Community Arts and Appropriate Internet Technology: Participation, Materiality, and the Ethics of Sustainability in the Digitally Networked Era

This thesis establishes appropriate internet technology as a matter of sustainability for the community arts field. It begins with a contextual review that historicises community art in relation to technological, cultural, and political change. It goes on to identify key challenges for the field resulting from the emerging socio-cultural significance of the internet and digital media technologies. A conceptual review of the literature positions these issues in relation to Internet Studies, integrating key concepts from Software Studies and the computational turn with approaches from the fields of ICT for Development (ICT4D), Critical Design, and Critical Making. Grounded in these intersecting literatures the thesis offers a new pragmatic ethics of appropriate internet technology: one involving an alternative philosophical platform from which suitable internet-based technologies can be designed and assembled by practitioners. I interrogate these ideas through an in-depth investigation of CuriousWorks, an Australian community arts organisation, focusing on their current internet practices. The thesis then reflects on some experimental interventions I designed as part of the study for the purpose of provoking shifts in the field of community arts. The research findings form the foundation of a series of recommendations offered to practitioners and policy makers that may guide their critical and creative uses of internet technologies in the future.

Knowledge translation in men’s health research: development and delivery of content for use online

Background: Men can be hard to reach with face-to-face health-related information, while increasingly, research shows that they are seeking health information from online sources. Recognizing this trend, there is merit in developing innovative online knowledge translation (KT) strategies capable of translating research on men’s health into engaging health promotion materials. While the concept of KT has become a new mantra for researchers wishing to bridge the gap between research evidence and improved health outcomes, little is written about the process, necessary skills, and best practices by which researchers can develop online knowledge translation.
Objective: Our aim was to illustrate some of the processes and challenges involved in, and potential value of, developing research knowledge online to promote men’s health.

Methods: We present experiences of KT across two case studies of men’s health. First, we describe a study that uses interactive Web apps to translate knowledge relating to Canadian men’s depression. Through a range of mechanisms, study findings were repackaged with the explicit aim of raising awareness and reducing the stigma associated with men’s depression and/or help-seeking. Second, we describe an educational resource for teenage men about unintended pregnancy, developed for delivery in the formal Relationship and Sexuality Education school curricula of Ireland, Northern Ireland (United Kingdom), and South Australia. The intervention is based around a Web-based interactive film drama entitled “If I Were Jack”.

Results: For each case study, we describe the KT process and strategies that aided development of credible and well-received online content focused on men’s health promotion. In both case studies, the original research generated the inspiration for the interactive online content and the core development strategy was working with a multidisciplinary team to develop this material through arts-based approaches. In both cases also, there is an acknowledgment of the need for gender and culturally sensitive information. Both aimed to engage men by disrupting stereotypes about men, while simultaneously addressing men through authentic voices and faces. Finally, in both case studies we draw attention to the need to think beyond placement of content online to delivery to target audiences from the outset.

Conclusions: The case studies highlight some of the new skills required by academics in the emerging paradigm of translational research and contribute to the nascent literature on KT. Our approach to online KT was to go beyond dissemination and diffusion to actively repackage research knowledge through arts-based approaches (videos and film scripts) as health promotion tools, with optimal appeal, to target male audiences. Our findings highlight the importance of developing a multidisciplinary team to inform the design of content, the importance of adaptation to context, both in terms of the national implementation context and consideration of gender-specific needs, and an integrated implementation and evaluation framework in all KT work.

Learning experience and identity development as a research assistant /

What research learning experiences do current students have as research assistants (RAs) in the Faculty of Education at Brock University? How do the experiences of research assistants contribute to the formation of a researcher identity and influence future research plans? Despite the importance of these questions, there seems to be very little research conducted or written about the experiences of research assistants as they engage in the research process. There are few resources to which research assistants or their advisors can refer regarding graduate student research learning experiences. The purpose of this study was to understand the kinds of learning experiences that 4 RAs (who are enrolled in the Faculty of Education at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario) have and how those experiences contribute to their identities as researchers. Through interviews with participants, observations of participants, and textual documents produced by participants, I have (a) discovered what 4 RAs have learned while engaged in one or more research assistantships and (b) explored how these 4 RAs' experiences have shaped their identities as new researchers. My research design provided a separate case study for each participant RA, including myself as a research participant. Then as a collective, I studied all 4 cases as a case study in itself in the form of a cross-analysis to identify similarities and differences between cases. Using a variety of writing forms and visual narratives, I analyzed and interpreted the experiences of my participants utilizing arts-based literature to inform my analysis and thesis format. The final presentation includes electronic diagrams, models, poetry, a newsletter, a website presentation, and other representational arts-based forms.This thesis is a resource for current and future research assistants who can learn from the research assistant experiences presented in the research. Faculty members who hire research assistants to assist them with their research will also benefit from reading about RAs' learning experiences from the RAs' perspective. The information provided in this thesis document is a resource to inform future policies and research training initiatives in faculty departments and offices at universities. Consequently, this thesis also informs researchers (experienced and inexperienced) about how to conduct research in ways that benefit all parties and provide insight into potential ways to improve research assistantship practices.

