Narratives Of Experience Research Articles

Oral history in geographischer Forschung: Emotionen und Verlust in Erfahrungsgeschichten ehemaliger Werftarbeiter:innen erforschen

Abstract. This article presents a spatially sensitive approach to the narratives of transformation processes, employing oral history to explore the connection between loss, emotions, and memory in the context of changing shipyard work in East Germany since 1989. The former place of work, the shipyard, serves as a central place where loss, emotions and memory condense. The method of oral history enables the subjective narration of past experiences and forms the basis for recording and analyzing narratives of experiences. Empirically, the article draws on oral history interviews with former shipyard workers to gain deeper insights into their memories, experiences and the emotional impact of the loss or impending loss of their jobs. This research contributes to understanding the social and emotional effects of transformation processes, emphasizing the importance of oral history in incorporating the subjective experiences of those affected in geographical research.

Personal experience narratives in three West African sign languages

Personal experience narratives in three West African sign languages

Thinking citizenship through lived experiences of highly skilled migrants in Budapest

This study aims to understand and explain the concept of citizenship by analyzing the lived experiences of highly skilled migrants reflecting on their everyday transnational lives in the urban setting of Budapest. Based on the discourse analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted in Budapest in the Fall of 2022, the study thinks through lived citizenship experiences to understand how and why these experiences matter for the formation of subjective citizenship understanding. This study suggests that the concept of lived citizenship embodies a complex narrative of everyday socio-economic, socio-cultural, and emotional experiences that go beyond what the legal status depicts. Citizenship experiences of highly skilled migrants present a process of negotiating cultural and moral cosmopolitanism with constructive patriotism in everyday lives in the urban context. The study advances the thinking on the foundation, manifestations, and operationalization of lived citizenship as experiences of belonging and coexistence, presenting a unique contribution to the production of knowledge on highly skilled migration in Hungary. This article proposes that citizenship entails a complex relational dimension and includes a life-long learning process with continual meaning-making through life experiences that transcends the consequences of the legal status within a given nation-state.

Motifs of human hippocampal and cortical high frequency oscillations structure processing and memory of naturalistic stimuli.

The discrete events of our narrative experience are organized by the neural substrate that underlies episodic memory. This narrative process is segmented into discrete units by event boundaries. This permits a replay process that acts to consolidate each event into a narrative memory. High frequency oscillations (HFOs) are a potential mechanism for synchronizing neural activity during these processes. Here, we use intracranial recordings from participants viewing and freely recalling a naturalistic stimulus. We show that hippocampal HFOs increase following event boundaries and that coincident hippocampal-cortical HFOs (co-HFOs) occur in cortical regions previously shown to underlie event segmentation (inferior parietal, precuneus, lateral occipital, inferior frontal cortices). We also show that event-specific patterns of co-HFOs that occur during event viewing re-occur following the subsequent three event boundaries (in decaying fashion) and also during recall. This is consistent with models that support replay as a mechanism for memory consolidation. Hence, HFOs may coordinate activity across brain regions serving widespread event segmentation, encode naturalistic memory, and bind representations to assemble memory of a coherent, continuous experience.

"I managed to stand on my own. I saved my baby's life.": qualitative analysis of birth experiences from women living with HIV in Cape Town, South Africa.

There is growing recognition of obstetric violence in health facilities across the globe. With nearly one in three pregnant women living with HIV in South Africa, it is important to consider the influence of HIV status on birth experiences, including potential experience of obstetric violence as defined by the Respectful Maternity Care Charter. This qualitative analysis aims to understand the factors that shape birth experiences of women living with HIV, including experiences at the nexus of HIV status and obstetric violence, and how women react to these factors. Data were collected in a Midwife Obstetric Unit in Gugulethu, Cape Town, South Africa, through 26 in-depth interviews with women living with HIV at 6-8weeks postpartum. Interviews included questions about labor and early motherhood, ART adherence, and social contexts. We combined template style thematic analysis and matrix analysis to refine themes and subthemes. Participants described a range of social and structural factors they felt influenced their birth experiences, including lack of resources and institutional policies. While some participants described positive interactions with healthcare providers, several described instances of obstetric violence, including being ignored and denied care. Nearly all participants, even those who described instances of obstetric violence, described themselves as strong and independent during their birth experiences. Participants reacted to birth experiences by shifting their family planning intentions, forming attitudes toward the health facility, and taking responsibility for their own and their babies' safety during birth. Narratives of negative birth experiences among some women living with HIV reveal a constellation of factors that produce obstetric violence, reflective of social hierarchies and networks of power relations. Participant accounts indicate the need for future research explicitly examining how structural vulnerability shapes birth experiences for women living with HIV in South Africa. These birth stories should also guide future intervention and advocacy work, sparking initiatives to advance compassionate maternity care across health facilities in South Africa, with relevance for other comparable settings.

