scholarly journals Tensions at the boundary: Rearticulating ‘organic’ plant breeding in the age of gene editing

Elem Sci Anth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Nawaz ◽  
Susanna Klassen ◽  
Alexandra Lyon
Keyword(s):  
Gene Editing ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Organic Breeding ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Face ◽  
Organic Community

A host of technologies is rapidly entering agriculture. These new technologies—particularly gene editing—represent multifaceted shifts beyond “genetic modification” (GM), and are outpacing both public understanding and the capacity of regulatory regimes. This paper employs the case of the organic sectors in Canada and the United States, strongholds of GM resistance, to examine conversations about gene-editing technologies unfolding within the organic community, and elucidate their implications for the sector. We employ the concept of “boundary work” to illuminate how key actors and institutions delineate the concept of organic breeding in the face of emerging technologies. We draw upon semi-structured interviews with organic sector representatives, a review of documents published by organic organizations, and data from participant observation. We find that the organic community is reaffirming and deepening boundaries in response to arguments made by proponents of gene editing. Both internal and external pressures on the sector are facilitating a dampening effect on conversations about the boundaries between gene editing and organic agriculture, as the sector is compelled to present a united voice against the affront of new genetic technologies. The sector is also redrawing existing boundaries, as the advent of gene editing has forced conversations about the compatibility of both new and established breeding methods with organic. The resulting questions about what distinguishes acceptable levels of human intervention in plant genomes are highlighting some differences within the diverse organic community. We also argue that debates about gene editing and organic breeding may be “bounding out” important actors from deliberation processes, and note initial attempts to reckon with this exclusion.

The More Ethnic the Face, the More Important the Race: A Closer Look at Colorism and Employment Opportunities among Middle Eastern Women

2020 ◽  
pp. 016059762093288
Author(s):  
Ahzin Bahraini
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Climate ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Middle Eastern Women ◽  
Middle Eastern Population ◽  
The Face ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Middle Easterners

Colorism is the intra- and interracial discrimination an individual experiences based on one’s phenotype. Current research focused on colorism among black Americans has found that “dark-skinned blacks have lower levels of education, income, and job status” in the United States. As bias against Middle Easterners rises in the United States, current research regarding this population is scarce. In the context of today’s political climate, the term Muslim has become a misnomer to refer to the Middle Eastern population, with the term Islamophobia specifically referring to Middle Easterners regardless of their religion rather than individuals from regions of the world who practice Islam. Participants ordered job applicants in terms of who they would hire, followed by interviews. Through 16 semi-structured interviews, this project identifies what participants believe are phenotypically Middle Eastern and Muslim facial features. Throughout the study, participants preferred to hire lighter Middle Eastern women.

Building quality chronic illness care: implementation of a web-based care plan

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 173
Author(s):  
Shiva Vasi ◽  
Jenny Advocat ◽  
Akuh Adaji ◽  
Grant Russell
Keyword(s):  
Primary Care ◽  
General Practice ◽  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Disease Management ◽  
Chronic Disease Management ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Care Plan ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Structured Approach

Structured, multidisciplinary approaches to chronic disease management (CDM) in primary care, supported by eHealth tools, show improved clinical outcomes, yet the uptake of eHealth tools remains low. The adoption of cdmNet, an eHealth tool for chronic disease management, in general practice settings, was explored. This was a qualitative case study in three general practice clinics in Melbourne, Australia. Methods included non-participant observation, reflexive note taking and semi-structured interviews with GPs, non-GP clinical staff, administrative staff and patients with chronic conditions. Data were analysed iteratively and results were reviewed at regular team meetings. Findings highlighted the significance of clinical and organisational routines in determining practice readiness for embedding innovations. In particular, clinical routines that supported a structured approach to CDM involving team-based care, allocation of resources, training and leadership were fundamental to facilitating the adoption of the eHealth tool. Non-GP roles were found to be key in developing routines that facilitated the adoption of cdmNet within a structured approach to CDM. Practice managers, administrators and clinicians should first focus on routinising processes in primary care practices that support structured and team-based processes for CDM because without these processes, new technologies will not be embedded.

scholarly journals Alternatives to the face-to-face consultation in general practice: focused ethnographic case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 68 (669) ◽  
pp. e293-e300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helen Atherton ◽  
Heather Brant ◽  
Sue Ziebland ◽  
Annemieke Bikker ◽  
John Campbell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Practice ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Face ◽  
General Practices ◽  
The One

