Community Dialogue Research Articles

Community-Based Tourism Transformation: What Does The Local Community Need?

Tourism is a promising development sector. It has strong potentials for improving local community life quality by alleviating poverty, broadening information access, improving facilities and infrastructure, opening new and diversifying employment. Thus, today tourism is recognized as one of key sectors in development possessing multiplier effects on other sectors and contributing to other development goals attainment. This encourages many communities to initiate and run their local-scale tourism at their kampung. The development of these community-based tourisms need to be strengthened by community capacity to develop their tourism into more sustainable and competitive destinations. Moreover, the Covid-19 pandemic potentially threatens tourism existence and sustainability, especially if the communities do not rapidly respond by improving their tourism capacities. This study aims to explore several factors needed by local community to foster tourism transformation. The study is concentrated on examining WPP Dalegan and Dalegan community tourism transformation needs. The data are collected through community dialog incorporated with community service program. The study identifies three primary transformation elements for fostering WPP tourism improvement. The first factor is transformational and collective community leader who provides empowerment, climate and chance for Dalegan community to participate and orients to community social changes. The second factor is Dalegan community capacity building. Dalegan tourism transformation rests on its local community to learn together and improve the quality of their tourism services and products. The third factor is development facilitation. To successfully transform, Dalegan community needs to expand their networking, build horizontal and vertical partnerships.

Privileged professionalisms: Using co-cultural communication to strengthen inclusivity in professionalism education and community formation

ABSTRACT Perpetuation of privileged norming in organizations threatens the fragile hope that the theory and practice of professionalism can evolve alongside commitments to equity and inclusion. Uncritical engagement with a normative professionalism can lead to the muting of differences and strengths that diverse standpoints offer to professional communities. We look to the field of Medicine as an example for other professional groups, in which experts have criticized its development of a normative professionalism shaped by, retaining, and sustaining privilege. Using a triad of case studies and co-cultural theory, we suggest that non-dominant perspectives and behaviors ought to be better recognized and welcomed as part of professionalism discourse, and that professional education ought to include co-cultural awareness of communication behaviors and their function as identity performance. We suggest that recognizing and reinforcing accommodation behaviors will lead to a more robust inclusivity for an evolving normativity, and that the wisdom habits of curiosity, perspective, love of learning, judgment, and creativity must be brought to bear on improving co-cultural dialogue, dismantling systemic privilege, practicing attributional complexity, and building genuinely dialogic professional communities rather than depersonalized collectives.

Application of the community dialogues method to identify ethical values and priorities related to pharmacogenomics.

Given the expansion of genetics in medicine, there is a growing need to develop approaches to engage patients in understanding how genetics affects their health. Various qualitative methods have been applied to gain a deeper understanding of patient perspectives in topics related to genetics. Community dialogues (CD)are a bi-directional research method that invites community members to discuss a pertinent, challenging topic over the course of a multi-week period and the community members openly discuss their positions on the topic. Authors discuss the first application of the CDmethod to the topic of pharmacogenetics testing. Additional CDare needed to engage diverse participant populations on this topic to improve genetics literacy, enhance physician engagement and drive policy change.

The Pediatric Workforce: Recent Data Trends, Questions, and Challenges for the Future.

The future of the pediatric workforce has been the subject of significant dialogue in the pediatric community and generated much discussion in the academic literature. There are significant concerns regarding the ability of pediatricians to meet the growing demands of our pediatric population. Over the past 5 years, there has been a decline in the percentage of doctor of osteopathic medicine students who pursue a career in pediatrics but an equally important increase in the number of pediatric positions that are filled by doctor of osteopathic medicine students and international medical graduates. Although there has been an increase in the number of pediatric positions offered in the National Resident Matching Program, the last 4 years have seen a significant increase in the number of unfilled pediatric positions. A number of pediatric subspecialties struggle to fill their training positions, and those with low match rates may have 20% to 40% fewer applicants than positions. The pediatric vision for the future must include a commitment to a comprehensive strategic planning process with the many organizations involved across the multiple stages of the educational continuum. It is time to elucidate and address the questions raised by the workforce data. Developing solutions to these questions will require a careful planning process and a thoughtful analysis of the pediatric workforce data. Establishing this as an important priority will require a major collaborative effort between pediatric academic and professional organizations, but the future benefit to the nation's children will be significant.