Conducting fieldwork amidst earthquakes in Nepal: insights from a tourism researcher

This study presents a comprehensive account of the first-hand experiences encountered by a doctoral researcher during fieldwork conducted in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 2015, where two significant earthquakes struck. While existing literature extensively examines the vulnerability of participants, little attention has been given to the challenges faced by researchers themselves within such disaster settings. To address this gap, this study employs an autoethnographic approach to provide a personal and experiential narrative of the researcher’s time in the field. The results of this study shed insight on the difficulties that individual researchers face when working in disaster-affected areas, which is a major contribution to the field of tourism and disaster research. Moreover, it unveils the interplay between individual experiences, logistical intricacies and psychological well-being. This study delves into the practical implications associated with conducting research amidst volatile and uncertain conditions, emphasizing the pivotal role of robust disaster preparedness and response strategies in regions affected by calamities.

Beyond Creating Collections

This paper aims to demonstrate how virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D archaeological reconstructions have been employed to immerse viewers into historical places with the inclusion or exclusion of digital narratives in the heritage and tourism sectors. Countless galleries, libraries, archives, and museums have included digitally re-created objects and re-imagined scenes in situ through theatrical sets and live historical re-enactments to help visitors see and contextualise objects from history. What if these techniques were applied to 3D virtual narrative experiences? This scoping review focuses primarily on selected studies that create 3D models for archaeology, VR, and AR that utilise 3D models, and virtual heritage ‘edutainment’ experiences published within the last five years (i.e., 2018-2023). It gives an overview of the current methods and technologies used to create 3D heritage productions for scientific studies, heritage preservation and tourism, and educational applications. Ultimately, this paper discusses possibilities for future work on how extended reality and 3D models could be included in narrative experiences based on gaps in the existing research.

Integrating restoration and interactive exploration to enhance cultural heritage through VR storytelling

Redtory was transformed from an old industrial site into a creative park in Guangzhou. Unfortunately, it was demolished in May 2019. It holds a dual significance, representing both Guangzhou’s old industrial era and its first creative park (Art and Design). The objective of this study was to utilize Virtual Reality (VR) technologies to design an immersive environment with a narrative experience and restore the historical memory of Redtory. The project designs the interactive storytelling tour based on Bartle’s taxonomy theory. The VR project includes four primary scenes to tell the Redtory’s story: Starting Scene, Factory Buildings, Historical Square, and Creative Corridor. The study designs various interactive elements to engage tourists during exploration. The study conducted user tests to evaluate the system. A comparative experiment (N = 40) is conducted to evaluate the overall performance of the VR platform. The results indicate that the platform provides a smooth storytelling experience during the virtual tour with minimal bugs or disruptions. The project provides valuable user data and a design flow as a case study reference to contribute to the field of VR historical education.

Narratives of Personal Health and Sexual Education Experiences of Emerging Adults with Disabilities

AbstractDisabled communities’ sexualities have been historically oppressed. Currently in the U.S., public school curricula do not include inclusive sexual education and students with disabilities are often left out of classrooms that discuss any amount of personal health and sexual education (PHSE). Research on the disabled population is filled with samples of non-disabled individuals imposing their opinions on a population that they do not belong to. The purpose of this study was to capture lived experiences of ways emerging adults with disabilities learned about PHSE. Individuals with varied disabilities were intentionally included to add breadth to the research field. The final sample consisted of eight individuals (75% female, 87% White, mean age of 21.5). After conducting narrative interviews and analyses, four story types were generated: (1) “The Self-Guided Journey”, (2) “Experience is the Best Teacher”, (3) “Personal Health Matters More”, and (4) “Two Ears, One Mouth”. Our findings highlighted the lack of formal support and access to adequate, relevant information about sexuality for disabled communities. Informal sources, like families and media, sometimes served as helpful resources for PHSE and disabilities. Individuals’ disability symptoms and personal characteristics need to be considered when crafting universally applicable personal health and sexuality education.

