the impact of research on policy and practice. Real Social Science is a major step forward in a novel and thriving field of research. This book will benefit scholars, researchers, and students who want to make a difference in practice, not just in the academy. Its message will make it essential reading for students and academics across the social sciences.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg and +1
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- Screenwriting, Critical Theory, Critical Theory, Critical Theory

This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior
- by Frank Meier
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Phronetic organizational research is an approach to the study of management and organizations focusing on ethics and power. It is based on a contemporary interpretation of the Aristotelian concept phronesis, usually as ‘prudence’. Phronesis is the ability to think and act in relation to values, to deliberate about ‘things that are good or bad for humans’ in the words of Aristotle (1976:1140a24–b12). Phronetic organizational research effectively provides answers to the following four value-rational questions, for specific problematics in management and organization studies: 1. Where are we going with this specific management problematic? 2. Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? 3. Is this development desirable? 4. What, if anything, should we do about it?

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Screenwriting, Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship

The Aalborg Project may be interpreted as a metaphor of modern politics, modern administration and planning, and of modernity itself. The basic idea of the project was comprehensive, coherent, and innovative, and it was based on rational and democratic argument. During implementation, however, when idea met reality, the play of Machiavellian princes, Nietzschean will to power, and Foucauldian rationality-as-rationalization resulted in the fragmentation of the project.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Several resolutions were recorded in the meetings of the Chhattisgarh Biodiversity Committee, under the Chairmanship of Dr. Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty, in March 2021, to nurture and protect the connection between cultural diversity and biological diversity nurtured trans generationally by tribal communities of Chhattisgarh. It was decided to showcase the collaborative efforts of the State Government, with the participation of tribal communities, to locate and conserve heritage sites and landscapes all over the state, that have outstanding examples of bio cultural diversity; to evolve a sui generis community intellectual property right regime, for excluding exploitation and ensuring sustainable harvesting practices; to promote, as World Heritage, sites that demonstrate the tangible and intangible heritage of strategies and features of the community management of human and natural resources; and, to formulate a Working Plan to incorporate and disseminate the innovative conservation practices, undertaken with tribal participation. The field initiatives would be exhibited, and discussed on national and international platforms.

At the same time that case studies are widely used and have produced canonical texts, it may be observed that the case study as a methodology is generally held in low regard, or is simply ignored, within the academy. For example, only 2 of the 30 top-ranked U.S. graduate programs in political science require a dedicated graduate course in case study or qualitative methods, and a full third of these programs do not even offer such a course. In contrast, all of the top 30 programs offer courses in quantitative methods and almost all of them require training in such methods, often several courses. In identifying this paradox of the case study’s wide use and low regard, Gerring rightly remarks that the case study survives in a “curious methodological limbo,” and that the reason is that the method is poorly understood. In what follows, we will try to resolve Gerring’s paradox and help case study research gain wider use and acceptance.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Si una de las necesidades fundamentales de la humanidad es asegurar la continuidad de su especie, ésta debió, desde el inicio de los tiempos, generar los conocimientos, habilidades y capacidades, así como agenciarse de los recursos indispensables que procuren que este tránsito cuente con las mejores condiciones que garanticen la sobrevivencia de los nuevos seres, más allá del simple acto de la procreación y su venida al mundo. Esto es, que a partir de la intervención del hombre para lograr la preñez en las mujeres, se inicia un largo proceso de gestación que culmina con el alumbramiento, sólo para iniciar otra larga y compleja etapa denominada posparto, hasta crear en los nuevos individuos los conocimientos, habilidades y capacidades para sumarse a esta necesidad individual y colectiva de la reproducción de la especie para la permanencia, como un ciclo interminable.

- by patrizia quattrocchi and +1
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- Medical Anthropology, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Health, Action Research (Indigenous Health)

We acknowledge the people of the West Kimberley region interviewed for this study and thank them for their willingness to share their experiences with us.

