Local Social Structures Research Articles

Research on the Reproduction of Traditional Handicrafts During the Epidemic Period from the Perspective of Anthropology -- Taking Dongchang Carving Gourd as an example

As an excellent representative of traditional
 handicrafts in West Shandong, Dongchang carving
 gourd brings together economy and culture. It is not
 only one of the important sources of rural social and
 economic income under the background of traditional
 farming, but also carries the essence of local culture.
 In 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic suddenly emerged,
 which seriously affected the foreign sales and cultural
 activities of Liaocheng's traditional handicraft and
 Dongchang carved gourd. Based on this, this paper,
 from the perspective of anthropology, focuses on
 the transformation of the local social structure
 and cognitive mode during the epidemic period,
 and on the theoretical basis of Bourdieu's tourism
 reproduction theory, expounds the exploration and
 practice of its reproduction. Finally, combining with
 the current situation of the development demands
 of traditional handicraft during the epidemic period,
 the significance of its reproduction is discussed, so
 that it can be continuously innovated, inherited and
 developed as a folk handicraft.

Anthropology, Colonial Policy, and the Decline of French Empire in Africa by Douglas W. Leonard

Reviewed by: Anthropology, Colonial Policy, and the Decline of French Empire in Africa by Douglas W. Leonard Benjamin Sparks Leonard, Douglas W. Anthropology, Colonial Policy, and the Decline of French Empire in Africa. Bloomsbury, 2020. ISBN 978-1-78831-520-3. Pp. 230. Soldiers, scholars, and administrators in Africa and Metropolitan France used the tools of ethnology, both oral and written, in their scientific quest to provide a better [End Page 254] understanding of colonized social, political, and intellectual life, as a means of improving colonialism, all the while ignoring and introducing greater weaknesses in the underlying structures, ultimately leading to the decline of the French empire in Africa. Colonialism acted as a unilateral, asymmetric power dynamic, lacking any consent of the governed, and was, thus, doomed to fail as an unstable political form. Ethnologists and later social anthropologists from the mid-nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, from Louis Faidherbe to Pierre Bourdieu, analyzed African societies from a non-European perspective, engaging in complex conversations with native intellectual communities, creating a rhizomatic network of native thinkers and metropolitan intellectuals. These social scientists believed that using the native African's perspective in colonial rule could help better understand and implement the methods required to create and maintain a fair, equitable, and humane, although seemingly paradoxical, colonial system through scientific examination. Douglas Leonard chronologically traces the biographies and studies of social scientists, soldiers, and colonial administrators, who had the support of the colonial state, beginning in the 1840s with General Louis Faidherbe and continuing to Marshal Hubert Lyautey, Maurice Delafosse, Paul Marty, Jacques Soustelle, and Pierre Bourdieu to analyze the productive intellectual engagement and the seeds of political destruction spread as a result of their work. Leonard argues the importance of biographical information on these individuals to unravel the rhizomatic structure of colonial ethnography in Africa. Leonard begins with Faidherbe, who was a colonial officer for the majority of his career and served as one of the early governors of colonial Senegal. Faidherbe was a proponent of the associationist approach to colonial governing and had an enormous influence on colonial political thought. He passed his methodology on to other generations, including Joseph Gallieni and Hubert Lyautey, who would become future colonial soldiers and governors, ranging from Algeria to Indochina, Madagascar, and Morocco where they reformed the colonial system as they went, employing natives to gain the information necessary to widen the cracks in local social and political structures. After Gallieni and Lyautey, Leonard presents Delafosse and Marty, two of the most prominent French scholars of West Africa, and their methods of moving toward a humanized colonial rule through employing Islam as a tool of governance. Following Delafosse and Marty, Marcel Mauss institutionalized ethnography and greatly influenced the next generation of ethnographers, including Jacques Soustelle, whose failures revealed the weakness of science as policy. The final portion of this work addresses the influence of Pierre Bourdieu in social anthropology's move away from focusing on a utopic colonial system. Instead, Bourdieu looks at the transition of these colonial societies and analyzes them in a postcolonial realm. Leonard's book provides an in-depth analysis of Francophone Africa's colonial governing system through the pitfalls of ethnography and social anthropology as instruments for policy change. [End Page 255] Benjamin Sparks University of Memphis (TN) Copyright © 2021 American Association of Teachers of French

Nationalism or Geopolitics: The Rise of Guerillas and Patterns of Military Conflict during the Expansion of the Ili Rebellion, 1944–46