Research through DESIGN through research - a problem statement and a conceptual sketch

This paper re-addresses the issue of a lacking genuine design research paradigm. It tries to sketch an operational model of such a paradigm, based upon a generic design process model, which is derived from basic notions of evolution and learning in different domains of knowing (and turns out to be not very different from existing ones). It does not abandon the scientific paradigm but concludes that the latter has to be embedded into / subordinated under a design paradigm.

A systematic review of community-based participatory research interventions in pediatric and adolescent populations

Background. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a collaborative approach to research actively involving community members in all aspects of the research process. CBPR is not a new research method, but an approach that has gained increased attention in the field of public health over the last several years. Recognition of the inequalities in health status associated with social and environmental factors have led to calls for a renewed focus on ecological approaches to research. Ecological approaches acknowledge that the health of the community is dependent on an interaction between behavioral and environmental factors affecting the entire population. While many published studies document the benefits of CBPR in difficult-to-reach populations and describe successful implementation of this approach in adult populations, relatively few studies have been conducted in child and adolescent populations. Given that children and adolescents are particularly sensitive to the effects of their physical environments and may also be distrustful of outsiders, ecological approaches involving the community as partners, such as CBPR, may be especially useful in this population. ^ Objective. This thesis reviews published studies using a community-based participatory research approach in children and adolescents to assess the appropriateness of this approach in this population. ^ Method. Studies using CBPR in youth populations were identified using Medline and other Internet searches through both MeSH heading and text-word searches. ^ Results. A total of 16 studies were identified and analyzed for this review. Nine of the sixteen studies were experimental or quasi-experimental design, with Asthma being the most commonly studied disease. ^ Conclusions. While many studies using CBPR were not conducted with the level of scientific rigor typically found in clinical trial research, the studies reviewed each contributed to a greater understanding of the problems they investigated. Furthermore, interventional studies provided lasting benefits to communities under study above what would be found in studies using more traditional research approaches. While CBPR may not be appropriate for all research situations due to the time and resources required, we conclude that is a useful approach and should be considered when conducting community-based research for pediatric and adolescent populations.^

Perceptions of institutional support of community -based participatory research within prevention research centers

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report on the future of health care states that the focus on health needs to shift to the management and prevention of chronic illnesses and that academic health centers (AHCs) should play an active role in this process through community partnerships (IOM, 2002). Grant funding from the National Institutes of Health and the creation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Prevention Research Centers (PRC) across the county represent a transition toward more proactively seeking out community partnerships to better design and disseminate health promotion programs (Green, 2001). ^ The focus of the PRCs is to conduct rigorous, community-based, prevention research, to seek outcomes applicable to public health programs and policies. The PRCs work is to create and foster partnerships among public health and community organizations, to address health promotion and disease prevention issues (CDC, 2003). ^ The W.K. Kellogg Foundation defines CBPR as "a collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community with the aim of combining knowledge and action for social change to improve community health." ^ In 1995, CDC asked the IOM to review the PRC program to examine the extent to which the program is providing the public health community with strategies to address public health problems in disease prevention and health promotion (IOM, 1997). No comprehensive evaluation n of the individual PRCs had ever been done (IOM, 1997). ^ The CDC was interested in understanding how it could better support the PRC program through improved management and oversight to influence the program's success. The CDC only represents one of the entities that influence the success of a PRC. Another key entity to consider is the support of and influence of the Schools of Public Health in which the PRCs reside. Using evaluation criteria similar to those that were developed by the IOM, this study examined how aspects of structural capacity of the Schools of Public Health in which the PRCs reside are perceived to influence PRC community-based research activities. ^

THE ECONOMIC, AESTHETIC, AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL VOCAL ENSEMBLES: TOWARD A THEORY OF THE PERFORMING ARTS

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Finding common ground in team-based qualitative research using the convergent interviewing method

Research councils, agencies, and researchers recognize the benefits of team-based health research. However, researchers involved in large-scale team-based research projects face multiple challenges as they seek to identify epistemological and ontological common ground. Typically, these challenges occur between quantitative and qualitative researchers but can occur between qualitative researchers, particularly when the project involves multiple disciplinary perspectives. The authors use the convergent interviewing technique in their multidisciplinary research project to overcome these challenges. This technique assists them in developing common epistemological and ontological ground while enabling swift and detailed data collection and analysis. Although convergent interviewing is a relatively new method described primarily in marketing research, it compares and contrasts well with grounded theory and other techniques. The authors argue that this process provides a rigorous method to structure and refine research projects and requires researchers to identify and be accountable for developing a common epistemological and ontological position.

