Meaningful Story Research Articles

Using the Transformative Storytelling Technique to Generate Empowering Narratives for Informal Caregivers: Semistructured Interviews, Thematic Analysis, and Method Demonstration.

BackgroundThe transformative storytelling technique is an innovative top-down approach to narrative therapy that aims to provide building blocks for creating flourishing narratives for target groups or populations. This approach acts as a facilitator for implementing the human-centered design in developing digital self-help tools for larger samples or target groups.ObjectiveThis study applied the transformative storytelling technique, as a new approach in mental health, to develop empowering audio narratives for informal caregivers.MethodsA narrative inquiry was conducted with 17 informal caregivers (16 women and 1 man) who completed a semistructured interview, “Caregiver Life Story,” acquiring information about the beginning of the role, rising action, and critical point of the role. The participants’ ages ranged from 41 to 84 years, with all participants providing care for at least a 6-month period. This inquiry was guided by the transformative storytelling technique, and aimed to collect data relevant to creating fictional stories based on real-life themes.ResultsTwenty-five overall themes were distinguished across three a priori–set categories, providing narrative building blocks for the informal caregiver life stories. The final empowering caregiver life story was created as an example for this study, demonstrating the application of the transformative storytelling technique in an informal care context.ConclusionsThe creation of empowering stories for populations or target groups in mental health care requires a unified and guided approach that will follow clear guidelines and storytelling principles. The transformative storytelling technique is a first of its kind in the mental health context, representing an initial step in enabling and supporting the creation of meaningful stories and the development of relatable, but productive, narratives. Such narratives have the potential to serve across media and digital platforms for supporting and improving well-being, and potentially triggering self-change in the target group or population.

Challenges and Solutions for Global Mormon History

Challenges and Solutions for Global Mormon History

Automatically Generating Scenarios from a Text Corpus: A Case Study on Electric Vehicles

Creating ‘what-if’ scenarios to estimate possible futures is a key component of decision-making processes. However, this activity is labor intensive as it is primarily done manually by subject-matter experts who start by identifying relevant themes and their interconnections to build models, and then craft diverse and meaningful stories as scenarios to run on these models. Previous works have shown that text mining could automate the model-building aspect, for example, by using topic modeling to extract themes from a large corpus and employing variations of association rule mining to connect them in quantitative ways. In this paper, we propose to further automate the process of scenario generation by guiding pre-trained deep neural networks (i.e., BERT) through simulated conversations to extract a model from a corpus. Our case study on electric vehicles shows that our approach yields similar results to previous work while almost eliminating the need for manual involvement in model building, thus focusing human expertise on the final stage of crafting compelling scenarios. Specifically, by using the same corpus as a previous study on electric vehicles, we show that the model created here either performs similarly to the previous study when there is a consensus in the literature, or differs by highlighting important gaps on domains such as government deregulation.

The Apache Diaspora: Four Centuries of Displacement and Survival

The Apache Diaspora: Four Centuries of Displacement and Survival

Sustainable Utilization of Fishery Waste in Bangladesh—A Qualitative Study for a Circular Bioeconomy Initiative

Living marine resources are limited; therefore, utilizing them sustainably is essential. Not all resources obtained from the sea are used adequately, causing discards, on-board waste, and by-products and waste on land. Recognition of the limited marine resources and increasing environmental pollution has emphasized the need for better utilization of by-products. Waste may include particles of flesh, skin, bones, entrails, shells or liquid stick water. Unfortunately, no fishery waste and by-product management initiatives or projects exist in Bangladesh; by-products are generally thrown into dustbins, ponds, rivers, and the sea. Bangladesh’s fish-processing waste and fishery by-products could be exported, providing a source of foreign currency earnings. Primary and secondary data were collected through documentary analysis, a literature review, and in-depth interviews (n = 129) with fishers and other relevant stakeholders regarding the challenges of Bangladesh’s sustainable fishery by-products and fish-processing waste. The data were analyzed thematically, guided by the most meaningful stories, and show that fish waste, or fishery by-products, should not be considered less valuable than the fish itself but is a precious and profitable resource capable of bringing health, social, economic, and environmental benefits. Our results reveal that fishery waste can expand local communities’, especially fishers’ and other workers’, potential for jobs or alternative income-generating tasks during fishing ban seasons. Finally, suggestions for managing fishery waste and fishery by-products are made to ensure improved and sustainable utilization via a circular bioeconomy.