- by Karen Soldatic and +1
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- Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Disability policy (Social Policy), Disability Studies

In this paper we argue that the use of the communicative theory of Jürgen Habermas in planning theory is problematic because it hampers an understanding of how power shapes planning. We posit an alternative approach based on the power analytics of Michel Foucault which focuses on ‘what is actually done’, as opposed to Habermas’s focus on ‘what should be done’. We discuss how the Foucauldian stance problematises planning, asking difficult questions about the treatment of legitimacy, rationality, knowledge and spatiality. We conclude that Foucault offers a type of analytic planning theory which offers better prospects than does Habermas for those interested in understanding and bringing about democratic social change through planning.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

In the US, American Indian and Alaskan Native people experience higher rates of violence than all other ethnicities. The purpose of the present research has been to investigate the MMIW crisis, determine the cities with the highest rates of MMIW, and to begin an initial investigation into the root causes for this national crisis. In the present study, missing persons data was analyzed from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), and from data collected and published in a report produced by the Urban Indian Health Institute (UIHI). Additionally, unidentified persons data was analyzed from NamUs, and data regarding murder cases of indigenous women was analyzed from the UIHI report. Locations with the highest rates of MMIW cases in the country were identified as potential “hot spots”. Following the analysis, a total of 23 locations were determined to be “hot spots” for MMIW cases. Of these 23 locations, five were identified as being of the highest priority for intervention due to their disproportionately high rates of MMIW cases. Furthermore, hydraulic fracking across the US seems to be a likely contributing factor in the rate of MMIW cases in nine to 16 of the identified “hot spots”. Currently in the US, despite a national movement to raise awareness to the MMIW crisis, there has yet to be any direct actions taken by the federal government to address this issue. The present study has served to identify the primary “hot spots” for MMIW cases and has isolated some key contributing factors to this national problem. In order to most holistically address this issue, actions need to be taken at both the local and federal levels.

Historically, through colonial policies like the Indian Act and the imposition of patriarchy on matriarchal societies, Indigenous women have been and continue to be marginalized by main-stream society (Dodgson & Struthers, 2005). A consequence of this marginalization is health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous women. Indigenous women experience the highest rates of chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease, and have lower life expectancy, elevated morbidity rates, and elevated suicide rates in comparison to non-Aboriginal women (Bourassa, et al. 2004). To close the gaps in health outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Canada, it is critical that Indigenous people’s voices are central to the process of reconciliation in healthcare . Reconciliation in healthcare aims to close the gaps in health outcomes that exist between Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities, and support Indigenous peoples as they heal from colonization, the legacy of residential school, and the ongoing systemic racism embedded in our institutions. Indigenous women’s knowledge is integral to sustaining traditional knowledge systems, and healing practices, and decolonizing knowledge production (Kermoal & Altamirano-Jimenez, 2016).

Our paper interrogates the ethics of digital pandemic surveillance from Indigenous perspectives. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that Indigenous peoples are among the communities most negatively affected by pandemic infectious disease spread. Similarly to other racialized subpopulations, Indigenous people have faced strikingly high mortality rates from COVID-19 owing to structural marginalization and related comorbidities, and these high rates have been exacerbated by past and present colonial dominance. At the same time, digital pandemic surveillance technologies, which have been promoted as effective tools for mitigating a pandemic, carry risks for Indigenous subpopulations that warrant an urgent and thorough investigation. Building on decolonial scholarship and debates about Indigenous data sovereignty, we argue that should Indigenous communities wish to implement digital pandemic surveillance, then they must have ownership over these technologies, including agency over their own health data, how data are collected and stored, and who will have access to the data. Ideally, these tools should be designed by Indigenous peoples themselves to ensure compatibility with Indigenous cultures, ethics and languages and the protection of Indigenous lives, health and wellbeing.