Child health and the implementation of Community and District-management Empowerment for Scale-up (CODES) in Uganda: a randomised controlled trial

IntroductionUganda’s district-level administrative units buttress the public healthcare system. In many districts, however, local capacity is incommensurate with that required to plan and implement quality health interventions. This study investigates...

Community-based development and collective learning: How does a local community engage and learn to initiate a smart village development?

The aim of this study is examining learning process undertaken by Klagen, Nganjuk local community in their journey to transform their rural area into a smart village ad what they need to promote their collective learning. The data are collected through two main methods: community dialogue and direct participant observations during village visits and business training, particularly for Klagen’s youth. Thematic analysis, which is grounded on empowerment steps, is performed to interpret the gathered data. Many previous studies examine the outcome of smart village, as the end product. Differently, this study aims to explore the process to develop a smart village, especially at the initial stage and presents development-community education interfaces. The study indicates that to transform their village into a smart village, Klagen community should collaboratively engage in community sharing in which they build shared vision to change, integrate ideas, thinking and social-cultural analysis, observational learning in which they learn from neighbor village model, partnership seeking in which they explore potential networking outside their village area and business-entrepreneurship learning in which the young people learn how to initiate and manage local business. Klagen community needs to integrate their local knowledge, self-building capacity-resources with the empowered skills and knowledge. This study provides an integrated knowledge on education, particularly community education and smart village development, which is a proliferated rural development approach in Indonesia context nowadays. The discussion in this paper is limited to the initial stage of Klagen continuing journey to be a smart village. In this initial stage, the process is focusing on exploring socially and culturally relevant smart village (finding smart village identity), planning and preparing Klagen’s human resources through education.

Navigating the Labyrinth of Communities and Interculturality

In an ever-evolving world where globalization and technological advancements seem to shrink the geographical distances between nations and cultures, the relevance of community studies and interculturality becomes increasingly evident. As we embark on this intellectual journey through the pages of "Community and Interculturality in Dialogue," our interdisciplinary journal, we invite you to delve into the rich tapestry of topics that define the essence of our academic pursuit. This publication explores multifaceted facets of communities, embracing sociocultural studies, interculturality, community work, social health approaches, health education, gender studies, activism, social policy, and migration.The foundation of our journal lies in recognizing that communities are not static entities; instead, they are dynamic, ever-evolving organisms shaped by the interplay of sociocultural forces. As we navigate the intricate landscape of community and interculturality studies, we are guided by a commitment to fostering collaboration among diverse disciplines and professionals engaged in community-oriented research. Our objective is not only to understand communities better but also to facilitate positive change within them.

\u201cMaskandi experience\u201d: exploring the use of a cultural song for community engagement in preparation for a pilot Sterile Insect Technique release programme for malaria vector control in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa 2019

BackgroundAn assessment of the Sterile Insect Technique (SIT) as a complementary malaria vector control tool, is at an advanced stage in South Africa. The technique involves the release of laboratory-reared sterilized male mosquitoes of the major malaria vector Anopheles arabiensis, raising social, ethical and regulatory concerns. Therefore, its implementation largely depends on community participation and acceptance. Against this background, it is critical that robust and effective community strategies are developed. This study describes the development of a cultural song to engage the community and increase awareness on SIT and malaria control in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.MethodsAn exploratory concurrent mixed-methods study was conducted to get opinions about the effectiveness of a cultural song developed to engage communities and increase acceptability of the SIT technology. Two self-administered surveys (expert and community) were conducted. Additionally, more in depth opinions of the song and its effectiveness in conveying the intended information were investigated through three community dialogue sessions with community members in the study area.ResultsA total of 40 experts and 54 community members participated in the survey. Four themes were identified in relation to the appropriateness and effectiveness of the song, with a fifth theme focused on recommendations for adaptations. Overall, the song was well received with the audience finding it entertaining and informative. Responses to unstructured questions posed after the song showed an increase in the knowledge on malaria transmission and SIT technology. In particular, the explanation that male mosquitoes do not bite allayed anxiety and fears about the SIT technology.ConclusionThe song was deemed both culturally appropriate and informative in engaging community members about the SIT technology. It proved useful in promoting health messages and conveying SIT technology as a complementary malaria vector control tool. With minor adaptations, the song has potential as an area-wide community engagement tool in areas targeted for sterile male releases.