Patient as teacher-learnings about becoming a good physician from senior medical students

For 15 years, in fourth-year clerkships in Family Medicine / Underserved Health Care, the author, a core clerkship faculty member, meets with 8-12 students at the beginning and end of their monthly rotation. Students reflect on and write goals in four areas, including Primary Care, Teaching, and Working with Underserved Communities. A key goal is the fourth. Students reflect on their training, especially third year, as a ‘socialization’ process where they may have learned some good habits, but also some behaviors that may have felt like survival, that are not congruent with the physician they aspired to become. In a safe and supportive learning environment, at the Student-Run Free Clinic, where time and reimbursement are not the drivers, the students grow in self-awareness as physicians, healers, and teachers. In the final session, each student also shares a meaningful story about a patient who will sit on their shoulder throughout their career and gently remind them about the physician they are becoming. Each student then identifies the essence of the patient’s teaching. Another student takes notes. The students co-create, in a facilitated and supportive environment, a set of teachings. One student reads them aloud and sends them to the group. The specific teachings, in the students’ own words, are about listening, to being present, to thoroughness, to asking open-ended questions, to exploring the social determinants of health, to learning from our errors, to taking the extra minute, and many others. More than 1200 students have participated in this activity, with consistent positive feedback.

EXCURSION AS A PEDAGOGICAL PROCESS

The article deals the views of authoritative researchers of excursion business on school excursion as a leading form of pedagogical process. The concepts of “excursion” and “school excursion” are analyzed, and the basic views on the classification of school excursions are given. The author of the article also gives the main functions and didactic principles of organizing and conducting a school tour.
 A school excursion is a special form of pedagogical process, the basis of which is a methodically well-thought-out display of sights, historical and cultural monuments, analysis of objects visited by students, as well as a meaningful story of the tour guide about events related to these objects.
 This publication emphasizes that the fundamental pedagogical principles of teaching and education are central to the organization and conduct of school excursions. And the presence of the basic elements of pedagogy in excursion activity allows to define it as pedagogical process in which the central place is given to the tour guide who carries out two pedagogical tasks – didactic and educational.

Decolonial Possibilities of Reintroducing the Devil in the Public Space of Afro‐Ecuadorian Territories

The article discusses the decolonial possibilities of the collective design of a sound artwork in reimagining the role of two Afro‐Ecuadorian music and dance‐based events in the Afro‐Ecuadorian ancestral territories of North Esmeraldas and Chota‐Mira. The two events, Bomba del Chota and Marimba Esmeraldeña, emerged in the context of slavery and colonialism as a response of Afro‐Ecuadorians to the oppression and violence they endured. These two music and dance‐based events sustain a counter‐narrative of power and resistance for Afrodescendant peoples in Ecuador, weaving meaningful connections among them and other entities populating their territories, such as the “devil,” whose cohabitation with Afro‐Ecuadorians will be at the spotlight of our analysis. Based on the audio‐recorded testimonies of these connections that strongly existed until the 1970s, and of a sonic composition that was created from them, we propose a collaborative design of a sound artwork in the public spaces of the jungle in Esmeraldas and the mountain in Chota‐Mira. We discuss how a decolonial approach to the design of the artwork can serve as a dialogical space to engage inhabitants in their re‐connection to the possibilities of resistance that their ancestors nurtured in their territories through the practice of the two music and dance‐based events. Through a political reading of soundscapes, an argument is developed to show how sound constructs the public spaces that root people in their territories, connecting them with meaningful stories and practices that keep being forgotten due to the on‐going consequences of slavery and colonialism. The article contributes to the discussion about political ecologies and the collective production of public spaces as a joyful response to exclusion and oppression.