AbstractThis article investigates the Ili Rebellion in Xinjiang (1944–49). Relying primarily on Chinese sources, the author identifies variations in the rise and fate of non-Han ethnic guerillas, and the patterns of military conflict in different regions during the expansionist stage of the Ili Rebellion from 1944 to 1946. The article argues that neither a nationalist nor a geopolitical explanation adequately account for such variations. Rather, the overlapping and intersecting geopolitical influence (both the Soviet Union and the two Chinese regimes) as well as local conditions (including local ethnic composition and social structure) explain such patterns. Finally, this article discusses broader implications of the role of nationalism and geopolitics in revolutions in small and dependent states.

Rogvolod’s polity and formation of an ethnopolitical organization on the territory of the Middle Dvina in the Хth century

The article discusses the first stages in the formation of an ethnopolitical community on the territory of the Belarusian Dvina, known from the annals as «Polochane». Using basic principles developed by the Vienna School of Historical Ethnography, the author identifies significant socio-political changes in the early medieval (9th–10th centuries) history of Eastern Europe due to the emergence of new elites. The formation of stable ethnopolitical communities is associated with the emergence of these elite groups . The absence of particular artifacts of northern European origin in Polotsk and the Polotsk okrug in the 9th – the first half of the 10th century suggests the independent formation of this center on the basis of local social structures. Significant socio-political changes in Eastern Europe arose during the Viking era (9th–10th centuries), and penetration of the North European military-trade groups into the territory of the Middle Dvina was associated with the beginnings of the active functioning of the West-Dvina branch of the Baltic-Black Sea route (the trade route «from the Varangians to the Greeks»). The development of this route became the main reason why Scandinavian leader Rogvolod came to the Polotsk region and formed a territorial and political organization, conditionally referred to as the «Rogvolod Polity». After the middle to the second half of the 10th century, a social transformation took place on the territory of the Middle Dvina, associated with the formation of elite military-trade groups and the formation of a brigade culture. The Rogvolod Polity, as the first stable territorial and political organization in the Dvina basin, created the institutional foundations for the subsequent consolidating ideology (the «core of tradition» according to R. Wenskus), embodied in the 11th century Polotsk princes Rogvolodovichi in the formation of the ethno-political community «Polochane».

Accounts and Accountability in Late Medieval Europe: Records, Procedures, and Socio-Political Impact ed. by Ionut Epurescu-Pascovici

Reviewed by: Accounts and Accountability in Late Medieval Europe: Records, Procedures, and Socio-Political Impact ed. by Ionut Epurescu-Pascovici Sybil Jack Epurescu-Pascovici, Ionut, ed., Accounts and Accountability in Late Medieval Europe: Records, Procedures, and Socio-Political Impact (Utrecht Studies in Medieval Literacy, 50), Turnhout, Brepols, 2020; hardback; pp. viii, 303; 5 b/w illustrations, 14 b/w tables; R.R.P. €80.00; ISBN 9782503588537. It has become fashionable to publish collections of papers by different authors loosely linked to a topic that is important in many different historical areas and structures. This has the advantage of identifying practices that would be clarified by comparison. Accounting procedure is a topic which has only recently started to receive the attention it merits, and this volume illustrates the range of aspects that need further attention. Each chapter is dense and carefully expounded and must be read slowly if its full significance is to be appreciated. Unfortunately, however, the chapters lack a common approach, although some similar conclusions do emerge. By the later Middle Ages, efficient accounts were critical to the imposition of royal power in any area. The ruler of any state in the Middle Ages could only control the use of its resources if there was appropriate material that established where and how such resources were raised, transferred, and expended. Without accurate fiscal accounts the development of effective resource organization, government control, and the relationship of offices in different parts of the administrative structure from the later Middle Ages onwards could not have been established. The ability to record the complicated management of the transfer of funds for a range of government purposes, so that the responsibility for their right employment could be proved, distinguished the powerful monarch from the ineffective. It reflected the degree to which the ruler was able to control the deputies below him or her—an issue critically examined, for instance, in Silvestri's chapter on Sicily. Internal maintenance of clear financial records, however, came faster in some places than others. This volume would have benefited from a short introductory study that drew together the common features of the accounts in the places involved, the form they took for the political and economic problems they shared, and the ways in which the practices were developed and transferred across the Continent. The mixture of accounting practices used from one place and from one time to another illustrated in these chapters reflects the very various structures of government across Europe in dissimilar states and in different centuries. If they mostly shared a wish to have [End Page 209] the finances managed by officials who eliminated corruption and aimed to treat of all members involved in running the state fairly, the structures developed to achieve this varied considerably. As it is, each chapter, all of which are based on recent significant research, has a distinct specific focus. They cover aspects of states geographically scattered across Europe, from England to Transylvania, and topics that vary from military needs (Roberto Biolzi) to ecclesiastical functions, with little to serve as a unifying approach. They make little reference to one another or to other papers relevant to the debate. It is hard to recommend the best order in which to read them. The basic form of the accounting records studied is probably most clearly seen in Ekaterina Nosova's examination of codicology. One or two of the chapters, particularly Esther Tello Hernández's chapter on Aragon, make some of the common elements in the enforcement of royal power clearer and so make a good starting point on management and on how the accounts were an instrument of power. The skills necessary to creating and maintaining standard records, even the ability to use different scripts to different purposes, required a considerable level of training. Rulers were heavily dependent on the ethical attitudes, the skills and capacity, and the devotion of professional accounting officials, which is the focus of other chapters. The cultural expectations of the central administration and the relationship of this central administration to local social structures was vital, as is demonstrated in Alessandro Silvestri's chapter. Each of the chapters has its own interest. My preference for Dean A. Irwin...

