The unexpected death of a child is one of the most challenging losses as it fractures survivors’ sense of parenthood and other layers of identity. Given that not all the bereaved parents who have need for support respond well to available treatments and that many have little access to further intervention or follow-up over time, online interventions featuring therapeutic writing and peer support have strong potential. In this article we explore how a group of bereaved mothers experienced the process of participating in an online course in therapeutic writing for the integration of grief. Our research questions were: How do parents who have lost a child experience being part of an online course in therapeutic writing? What are the perceived benefits and challenges of writing in processing their grief? We followed an existential phenomenological approach and analyzed fieldwork notes (n = 13), qualitative data from the application and assessment surveys (n = 35; n = 21), excerpts from the journals of some participants (n = 3), and email correspondence with some participants (n = 5). We categorized the results in three meaning units: (1) where does my story begin? The “both and” of their silent chaos; (2) standing on the middle line: a pregnancy that does not end; (3) closures and openings: “careful optimism” and the need for community support. Participants experienced writing as an opportunity for self-exploration regarding their identities and their emotional world, as well as a means to develop and strengthen a bond with their children. They also experienced a sense of belonging, validation, and acceptance in the online group in a way that helped them make sense of their suffering. Online writing courses could be of benefit for bereaved parents who are grieving the unexpected death of a child, but do not replace other interventions such as psychotherapy. In addition to trauma and attachment informed models of grief, identity informed models with a developmental focus might enhance the impact of both low-threshold community interventions and more intensive clinical ones. Further studies and theoretical development in the area are needed, addressing dialogical notions such as the multivoicedness of the self. Lehmann OV, Neimeyer RA, Thimm J, Hjeltnes A, Lengelle R and Kalstad TG (2022) Experiences of Norwegian Mothers Attending an Online Course of Therapeutic Writing Following the Unexpected Death of a Child. Front. Psychol. 12:809848. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.809848
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It was a landmark speech. On May 26, Angola’s president apologized and asked forgiveness for mass executions that occurred in 1977. He also announced the returning of victims’ remains to their families and the issuance of death certificates. But what does this mean for Angola’s wider reconciliation process? Other key demands and large groups of victims have still been left out, warn scholars Maarten van Munster and Joris van Wijk.
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That expressive writing can be a beneficial response to trauma or grief is well-established in the literature. Grief research also shows that the majority of people are resilient in the face of the death of loved ones. That said, traditional rituals around loss are no longer ubiquitous, well-known phase models of bereavement are contested, and ‘unfinished business’ can create difficulties in the face of loss. Increasingly, bereavement scholars speak of a need for individuals in western society to make meaning of their own grief through narrative construction, though little is said about what constitutes a beneficial story. The author takes an autoethnographic approach to write and reflect on her spouse’s illness and death and explores through a multi-voiced expressive dialogue a personal issue around her bereavement. In an analysis of her writing, using Dialogical Self Theory, she identifies markers which may be indicative of the development of a beneficially constructed narrative. The model of writing-for-transformation is used to describe the overall intent of the process, while the dialogical markers show how progress may be identified. Reinekke Lengelle (2020) Writing the Self and Bereavement: Dialogical Means and Markers of Moving Through Grief, Life Writing, 17:1, 103-122, DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2020.1710796
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Liveblogs are very popular with the public and journalists alike. The problem, though, is their credibility, given the uncertainty of the covered events and the immediacy of their production. Little is known about how journalists routinize the unexpected—to paraphrase Tuchman—when journalists report about an event that is still unfolding. This paper is about makers of liveblogs, livebloggers, so to speak, and the routines and conventions they follow. To better understand the relationship between those who do the “liveblogging” and how the “liveblogging” is done, we interviewed a selection of nine experienced livebloggers who cover breaking news, sports, and politics for the three most-visited news platforms in the Netherlands. Based on our results, we concluded that journalists working at different platforms follow similar routines and conventions for claiming, acquiring, and justifying knowledge. Journalists covering news in liveblogs must have expert knowledge, as well as technical and organizational skills. Liveblogging—in contrast to regular, online reporting—is best summarized as a social process instead of an autonomous production. These findings are important for three reasons: first, to understand how journalists cope with uncertainty covering events under immediate circumstances using liveblogs; second, to understand the workings of this popular format; and third, to contribute to literature about journalistic genres, discourse communities and, more specifically, generic requirements of liveblogs for effects of credibility to take place.
