Urban Survival

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Survival

Power through Intersubjectivity: Representing the Resilient Child in Urban Survival Narratives

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-80
Author(s):  
Yvonne Hammer
Keyword(s):  
Social Discourse ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
Liminal Spaces ◽  
Young Readers ◽  
Problematic Relationship ◽  
Narrative Representations ◽  
Spark Gap ◽  
Urban Survival ◽  
Resilient Child

The problematic relationship between urban dislocation, the proscribed spaces of urban childhood, child marginnalisation and the societal invisibility of under-age citizens is widely thematised in contemporary children's literature. This article examines how childhood agency, as a form of power, becomes aligned with resilience through intersubjectivity in the narrative representations of marginalised child subjects in Virginia Hamilton's The Planet of Junior Brown (1987) and Julie Bertagna's The Spark Gap ( 1996 ). Depictions of child homelessness, which construct resilience in the determination to survive experiences of marginalisation, dislocation and loss, offer an opportunity to examine representations of child subjectivity. This discussion centres on the role of intersubjectivity as an alternative construction to some humanistic frames that privilege the notion of an individual agency divested of childhood's limitations. It identifies the experiential codes which more accurately reflect the choices available to young readers, where liminal spaces of homelessness that first establish social and cultural dependencies are re-interpreted through depictions of relational connection among displaced child subjects. The discussion suggests that these multifocal novels construct dialogic representations of social discourse that affirm intersubjectivity as a form of agency.

Use of Cultural Themes in Promoting Health among Southeast Asian Refugees

1995 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 269-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. Frye
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
Psychosocial Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Health Messages ◽  
Search Methods ◽  
Medline Search ◽  
Cultural Themes ◽  
Urban Survival

Purpose. Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong refugee populations in the United States face serious physical and psychosocial health issues. Literature on these populations is largely descriptive of illnesses and of cultural beliefs or behavior patterns related to illness. There is minimal literature linking beliefs and behaviors to the underlying cultural themes. The purpose of this paper was to search the literature for cultural themes from which culturally relevant health promotion strategies could be designed. Search Methods. Literature was reviewed from the fields of health, social, and political science, history, and Southeast Asian folklore. Search methods included review of 147 writings from library and MEDLINE search and 123 interviews with refugees and key professionals in the field. This manuscript includes 106 selections as well as content from 93 interviews. Findings and Conclusions. From the literature emerged two cultural themes common to these populations, kinship solidarity and the search for equilibrium. The use of these cultural themes as carriers of health messages is suggested. Examples of ways to link the message with the cultural theme are presented, including the use of folklore, recognition of cultural illnesses, and use of cultural knowledge in addressing new situations such as inner city urban survival. Cultural themes are a means of conveying health messages addressing such issues as transition in family structure, depression, and substance abuse.

Standing (K)in

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily Margaretten
Keyword(s):  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Sexual Partnerships ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Urban Survival

This chapter draws on an analytical framework of “relatedness” to illustrate the everyday attachments—the kinships, friendships, and sexual partnerships—of the Point Place youth. To convey the fluidity of these relationships, the chapter refers to the idiom of ukuma, which in isiZulu means “to stand.” The youth's various enactments of ukuma speak to the hierarchies of urban survival as well as to the commensalities. The chapter reveals the practices of solidarity that maintain the Point Place youth on a day-to-day basis. With ukuma at the forefront of its investigations, it shows how the youth negotiate their standing in society precisely through their relationships with one another.

scholarly journals Songbird perception and production in anthropogenic noise

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren S Proppe
Keyword(s):  
Communication Networks ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Environmental Variables ◽  
Patch Size ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Behavior Patterns ◽  
Natural Behavior ◽  
Small Patch ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Urban Survival

Urban habitats are characterized by a number of unique environmental variables, including modified vegetative structure, fragmentation, small patch size, invasive species, and higher levels of anthropogenic noise. Many songbird species are found less frequently in these types of habitats, but this pattern is far from universal. This has led many to ask whether common urban species are more adaptable in novel environments, or whether this subset of species has been pre-adapted for urban survival. Much of my own research has been geared towards understanding the effects of anthropogenic noise on songbirds and determining which, if any, song traits facilitate higher urban persistence. However, perception of bird sounds is only a small piece of the soundscape a songbird must navigate. Other sounds, such as predator calls, may also be hampered by anthropogenic noise. Yet, less is known about how noise effects communication networks beyond the sender-receiver relationship. I will present results from a series of experiments designed to examine whether pitch and temporal plasticity can be utilized by songbirds to adapt to high levels of noise, then turn my attention towards perception, examining whether urban songbirds can perceive an aerial predator in the midst of increased noise. Finally, I ask whether we can manipulated natural behavior patterns to increase songbird diversity despite the apparent disparity in some traits between species which inhabit urban areas and those that do not.

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