Fostering family resilience: A community participatory action research perspective

Strong families create strong communities, contributing to the strength of society at large. By increasing family resilience, one begins to increase the resilience of communities. Many families in South Africa, however, experience challenges to their resilience, often owing to a variety of historic, socio-economic, and political factors. Research and intervention planning that attempts to ameliorate the effects these factors, especially upon families who live within disenfranchised communities, must begin with the relationships forged between community stakeholders. The aim of this paper is to share the lessons learned and processes involved in the development of a contextually-based family resilience programme, using a participatory action research (PAR) model within a rural area. We argue that PAR can be used to foster family resilience and, in so doing, can mobilise communities and their resources to increase community resilience. Our study found that PAR contributed to increased communication and a unifying of different stakeholder community groups. Lessons learned included an acknowledgment of the value that communities contribute to research and intervention planning, and the need to maintain, and further develop, those relationships both throughout and after the research process.

Participatory evaluation of the optical fiber installation impact in a pre-alpine community

The present participatory evaluation research project aims to evaluate the impact of the installation of the optical fiber on the psycho-social well-being of citizens and the empowerment of people and communities in Valle Sabbia, the second largest of the “Tre Valli Bresciane” close to Brescia city in northern Italy.
This area consists of 25 municipalities: most of the them has less than 2,000 inhabitants, the most populated municipality has about 12,000 inhabitants.
The investment in the optical fiber installation arose from some institutional stakeholders’ perception about the Digital Divide problem: there was a significant gap between other close citizens, with a proper access to new technologies, and the Valle Sabbia’s citizens, excluded from the opportunities offered by the Internet connection.
The research project provides different phases: participatory planning with the customers; data collection with 18 stakeholders through in-depth interviews; 10 majors with focus groups; 577 Valle Sabbia’s citizen with a questionnaire; finally, the discussion of the results with the customers, stakeholders and citizens.
From data analysis emerged the elements of individual and community well-being that are connected to new technology; the development of sense of community, the increase of business and sense of safety after the fyber installation. Moreover, some risks connected with the new technology emerged. Furthermore, we will how the territory technological development can contribute to social changes.

Creative Placemaking and Cultural Construction of “Organic Bookstore”: An Example in Taiwan

Under the influence of world trend, Taiwan government had set 2019 as the first year of “Creative Placemaking”. The public and the private sectors are actively investing in funds and resources on this issue. This study aimed to explore the operating strategy of “organic bookstore” located in small town of northern Taiwan and how the bookstore motivates community development and cultural construction.
Founded in 2014, Shidianzi Organic Bookstore is a second-hand bookstore located in old street of Kansai town. It is an activated space modified from old house. They advocate the concept of "only exchange books, do not sale books", and promote reading in the rural areas.
This research stands on the theoretical perspective of socio-cultural psychology and claims dynamic relationship between social system and individual system. Collecting data methods are depth-interview and participant observation. "Narrative analysis" is the interpretative method.
There are four research findings as followed: First of all, Mr. Lu, the founder of Organic Bookstore, is a forward-thinking key person who holds and expands the concept of “the importance of reading and the development of art” in this town. Secondly, not only Organic Bookstore with warm hospitality becomes the reading space of community and travelers, but also many cultural creative stores open at this old street. Thirdly, the participation of local residents who organize an association is crucial factor to boost community. Finally, diversified marketing strategies and business models are important. In addition to bookstores, they operate backpacker hostel with old house features and take place in-depth cultural tourism, arts festival for enhancing cohesion of residents and attracting tourists. In conclusion, Creative Placemaking and local construction must be based on local characteristics and resources.

A Critical Approach: Lessons on community engagement from communities in Pakistan.

Efforts to improve community health are weakened by pathological portrayals of low socioeconomic status (SES) communities and ‘expert’ top-down perspectives, while emphasis on patient-centred outcomes and quantitative evidence of successes paint inaccurate portrayals of milestones achieved in praxis. To counter these issues, a critical approach is adopted by the Community Engagement Centre (CEC), a joint venture between Indus Health Network’s Global Health Directorate (IHN-GHD) and Interactive Research and Development (IRD) in Pakistan, which utilizes critical, participatory engagement to promote ownership, empower for sustainable change, and improve health outcomes. It considers contextual and political factors (Nelson & Prilleltensky, 2005) in engaged communities through three ecological spheres of experience (Fox, Prilleltensky, & Austin, 2009):
(i) the individual sphere: unequal distribution of health problems, exposure to risk factors, disempowerment, internalised oppression, perceptions of control and positive wellbeing
(ii) the relational sphere: social relationships, support, stigma, neglect, sexism and social exclusion
(iii) the collective sphere: barriers to health care, low social capital, economic inequality, access to social programmes and sense of community
The CEC methodology has borne some successes, for example; through engagement, a rural community in Punjab were able to source clean drinking water for their families. There are still areas that require improvement, such as creating sustainable change in attitudes and practices to restrict spread of diseases, or democratic involvement of stakeholders in medical decisions. Argument for a critical community-centred approach is postulated through what works, what doesn’t and why. Through this, CEC shifts the engagement paradigm from the strictly biomedical and pathological to that which addresses political and structural barriers that predetermine the condition, and oftentimes, the fate of community members.