What Do A Match and A Kite Have in Common?: Exploring tools for social cohesion

Institutional Affiliation

University of New Brunswick

Start Date

16-1-2025 3:30 PM

End Date

16-1-2025 5:00 PM

Proposal Type

Presentation

Proposal Format

Virtual

Proposal Description

Abstract

Imagine this: You're about to embark on a journey— equipped with a match, and a kite. These everyday objects serve as metaphors, illuminating and letting soar complexities of human experience via multi-site ethnographic methodology. Here, trust, hope, and reciprocity stand tall as the pillars of social cohesion and solidarity.

Drawing from the intricacies and re-complications of intersectionality and the basement metaphor (Crenshaw, 1989) revisited by Carastathis (2016), alongside Collins' (2016) genealogical context and schema of relationality, this work navigates the complexities of engagement through a systems thinking lens. Grounded in experiences as a Visiting Research Scholar on Sri Lanka and in South Africa (in ostensibly 'post-conflict eras’), our session invites reflective practice for fostering meaning and space-making across a range of dimensions, from intellectual to cultural.

By embracing reflective conferencing—guided by the principles of learning, contributing, and reflecting—we unveil and explore invisible etiquettes and norms of membership and belonging that shape linear and populist identities. As an explicit acknowledgment and nurturing of diverging and converging perspectives, we can co-create inclusive spaces that transcend traditional modes of dichotomous discourse. Through metaresearch, we present iterative outcomes in the form of complementary theoretical and conceptual frameworks, operationalizing and emphasizing non-exploitative and non-exploratory approaches. ‘Conferencing’ serves as a nexus for being, doing, and becoming, offering theoretical insights and practical applications.

This emergent prototype is a contribution to the field straddling actionable and contemplative goals within relational, critical, and transformative dimensions of power via metaphor. Together, we can enact meaningful disruptions through the stories we tell and the connections we forge: so what we know becomes what we do.

Join us for a journey that begins with a match, and a kite, into the heart of social cohesion and solidarity.

keywords: intersectionality; social cohesion; ethnography; reflective practice/praxis; systems science; complexity; analogical approaches; critical thinking

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Jan 16th, 3:30 PM Jan 16th, 5:00 PM

What Do A Match and A Kite Have in Common?: Exploring tools for social cohesion

Abstract

Imagine this: You're about to embark on a journey— equipped with a match, and a kite. These everyday objects serve as metaphors, illuminating and letting soar complexities of human experience via multi-site ethnographic methodology. Here, trust, hope, and reciprocity stand tall as the pillars of social cohesion and solidarity.

Drawing from the intricacies and re-complications of intersectionality and the basement metaphor (Crenshaw, 1989) revisited by Carastathis (2016), alongside Collins' (2016) genealogical context and schema of relationality, this work navigates the complexities of engagement through a systems thinking lens. Grounded in experiences as a Visiting Research Scholar on Sri Lanka and in South Africa (in ostensibly 'post-conflict eras’), our session invites reflective practice for fostering meaning and space-making across a range of dimensions, from intellectual to cultural.

By embracing reflective conferencing—guided by the principles of learning, contributing, and reflecting—we unveil and explore invisible etiquettes and norms of membership and belonging that shape linear and populist identities. As an explicit acknowledgment and nurturing of diverging and converging perspectives, we can co-create inclusive spaces that transcend traditional modes of dichotomous discourse. Through metaresearch, we present iterative outcomes in the form of complementary theoretical and conceptual frameworks, operationalizing and emphasizing non-exploitative and non-exploratory approaches. ‘Conferencing’ serves as a nexus for being, doing, and becoming, offering theoretical insights and practical applications.

This emergent prototype is a contribution to the field straddling actionable and contemplative goals within relational, critical, and transformative dimensions of power via metaphor. Together, we can enact meaningful disruptions through the stories we tell and the connections we forge: so what we know becomes what we do.

Join us for a journey that begins with a match, and a kite, into the heart of social cohesion and solidarity.

keywords: intersectionality; social cohesion; ethnography; reflective practice/praxis; systems science; complexity; analogical approaches; critical thinking