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De PDCA- of Demingcyclus is het hart van de kwaliteitskunde en heeft haar nut bewezen. Het is echter geen panacee, datin alle culturen en op alle tijden even bruikbaar is. Met nanme in andere dan westerse culturen in tijden van snelle veranderingen voldoet Plan-Do-Check-Act niet.
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Introduction: Falling causes long term disability and can even lead to death. Most falls occur during gait. Therefore improving gait stability might be beneficial for people at risk of falling. Recently arm swing has been shown to influence gait stability. However at present it remains unknown which mode of arm swing creates the most stable gait. Aim: To examine how different modes of arm swing affect gait stability. Method: Ten healthy young male subjects volunteered for this study. All subjects walked with four different arm swing instructions at seven different gait speeds. The Xsens motion capture suit was used to capture gait kinematics. Basic gait parameters, variability and stability measures were calculated. Results: We found an increased stability in the medio-lateral direction with excessive arm swing in comparison to normal arm swing at all gait speeds. Moreover, excessive arm swing increased stability in the anterior–posterior and vertical direction at low gait speeds. Ipsilateral and inphase arm swing did not differ compared to a normal arm swing. Discussion: Excessive arm swing is a promising gait manipulation to improve local dynamic stability. For excessive arm swing in the ML direction there appears to be converging evidence. The effect of excessive arm swing on more clinically relevant groups like the more fall prone elderly or stroke survivors is worth further investigating. Conclusion: Excessive arm swing significantly increases local dynamic stability of human gait.
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Different unexpected combinations between industry, local government, private participants, educational institutes and artists resulted past year in challenging opportunities for transitions in urban and rural areas. The power of art with the perspective of the artist approaching challenges evokes a chain of thoughts and (cascading) events, affecting systems. This results not only in innovative sustainable social &industrial products but also in change of systems. Panarchy is the paradigm of transition and change (Holling). Panarchy is interaction of countless interconnected and nested complex adaptive systems. Panarchy is the paradigm where small actions can have major effects for good or worse. It is to expect the unexpected. Panarchy holds the promise of positively changing the anthropocene. By being prepared we can anticipate upon unexpected emerging phenomena which can be used as leverage for creating change. SDG-labs are the environment where we can experiment and create new resilient concepts for adaptation to the antropocene. SDG-Labs have two aspects, the first is creation of concepts for change within the lab-setting, its content; the second is the process of organisation of the lab within its environmental and societal context. The Lab itself can be regarded as a complex adaptive system while the organisation of the SDG-Lab is within panarchy, acting on multiple levels and on different scales. Both faces, content and context, of the SDG lab have their own emerging properties. For facilitation of the SDG-lab we organised workshops where creative methods based upon TRIZ ("Theory of inventive problem solving") and CPS (Creative Problem Solving) were applied. TRIZ makes use of pre-established thinking patterns and proven abstract solutions to sets of abstract problems. TRIZ provides a toolbox for solving complex (wicked) problems. TRIZ uses the heuristics of intrinsic technological and societal evolution once a concept emerges. CPS is used for application of the TRIZ toolbox, by making concrete problems abstract and abstract solutions, concrete. TRIZ and CPS makes use of analytical and design thinking. Results of these workshops are emerged pre-concepts which have the potential to create change. Contextual settings of the SDG-lab determine its rate of success. Many good ideas perish in the “valley of death”, before they can realise their full potential. The contextual setting determines acceptance and hence increases probability of idea realisation. The action of organising SDG-labs generates curiosity, enthusiasm, resistance and other emotions with people and organisations. This lead to disturbances in panarchy, which is rendered in emerging opportunities that can be seized by imaginative people. Sarasvathy and Simon (2000) coined for this approach the concept of effectuation as an entrepreneurial principle for seizing opportunities which emerge from entrepreneurial actions in contrast to causation where managerial thinking obscures seeing opportunities. Effectuation is actor dependent where given specific means, choice of effect is driven by characteristics of the actor and his or her ability to discover and use contingencies. This approach is also recognised in innovation theory where the concept of “exaptation” is explored. Exaptation is the attribution of a new functionality to an existing artefact (or organization, scientific achievement, or
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Ethnographic fieldwork is a balancing act between distancing and immersing. Fieldworkers need to come close to meaningfully grasp the sense-making efforts of the researched. In methodological textbooks on ethnography, immersion tends to be emphasized at the expense of its counterpart. In fact, ‘distancing’ is often ignored as a central tenet of good ethnographic conduct. In this article we redirect attention away from familiarization and towards ‘defamiliarization’ by suggesting six estrangement strategies (three theoretical and three methodological) that allow the researcher to develop a more detached viewpoint from which to interpret data. We demonstrate the workings of these strategies by giving illustrations from Machteld de Jong’s field- and text-work, conducted among Moroccan-Dutch students in an institution of higher vocational education.