The impact of cultural diversity and economic growth on the equalization of public cultural services——Empirical test based on spatial econometric model

<p>The 13th Five Year Plan of the National Basic Public Service System plays an important role in promoting the equalization of basic public services in urban and rural areas. Based on the panel data of 242 prefecture level cities in 30 provinces of China from 2008 to 2018, this paper uses the spatial econometric model for empirical analysis. The study finds that the direct effect of cultural diversity on the equalization of public cultural services is negative and significant, that is, cultural diversity hinders the equalization of public cultural services in the region; the overall effect of economic growth on the equalization of public cultural services is positive and significant, and economic growth is indeed conducive to the promotion of public cultural services equal development in the region. Based on this, it is proposed that local governments should establish a differentiated supply system of public cultural products to effectively integrate local cultural resources, talents, volunteers and social organizations. We will increase financial investment in public cultural services and use government purchases to promote the gradual equalization of public cultural services in rural areas, border ethnic areas and urban rural fringe areas.</p>

O resistir e reexistir das populações tradicionais e extrativistas no Território Amazônico Amapaense

Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar o processo de descolonização do pensamento colonial empreendido em três territórios Amazônicos Amapaense. Para tanto, adotamos metodologias participativas, com os comunitários que integram as organizações sociais locais, com um total de 240 participantes. Os resultados demonstram que a concepção de pertencimento pelos ribeirinhos amazônicos, é para além do uso dos recursos naturais, mas, sobretudo das relações que são estabelecidas com o meio ambiente, e a certeza de que seus direitos sociais fazem parte da luta contra-hegemônica. Logo, precisamos ter um olhar atencioso para novas/velhas práticas, e um olhar de esperança para superar os desafios do reexistir, entendendo que a construção coletiva fortalece a luta por direitos das comunidades tradicionais amazônicas pelo uso sustentável de seus territórios.

How Area Agencies on Aging Contribute to Social Connection for Older Adults in Rural America

Social ecological models of health identify intrapersonal, interpersonal, institutional, community, and policy-level contexts as social factors influencing individual and population health outcomes. However how institutions such as Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) shape rural older adults’ social networks and influence health is little explored. This research examines institutional influences of social networks for rural older adults, particularly the social connections resulting from their AAA services and programs. AAAs are local social service organizations that coordinate home- and community-based supports. Our 2020 case study of a rural AAA in upstate New York involved in-depth semi-structured interviews with AAA staff, volunteers and participants included key themes related to older adults’ social networks, social wellbeing, and physical and mental health. Our findings have both theoretical implications for rural community social structure as experienced by older adults, and practical implications to build AAA’s capacity to address social isolation for rural older adults. Part of a symposium sponsored by the Rural Aging Interest Group.

Language documentation and revitalization among the Siona of the Putumayo, Colombia: the potential of digitization for the social life of ethnographic material

This paper discusses an ongoing project of documentation and language revitalization among the Siona of the Putumayo, Colombia, and evaluates the potential of the return of audio recordings from the 1970s in digital format. Recognition of the potential of this material has been mixed and raises complex questions about the limits and benefits of modern technology to preserve the social life of oral literature. Local social and political organization and the politics of cultural survival determine how the material is perceived and possibilities of collaboration. Finally, the paper examines the differences between indigenous expectations of audio recordings and those of the anthropologist, indicating that digitization fixes, decontextualizes and recontextualizes oral literature within the current political context in which indigenous peoples seek to identify cultural patrimony in defense of their rights.

