Communal Well-being Research Articles

Less is more: A theoretical interpretation of minimalism in consumption

<p id=p00005>Minimalism refers to a lifestyle that seeks satisfaction in a non-material world by reducing consumption. Given the increasing popularity of minimalistic consumption (i.e., voluntary simplicity), it is necessary to understand minimalism more comprehensively. First, we provide a categorization scheme related voluntary simplicity, including its conception, dimensions, and measurements. Characterized by a minimal, simple, and responsible lifestyle, minimalism can be defined as the degree to which consumers select a lifestyle to minimalize their consumption and to take control of their life. The practice of simplified living typically entails minimizing possessions, consuming less, and valuing personal growth. <break/>Then, factors that influence minimalistic consumption are presented. The reasons for individuals to adopt simplifying behaviors are manifold. That is, motivations for engaging minimalistic consumption are multifaceted and complicated, including both internal (i.e., personal, financial, lifestyle) and external (i.e., economic, social, environmental) motivations. In addition to consumers who curtail their consumption due to financial restraints, there are consumers who consciously consume, although they are financially well off. The rejection of the concept that one’s success is determined by his/her material goods (i.e., materialism) has prompted interest in minimalistic consumption. In addition, some simplifiers (i.e., minimalistic consumers) are driven by motives of environmental sustainability. That is, when consumers give greater consideration to the natural environment and ecological system, they may engage in voluntary simplicity to live both well and sustainably. Furthermore, people can lead an independent and self-determined life through minimalistic consumption; therefore, a desire to achieve an autonomous life is an important antecedent of minimalistic consumption. Moreover, philosophical motivation (i.e., religious belief) is another factor driving minimalism in consumption. <break/>Moving forward, the potential impacts of minimalistic behavior are shown. Minimalism has a positive influence on individual, societal and environmental wellbeing. Adopting low consumption helps expand mental space, resulting in a feeling of lightness, relaxation, and clarity. A minimalistic lifestyle facilitates individuals’ positive emotions while reducing their negative emotions such as depression. Consumers can also reduce their dependence on the market offerings by curtailing the overall consumption, in search of a simpler but happier life. Additionally, minimalistic practices offer several wellbeing benefits such as meaning and happiness. In addition, a minimalistic lifestyle can improve harmony in communities, as it can help build more connections with others in society. By sharing skills, donating to charities or giving back to the community, simplifiers can experience a sense of community and closeness to others, thus enhancing communal well-being. More importantly, most literature notes that this lifestyle is positively associated with environmental and ecological wellbeing. With a strong ecological awareness, consumers tend to protect the environment through a variety of practices, such as decreasing carbon emissions, avoiding excess packaging, and preserving resources and habitats. Collectively, we categorize antecedents of minimalistic consumption into four types (i.e., demographic, psychological, situational, religious factors). We also summarize the effects of minimalistic consumption in the previous research, such as enhancing happiness and sense of meaning. <break/>In order to understand voluntary simplicity, four theories (i.e., theory of basic values, self-determination theory; hierarchical theory of needs; self-regulation theory) were introduced. By combining these theories, we shed a novel light on understanding the forming process of minimalistic consumption. Specifically, in self-observation stages, individuals generate self-directed values. Based on these values, consumers make judgments whether their needs are satisfied. Lastly, in the self-reaction phase, consumers adopt the results of these judgments, and they evaluate achieve autonomy, competence and relevance from the self-determination theory. Given the important role of minimalistic consumption in the contemporary marketplace, it is essential for both marketers and scholars to know more details in simplifying practices. Several directions (e.g., developing valid measurements, taking cultural differences into account, identifying boundary conditions) for future research are discussed.

How innovation nurtures well-being in enthusiast communities

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the dynamics at play between community members before, during, and after the launch of a new product by one of its members. While most of the literature on user innovation focuses on production/technology-oriented user communities, this paper studies a community of enthusiast consumers. Enthusiast communities are a specific case of user communities with their own household sector (HHS) innovation practices. The paper relies on a five-year study conducted on a community of speleology and mountain sports enthusiasts who created a new device for their leisure activity. We argue this is a hybrid HHS innovation, as it simultaneously pertains to two orders of worth: the ‘inspired’ order of the enthusiast community, and the market order of the entrepreneur’s business. The findings show that such hybrid innovations enhance communal well-being and that the community plays the role of incubator for these innovations.