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We, humans have our roots in pre-Anthropocene eras where we gathered skills for survival and establishing our culture. The cumulated tacit knowledge, the skills, ideas and experiences that can only be shared by personal contact and mutual trust, is evolved and cumulated during this pre-Anthropocene era. This tacit knowledge is geared to our existence and to local circumstances, it is the indigenous knowledge necessary for local adaptation and for (cultural) perseverance. The Anthropocene era however, is characterized by rapid changes with respect to environment, climate, food sovereignty, culture and more. Our tacit knowledge needs to evolve and adapt at the same pace as changes happen in our environment and culture. Changes in the Anthropocene era are fast and disruptive thereby challenging concomitant evolution of our tacit knowledge. Urban communities are embedded in the artificial world fostering learning and adaptation of new tacit knowledge geared to artificial environments. Remote communities, living in a more natural world, are especially vulnerable to effects of the Anthropocene because they are hampered in their access to other communities and/or environments to learn from and have limited access to (new) resources to live from. are typical for interacting complex adaptive systems. The famous butterfly in Brazil causing hurricanes and disaster in Texas. Small initial events can lead to large effects, small events can also lead to effects not anticipated upon because our (explicit) knowledge is incomplete and our imagination is bounded. Panarchy, a new paradigm originating from ecological science describes and tries to explain these phenomena. Panarchy is the evolution of multiple nested complex adaptive systems inter-acting on different space and time scales into different states of self-organisation3. A nice example of panarchy is the introduction of a few couples of grey wolves in 1995in Yellowstone park who, through different cascading events including beavers, birches, grizzly and elk, eventually changed the hydrology and pattern of Yellowstone river4.Complex adaptive system and panarchy after Holling cs.Remote communities in polar areas are especially affected by changes the Anthropocene. Global environmental pollution is eventually transported by long range atmospheric and oceanic circulation to polar areas where they cumulate in glacier ice and accumulates in trophic chains. Climate change causes melting of glacier ice thereby releasing over years cumulated pollutants instantly in the environment thereby increasing exposure levels dramatically. Local communities still depending on traditional food supply are exposed to elevated levels of organic micropollutants compared to other populations monitored globally. (Gibson et al 20161).The artic area was long considered as pristine environment not touched by human environmental pollution. The unexpected effect of long range global circulation transports is accumulation of micropollutants in artic environment and biota. Unexpected effects are typical in the Anthropocene because we cannot foresee or predict effects of human actions on environment or on fellow people and communities. Another example of an unexpected effect is the emergence of a cold-war secret military base “Camp Century” out of the Greenlandic ice shelf due to decreasing snow fall caused by climate change. This exposure was not reckoned upon at the time of discarding the base in the mid-sixties. The base is full of waste including gasoline, organic micropollutants and nuclear coolants, waiting to be melted out of the ice2. The release of this waste into the environment puts another burden on the arctic communities.Unexpected phenomena Complex adaptive systems (left) consist of phases of exploitation characterized by fast exponential growth (r-phase) , followed by consolidation and conservation characterized by balanced forces and networks (K-phase) whose energy and information is released after system disruption (Ω-phase) entering the phase of reorganisation (α-phase) which initiates a new phase of exploitation again. Panarchy (right) is the cross scale nested set of adaptive systems acting on different space and time scales.Panarchy is the paradigm of transition and change. Panarchy is interaction of countless interconnected and nested complex adaptive systems. Panarchy is the paradigm where small actions can have major effects for better or worse. It is to expect the unexpected. Panarchy holds the promise of positively changing the Anthropocene. By being prepared we can anticipate upon unexpected emerging phenomena which can be used as leverage for creating change.Panarchy holds the promise that small individual actions may lead to major positive changes in environment and society. Panarchy is the promise of empowerment of the individual or local community to initiate change for reaching a new state-of-art.The constant factor in human panarchy systems is knowledge, the skills, ideas and experiences necessary for coping different phases of the adaptive cycle. Codified knowledge, the theoretical knowledge has shown to be only partial effective for predicting adaptive cycles or panarchy change events. Tacit knowledge has that capacity neither but create skills for recognizing and seizing opportunities and to be prepared upon unexpected events, for better or worse. Tacit knowledge is shared by learning by doing, by gaming, by following examples, by learning from each other in contextual settings of mutual trust.The power of