Reflections and Challenges of Pregnant and Postpartum Participant Recruitment in the Context of the Opioid Epidemic

Opioid use disorder among women of childbearing age has reached epidemic proportions. In rural regions of the United States, recruiting perinatal women who use nonmedical opioids to participate in research is wrought with challenges, including barriers such as community stigma, lack of transportation, and time constraints. The current study describes our process and challenges of recruiting pregnant and postpartum women in rural Indiana consisting of women who misuse opioids and those who do not. We employed multiple strategies to recruit participants. Methods included (1) sampling from healthcare facilities based on referrals from front-desk staff and frontline healthcare workers; (2) dissemination of flyers and brochures within healthcare facilities and the community, supported with onsite research assistant presence; (3) digital methods coupled with snowball sampling; and (4) local community talks that provided information about the study. Our multiple recruitment efforts revealed that building relationships with community stakeholders was key in recruiting women who use nonmedical opioids, but that digital methods were more effective in recruiting a larger sample of pregnant and postpartum women in a short amount of time. We conclude by making several recommendations to enhance academic-community partnerships in order to bolster sample sizes for prolonged research studies. Furthermore, we highlight the need to destigmatize addiction in order to better serve hard-to-reach populations through research and practice.

Engaging contested community issues

Abstract This article presents an analysis of dialogue as an alternative to debate and argument for engaging contested community issues. Treating dialogue as a communication practice, I draw on ethnography of communication, cultural communication theory, and cultural discourse analysis to describe and interpret how participants practiced community dialogue as a communication event comprised of sequences of listening and verbally responding. When topics and identities were elaborated upon and socially negotiated through personal communication in the form of narratives and emotional responses, participants reported effective dialogue. These sequences were dialogic moments partially due to the dialectical tension between Americans’ once predictable civic routine of public expression of individual’s beliefs and the process of dialogue featured in our War and Peace dialogue workshop.

Factors Influencing Utilization of Maternal Health Services by Adolescent Young Mothers Aged 15-19 Years in Kiryandongo General Hospital

Background: In Uganda, 25 % of adolescents age 15-19 have already begun childbearing, 19 % have already given birth and another 5 % pregnant with their first child. Utilization of maternal health services is, therefore, an effective approach to reducing the risk of maternal morbidity and mortality. Low utilization of Maternal Health Services (MHS) has been registered in many parts of Uganda.Objective: To identify the key factors that influenced the utilization of MHS by adolescent young mothers aged 15-19years in Kiryandongo general HospitalMethods: A Cross Sectional analytical design, both quantitative and qualitative was used. A total of 98 adolescent young mothers were randomly selected. Data was collected using semi-structure questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 19.Results: Level of utilization of MHS was 44.9%. The socio-demographic (personal) factors that significantly influenced MHS utilization were; maternal age (COR= 0.29; 95% CI: 0.13-0.67, p = 0.003), husband’s education level (COR= 0.19; 95% CI: 0.08-0.47, p =0.000) and husband’s monthly income (COR= 0.35; 95% CI: 0.15-0.80, p = 0.012). Health System factors that influenced MHS utilization included; Time for travelling to reach health facility (COR=2.39; 95% CI: 1.03-5.52, p = 0.040) and Cost of the health services (COR= 2.68; 95% CI: 1.17-6.15, p =0.019).Conclusion: Strategies in addressing decision-making norms, engaging in massive community dialogue and designing appropriate communication strategies may help improve MHS utilization.  Â

Gentrification: The role of dialogue in community engagement and social cohesion

ABSTRACT This study focuses on a community in south Atlanta, Georgia, comprising a case study in gentrification and community engagement that supports two related phenomena: (1) the process of community dialogue where individuals in a shared social world join together collaboratively to discuss social and economic problems; and (2) the building of social cohesion within a community that is based on common beliefs and values and is fostered through trust-building processes. By “opening communicative space” and fostering community engagement in socially relevant issues, community dialogue can build trust and social cohesion that benefit their community. The focus group and interview narratives in this study depict concerns about fairness, equity, and trust as key elements of community dialogue for addressing the challenges of gentrification. Implications for future research are included.