- by Tiara Roxanne
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- Indigenous Studies, Bioethics, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Health Justice
- by Irene Roca Ortiz
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- Action Research (Indigenous Health)

Abstract: This article relates common ways of conceptualising action research as “intervention”, “collaboration”, “interactive research”, “applied research”, and “practitioner research” to a number of different ways of knowing extracted from the works of Aristotle. The purpose is not to disavow any of these practices but to expand the philosophical, methodological, and theoretical horizon to contain the Aristotelian concept of praxis. It is claimed that praxis knowing needs to be comprehended in order to realize the full, radical potential in action research providing real “added value” in relation to more conventional social research approaches. Praxis knowing radically challenges the divisions of labour between knower-researchers and the known-researched. Thereby it also challenges both the epistemologies and institutionalisations dominating both conventional research and conventional ways of conceptualising action research.

- by Olav Eikeland
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- Discourse Analysis, Social Change, Aesthetics, Epistemology

This article presents the theoretical and methodological considerations behind a research method which the author calls ‘phronetic planning research’. Such research sets out to answer four questions of power and values for specific instances of planning: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What, if anything, should we do about it? A central task of phronetic planning research is to provide concrete examples and detailed narratives of the ways in which power and values work in planning and with what consequences to whom, and to suggest how relations of power and values could be changed to work with other consequences. Insofar as planning situations become clear, they are clarified by detailed stories of who is doing what to whom. Clarifications of that kind are a principal concern for phronetic planning research and provide the main link to praxis.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Drawing on Social Museology principles, this document presents and analyses the activities carried out in 2020 as part of the Karajá Presence Research Project, launched in 2017, into material culture, fabric, and colonial transits. We show how the mapping and study of collections of indigenous artifacts led to a health campaign in support of the Iny Karajá people. This group holds the knowledge related to the production of ritxoko, clay dolls which are the subject of our investigation. Furthermore, we share our understanding that life is the most significant heritage. Working for the survival of biological and cultural diversity must be a non-negotiable commitment of Museology since it is a domain that looks at the fate of things and their continuity.

- by Samuel Bendeck Sotillos
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- Religion, Psychology, Social Psychology, Epistemology

Back cover text: If the new fin de siècle marks a recurrence of the real, Bent Flyvbjerg’s Rationality and Power epitomizes that development and sets new standards for social and political inquiry. The Danish town of Aalborg is to Flyvbjerg what Florence was to Machiavelli: a laboratory for understanding the real workings of power, and for grasping what they mean to our more general concerns of social and political organization. Politics, administration, and planning are examined in ways that allow a rare, in-depth understanding. The reader witnesses, firsthand, the classic and endless drama which defines what modernity and democracy are and can be.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

-La lírica del huayno andino-
Espacio de configuración de la identidad social de la población andina en la década de los 80’s en Lima

Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on CALL No.2 July,... more

Aristotle has been continuously at the frontier of philosophical reflection for almost 2400 years. Throughout the 20th century the influence of his practical philosophy has been growing. His «non-modernist» concept of phrónêsis or practical wisdom is attracting increasing interest as an alternative to both «modernism» and «post-modernism». This book is a meticulous study of Aristotle's phrónêsis and its applications to the fields of personal development or character formation and of ethical virtues. It also relates phrónêsis to the wider context of Aristotle's theoretical philosophy and of his different ways of knowing, and to both theoretical and practical concerns within modern social and action research. The whole of Aristotle's thinking is radically practice-based and directed. However, it never loses its theoretical focus. His theoretical philosophy is fundamentally dialogical. Hence, the relevance of Aristotelian thinking is striking for the current reconfigurations in the social organisation of learning and knowledge production.

- by Olav Eikeland
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- Psychology, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Political Philosophy

Indigenous ancestral teachings commonly present individual and community health as dependent upon relationships between human and nonhuman worlds. But how do persons conversant with ancestral teachings effectively convey such perspectives in contemporary contexts, and to what extent does the general tribal citizenry share them? Can media technology provide knowledge-keepers with opportunities to communicate their perspectives to larger audiences? What are the implications for tribal citizens’ knowledge and views about tribal land use policies? Using a PhotoVoice approach, we collaborated with a formally-constituted body of Cherokee elders who supply cultural guidance to the Cherokee Nation government in Oklahoma. We compiled photographs taken by the elders and conducted interviews with them centered on the project themes of land and health. We then developed a still-image documentary highlighting these themes and surveyed 84 Cherokee citizens before and after they viewed it. Results from the pre-survey revealed areas where citizens’ perspectives on tribal policy did not converge with the elders’ perspectives; however, the post-survey showed statistically significant changes. We conclude that PhotoVoice is an effective method to communicate elders’ perspectives, and that tribal citizens’ values about tribal land use may change as they encounter these perspectives in such novel formats.