Embodied narratives: communicative value of tattoos

Since the ‘50s there is a steady rise in popularity and social acceptance towards tattooing. While people may choose to get a tattoo for a variety of reason, it seems that for the majority they are meaningful and convey personal messages and stories in symbolic form. This article focuses on communicative quality of tattoos, derived from their narrative design. First, the social meaning of the very fact of being tattooed is discussed, drawing on prevailing social prejudice and stereotypes. Then, tattoos are analyzed from the standpoint of personal narratives, showcasing various meanings that can be deciphered both by the others and by tattoees themselves. Finally, the dynamic and relative nature of tattoos is examined, with a closing reflection upon the reason why getting tattoos might be so compelling.

Introduction: the tale as a special discourse vehicle

ABSTRACT This special issue addresses a series of post-2008 financial developments by mobilising the concept of the tale, understood as a discursive artefact composed of a meaningful story or script that serves to separate good from evil, make sense of historical situations, stimulate action, and prefigure scenarios. Unlike standard workplace narratives, which are useful for practical decision-making, tales have strong collective and political connotations. As such, they assume two distinct forms: tales of ‘experiment,’ stemming from innovative projects that seek to transform the financial system from within, and tales of ‘defiance,’ which deal with the more ample changes that horizontal and disobedient practices prefigure. Several analytical coordinates are proposed in order to capture the semiotic and pragmatic natures of the tale. Regarding semiotics, tales involve not only themes and motifs but also polysemic metaphors and what are here defined as processes of characterisation, through which persons or institutions are positioned as characters and assume specific roles within a story. As for the pragmatic dimension, tales mobilise people toward specific functions and address audiences while also relying on material infrastructure to embed some of the content they convey.

The Evaluation of Digital Brand Storytelling Implementation in Local Brand

In the digital era, where there are so many choices of brands, each brand must have good communication skills with its audience. One strategy that is now widely applied in various brands is the brand storytelling technique. Telling stories on social media is not just writing or just uploading content but must interact with the audience. Now, every brand must survive with good customer engagement with its consumers to be sustainable. Every brand certainly has a meaningful story that is shared with its audience through various strategies. Therefore, every brand must recognize and evaluate the brand storytelling strategy that has been implemented. Through brand storytelling, consumers will become part of the brand and engage for a long time. Implementation of brand storytelling needs to pay attention to the performance of the content marketing and how to arrange the elements of the signature stories in the strategy. The result of this study are solutions that can be applied to strengthen brand storytelling on Sewderhana Goods.

On translation and supervision

ABSTARCT The analytic and philosophical literature frequently refers to interpretation and translation as interchangeable concepts. Translation creatively transforms the language of a written or spoken text into another language, organises the original text and, despite the translator’s efforts to remain loyal to the author’s idea, some meanings will inevitably be lost or changed. Analytic authors suggest that translating the patient's experiential, embodied, and opaque narrative into a cohesive and meaningful story also changes the patient's suffering and renders it more tolerable. In parallel, I suggest that the supervisor’s role includes translating the supervisee’s experiential and embodied therapeutic narrative into an organised story in a formal language, according to analytic principles. The translated story enables the supervisee to share, albeit in imagination, therapeutic dilemmas and challenges with colleagues that alleviate the burden of clinical responsibility. Furthermore, translating the supervisee’s therapeutic narrative helps the supervisee to acknowledge and accept the otherness in relationships, to find the missing words in his or her discourse, and to identify with and internalise the supervisor’s ways of translating.