A funfair without the candy floss: engaging communities to prevent diabetes in Nepal

ObjectivesThe World Health Organization estimates that 422 million people have diabetes, three-quarters of whom live in low- and middle-income countries. Global action plans to address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) recognise the centrality of community engagement to create an enabling environment within which to address risk factors. Study designIn this article, we describe and critically reflect on a cocreated community engagement approach to address type 2 diabetes in the southern plains of Nepal. We coproduced the engagement approach with 40 artists from the Janakpur Women's Development Centre to create an environment for dialogue about diabetes and NCD risk between artists and the general public. MethodsWe used participatory action research to produce contextually relevant interactive methods and materials. Methods included artists' peer research to inform creative workshops, a drama performed in 19 villages and a two-day funfair in a public park. We used qualitative and participatory methods to analyse the effect of this engagement and reflect on lessons learned. ResultsAround 2000 people saw the drama, and around 4000 people attended the funfair. Community dialogue about prevention of diabetes was facilitated by drama and through games and songs at the funfair. Artists grew confident to interact with their peers and drama audiences about the causes of diabetes and prevention strategies. Despite crowds at the funfair, it was difficult to reach women because the venue was often used by men and boys, and patriarchal norms prevent women from free movement. Village interactions were able to engage a more mixed audience. ConclusionInnovative, asset-based community engagement about diabetes and other NCDs at scale is possible through locating, building on and strengthening community resources to address local health issues. Engagement could be enhanced by considering the gendered nature of community engagement spaces and by increasing opportunities for interaction between artists and the general public through more intimate and large-scale events.

From Applied Research to Participatory Action, Part II: Y Ahora, ¿que? Community Dialogues and Rediscovering Our Communities

Abstract In this article, we relay our collaboration as part of a community-based, participatory action project involving Spanish-speaking community leaders, an anthropologist, and university students in San José, California. Building from earlier collaborations to support community-based leadership, we employed focus group methods in a collaborative project to facilitate community dialogues to identify salient issues for community and leader attention. By recognizing community members as agents (rather than targets) of change and interventions, we wanted to respect and reinforce local adaptive and creative capacities. We therefore endeavored to support participants as they activated their social networks and organizational ties to initiate dialogues and build actionable agendas.

A Latina science teacher becoming a dialogic educator: “I’m okay being hated because somebody has to be strong”

This is a single-case study of Teresa, a Latina secondary science teacher, who reflected on her experiences with her Latinx bilingual immigrant students and families and other science educators in a dialogic science learning community. Bearing witness to Teresa’s commitment and ongoing struggles for a more inclusive science teaching, we aimed to better understand the realistic potential of dialogic science learning communities in supporting teachers, like Teresa, in their effort to enact a science teaching inclusive of their students’ families and communities while functioning within the constraints of policy structures in schools. Grounded in a Freirean notion of dialogic education, this study used focus group interview, individual interview, and participation observation methods for data collection and analysis. Our findings indicated that Teresa’s participation in the professional learning program led her to restructure her work with her students and their families through dialogue-based learning interactions in the classroom and through actively working with parents as willing partners to engage students in science learning both in and beyond school. Our findings point to the power of dialogic science learning communities when working with bilingual immigrant students, in which teachers develop close companionship with students, families, and colleagues in ways that build teacher knowledge while also supporting teachers’ efforts navigating the challenges and tensions of teaching science in today’s conflicted sociopolitical context.

Gender differentiated perceptions held for triggers of child neglect in post-conflict northern Uganda

ABSTRACT Although considerable research exists on Child Neglect (CN), gender-differentiated perceptions that fuel CN are not yet known. In the patriarchal family settings, the perception often held of mothers is that of childcare and fathers as providers. Drawing on interviews with 35 parents reported for CN in post-conflict northern Uganda, this paper explores the gendered triggers of CN and interventions directed at children under CN. The paper uses radical feminism and nested ecological theories to examine gendered perceptions often held about motherhood and fatherhood in relation to childcare and explains the risk factors for CN for caretakers from northern Uganda. Narrative responses were audio-recorded and transcribed. Qualitative content analysis was used to scrutinize parents’ perceptions on CN. Parents highlighted triggers for CN as; spousal separation and custody of children, polygamy, disorientation of cultural and social norms and the burden of single parenting. Case reporting and community dialogues were identified as interventions. The paper argues for mainstreaming gender into family and child protection strategies for improved childcare while targeting both fathers and mothers to enhance safety of children. This paper contributes to the debate on CN by bringing out gender perspectives on parents’ intentional CN in northern Uganda.

Rural Food and Wine Tourism in Canada’s South Okanagan Valley: Transformations for Food Sovereignty?