BackgroundNHS policy encourages general practices to introduce alternatives to the face-to-face consultation, such as telephone, email, e-consultation systems, or internet video. Most have been slow to adopt these, citing concerns about workload. This project builds on previous research by focusing on the experiences of patients and practitioners who have used one or more of these alternatives.AimTo understand how, under what conditions, for which patients, and in what ways, alternatives to face-to-face consultations present benefits and challenges to patients and practitioners in general practice.Design and settingFocused ethnographic case studies took place in eight UK general practices between June 2015 and March 2016.MethodNon-participant observation, informal conversations with staff, and semi-structured interviews with staff and patients were conducted. Practice documents and protocols were reviewed. Data were analysed through charting and the ‘one sheet of paper’ mind-map method to identify the line of argument in each thematic report.ResultsCase study practices had different rationales for offering alternatives to the face-to-face consultation. Beliefs varied about which patients and health issues were suitable. Co-workers were often unaware of each other’s practice; for example, practice policies for use of e-consultations systems with patients were not known about or followed. Patients reported benefits including convenience and access. Staff and some patients regarded the face-to-face consultation as the ideal.ConclusionExperience of implementing alternatives to the face-to-face consultation suggests that changes in patient access and staff workload may be both modest and gradual. Practices planning to implement them should consider carefully their reasons for doing so and involve the whole practice team.

Embodying ageing: middle-aged and older women's bodily fitness and aesthetics in urban China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Li Sheng
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Chinese Women ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Leisure Activity ◽  
Urban China ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
The Face ◽  
Older Chinese

Abstract This article explores the embodied practices of anti-ageing among middle-aged and older Chinese women (damas) who engage in plaza dancing (guangchangwu) as a leisure activity in urban areas. Drawing upon data collected from three months of participant observation in three different plaza dance groups and 29 semi-structured interviews with older Chinese women, I first investigate my participants’ experiences of plaza dancing in terms of health-keeping and bodily maintenance. I then analyse their usage of cosmetic products at a time when the beauty economy is booming during the post-Mao era. These female plaza dancers’ bodily regulation and ‘beautification’ indicate not only older women's strategies and struggles in the face of the double standard of ageing, but also a change in the age hierarchy under the transforming socio-cultural landscape of urban China, which is generating new social norms.

scholarly journals A Hierarchy of Medicine: Health Strategies of Elder Khmer Refugees in the United States

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Beliefs ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Treatment And Prevention ◽  
Aging Populations

This study addresses ways Khmer refugee elders utilize traditional herbal medicine with Western biomedicine in the treatment and prevention of illnesses. Methods include semi-structured and informal interviews with elders and family members, semi-structured interviews with local health care providers and Khmer physicians, and participant observation of everyday life and actions specific to health beliefs and behaviors. Data reveal a reliance on traditional medical ideology for understanding and treating illnesses. Utilizing a traditional ideology, Khmer elders rely heavily on traditional treatments and use Western biomedicine as supplements or adjuncts to traditional preventive and curative practices. This research has important implications for health care providers who treat SEA elders, especially for di et and treatment of chronic illnesses often associated with aging populations.

scholarly journals THE MANAGEMENT OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION AS A FACTOR OF SOCIALIZATION: THE MAGAZINE VIDA NOVA

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Cantífula de Castro
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Communication ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Strategic Communication ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Socialization Process ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
High Productivity ◽  
Communication Processes

Organizational communication is a key element for the survival, maintenance and consolidation of human relationships in the workplace. This research aims to understand how organizational communication is being managed in the Mozambican Catholic Vida Nova Magazine, verifying how inclusive communication contributes to maintaining good quality of the journal and a high productivity of employees. The methodology used was qualitative, with a field work that consisted of participant observation for one year, complemented by semi-structured interviews with key witnesses. The results showed that Vida Nova Magazine experiences a particular kind of participatory, dialogical and strategic communication processes, coming mainly from the spontaneity of personal relations and communication among employees rather than due to a strategic option of the management. In view of the global demands in the field of social communication, Vida Nova Magazine seeks to broaden its field of action using instrumental forms of communication, based on new technologies, as digital platforms, both social networks and the website. The socialization process of its employees is promising as it cooperates in the consolidation of personal life and is expected to have a new life with Vida Nova. Keywords: organizational communication, collaborators socialization, community life, information processing

scholarly journals Mainstream digitale e altre immagini urbane. Una ricerca empirica nel sito UNESCO di Palermo

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emanuela Caravello
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Urban Image ◽  
World Heritage List ◽  
The World ◽  
The City

The research deepens the role of new technologies in the construction of geographical imaginaries investigating the dimension of the offer related to the cultural heritage of the city of Palermo. The study was conducted using qualitative methods and provided for the application of two research techniques: participant observation and semi-structured interviews. By interpreting the results produced, the contribution aims to highlight the predominance of an urban image, linked to the UNESCO inclusion of the site in the World Heritage List, which is conveyed through new technologies. Developing a reflection on the alternative capacity of new media to dislocate and challenge shared images, the study will also examine the role of technologies in the production of imaginative counter-geographies.