art with the perspective of the artist is within this setting of mutual trust. We believe that art, when approaching challenges, can evoke chains of thoughts and (cascading) events which through tacit learning will eventually affect systems. This results not only in innovative sustainable social and industrial products but also in change of systems.We have experimented this approach within the context of SDG-labs. SDG-labs are living labs for developing new practices fostering the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-labs)5.SDG-labs are the environment where we can experiment and create new resilient concepts for adaptation to the Anthropocene. SDG-Labs have two aspects, the first is creation of concepts for change within the lab-setting, its content; the second is the process of organisation of the lab within its environmental and societal context. The Lab itself can be regarded as a complex adaptive system while the organisation of the SDG-Lab is within panarchy, acting on multiple levels and on different scales. Both faces, content and context, of the SDG lab have their own emerging properties.For facilitation of the SDG-lab we organised workshops where creative methods based upon TRIZ ("Theory of inventive problem solving") and CPS (Creative Problem Solving) were applied. TRIZ makes use of pre-established thinking patterns and proven abstract solutions to sets of abstract problems. TRIZ provides a toolbox for solving complex (wicked) problems. TRIZ uses the heuristics of intrinsic technological and societal evolution once a concept emerges. CPS is used for application of the TRIZ toolbox, by making concrete problems abstract and abstract solutions, concrete. TRIZ and CPS makes use of analytical and design thinking. Results of these workshops are emerged pre-concepts which have the potential to create change.Contextual settings of the SDG-lab determine its rate of success. Many good ideas perish in the “valley of death”, before they can realise their full potential. The contextual setting determines acceptance and hence increases probability of idea realisation. The action of organising SDG-labs generates curiosity, enthusiasm, resistance and other emotions with people and organisations. This lead to disturbances in panarchy, which is rendered in emerging opportunities that can be seized by imaginative people.Sarasvathy and Simon (2000) coined for this approach the concept of effectuation as an entrepreneurial principle for seizing opportunities which emerge from entrepreneurial actions in contrast to causation where managerial thinking obscures seeing opportunities. Effectuation is actor dependent where given specific means, choice of effect is driven by characteristics of the actor and his or her ability to discover and use contingencies. This approach is also recognised in innovation theory where the concept of “exaptation” is explored. Exaptation is the attribution of a new functionality to an existing artefact (or organization, scientific achievement, or cultural model) (Bonifati, 2010). Once recognised, effectuation and exaptation are major change drivers based upon emergence of contingencies in existing systems.Our SDG-lab has discovered by accident the power of effectuation and exaptation for creating impact and change by using content and context of the SDG labs at the same time. Our SDG-lab has resulted in tangible results in our community. Back to the arctic pollution and its effect on people. We cannot solve this problem, however there are communities who have suffered similar problems in the past and they have found practical solutions for coping with their difficulties. People are eager to help each other as is demonstrated by the simple phenomena that when a stranger asks for directions, in most cases he will be helped by friendly people. Additionally, theoretical knowledge offers us insight into processes and opportunities we are not aware of and from which we can learn together to create new (tacit) practices. Bringing together these people in a trusted environment may lead to new insights and practices which might be worth to follow.Exploring the paradigm of panarchy as principle of change and transition has opened up our minds for seeing and seizing emerging opportunities as change drivers and this to our surprise seems very promising.
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In order to achieve a level of community involvement and physical independence, being able to walk is the primary aim of many stroke survivors. It is therefore one of the most important goals during rehabilitation. Falls are common in all stages after stroke. Reported fall rates in the chronic stage after stroke range from 43 to 70% during one year follow up. Moreover, stroke survivors are more likely to become repeated fallers as compared to healthy older adults. Considering the devastating effects of falls in stroke survivors, adequate fall risk assessment is of paramount importance, as it is a first step in targeted fall prevention. As the majority of all falls occur during dynamic activities such as walking, fall risk could be assessed using gait analysis. It is only recent that technology enables us to monitor gait over several consecutive days, thereby allowing us to assess quality of gait in daily life. This thesis studies a variety of gait assessments with respect to their ability to assess fall risk in ambulatory chronic stroke survivors, and explores whether stroke survivors can improve their gait stability through PBT.
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