Contributions of Scottish community woodlands to local wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic has impaired wellbeing and highlighted the importance of open, local greenspaces in supporting healthy lifestyles and providing safe social spaces. Community woodlands, environments managed by and for communities, offer a wealth of individual and communal wellbeing benefits which are likely to have been affected by COVID-19 restrictions. A mixed-methods study, involving 31 semi-structured interviews and 765 questionnaire responses, was conducted in three Scottish community woodlands before and after Scotland's first lockdown in Spring of 2020. Findings suggest community woodlands are highly valued for providing opportunities to exercise and connect with nature but also provide a range of other social, communal and symbolic benefits. Following lockdown, respondents visited community woodlands more often, developed further interest and appreciation in community woodlands, and placed significantly more value on connecting with nature and relatively less on social and shared benefits. These results reflect the impact of national restrictions and highlight community woodlands as important local green spaces which, despite limitations on communal use, continue to support wellbeing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

From Sorcery to Laboratory: Pandemics and Yanyuwa Experiences of Viral Vulnerability.

ABSTRACTThe COVID‐19 pandemic has prompted renewed attention among health professionals, Aboriginal community leaders, and social scientists to the need for culturally responsive preventative health measures and strategies. This article, a collaborative effort, involving Yanyuwa families from the remote community of Borroloola and two anthropologists with whom Yanyuwa have long associations, tracks the story of pandemics from the perspective of Aboriginal people in the Gulf region of northern Australia. It specifically orients the discussion of the current predicament of ‘viral vulnerability’ in the wake of COVID‐19, relative to other pandemics, including the Hong Kong flu in 1969 and the Spanish flu decades earlier in 1919. This discussion highlights that culturally nuanced and prescribed responses to illness and threat of illness have a long history for Yanyuwa. Yanyuwa cultural repertoires have assisted in the process of making sense of massive change, in the form of past pandemics and the onset of sickness, the threat of illness with COVID‐19 and the attribution of ‘viral vulnerability’ to this remote Aboriginal community. The aim is to centralise Yanyuwa voices in this story, as an important step in growing understandings of Aboriginal knowledge of pandemics and culturally relevant and controlled health responses and strategies for communal well‐being.

Japanese Ceramics and the Complexities of Consumption in “this Knife-Fork Land”

Japanese Gulch Village was home to a community of Japanese millworkers and their families between 1903 and 1930. During this time, village residents pursued a wide range of options for acquiring goods. This article uses a consumption framework and archaeological Japanese ceramics to explore the ways that village residents negotiated among purchasing options to increase communal wellbeing and express individual agency. As a case study, Japanese Gulch Village highlights the complexities of consumption in transpacific contexts and the importance of drawing connections between the Japanese ceramics industry and its Japanese diaspora customers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Masyarakat Adat Balai Kiyu : Menghadapi Ancaman Eksistensi Di Tanah Sendiri

The Balai Kiyu Indigenous People are the Dayak indigenous people who have long occupied the Meratus mountain region in South Kalimantan. These indigenous people have problems that will threaten their existence. The problem is not internal, but external parties overshadowing communal well-being. This study aims to analyze the threats that will be faced by the Balai Kiyu Indigenous Peoples to their existence and is expected to represent the threats that will be faced by indigenous peoples along the Meratus mountains. Based on the research results obtained, the threat to the existence of the Indigenous Peoples Kiyu Centers among them is, first, the boundaries of indigenous territories so far that has not been authorized by the regional or central government, making them very vulnerable communities. Secondly, the highly educated generation slowly began to abandon local wisdom that had been running for decades from its negative effects. Third, the Omnibus Law Bill on the Labor Copyright Act will clarify that indigenous peoples in the future will only be named, because of the loss of communal ownership rights so far.

‘It gives you a reason to be in this world’: the interdependency of communities, environments and social justice for quality of life in older people

AbstractResearch regarding quality of life among older people has predominantly focused on functional elements experienced at individual or dyadic level despite the complex interplay of factors that contribute to quality of life. Perspectives which explore interdependencies within communities and the intersecting environments in which older people exercise agency have seen less study. They do, however, play an important role in influencing quality of life as experienced by older people across community settings. Qualitative data from a co-produced study of dimensions influencing quality of life in older people was subjected to secondary analysis using a critical human ecological approach. Findings demonstrate the importance of community interdependencies in supporting individual quality of life, the expression of active agency to foster quality of life within and across communities, and the importance of state infrastructures and service provision within these interdependencies. This article argues for a movement beyond functional conceptualisations of quality of life towards the inclusion of perspectives regarding communal wellbeing, alongside the role differing types of community play in influencing quality of life. Through developing conceptions of quality of life in social relations and community cohesion, in particular how quality of life is influenced by perceptions of solidarity and social justice including across generations, assessing quality of life at community level will assist in driving cultural change in policy making and practice.