- by Clint Carroll
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- Native American Studies, Indigenous Studies, Conservation, Indigenous Health

Modernity and a True Return to Nature 0. Point of Departure Question How are human-nature relations and the attainment of virtue through human-nature relations understood in the classical urban theory of Geddes and Mumford? How is... more

- by Luke Barnesmoore
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- Critical Theory, Philology, Modern History, Social Theory
- by Julie Bull
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- Ethics, Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Research Ethics

There is increasing recognition of the significance of how traditional knowledges (TKs) can inform our understanding of the impacts of climate change and strategies for adaptation and mitigation. And yet there are potential risks to indigenous peoples in sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. We intend the term indigenous peoples to designate the diverse populations in the U.S. who could interact with federal and non-indigenous climate change initiatives in ways that involve TKs, whether in the U.S. they are federally-recognized, state-recognized, or unrecognized. We refer to “indigenous peoples” and “tribes” interchangeably in this document, unless we are talking about a specific group or a specific status related to recognition. These guidelines are intended to examine the significance of TKs in relation to climate change and the potential risks to indigenous peoples in the U.S. for sharing TKs in federal and other non-indigenous climate change initiatives. Although it is common to refer to "traditional knowledge(s)" as individual pieces of information, this term also refers to traditional “knowledge systems" that are deeply embedded in indigenous ways of life. These guidelines use the phrase "traditional knowledges" deliberately in plural form because knowledges are emergent from the symbiotic relationship of indigenous peoples and places - a nature-culture nexus. Tribes and indigenous peoples use “knowledges” to emphasize that there are diverse forms of traditional knowledge and knowledge systems that must be recognized as unique to each tribe and knowledge holder. These guidelines should be used to inform the development of specific protocols in direct and close consultation with indigenous peoples. [http://climatetkw.wordpress.com/] Federal agencies and national climate change initiatives are recognizing the significance of TKs, and are proposing and funding collaborative efforts between indigenous communities and federal and non-indigenous climate change entities in ways that involve TKs. This interaction requires an understanding of how individual tribes and knowledge holders choose to share or not to share TKs.

- by Kyle Whyte and +2
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- Indigenous Studies, Indigenous or Aboriginal Studies, Climate Change, Participatory Research

This essay, or rather collection of essays, draws together three distinct streams of thought, time and space into a single river of understanding concerning labor, leisure, human-nature relations, city and town planning and human evolution at both the individual and collective levels. From Daoist tales of effortless leisure under 'useless trees' to Pieper's eulogy of leisure in the Modernist world(view) of total work and onto the planning theory and practice of Sir. Patrick Geddes, this ambling and nomadic stream seeks to problematize hegemonic contemporary conceptions of evolution, order, labor, leisure, nature and human-nature relations and to plant the seeds of a new principle, a new mythos, to which human evolution and being can be oriented in ashes of the charred edifice of Modernity. Can we transcend the materially rationalist, labor centric conceptions of humanity that reign in contemporary hegemonic culture for a more holistic perspective in which the infinite and finite aspects of human being can co-exist without either one interfering with the other? Can human-nature relations, especially as cultivated through city and town planning, transcend the present order of hierarchical domination, objectification and callous consumption of nature for an order of relations in which nature acts upon us as a teacher and we consume nature in harmony with its own natural order rather than through creation of an artificial order?