A family‐centered approach to dementia caregiving: The case of Arab Americans

AbstractBackgroundResearch findings increasingly show that the primary caregiver paradigm is not a good fit for many cultures (Gallagher‐Thompson et al., 2000; Dilworth‐Anderson et al., 1999; Aranda & Knight, 1997). In terms of Arab American communities, findings show the need for a family‐centric approach to caring for older adults (Ajrouch, 2017; Ajrouch & Fakhoury, 2013; Sengstock, 1996). The Arab population in Michigan grew 47% between 2000 and 2013, estimated at over 300,000 residents (Arab American Foundation Institute, 2014), and 11% are aged 65+ (American Community Survey, 2013‐2018). We advance a family systems framework by invoking convoys of caregiving (Sherman, Webster & Antonucci, 2013), highlighting that all caregivers, but especially in certain cultures, are surrounded by key others. This paper presents the process by which we developed a culturally congruent Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) caregiver intervention for Arab American families.MethodThree focus groups were organized with Arab Americans caring for a family member with AD. One focus group was organized with professionals who work with Arab Americans. Focus group discussions were held at a local Arab American social service organization, and gathered data on the role of family in caregiving, Arab American needs, and reactions to proposed intervention formats. Inductive analysis identified and refined study themes applied to modify an existing support program from the Alzheimer’s Association.ResultResults identified universal (e.g., burnout,) as well as culturally unique themes around the family caregiving experience. Culturally unique themes included “national origins,” which alerts us to ensure examples and scenarios used are familiar, but also introduces need for ensuring and communicating confidentiality; “family dynamics,” which introduces need to build on strengths, while at same time convey importance of accepting help; and “cultural ideals,” which shape how to introduce formal support options. We illustrate how results were applied to modify program delivery and content.ConclusionThis approach provides direction for addressing cultural needs/preferences within family contexts. Successful modification of an existing intervention includes capturing group ideals, engaging with community partners as equals, and making cultural representations visible. Next steps will involve evaluation of the modified program, program refinement and a final tool kit.

Introduction to the Special Issue: Correlating changes for environmental, technological and societal transformation in prehistoric eastern Asia

Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East.

Designing justice? Race and the limits of recognition in greater Miami resilience planning

This paper explores the relation between resilience, justice and recognition through a case study of resilience planning in the Greater Miami Region. Greater Miami resilience plans, prepared through the Rockefeller Foundation’s 100 Resilient Cities program, have foregrounded equity as a cross-cutting theme – a surprising move given the region’s history of anti-Black violence, segregation, and racially exclusionary governance, and the recent focus of resilience-building initiatives on sustaining property values. Bringing together literatures on resilience and justice, recognition, critical race theory, and design theory, we ask how Miami resilience initiatives extend the structures of anti-Black violence through efforts to address the region’s extreme racial and economic inequalities in the name of equity and shore up the regional economy against complex socio-ecological shocks and stressors. Our analysis details how Miami’s resilience-building efforts are uneasily situated across at least two distinct styles of recognition. On the one hand, contextually-specific norms of recognition shaped through the region’s history of racial capitalism valorize the security of Miami’s racialized real estate markets. On the other hand, design-driven resilience planning initiatives valorize diverse forms of knowledge on racially uneven development for the pragmatic utility they offer planners and professionals seeking holistic solutions to complex socio-ecological problems. While designerly approaches to resilience-building have created new possibilities for incorporating equity concerns (promoted by local social and climate justice organizations) into decision-making processes, they ultimately fail to unsettle the libidinal economy of dehumanizing anti-Black violence that continues to structure who can author(ize) what a resilient Miami might become.