Sustaining Indigenous students' and families' well-being and culture in an Ontario school board

PurposeThis paper describes how an Ontario school board's majority First Nation, Metís and Inuit (FNMI) student population influenced the direction and priorities of the board toward culturally responsive and well-being focused initiatives. Using culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy (CSRP) as a conceptual framework, it explores the board's efforts to meet the socioemotional and identity needs of its FNMI students (and families) through investments in professional learning communities (PLCs) and targeted programming and technologies.Design/methodology/approachThis paper presents findings from one case in a larger multi-year (2015–2017), multiple-case (10 school boards) study by a university research team that included the author. Thematic analysis was used to code interviews and focus groups conducted with over 40 administrators, educators and community partners in the board featured in this paper.FindingsThe board's culturally responsive and well-being focused initiatives, while intended to support FNMI students' socioemotional success and sense of inclusiveness in schools, was inadequate at fostering and sustaining students' (and families') cultural survival and communal well-being.Practical implicationsFindings offer practical ways that schools serving large populations of FNMI students might support students' identity development and self-regulation skills in schools while also serving as a cautionary example of strategies that do not sufficiently address student challenges that are the result of ongoing legacies of colonization.Originality/valueThis study provides a distinctive example of a predominantly FNMI school board that, in recent years, has prioritized student well-being and identity development over achievement. It provides insight into the transformative possibilities and constraints of trying to support FNMI students' socioemotional healing and cultural sustenance in a colonized system.

Using Deductive Reasoning to Identify Unhappy Communities

The complex interplay between media and population sentiment is a well-known, yet hard to model, phenomenon. The extrema of individual sentiment (euphoria and depression) are known to be correlated with people’s social interaction, including activity in forums and social-media sites. Yet causality direction of this correlation still requires scrutiny and scientific analysis. The difficulty of such analysis comes, first and foremost, from the complexity of sentiment quantification. It is even more difficult to measure a shared sentiment of a community, due to the echo chamber effect. In addition, media analysis presents its own computational challenges, which were insurmountable until recent times, when we have been presented with unprecedented technical possibilities for quantification of community sentiment and its factors at a level of granularity never seen before. Behavioral psychology suggests that people’s behavior can be used as a measurable proxy for their sentiment. Behaviorist theory has been enhanced with the proliferation of targeted advertising and marketing science in the corporate world, and a number of phenomena connecting people’s sentiment and social behavior have been explained using behavioral psychology. In addition, advances in the theory and practice of data mining and machine learning have enabled non-empirical approaches to quantitative sociological analysis and development of new indicators of communal well-being that rely on the analysis of historical data. These considerations make it possible to investigate the interactions between media sentiment and community. This is the theme of the present submission.

Ethnic Memory And Historical Injustices In Nigeria

It is a known fact that not few Nigerians believed that the country has committed atrocities against her citizen and this has caused mutual suspicion, deep divisions, inter-ethnic wrangling, and unending disputations in this ethnically and geographically diverse nation.&#x0D; The aim of this paper is to provide fresh insight on the causality of the deep mistrust and mutual suspicion among the various ethnic groups which in turn has caused the Nigeria nation much needed unity. The paper argued that recurring memorialization of unresolved historical injustices has been a potent poison to the glowing of communal and organic wellbeing of the nation.&#x0D; The paper concluded that the government must redress the past historical injustices, explore how Nigerians together can search for common memories to meet present needs, and allow the various ethnic group to come to terms with their past. The paper recommended new Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Indigenous food sovereignty and tourism: the Chakra Route in the Amazon region of Ecuador