This article provides an answer to what has been called the biggest problem in theorizing and understanding planning: the ambivalence about power found among planning researchers, theorists, and students. The author narrates how he came to work with issues of power and gives an example of how the methodology he developed for power studies—phronetic planning research—may be employed in practice. Phronetic planning research follows the tradition of power studies running from Machiavelli and Nietzsche to Michel Foucault and Pierre Bourdieu. It focuses on four value-rational questions: (1) Where are we going with planning? (2) Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? (3) Is this development desirable? (4) What should be done? These questions are exemplified for a specific instance of Scandinavian urban planning. The author finds that the questions, and their answers, make a difference to planning in practice. They make planning research matter.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Guided by an overarching participatory action research framework, this research explored physical activity within the sociocultural context of northern Aboriginal communities. I worked in partnership with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation Community Wellness Program in the Northwest Territories, Canada, to develop, implement and evaluate the research. Together, we aimed to: 1) document the community’s perspective of and experience with physical activity through the eyes of the youth; 2) investigate how physical activity is embedded in local and traditional culture; 3) raise consciousness about physical activity in the community; and 4) develop a strategic plan for sustaining new and existing physical activity initiatives. Ultimately, this research highlighted the critical role of culture and traditions in the Dene people’s physical activity experience and more broadly, their health and wellbeing. Moreover, it demonstrated that a participatory action research project is entirely feasible within the capacity of a Master’s thesis, given the appropriate circumstances, partnership, and researcher attitude. This study contributes to the current understanding of physical activity from an Indigenous perspective and provides recommendations for future research, policy, and practice to develop meaningful and effective interventions for chronic disease preventions.

The purpose of this document is to provide tools for k-12 educators, administrators, and mental
health treatment providers to better address the learning and behavioral health needs of
Indigenous youth in a holistic manner. It is also a resource for faculty working in higher education
to prepare future professionals, particularly those planning to work in tribal communities with
children and youth. The focus of this document is on the resilience and well-being of Indigenous
youth in a historical context. The historical review provides a greater understanding of the role
of boarding schools, forced colonization, and assimilation resulting in cultural genocide and their
impacts on education.

- by LaVonne Fox Peltier and +2
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- Indigenous Studies, Indigenous education, Action Research (Indigenous Health), Indigenous Politics

The current paper is based on an empirical research conducted in a Punjabi village of Pakistan. It discusses the Health related indigenous practices of the people of the village in which both preventive and curative aspects have been covered and discussed in detail along with the particular practices that were still under use by the village community. The main thrust of research was to study indigenous knowledge system and its traditional wisdom attached with the traditional medicine which is called alternative medicine now a days. The study brings forth the worth of traditional medicine, its utilities and consumption practiced by the local and indigenous populations. The long ignorance of Cultural Factors regarding Health and Healing systems in Pakistan urges the need to understand indigenous mind and perceptions due to low performance at health index. This paper makes it possible to read out the health related beliefs and practices and moreover the low pricing and affordability of local and traditional medical practices. Local medical practices are deeply rooted into curative side due to which people have more faith in the centuries old repertoire.

- by Dr. Abid G. Chaudhry
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- Sociology, Rural Sociology, Health Psychology, Health Sciences