Collaborative Action and Social Organization in Remote Rural Regions: Autonomous Irrigation Arrangements in the Pamirs of Tajikistan

This paper proposes a bottom–up “nexus medium” perspective to examine and understand social organization and how socio-ecological challenges in remote rural regions are dealt with in communities that receive only limited external support. While “nexus mediums” constitute substances, matter, or objects that combine manifold vital meanings and can be seen as socially constructed and materialized arenas of social interaction, autonomous resource management is seen as a means of local social organization. Taking water as the nexus medium of choice allows us to generate locally informed insights about the role of this scarce resource for the everyday life and social organization of communities inhabiting arid rural areas. This reasoning will be exemplified by three local case studies conducted during empirical research in the Pamirs of Tajikistan utilizing a mix of qualitative methods. The findings reveal how many fundamental everyday-life-related aspects and activities of the studied communities are related to water, and how these communities are organized around common water use and management arrangements that are based on joint decision-making, shared benefits and responsibilities, and collaborative action. The “nexus medium” concept appears to be an appropriate approach for research that seeks to understand from a local perspective how communal living is organized and how socio-ecological challenges are addressed.

Genesis of a Social Space: Think Tanks in Belarus 1992–1995

This article belongs to the special cluster, “Think Tanks in Central and Eastern Europe”, guest-edited by Katarzyna Jezierska and Serena Giusti. The article looks at think tanks through the prism of a specific social space whose emergence is ascribable to both transnational processes and local social structures. Four processes are identified as shaping the institutionalization of the first think tanks in Belarus, founded as a tool for the “desovietization” of science and “democratization” of politics in the early 1990s: (1) the destabilization of relations between science and politics spurred by the Soviet perestroika beginning in 1986; (2) the autonomization of national elites and a political field in Belarus following the collapse of the Soviet Union; (3) the transformation of the labor market, including the crisis of state-supported research and academia, which ejected a large number of well-educated professionals; and (4) the intensification of transnational exchanges and the legitimization of references to Western practices. To systematically analyze these processes, a model consisting of the following four dimensions is proposed: configuration of relations between science and politics, position of the think tank space in the field of power, professional logics of career or competition, and transnational diffusion of resources and their local appropriation.

Comparing Social Network Structures Generated through Sociometric and Ethnographic Methods

Social connections between individuals are often an important source of information for both quantitative and qualitative anthropological research. Here, we seek to understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of sociometric and ethnographic representations of social connections. We do this by comparing network data collected using a sociometric technique (a name generator) with a network drawn by project ethnographers representing their understanding of social structure in the study population. We find many similarities in the two networks, but they offer somewhat different perspectives into the local social structure. Although the ethnographic network is shaped by the ethnographers’ deeper knowledge of a subset of network members, individuals with high degree (but not betweenness) in the sociometric network are generally present in the ethnographic network. The ethnographers’ interpretation of the factors that lead to high degree centrality in the network is broadly accurate. However, the sociometric network is characterized by a high level of transitivity not seen in the ethnographic network. We consider the importance of the differences we observe for ethnographic practice.

Multiagent Collaborative Governance for Targeted Poverty Alleviation from the Perspective of Stakeholders

As a social problem involving a wide range of objects, targeted poverty alleviation governance needs to clearly define stakeholders and identify their behaviour choices, so as to seek a multiagent collaborative governance strategy, and strive to jointly promote the realization of a targeted poverty alleviation goals in an atmosphere to win-win cooperation and benefit sharing. By constructing a three-subject evolutionary game model of local government, social organization, and poverty group in the process of targeted poverty alleviation, this paper discusses the influence of their behavioural decisions on multisubject collaborative governance of targeted poverty alleviation and selects samples to carry out simulation experiments on the model. The results show that, first, superior government support has little effect on the evolution of tripartite competition, and the conclusion is inconsistent with the general cognition. However, the enhancement of support from local governments and social organizations can effectively promote the transformation of the willingness of the poor groups to cooperate. Second, a modest increase in the punishment of social organizations and poor groups can have a binding effect on the behavioural strategy choices of both sides and ultimately promote the process of targeted poverty alleviation. Third, the increase in the benefits of social organizations and poor groups can significantly improve the willingness of both sides to cooperate, so the “endogenous driving force” of the poor groups should be enhanced to achieve the Pareto optimal state of targeted poverty alleviation.

Digital contact-tracing and pandemics: Institutional and technological preparedness in Africa.

Several countries in Africa have either deployed or considering using digital contact-tracing (DCT) as part of their Covid-19 containment strategy, amidst calls for the use of technology to improve the efficiency of traditional contact-tracing. We discuss some of the complexities entailed in using DCT in Africa. Adopting a socio-technical perspective, we argue that if DCT design and deployment are not well thought out, it can lead to unintended consequences, particularly in a continent like Africa with disproportionate levels of digital divides and other structural inequalities. We suggest that any adoption of DCT by African countries must take account of their compatibility with local resources, values, social structure, and domestic political factors. Accordingly, we propose a process of translation whereby DCT adaptation is made to accommodate the unique institutional and technological characteristics of African countries by leveraging local practices learned from previous pandemics like Ebola to develop a blended epidemiological approach to (digital) contact-tracing.