A supervised consultation–Liaison psychiatry training model in a general hospital in China

Consultation–liaison (CL) psychiatry is becoming a recognized subspecialty in medical settings; it is a branch of psychiatry that addresses the treatment of the medically ill. Training for CL psychiatry is still insufficient in China. We introduce our training model, supervised CL based on the Union Psychosomatic Clinical Approach with Learning Exchange (UPSCALE) model, to improve consultation–liaison skills among psychiatrists. We describe the supervision process via a clinical case. The supervisee expresses learning needs, and the supervisor selects a consultation case and performs interviews via the UPSCALE model. After the interview, the doctors provide feedback to the patients and discuss the case. The experience includes reporting summaries and experience narratives from supervisees, as well as comments and guidance from supervisors. Through the supervised consultation–liaison training model, young psychiatrists have multiple opportunities to improve learning by observing, practising, and exchanging experiences in CL psychiatry.

The Unraveling Anthropocene: Exploring Murky Geographies

Many markers have been proposed for the onset of the Anthropocene. One possibility, anthroturbation, involves humankind’s excavation of tunnels, mines, and boreholes—the trace fossils of our civilization. This article explores the potential for anthropogenic sandstone caves to help refine the concept of the Subterranean Anthropocene in terms of anthroturbation. In friable sandstones such as the St. Peter Sandstone of the American Midwest, anthroturbation triggers runaway natural processes analogous to that of anthropogenic greenhouse gases which trigger uncontrollable warming in the atmosphere. Using Levi-Strauss’ A World on the Wane to contextualize the geology, and drawing from autoethnography, murky psychogeography, and the embodied experience of historical travel narratives, I propose a critical interdisciplinary framework for thinking about the Subterranean Anthropocene in terms of anthroturbation, emphasizing the role of dynamic processes and unraveling, rather than static markers.

Fishing Techniques by Fishermen in Pohon Batu Village, Waesama District, South Buru Regency

With its vast marine resource potential, Indonesia has a strategic fisheries sector needs development. However, most fishermen still live in poverty. Maintaining sustainable marine resources is crucial for a sustainable economy. Many factors, including catch and economic conditions, influence fishermen's income. In Maluku, the fisheries sector plays a vital role in the local economy, although there are challenges in increasing fishermen's income. Sustainable management and access to capital and technology are needed to improve fishermen's welfare. The potential of fisheries resources in Desa Pohon Batu requires further research for effective policy development. This study uses descriptive analytical methods to understand phenomena without making general conclusions. This approach allows for in-depth interpretation of collected data, providing holistic insights into the complexity of the phenomena under study. The combination of quantitative and qualitative methods yields a systematic and profound understanding of the relationships between variables and the narrative experiences of research participants. The study emphasizes the importance of understanding fishing methods and environmental awareness. Drift gillnets cause financial and ecological losses, while set gillnets improve operational efficiency. Fishermen's income is a critical factor in evaluating welfare, with most having low income due to minimal input production. This analysis is essential for developing policies supporting fishermen's welfare and economic resilience.

Framing Amish victimization and security through the lens of criminological theory

AbstractThis article explores the crime experience of the Amish, a rural-located religious subculture that is rarely studied by criminologists. Evidence is derived from narratives of crime experiences reported by scribes to a monthly Amish periodical called The Diary. Every month there are reports about community events from hundreds of Amish settlements, including crime. A routine activities approach helps frame the results. From 168 crime narratives, both burglary/attempted burglary and larceny/attempted larceny are the most frequently described. Suggestions for future research, including an expanded collection of crime narratives from The Diary, plus interviews with both law enforcement and other criminal justice practitioners and Amish crime victims will advance criminological understandings of Amish vulnerability to crime. The article concludes with suggested actions to improve safety and security for Amish communities using environmental criminology theories.