This research applies the concept of food sovereignty as a framework to explore the impacts of tourism on Indigenous food systems in the Chakra Chocolate and Tourism Route (referred to as the “Chakra Route” in the paper), a tourist destination in the Amazon region of Ecuador that aims to improve the livelihoods of Kichwa people. Using a qualitative and collaborative research approach, we examine how Kichwa and non-Kichwa people in this destination area understand food sovereignty, particularly concerning tourism development. Findings show that chakra gardens, a traditional agroforestry method, offer a symbolic and practical embodiment of food sovereignty for local people. Participants expressed a variety of values and concerns regarding tourism and chakra, including on destination branding; the role Indigenous women and their traditional knowledge play in tourism; the food choices promoted to tourists; self-determination and the level of participation of Indigenous people in governance of the route. Overall, our research contributes to a pluralistic notion of justice in Indigenous tourism and illustrates how the study of food sovereignty in this Amazonia destination can serve as a holistic and collaborative frame for exploring the multidimensional impacts of tourism on communal well-being, food security, and biodiversity and cultural conservation.

The many faces of local community: Exploring lay conceptualizations of the Norwegian lokalsamfunn

ABSTRACT Despite much attention paid to the topic of community in academic literature and policy documents, there is a relative lack of knowledge about what laypersons perceive as a local community. Based on data from a national survey, the authors examine how c.1400 Norwegians conceptualized local community – lokalsamfunn in Norwegian. They reveal some of the linguistic and conceptual aspects of local community as a term, in addition to tendencies and patterns among the survey responses. The respondents’ conceptualizations contained references to lokalsamfunn variously as a geographical area, people and relations, activities and involvement, attachment to place and people, and provider of local goods and services. Their main emphasis was on lokalsamfunn as a spatial unit. However, the responses contained relatively few references to the relational aspects of lokalsamfunn. The authors conclude that a common, lay understanding may be that lokalsamfunn is a vaguely defined but limited geographical unit filled with people who to varying degrees know each other and interact. Concerning policymaking aimed at fostering communal well-being, the authors hold that any community-based programming requires intricate knowledge of the people who form the community, since without community interaction and a degree of social cohesion any envisioned programmes may not succeed.

Wellbeing economics in public policy: A distinctive Australasian contribution?

AbstractThe ‘Wellbeing Budget’ presented to the New Zealand Parliament in 2019 was widely described as a world-first. This article explores the possibility of a distinctive Australasian contribution to our understanding of wellbeing economics in public policy. The introduction section presents an analytical wellbeing framework showing how human actions draw on services provided by the country’s capital stocks to create and sustain personal and communal wellbeing. The second section chronicles some landmark policy initiatives in Australia and New Zealand for understanding and monitoring wellbeing, culminating in the Wellbeing Budget. The third section highlights four areas for further development: (1) the role of family wellbeing in intergenerational wellbeing, (2) the role of cultural capital in providing foundations for future wellbeing, (3) the role of Indigenous worldviews in enriching understandings of wellbeing and (4) the role of market enterprise in expanding capabilities for wellbeing. These are all areas where Australasian researchers have demonstrated expertise.

Exploring views on communal amenities and well-being in housing for seniors in Taiwan

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to learn views from healthcare practitioners and the general public for housing communal amenities that could best support senior well-being for ageing in place. The literature review identified 30 popular communal amenities and was tested via a questionnaire survey conducted in Taiwan. Participants (N = 759) evaluated the importance level of the proposed amenities with five-point Likert scale. Data were analysed with Friedman Ranking Test and Kruskal–Wallis test. Results showed that both respondent groups placed outdoor open space, trail and garden with seat as top three important amenities, where outdoor and multifunction were the spatial and functional qualities. While the general public believed physical category amenities were more important, healthcare practitioners put emphasis on social and spiritual categories. Within the general public group, respondents aged 65 years and older had different views than younger respondents on dog run area, BBQ areas and video game room. Swimming pool and religious space were viewed as an important amenity by respondents from different regions. It was concluded that in Taiwan, views may differ with upbringing and cultural backgrounds, residing regions and age. The initial findings can assist policymakers, real estate developers and designers for decision-making in future housing projects.

The Art-Based Methods in Developing Transversal Competence

This article describes a project called ”The art based methods in developing transversal competence” funded by The Finnish National Board of Education. The article is based on the hermeneutic phenomenological approach in action research. The project developed learning environments as well as project-based learning with emphasis on the art-based methods and transversal competence approach to learning. The aim was to develop unique and communal well-being in learning. The project offered tools to strengthen teachers’ professional skills to use expressive, art-based methods in different curriculum-based projects. The professional in-service training project included five contact days in six weeks divided into three periods. The expressive art work process followed the model of the expressive art work. The whole process followed the hermeneutical circle as well as the phenomenological method: expressions, reflections and sharing linked all together as a part of authentic learning experience in the context of the Finnish National Core Curriculum (2014). One of the main outcomes was that the use of the art-based methods in transversal competence increases ubiquitous well-being among teachers and pupils. Research material is based on students’ diaries, experiences and anonymous feedback.