The Connector's Paradox: Revisiting the Social Psychological Value of Connecting in Social Networks

For years, many network theorists have argued that connecting (previously unacquainted) people in one’s social network comes at a structural disadvantage to ego: connecting closes holes in the social structure, which may lead to the emergence of dense and cohesive/homogenous networks around ego, often associated with increased informational redundancy, reduced access to novel information, and a loss of control benefits. Instead of connecting, network theorists and business strategists often advise to network, which I define here as the building and developing of new ties by ego. Networking not only expands ego’s network; it may also diversify it if the new contact is non-redundant. Unlike connecting, which closes structural holes around ego, networking can lead to the creation of new structural holes, resulting in immediate brokerage benefits. Here, I advance a social psychological critique of this structural de-emphasis of connecting in network theory, by suggesting that the structural payoff difference which networking might provide (compared to connecting) is offset by the social psychological rewards which connecting might provide (compared to networking): unlike networking, perceived by many as instrumentally motivated and strategic behavior which is solely carried out for personal gain and professional advancement, connecting might be seen as more authentic, cooperative, and communal behavior – a signal of generosity and altruism – resulting in the rewarding of higher social status. I propose that the social psychological rewards of connecting are causally linked to downstream structural benefits: connectors, due to being seen in a more positive light, will experience higher levels of direct, as well as indirect reciprocation by alters and social observers. My main thesis, called “The Connector’s Paradox”, states that there is a hidden structural value in connecting/closing social structures: the withholding of immediate structural rewards by the connector comes to be associated with social psychological rewards which in turn might mediate the mid-to long-term structural payoffs which connectors will accrue. Paradoxically, the closing of local social structures might – over time – lead to their very opening: connecting triggers more future network exchanges than networking, resulting in the potential expansion, and diversification of connectors’ social networks, ceteris paribus. As such, the Connector’s Paradox might not only be a social mechanism through which cooperation in networks (i.e., connecting) becomes sustainable, and, ultimately, rational; it might also be key to understanding how social psychological and structural processes in networks dynamically interrelate.

Health System Response during the European Refugee Crisis: Policy and Practice Analysis in Four Italian Regions.

The decentralization of the provision of health services at the subnational level produces variations in healthcare offered to asylum seekers (ASs) across the different Italian regions, even if they are entitled to healthcare through the national health service. The present study aims to map the healthcare path and regional policies for ASs upon arrival and identify challenges and best practices. This is a multicentric, qualitative study of migrant health policies and practices at the regional level within four Italian regions. For the analysis, a dedicated tool for the systematic comparison of policies and practices was developed. The collection and analysis of data demonstrated the presence of many items of international recommendations, even if many gaps exist and differences between regions remain. The analysis of practices permitted the identification of three models of care and access. Some aspects identified are as follows: fragmentation and barriers to access; a weakness in or lack of a governance system, with the presence of many actors involved; variability in the response between territories. The inclusion of ASs in healthcare services requires intersectoral actions, involving healthcare sectors and other actors within local social structures, in order to add value to local resources and practices, reinforce networks and contribute to social integration.

Flowing With the River’s Go: Seeking Ethical, Pragmatic, and Strategic Participation in the Design of a Regional Funding Strategy

In this article, we share methodological lessons learned from a participatory regional planning process which was intended to produce a regional strategy for a multiactor program on human rights and rural development in the Southern Highlands of Peru, funded by the Belgian solidarity organization Broederlijk Delen (BD). The underlying goal of the planning process, which was also funded by BD, was to shift the practices of planning, decision making, and evaluation in the program, by strengthening participation of local communities and social change-focused organizations. As such, a broad group of these actors were invited and participated in the nearly year-long planning process. Throughout, we as facilitators used many creative, reflective methods—for example, drawings, co-construction of timelines and mind maps, reflective plenaries, and so forth—that we hoped would “speak” to the different participants’ learning styles and ways of knowing and therefore increase their levels of participation and ownership in the process and program. In this article, we ask the question “to what extent was the process really participatory?” in order to help explain ways in which “participatory methods” enable and constrain participant knowledge and identity, and highlight ways to improve participation through the use of methodology.