Cuando en marzo de 2020 comenzó en España el confinamiento provocado por la expansión de la pandemia del COVID-19, Comillas Journal of International Relations trabajaba en el cierre de un número centrado en aspectos culturales del Japón, coordinado con galanura por Ana Trujillo. Intentamos reaccionar a la crisis global que suponía la expansión del coronavirus con la rápida convocatoria de un call for papers que atendiese a las muchas variables de política internacional afectadas y alteradas por la pandemia. Al hacerlo, no podíamos imaginar que llegado diciembre de 2021, nuestras vidas siguiesen condicionadas en tantos órdenes por un virus cuyos efectos se han demostrado dramáticamente permeables al tiempo. No éramos aún capaces de incorporar a nuestra lógica las cifras de víctimas de la pandemia o sus efectos sociales, políticos o económicos. No será este el único número monográfico que dediquemos al COVID-19, dado que desde que cerramos la recepción de artículos-o concretamos la invitación a las notables firmas invitadas que jalonan a este número-la pandemia ha ofrecido caras nuevas y ha mostrado su capacidad de alterar definitivamente los ritmos de una era de las relaciones internacionales, que necesariamente se agota. Si el 11S supuso el principio del fin del orden cosmopolita diseñado tras la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y apuntalado paradójicamente por los horrores contenidos de la Guerra Fría, la pandemia supone-nos tememos-su definitivo epitafio. Es tan simple como eso. Y tan terrible. En estos meses de pandemia y confinamiento las potencias revisionistas de ese orden internacional, que ya es dominio del espíritu de las Navidades pasadas de Dickens, han mostrado su descaro con renovada pujanza. Nos referimos fundamentalmente a Rusia y China. Son la vanguardia del ocaso del ideal de victoria del paradigma democrático tras la Guerra Fría. Sus comparsas son procesos lamentables como la crisis de la vida pública en las democracias consolidadas, ante el auge de un populismo feroz, a izquierda y derecha que-junto al brexit-ha puesto a Europa contra las cuerdas. En América Latina la democracia parece batirse en retirada. La misma estrategia con la que Estados Unidos ha cerrado veinte años de presencia militar en Afganistán. Entre la debacle y la nada. El asalto meses antes al edificio del Capitolio por una jauría de alaricos de saldo, aunque apenas menos brutales que los que en el 410 saquearon Roma, simbolizaba con elocuencia el asedio de la tribu a la idea de ciudadanía y el del atavismo al de civilización. Todo ello acompañado del feble inicio de la presidencia de Joe Biden, tras los años golfos de Donald Trump, dibujan unos Estados Unidos convertidos en un imperio decadente. El panorama global tras dos años de pandemia es desolador. Aunque no todo es negativo. El desarrollo de vacunas en tiempo récord para combatir la pandemia es un logro inédito que pone de manifiesto el acometimiento de la humanidad, cuando hay unidad de propósito y criterio para la acción. Esas vacunas desgraciadamente siguen teniendo demasiados millones pendientes de su dosis y, en la espera, ya sabemos que aguardan agazapadas nuevas cepas con la misma capacidad para el mal que la cabeza de Medusa. Un mundo sin grandes líderes, en el que la política es muchas veces farsa, afronta en diciembre de 2021 la expansión de una de esas cepas: Omicrón. Los augurios para el comienzo de 2022 son en efecto oscuros y no cumplen la promesa de un ritmo que, de la pandemia, como hace cien años, llegaríamos a unos felices años veinte.

Niccolò Machiavelli, the founder of modern political and administrative thought, made clear that an understanding of politics requires distinguishing between formal politics and what later, with Ludwig von Rochau, would become known as Realpolitik. No such distinction has been employed in the study of rationality. Yet I will argue that distinguishing between formal rationality and real rationality is as important for the understanding of rationality and planning as the distinction between formal politics and Realpolitik has been for understanding politics.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

The purpose of the present chapter is to demonstrate how social scientists may engage with mass media to have their research impact public deliberation, policy and practice. Communicating research to practice is part and parcel of applied phronesis and not something external to it. Even in Aristotle's original definition of phronesis, laid down more than two millennia ago, the knowledge–action relationship is clear. A defining characteristic of phronesis is, in Aristotle's words, that it is ‘reason capable of action’ (The Nicomachean Ethics, 1976: Bk VI, 1140a24–1140b12). Phronetic research results (‘reason’) are therefore results only to the extent they have an impact on practice (‘action’). In public affairs, reason is made capable of action by effectively having reason enter the public sphere and public deliberation. It is reason times exposure in the public sphere that matters, not reason alone. Today, mass media dominate the public sphere in liberal democracies. The relationship of research with media therefore needs to be reflected. However, to my knowledge no study exists that describes in detail this aspect of phronetic research. Even in social science as a whole, studies of how scholars work with mass media to secure public impact of their research seem rare (Bagdikian 2004; McCombs 2004; Bryant and Oliver 2009). This, then, is the purpose of the present chapter: to begin to close this gap in our knowledge of social science and phronesis. Because the field is underexplored, it was found to be prudent to start with a phenomenological case study. The study shows how a group of phronetic social scientists, including the author, engaged with media, including world-leading titles such as The New York Times, in order to place their research results on the public agenda and initiate change in their chosen field of interest: megaproject policy and management.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Taken together, the works of Jurgen Habermas and Michel Foucault highlight an essential tension in modernity. This is the tension between the normative and the real, between what should be done and what is actually done. Understanding this tension is crucial to understanding modern democracy, what it is and what it could be. It has been argued that an effective way of making democracy stronger is to strengthen civil society. This article contains a comparative analysis of the central ideas of Habermas and Foucault as they pertain to the question of democracy and civil society. More specifically, the discourse ethics of Habermas is contrasted with the power analytics and ethics of Foucault evaluating their usefulness for those interested in understanding, and bringing about, democratic social change.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