Illness: Narratives, Imagery, and Politics

The article uses the review of a seminar, an exhibition, and a graduate conference, which took place at Tallinn University in the 2020–2021 academic year, as an occasion to reflect on the different ways in which illness has been represented in literature, the arts, and film across the history of Western culture. The specific focus of the article is on the theoretical contribution of the humanities to a more complex and adequate understanding of the phenomenon of illness. The study of illness narratives reveals different patterns and strategies of constructing the illness experience into a coherent and meaningful story, but also the resistance that the disruptive impact of illness on our everyday lives poses to narrativisation. The complex historical imagery which endows the biological fact of being sick with additional cultural and social meaning has also to be critically investigated in the humanities and social sciences. Metaphors about illness and the use of illness as a socio-political metaphor have often had a nefarious impact on sick people as well as entire social groups and communities. This is why the article also considers illness in its relations with politics and power and describes various attempts to empower sick people in their relations with medical institutions and their social environment. The article ends with a review of the “Illness: Narratives, Imagery, Politics” graduate conference (27–28 January 2021), which is a good illustration of the many literary and artistic works and of the plurality of methods that can be used in the study of the illness phenomenon from a humanities perspective.

The human being and the world as God’s creation: Present-day ethical conflicts and consequences of the doctrine of creation in the perspective of the doctrine of justification

All the medical and bioethical questions, ranging from stem cell research to converging technologies and synthetic biology, touch on the question regarding the image of human beings and their position in the cosmos, by which we are able to orient ourselves. This article argues that the biblical belief in creation and the discourse about humans as created beings by and in the image of God can still be proclaimed as a viable form of human self-interpretation in the present. The distinction between practical knowledge and knowledge of orientation may be of help here. Guidance for how to live and act is not best found in abstract principles, but rather in meaningful stories, in metaphors and symbols. On this level, too, is also where faith in creation and the certainty of our own creatureliness is located.Contribution: This article interprets the doctrine of creation by a hermeneutical theology. It analyses the interdependence between hermeneutics and criticism in the process of reinterpreting the classical propositions about the human being and the world as God’s creation and the relation of anthropology and ethics. The aim is to show what might be the contribution of Christian faith in creation to the approach of an ethics of responsibility in the field of bioethics and ecology. The specific contribution of this article to current debates on an ethics of creation is the thesis that the key to a well-balanced theological approach to all this is the Pauline doctrine of justification as interpreted by the protestant reformers.

Narrative Extraction, Processing and Generation for Interactive Fiction and Computer Games

Often, computer games require meaningful stories and complex worlds in order to successfully engage players. Developing a high-quality story and rich characters can be one of the hardest tasks in the game development process. Narrative is a key element in building game worlds for interactive digital entertainment. I am particularly interested in computational narrative algorithms that can analyze stories, model narrative, and generate plots to be used in various forms and game domains.

Shifting Speech Levels: Exploring Balinese Women’s Language in Inter-Caste Marriage Communication Contexts

The general aims of this article are to engage and make sense of the Balinese women’s narratives. It is a case study based on the narratives of two Balinese women with different caste-based social backgrounds. Inter-caste communication requires different levels of speech between interlocutors. Consequently, there are two main objectives of this article. Firstly, to explore how life events occurred during inter-caste marriages, and through the telling of these events, the informants determine their levels of speech. Secondly, to examine the identity constructed by the informants through the levels of speech. This article employed ethnographic research, narrative analysis, and sociolinguistics theory. In-depth interviews were conducted to gain meaningful stories narrated by the informants. This study revealed that Balinese women constantly shifted their levels of speech in inter-caste marriage communication contexts. These levels of speech shifting also relate to the showing or negotiating identity construction of these Balinese women.