Rightful Resistance in the Colombian conflict. A theoretical reflection based on a Peace Community

This article considers the opportunities of civilians to peacefully resist violent conflicts or civil wars. The argument developed here is based on a field-based research on the peace community San José de Apartadó in Colombia. The analytical and theoretical framework, which delimits the use of the term ‘resistance’ in this article, builds on the conceptual considerations of Hollander and Einwohner (2004) and on the theoretical concept of ‘rightful resistance’ developed by O’Brien (1996). Beginning with a conflict-analytical classification of the case study, we will describe the long-term socio-historical processes and the organizational experiences of the civilian population, which favoured the emergence of this resistance initiative. The analytical approach to the dimensions and aims of the resistance of this peace community leads to the differentiation of O`Brian’s concept of ‘rightful resistance’.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF ARTS IN EDUCATION RESEARCH PROJECT

Since 1999, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the South Carolina Department of Education, and later the Arts in Basic Curriculum Project (ABC) have co-sponsored the Arts Education Research Project to track the progress and effects of arts education reform efforts in various ABC schools across the state. This report addresses the specific purposes of the Arts Education Research Project which were to (a) document the arts instruction in place prior to reform implementation, (b) determine the effects of increased, modified, or integrated arts instruction, and (c) identify potential influences that promote, inhibit, or sustain changes in schools that implemented arts reform.

Medeleven

Medeleven was a practice-based research work that challenged conventional notions of how audiences ‘experience’ contemporary dance. It resulted in a 40 minute ‘experiential’ performance that inverted the traditional ‘passive’ presentation paradigm by situating the audience centrally within the creative process. The ‘traditional presentation paradigm’ was inverted in numerous ways including: asking the audience onstage with the performers, placing swings onstage for the audience to play on during the performance and guiding the audience through backstage corridors before entering onstage – all of which added elements of physicality, agency and liminality to the performance not usually available to audience members of contemporary dance. Five dancers moved throughout the space allowing the audience to choose where and how they engaged with this work and the swings were utilised both as a performance space and for audience seating. In addition to these spatial variations, the quadraphonic soundscore created distinct ‘environments’ throughout the stage space that varied individual experience possibilities. By positing performance as an experiential phenomenon, the pivotal objective of this work was to create a live-art experience that extended its performativity to include audience members as active meaning-makers, challenging both their role within this paradigm and their expectations of contemporary dance. The work produced strong responses from the audience with surveys indicating the presentation format, as well as the construction of the work, changed audience experience and ability to connect with the dance work. The research suggested that, in addition to existing research on dance audiences, barriers to engagement with contemporary dance may include how the art is constructed and where the audience is positioned within that creative framework. The research builds upon artistic practices being undertaken throughout the world that challenge the notion of existing ‘passive’ performance paradigms via creative ‘engagement’ with audience.

Citizen journalism and political participation : the youdecide project and the 2007 Australian Federal Election

The 2007 Australian Federal election not only saw the election of a Labor government after 11 years of John Howard’s conservative Coalition government. It also saw new levels of political engagement through the Internet, including the rise of citizen journalism as an alternative outlet and mode of reporting on the election. This paper reports on the You Decide 2007 project, an initiative undertaken by a QUT-based research team to facilitate online news reporting on the election on a ‘hyper-local’, electorate-based model. We evaluate the You Decide initiative on the basis of: promoting greater citizen participation in Australian politics; new ways of engaging citizens and key stakeholders in policy deliberation; establishing new links between mainstream media and independent online media; and broadening the base of political participation to include a wider range of citizen and groups.

Practice as method : the ex/centric fixations project

In the past decade, scholars have proposed a range of terms to describe the relationship between practice and research in the creative arts, including increasingly nuanced definitions of practice-based research, practice-led research and practice-as-research. In this paper, I consider the efficacy of creative practice as method. I use the example of The Ex/Centric Fixations Project – a project in which I have embedded creative practice in a research project, rather than embedding research in a creative project. The Ex/Centric Fixations project investigates the way spectators interpret human experiences – especially human experiences of difference, marginalisation or discrimination – depicted onstage. In particular, it investigates the way postmodern performance writing strategies, and the presence of performing bodied to which the experience depicted can be attached, impacts on interpretations. It is part of a broader research project which examines the performativity of spectatorship, and intervenes in emergent debates about performance, ethics and spectatorship in the context of debate about whether live performance is a privileged site for the emergence of an ethical face-to-face encounter with the Other. Using the metaphor of the Mobius strip, I examines the way practice – as a method, rather than an output – has informed, influenced and problematised the broader research project.