Trajectory Of Hope Research Articles

Indian Ocean Trade and Emerging Pathways of Mobility in Neoliberal Zanzibar


 
 
 Indian Ocean trade historically directed ‘routes’ for merchants and traders to frame their ‘roots’ in Zanzibar. It facilitated access to different forms of social capital for imagining new trajectories of hope and constructing more meaningful futures. However, colonial rule and subsequent policies of the socialist revolutionary government severely restricted the mobility of Zanzibaris and their engagement in Indian Ocean trade, initiating a new era of uncertainty. As free-market policies have revived since the mid-1980s under a renewed framework of neoliberalism, this article examines how Zanzibaris, increasingly finding themselves in conditions of involuntary immobility, are trying to participate today in mercantile activities that brought prosperity in the past in hopes of securing a brighter future. The article explores how the efforts of Zanzibari merchants and traders to engage in trans- national Indian Ocean trade provides, for these limited groups of individuals, access to envisioning different pathways of socioeconomic mobility in the neoliberal era. The article contends that engagement in Indian Ocean trade, through support from transnational and diasporic networks, facilitates access to new routes of mobility to situate one’s roots in Zanzibar, while the situation for the majority of Zanzibaris continues to deteriorate under neoliberalism today.
 
 

The trajectory of hope and loneliness in rectal cancer survivors with major low anterior resection syndrome: A qualitative study.

Rectal cancer survivors are often confronted with long-term bowel function impairment, called low anterior resection syndrome. This has a large impact on patients' lives. The aim was to explore the experiences of patients with major low anterior resection syndrome with a specific focus on hope and loneliness. A grounded theory approach was used. Individual semi-structured interviews (n=28) were performed between 2017 and 2019. Patients were recruited in three hospitals and a call was distributed in two patients' organizations. During data analysis, the constant comparative method and investigators' triangulation was used. Hope was important at different stages in the trajectory. After treatment patients hoped to pick up their previous life. Confrontation with low anterior resection syndrome was unexpected and patients hoped to manage it through trial and error. They lost hope if further improvement was absent. At that turning point some tried to accept the new lifestyle, others pushed their boundaries and some opted for a permanent stoma. Loneliness presented itself in several layers. Patients experience loneliness due being toilet-bound, changes in their lives and activities outside their homes and the impact on their family life. Assessment of the impact on patients' lives and tailored counselling is possible if healthcare professionals gain more insight into the different layers of loneliness and where the patient is located in the trajectory of hope.

Narratives of Childhood in Regional Western Australian Towns: A Trajectory of Hope and Collective Wisdom for Landmark Reforms

THE EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION and care reforms in Australia have been heralded as a cause for celebration, greatly anticipated by a sector that has lamented its invisibility. Drawing on qualitative data from a study of three towns in the south-west of Western Australia, this article aims to provoke reflection on where we stand with the celebrated aim of putting young children at the centre of the vision for Australia. The South-West Early Childhood Project investigated how childhood is constructed and how communities welcome families and young children. The study identified several themes: narratives of invisibility/visibility; narratives of sitting still/being active; and narratives of conformity/diversity. The article foregrounds the acclaimed experience of the city of Reggio Emilia (Italy) and extends an invitation to communities in Australia to position themselves on a trajectory of hope by harnessing collective wisdom in support of landmark early childhood reforms.

The trajectory of hope: pathways to find meaning and reconstructing the self after a spinal cord injury.

This is a qualitative study. To evaluate and track the importance and the continuum of hope, and its trajectory, from the point of view of the individual with a spinal cord injury (SCI) and a rehabilitation psychologist. This study was conducted in the Indian Spinal Injuries Centre, New Delhi, India, and in patients' homes in the National Capital Region, India. Twenty individuals with an SCI were interviewed for the study at intervals of 2 weeks, 6 months, 1 year and 2 years since the time of the injury. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, in which the following theoretical research questions were investigated: 'What is the meaning, relevance and significance of hope in the individual's life following an SCI? Does the meaning and subject of hope change at different points in time?' Three distinctive themes markedly emerged in the trajectory of hope: (1) Hope for a complete recovery; (2) hope for self-reliance despite the injury; and (3) hope for an optimum quality of life. The make-up of each theme, its significance and contribution to recovery and/or rehabilitation, while tracking the influence of time since injury, family and friends, as well as other agencies and pathways, are discussed. After sustaining a life-altering injury, hope becomes the force that spurs individuals. Psychologists and rehabilitation counselors need to focus on instilling realistic hope, goal setting, sustaining motivation, enabling adaptive appraisals and problem-solving. Further recommendations include developing and testing interventions against the context of the continuum of hope.