scholarly journals Liderazgo y e-liderazgo en las historias de vida de líderes educativos a través del mundo

EDMETIC ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Mireia Tintore Tintoré ◽  
Isabel Cantón Mayo ◽  
Marta Quiroga ◽  
Isabel Parés
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Educational Leaders ◽  
The United States ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Nuevas Tecnologías

El liderazgo en los centros educativos ha de tener cada vez más en cuenta el papel de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y la comunicación, como medio para mejorar las organizaciones. En consecuencia, el objetivo de la presente investigación es analizar las historias de vida de 5 líderes educativos en 5 contextos diferentes: España, Guatemala, Chile, Kazajistán y Estados Unidos; y describir cómo las nuevas tecnologías se engarzan con sus prácticas de liderazgo. La metodología es cualitativa usando como instrumento entrevistas semiestructuradas recogidas entre 2012 y 2018 en los distintos entornos. Se ofrecen ejemplos de líderes, sus prácticas de liderazgo y, particularmente, el papel de los medios tecnológicos en su gestión del cambio. Los resultados revelan prácticas directivas similares y ajustadas a lo descrito previamente por la literatura académica, y muestran asimismo cómo liderazgo y tecnología se afectan mutuamente.Leadership in educational centers must increasingly consider the role of advanced information technologies to improve organizations. Consequently, the objective of this research is to analyze the life histories of 5 educational leaders in 5 different contexts: Spain, Guatemala, Chile, Kazakhstan and the United States; and describe how new technologies are linked with their leadership practices. The methodology is qualitative using as instrument semi-structured interviews collected between 2012 and 2018 in different environments. Examples of leaders, their leadership practices and, mainly, the role of technological media in their change management are offered. The results reveal similar management practices and adjusted to what was previously described by the academic literature, and also show how leadership and technology affect each other.

Struggling for Ordinary

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andre Cavalcante
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Media Use ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Transgender People ◽  
Ordinary Life ◽  
The Face ◽  
Media And Technology ◽  
Depth Interviews

What was it like to live as a transgender person in a media environment before Caitlin Jenner, Orange Is the New Black, Transparent, and the current transgender reality TV boom? Struggling for Ordinary answers this question by examining the role of media and technology in the everyday lives of transgender people before what some call the “transgender tipping point” in popular culture. It offers a snapshot of how transgender individuals made their way toward identity and a sense of ordinary life by integrating available media into their emotional, cognitive, and everyday experiences. Informed by in-depth interviews and participant observation with transgender communities over the course of four years, the book offers a careful and richly detailed account of transgender media use and world-making. It explores how media and technology operate as arbiters of possibilities, how they franchise what is and is not possible. Struggling for Ordinary shows how transgender people turn to both old and new technologies to cultivate an understanding of their identities and to achieve the common inclusions and routine affordances of everyday life from which they are often excluded. The book also looks at the emotional and affective toll media use takes on transgender individuals, along with their resilience in the face of media disempowerment. Finally, the book complicates the queer/normal binary—recognizing the ways transgender and queer everyday life is “queerly ordinary,” a hybrid of sameness and difference, assimilation and resistance, and ordinariness and queerness.

Ethnobotanical Knowledge of an Eskimo Family: Naukan Yupiks [Etnobotanicheskoe znanie odnoi eskimosskoi sem’i: naukanskie yupiki]

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 17-32
Author(s):  
V. Kolosova ◽  
◽  
Kevin Jernigan ◽  
Olga Belichenko ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Language Proficiency ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Ethnobotanical Knowledge ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Aerial Parts ◽  
Plant Uses ◽  
The Village ◽  
Culture And Language

This article analyzes the Naukan Yupiks ethnobotanical knowledge, i.e. the use of plants as food, medicine, household or ritual objects, on the example of one family. The resettlement from Cape Dezhnev to other settlements led to significant changes in their culture and language proficiency. Fieldwork was carried out in summer 2014 in the village of Uelen, Chukotka, using the methods of structured interviews and participant observation. Informants named 26 species belonging to 18 families; these species gave a total of 170 plant uses. Within one family, there is a sharp decline in the knowledge of the Naukan phytonyms, as well as the repertoire of plants used from older generations to younger ones. The disappearing knowledge includes the collection of plant roots harvested by tundra voles. However, aerial parts of plants, berries, and algae remain popular. The variety of methods for preparing plants is increasing, including due to contact with the Russian-speaking population and access to new technologies.

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