Incorporating lived experience narratives into interdisciplinary environmental communication projects: A technique for better environmental communication

This paper describes how lived experience research, a qualitative research method based on phenomenology, can be modified and incorporated into interdisciplinary environmental risk communication projects. Lived experience methods can give insight into stakeholders’ needs and concerns, enabling development of better communication products and potentially helping overcome disciplinary barriers on project teams. We describe the purposes and methods of lived experience research, draw upon two cases from our own experiences to outline how methods can be adapted for the contexts of interdisciplinary research projects, and describe potential barriers to and opportunities for using this research method in team communication projects, including co-production of knowledge, internal research team acceptance, and making project products more responsive to user needs.

Repeat wildfire and smoke experiences shared by four communities in Southern California: local impacts and community needs

Abstract Families in unincorporated communities in Southern California’s Eastern Coachella Valley (ECV) increasingly experience the burden of repeat wildfires and smoke. This study describes their lived wildfire and smoke experiences, health impacts, unique community-level inequities that compound wildfire risk and air quality effects, communication preferences, and resource needs for future wildfire preparedness. A wildfire community vulnerability framework informed the focus group discussion guide, exploring individual, community, and local government level factors that potentially influence community response and mitigation behaviors to repeat wildfire and smoke. Ten focus groups with 118 participants occurred in spring 2023 with four communities in ECV, California. Findings center on narratives of acute wildfire-related experiences, including evacuation and burned trailer homes, acute and chronic self report physical and mental health impacts of wildfires and smoke, daily life disruptions, staying indoors for protection, and local interactions described as a community strength in responding to fires. Participants from unincorporated, low-income, and monolingual Spanish-speaking communities predominantly consisting of farm workers requested greater emergency preparedness and response information, training and education in Spanish, postfire resources, lower trash service fees, increased enforcement of illegal dumping and burning, and use of multimodal and bilingual communication channels for wildfire, smoke, and wind alerts.

Unbalanced or Absent: Assessing Indigenous Representation in Interpretive Materials at Government Administered Heritage Sites in Cascadia and Hawai‘i

ABSTRACT Unbalanced or absent Indigenous representation in interpretive materials at government administered heritage sites in settler-colonial contexts can create contention and perpetuate a misinformed or one-dimensional visitor experience and historical narrative. This research therefore examines representation in interpretive materials accessible in 2019 at heritage sites with Indigenous ancestral connections in settler-colonial contexts. This study uses 10 U.S. case study heritage sites and two supplementary sites in Washington, Idaho, and Hawai‘i. Researchers utilized participant observation and systematic photography during two 2019 research phases to document interpretive materials. Quantification generated 731 analytic units which were subsequently assessed for the presence of inductively and deductively generated codes. The assembled empirical results illustrate three overarching themes: (1) controlled historical narrative; (2) absence of shared authority; and (3) challenges in representing and/or integrating different ways of knowing. This research contributes to heritage studies and practical heritage site management in two ways: (1) offering a timely multi-sited and multicultural sample of settler-colonial heritage site interpretive materials comparable to other sites; and (2) illustrating empirical trends in interpretive materials that privilege settlers over Indigenous peoples. This research suggests that future interpretation could benefit from a more balanced multivocal approach that recognizes ancestral and contemporary Indigenous homelands and the complexity of Indigenous-settler interactions.

An ambition at a crossroads: Transiting out of the game in amateur and semi-professional football in Nigeria

Thousands of youths play in amateur and semi-professional clubs in Nigeria with the hope of achieving a professional contract or transnational migration through football. For the majority, however, the social and spatial mobility that is hoped for is never realised. This means that they would have to terminate their pursuit and transition into alternative adulthood pathways. Through semi-structured interviews with former players, this study explored how athletes in amateur and semi-professional football in Nigeria experience and navigate the termination process and transition out of the game. The findings revealed that career termination may develop in a non-linear trajectory as athletes consider their chances of a professional career, age and the obligations of adulthood and intergenerational care. Generally, the athletes navigated the process without significant support from their clubs or other institutions. However, they made use of the social capital and relationships built from their involvement in football (e.g. going into coaching) or leveraged familial ties to secure alternative livelihood opportunities. While participants in this study showed a proactive quest narrative to rebuild their lives away from football, some reported experiences of a chaos narrative among former colleagues, especially manifesting in alcoholism. The findings of this study underscored the need for frameworks for dual career planning for athletes alongside their athletic education and making provisions for psychosocial support for players transitioning out of the game.