Narratives of transformation: Family discourse, autism and trajectories of hope

This article explores the role of personal life narrative as a self-shaping transformative process in the day-to-day family lives of 17 US children diagnosed with autism. Employing ethnographic video-and audio-taped data of naturalistic family interaction, the article illumines how family members employ conversational narrative in co-creating, with children, possible imagined futures, aspirations, and goals. Despite uncertain futures and unknown clinical outcomes, children are encouraged to engage in self-reflexive narrative practices that portray them in a hopeful yet realistic light. By exploring moment-by-moment details of talk-in-interaction in the lives of children diagnosed with autism, the article contributes to scholarship on how children’s experiences and self-conceptions pertaining to well-being, disability, and difference are configured and shaped via discursive practices carried out within the family sphere. Children with autism display socio-communicative difficulties that call attention to, and render visible, discursive processes involved in children’s acquisition of culturally rooted narrative capacities. As such, analysis is positioned to shed light on children’s narrative proclivities in fathoming and reflecting upon personal life experience.

Debt relief initiatives and poverty alleviation: lessons from Africa – 22nd SAUSSC

The 22nd Southern African Universities Social Sciences Conference (SAUSSC) took place at the Safari Court Hotel outside Windhoek on 1–5 December 2001. The main theme was ‘Debt relief initiatives and poverty alleviation: lessons from Africa’. Besides the plenary sessions with three presentations concerning the main theme, the conference also addressed the following sub-themes:1. Poverty and poverty alleviation in the SADC and Africa (five papers)2. Governments, NGOs and poverty alleviation (five papers)3. Governance, foreign aid and poverty (four papers)4. The debt crisis and debt problems (four papers)5. Impact of the debt crisis (four papers)6. Environmental and population issues in poverty (four papers)7. The social and gender dimension of poverty reduction (four papers)8. Measuring poverty, and poverty and disease (four papers)The keynote address of this important and successful conference was presented by Prof. Earle AS Taylor (University of Namibia). In his presentation, ‘Debt, poverty and a moribund Africa: the classics of regression’, he elaborated on the existing, tragic situation that, in spite of the expansive land mass and its rich natural endowment and diversities, the African continent still remains the poorest in the world. With the exception of a few countries, the health and quality of life indices have been receding steadily; technology has made few inroads; development is staid; social services are stagnant or backsliding; and debt service is substantial, staggering and soaring. Taylor vividly examined the cumulative and longitudinal determinants of his serial regression and attempted to chart a new trajectory of hope within the eccentric and rapidly neoglobalising economic system.BC Chikulo (University of North West) presented a paper entitled: ‘Debt and development in Africa: problems and prospects’, in which debt was presented as the main obstacle to development in sub-Saharan Africa. In response to the debt crisis, the G8 countries have adopted debt-reduction policy measures. Partly because of this, a heightened recognition of the negative impact of debt on socio-economic development has emerged, leading to alternative prescriptions by the nascent African Union (AU). The author warned against begging donors and argued that partners and investors would have to play increasingly important roles in the future.

The atom comes to Australia: Reflections on the Australian nuclear programme, 1953 and 1993

Within the compass of a single lifetime, Australia's affair with the ‘atom’ has changed out of all recognition. Forty years ago, uranium mining and nuclear power were welcomed with excitement and anticipation ‐ bringing boundless benefits to the national defense and economic development of the already ‘lucky country”. Today, following an enquiry into the proposed replacement of Australia's research reactor (HIFAR.), the public contemplates not a litany of blessings, but a history of disappointments. This paper will chart the trajectories of hope and expectation that have accompanied the atom's history in Australia, and will suggest some of the implications of the reactor review for the ‘nuclear future’ in this country.