TRADITIONAL MUSIC AND CONTEMPORARY TRENDS: MUSIC IN ASEAN COMMUNITIES

The traditional music and performing arts in the ASEAN have found new powerful conduits of transmission with the advent of the digital age. Although claims of cultural ownership over music and dance occasionally appear on social networks and media platforms, the ubiquity of the Internet has in fact benefitted the general public, allowing them access to images and sounds hitherto unknown. Modernisation has taken its toll on the region’s musical heritage. Ancient elements of indigenous music have faded away. The influx of popular and Western music has increasingly eroded the space and demand for traditional music. Many orchestras in the region feature diverse musical instruments tuned to a common Western tuning system, thus relinquishing their Asian musical roots. The fusion of Asian musical ensembles with Western musical instruments has forced the tuning of gongs, xylophones, metallophones, and singing to the Western diatonic scale, losing their indigenous resonances, sonorities, and timbres. Urbanisation and the migration of the young into urban areas disrupted the discontinuity in generational transmission of music. Village rituals and ceremonies play an important role in preserving ancient religious systems where music, dance, and theatre were essential as part of agricultural life, trance and curing rites, and communal well-being. The onslaught of mass media and the Internet has also accentuated the de-sacralisation of ritual spaces, leaving many musical traditions behind as memories of the past.Keywords: traditional music, urbanisation, de-sacralisation, memories, ASEAN.

Queer Spiritual Drifting

This essay charts travels to Belgium and the Netherlands as part of an Olimpias disability performance exploration of queer spiritual asylum spaces. This exploratory journey was an aspect of the wider Asylum Project: a multi-year exploration of sanctuary, edge space and communal wellbeing, led by queer disabled artists using disability culture methodologies. In this travelogue, the writer engages in score-composing in the shadows of old beguinages, women’s spiritual communities. Along the way, travelling wheels encounter environment, attitude, and emotion as well as durational aspects of pain and pleasure. The project’s focus got redirected: sites took over, and the enquiry shifted under pressure. This essay charts a performance travelogue of halts, stops and unsuspected stitching.

The king of dirt: public health and sanitation in late medieval Ghent

ABSTRACT:Taking the office of theconinc der ribaudenin Ghent as a case-study, this article reconstructs the enforcement of urban sanitation and preventative health practices during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Theconincmanaged a wide range of issues perceived as potentially polluting, damaging or threatening to health. Banning waste and chasing pigs as well as prostitutes off the streets, the office implemented a governmental vision on communal well-being. Health interests, as part of a broader pursuit of the common good, therefore played an important yet hitherto largely overlooked role in medieval urban governance.

In Defense of Self-care

This article focuses on the concept of “self-care” in ministry. I begin by exploring contemporary critiques of self-care as self-indulgent and theologically inadequate. I contend that such critiques are based on an individualistic understanding of the self, which is inattentive to social location and obscures the relationship between self and community. Drawing on feminist, womanist, and pastoral theological resources, I argue for an approach to self-care that acknowledges differing experiences of selfhood and that recognizes the fundamental connection between personal and communal well-being. This approach lays the groundwork for a renewed focus on self-care as a pathway to life-giving ministry.

Ownership and care in culturally significant architecture: Three case studies

Public buildings are not permanent, but at most durable and robust enough to outlast a few generations. Earth-constructed buildings, as soft architecture used for public buildings, need more care and maintenance than buildings in brick, stone, concrete and steel. The ownership and care of private and public buildings reflect social attitudes and sustainable means. The attitudes towards the durability and technical performance of building materials can lead to the rejection of earth architecture, due to the high maintenance required. Negative attitudes discourage the use of traditional earth-constructed buildings in Africa. Case studies show the ownership and care in maintenance as temporal reflectors of the communal well-being. This care or no care becomes a celebration or rejection of the built environment. The argument is that, without ownership, public buildings constructed in conventional building materials can deteriorate faster than well-accepted maintained earth-constructed buildings of cultural significance. This phenomenon should be considered if public buildings are built in contemporary earth construction.