A history of PTSD changes the way people express themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Background: The words people use in everyday life tell us about their emotions, their mental state and allow us to understand how people process and interpret an event. Previous research has established a link between the content analysis of narrative texts and the psychopathology of people who have experienced trauma. Objectives: This study examines whether the development of PTSD following exposure to a previous traumatic event alters the way people express themselves in the context of an anxiety-provoking event, the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This study is based on semi-structured interviews conducted during the first lockdown period in France (23 April–16 May 2020) with people exposed to the 13 November 2015 attacks (N = 31) and nonexposed people (N = 57). Results: People with PTSD had longer narratives and used more first-person singular pronouns, lower first-person plural pronouns, more words related to negative emotions and anxiety compared to the nonexposed group. Within the PTSD group, there was no significant difference between the use of words related to the attacks and the pandemic. Conversely, the nonexposed group used more words related to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to words related to the attacks. Conclusion: These results confirm, as have other studies, that a history of PTSD can specifically modify the style and narrative of past experiences. They underline the importance of including linguistic analyses in psychological assessments of PTSD.

Evaluating User Engagement and Preference in Virtual Reality and Augmented Virtuality for Interactive Storytelling

Abstract Technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented virtuality (AV) based on head-mounted display (HMD) have made immersive interactive narrative experience possible. To investigate the differences between HMD VR and HMD AV for interactive storytelling, an app entitled the Extended Journey has been designed, developed and deployed on both VR headsets and optical see-through (OST) mixed reality (MR) headsets. Subsequently, a within-subjects design experiment with sixty participants was conducted to measure different factors of user experience in HMD VR and HMD AV conditions. Additionally, a between-subjects design experiment with 62 participants was conducted to evaluate narrative immersion and presence. Quantitative results from the experiments reveal that HMD VR narrative had statistically significantly better narrative immersion, presence, enjoyment and perceived affinity of computer-generated (CG) characters compared with HMD AV narrative in the context of galleries and museums. Based on Sundar's Modality-Agency-Interactivity-Navigability (MAIN) model, we proposed and validated that sense of being-there and interaction mediated the relationship between immersive media modality and narrative immersion as well as empathy. Qualitative data and behavioral tests showed that young people have a higher preference for HMD VR over HMD AV, but for specific use scenarios, there is still a certain possibility of choosing HMD AV due to security and space limitations. These findings have theoretical implications for the psychology of VR and AV, and practical applications for HMD-based immersive narrative in general.

I am the psychiatric patient and the psychiatric patient is me: Retelling a lived experience narrative of professional sexual misconduct.

WHAT IS KNOWN ON THE SUBJECT?: Professional sexual misconduct is the name given to the phenomenon of healthcare providers crossing sexual boundaries with their patients. It is comprised of a range of behaviors from comments to unwanted touching and even rape. The exact incidence is unknown, but estimates have been made. These abuses are thought to be underreported. The applicable reporting processes are problematic. Trauma-informed care presupposes knowledge of various types of trauma, and this is one type. Traua-informed care places emphasis on healthcare systems and healthcare providers' avoidance of retraumatizing patients who disclose any type of trauma, including sexual violence. WHAT THE PAPER ADDS TO EXISTING KNOWLEDGE?: This paper adds one narrative experience of a sexual assault perpetrated by the writer's colleague psychiatrist. It can be viewed as a cautionary tale about horizontal violence against nurses. This narrative discusses how one traumatic event can mushroom into chronic traumatic sequelae when disclosure re-traumatizes. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE?: Increased knowledge of this type of sexual violence may help those who have suffered it. As psychiatry is among the healthcare fields who regularly screen patients for trauma, it is imperative that the psychiatric workforce gain familiarity with trauma-informed responses to avoid re-traumatizing patients who disclose sexual violence.