This interdisciplinary research analyses the relationships between food sovereignty principles and food and wine tourism in rural contexts by asking how rural tourism stakeholders understand these concepts, mobilize the interrelationships, and to what purpose. Wine and food tourism is one of the fastest-growing rural tourism niches, with effects on the orientation of food systems, the livelihoods of producers, the viability of rural communities, and the biophysical environment. Secondary research and semi-structured interviews provide insights into how qualities of food sovereignty transitions are conceptualized, recognized, developed, supported, and promoted in the case of British Columbia’s South Okanagan Valley. An appreciative approach was used because this research aims to understand rural food and wine tourism’s potential contribution to food sovereignty. Although the term ‘food sovereignty’ did not resonate for most participants, qualities of a transition towards food sovereignty such as reorienting agriculture, food processing and consumption to the local region, supporting rural economies and environmental sustainability were considered integral to rural food tourism. Participants saw future opportunities for rural food and wine tourism to serve broader transformative purposes that would benefit locals, visitors, and the environment. Research results could be used to inspire critical academic, community and policy dialogue about food sovereignty in wine and food tourism destinations.

Health care workers\u2019 experiences of managing foetal distress and birth asphyxia at health facilities in Northern Uganda

BackgroundBirth asphyxia is one of the leading causes of intrapartum stillbirth and neonatal mortality worldwide. We sought to explore the experiences of health care workers in managing foetal distress and birth asphyxia to gain an understanding of the challenges in a low-income setting.MethodsWe conducted in-depth interviews with 12 midwives and 4 doctors working in maternity units from different health facilities in Northern Uganda in 2018. We used a semi-structured interview guide which included questions related to; health care workers’ experiences of maternity care, care for foetal distress and birth asphyxia, views on possible preventive actions and perspectives of the community. Audio recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive content analysis.ResultsFour categories emerged: (i) Understanding of and actions for foetal distress and birth asphyxia including knowledge, misconception and interventions; (ii) Challenges of managing foetal distress and birth asphyxia such as complexities of the referral system, refusal of referral, lack of equipment, and human resource problems, (iii) Expectations and blame from the community, and finally (iv) Health care worker’ insights into prevention of foetal distress and birth asphyxia.ConclusionHealth care workers described management of foetal distress and birth asphyxia as complex and challenging. Thus, guidelines to manage foetal distress and birth asphyxia that are specifically tailored to the different levels of health facilities to ensure high quality of care and reduction of need for referral are called for. Innovative ways to operationalise transportation for referral and community dialogues could lead to improved birth experiences and outcomes.

Realizing the promise of dialogue: Transformative dialogue in divided communities

AbstractThis article introduces an approach to conflict transformation called transformative dialogue. Building on transformative theory, it differs from other approaches in two important ways. First, it sees the ethical relation to conflict parties as of primary importance, taking priority over any analysis or conceptualization of conflict. Second, transformative dialogue posits a different relationship between conflict analysis and practice. Rather than prioritizing a particular mode of analysis, transformative dialogue starts from the primacy of human agency, prioritizing people's own experience and ways of understanding their conflicts. In this way, transformative dialogue addresses many of the weaknesses in current peacebuilding models.

Environmental Identity: Information Strategies for Mobilizing ˋNegative Memory' of the Audience

The article analyzes the issues of interactive media culture development in modern society. The authors consider information and media strategies as tools for constructing the ecological identity of deprived territories residents (on the example of Chelyabinsk region). The article is based on research carried out between 2015 to 2019, monitoring the environmental situation in Chelyabinsk region. Mass representative surveys, held among the southern Urals citizens, expert interviews, content analysis of official information sources and informal channels of communication users (social networks), thematic debates with regional journalistic community served to ground the main ideas for this work. The resource mobilization idea of the ‘negative memory’ of the audience is the key conclusion, obtained during the analysis of sociological data. Negative memory is a stable negative perception of the territory ecological image under the influence of the broadcasted media content. The theoretical principles of memory studies are the base of this approach. The research has fixed the contradiction between the subjective readiness of the audience for constructive mobilization in the area of environmental initiatives and the ’negative ecological memory’ of the territory. To model the favorable environmental media content it is essential, firstly, to adjust it by: i) using the resource of opinion leaders and social advertising; ii) engaging the expert community in a broad public dialogue on environmental issues; iii) developing independent media projects aimed at radical transformation of the environmental agenda coverage in Chelyabinsk region.
 Keywords: information strategies, audience, ecology, identity, negative memory