Laughing out Loud: The Popular Politics of Schadenfreude in Joker

This research attempts to identify and analyze the relatively less explored aspects of schadenfreude as a primary currency in an American attention economy as depicted in the 2019 movie, Joker. It discusses how the protagonist’s comedic ambition to become a live performer falls short of its aim, as he feels inclined to embrace the negativity bias in his city and its questionable amusement impulses. Maintaining the appealing and appalling forces of liking and disliking; the deservingness of others’ good and bad fortunes; desirability for self-evaluation; rivalry and intergroup factors- the paper pursues schadenfreude as the masses’ new opiate. It analyzes the American renaissance of self-effacement and public humiliation in light of its mass media environment that had been abandoning meaningful stories for ticklish delights since the mid-nineties. Both primary and secondary data are used to reinforce an end result which takes the current glocal reality to be the distinct creation of a bizarre comedic moment that both defies and weaponizes a mediafication of its consumers’ emotional health.

Sexuality Education in Early Childhood Through Animation

Many animations are used as learning media. They have interesting colors, moving and alive objects, instilled sounds, and meaningful stories. They make animations that are easy to be understood by early childhood children. Sexuality is a rare developmental aspect to be concerned about, especially in terms of child development. Then, it eventually becomes a risk factor for sexual abuse against children. Therefore, sexuality education for early childhood children is needed to allow children to have appropriate knowledge, positive personal attitudes and sexuality developments, and personal protective skills. The use of animation media for early childhood children needs teachers and parents involvement. Children have cognitive limitations and limited consideration in comprehending information that conforms with the family's developing values. This research describes the conformities between information in an educational animation material about early childhood sexuality education and what children understand. The respondents of the limited group test consisted of 28 learners of B grade Kindergarten in Semarang. The data were taken by utilizing Google Form. The respond submitted by correspondents were analyzed qualitatively. The parents did it with six-time frequencies after the learners watched the video. The data analysis applied data reduction, display, and conclusion. The findings showed that children caught the appropriate information to the purpose of the message in the animation about early childhood sexuality education.

Navigating a defining moment: COVID-19 and curatorial thinking

The COVID-19 pandemic has engendered a critical moment in education. Questions of equity, engagement, and interaction have been brought into sharper focus as students’ homes became their classrooms. There is a demonstrated need for interdisciplinary thinking, enabling students to work with the resources they have at hand, and helping learners orient themselves in place and time. Defining Moments Canada/Moments Déterminant Canada, using the interdisciplinary framework of curatorial thinking, encourages students to make sense of information, more effectively create a meaningful story, and build a stronger sense of social responsibility and awareness. This framework is operationalized using the S.A.S.S. pedagogy—Selecting, Archiving, Sense-Making, and Sharing—through which students find their personal way into a research question and demonstrate their learning while considering narrative intent, evidence limitations, and their own role as a historical actor. This integrative, critical, and interdisciplinary focus is an approach to a (post)pandemic world that prioritizes creative student responsiveness to upcoming challenges.

The meaning of autonomy when living with dementia: A Q-method investigation.

Background and AimsSensitivity to the rights of people with dementia is a key principle cited in the World Health Organisation’s global action plan on dementia. Some critics question whether rights-based approaches embody loose and ill-defined ideas incapable of bringing about meaningful change. Exercising the right to autonomy is considered a core problem for people living with dementia. The tradition of individual sovereignty dominates ideas about autonomy, although the person as an individual is not a cross-culturally universal concept. This study explored the viewpoints of people with dementia and family carers regarding the meaning of autonomy with a view to informing rights-based practice.MethodsTwenty participants, people living with dementia and family carers, each conducted a Q-sort of statements regarding the meaning of autonomy. A by-person factor analysis was used to identify patterns in how the range of statements about autonomy were ranked.ResultsThree factors emerged: retaining independence and self-expression, accepting dependence but being included and opportunity for connection. There was some agreement across these different views regarding the importance of being given time to think before making decisions and being kept active.ConclusionsThis study highlights the need for a person-centred approach to supporting people with dementia to claim their rights and the importance of adopting a stance of curiosity and critical thinking in rights-based training and professional practice. The findings suggest a variety of meaningful stories of autonomy and the possibility of further developing existing rights-based frameworks for dementia care.