If we want to empower and re-enchant organization research, we need to do three things. First, we must drop all pretence, however indirect, at emulating the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory, for their approach simply does not work in organization research or any of the social sciences (for the full argument, see Flyvbjerg 2001). Second, we must address problems that matter to groups in the local, national, and global communities in which we live, and we must do it in ways that matter; we must focus on issues of context, values, and power, as advocated by great social scientists from Aristotle and Machiavelli to Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we must effectively and dialogically communicate the results of our research to our fellow citizens and carefully listen to their feedback. If we do this – focus on specific values and interests in the context of particular power relations – we may successfully transform organization research into an activity performed in public for organizational publics, sometimes to clarify, sometimes to intervene, sometimes to generate new perspectives, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future. We may, in short, arrive at organization research that matters.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship, Organizational Behavior

Overview of indigenous rights issues in the Russian Arctic.

The current paper is an attempt to build a case for the revitalization of Indigenous Knowledge System which is intellectual property of a native community that resides in a particular environment and enjoying a friendly ecological interaction with ecological niche. The commercialization of development theory with mere economic terms and statistics has hijacked the integrity of indigenous knowledge and resources. The local populations are under continuous mental stress to produce more and more to earn their living and monetary resources. This paper has a long term vision of refreshing the local knowledge as it discusses the gradual shift in development theory towards giving space for locally based knowledge system as a viable option for launching sustainable development. In fact, all considerable countries of the world are struggling to devise an alternative but sustainable strategy for their livelihoods. In such a case that most of the world’s brethren is reviewing their local knowledge systems then why Pakistan lags behind the same. For Pakistan, sustainable development would simply mean non-reliance upon any foreign developmental model. The development that is sprung out of native and local resources both human and natural would call for development not only for the current generation but for the ones to come.

- by Dr. Abid G. Chaudhry
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- Cultural History, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Economic Sociology

For over fifty years, successive waves of critique have underscored that the apolitical character of much of Political Science research betrays the founding mission of the discipline to have science serve democracy. The Caucus for a New Political Science was originally based on such a critique, and the Perestroika movement in the discipline included a call for more problem-driven as opposed to theory- or method-driven work that would better connect Political Science research to ongoing political struggles. In recent years, movements for a public Sociology and public Anthropology as well as dissonant movements in Economics and related fields have added to the insistence that social science research was too often disconnected from the real world. Phronetic Social Science has emerged out of the ferment for change in the social sciences, starting with the much-debated book by Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge 2001). Flyvbjerg critiqued the social sciences for mimicking the natural sciences while proposing an alternative approach that focuses research on helping people address the problems they are facing in the context they are facing them. Today, Phronetic Social Science goes beyond the call for an alternative approach to social inquiry and its growing adherents are providing evidence that this alternative approach to doing research can enrich the social sciences by more effectively connecting research to efforts to address real world problems as people experience them. This essay provides a genealogy of efforts to connect Political Science to politics, a review of the major critiques of mainstream research, an explication of the rationale for more problem-driven, mixed methods research, a specification of the key principles of the phronetic approach, and examples of its application in the public realm. The essay concludes with implications for realizing a more political Political Science by way of taking a phronetic approach.

- by Bent Flyvbjerg
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- Screenwriting, Critical Theory, Business, Entrepreneurship