Authors:Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew; Dr. Nancy J Moules, Dr. Andrew Estefan Abstract: Purpose: In professional practice, body weight issues are typically considered from an individual-level standpoint. In contrast to this dominant perspective, we highlight that body weight has prominent social, economic, and political influences and connotations. An examination of the social complexity of weight provides opportunity to shift focus from individual to societal and structural influences on perceptions of weight. Methods: Seven renowned experts in weight-related issues with at least 10-years-experience in various fields from across Europe, Australia, the United States, and Canada participated in interviews about their professional experience with weight. Interviews were analyzed using hermeneutic methods via an iterative interpretive process. Results: The interviews revealed a battlefield, a war waged on weight. War emerged as an overall metaphor that included aspects of: war on obesity, bodies as battlefields, war camps, war fronts, entrenchment and negotiation and, finally, the phenomenon of “no man’s land.” Conclusions: In many ways, language itself limits us from capturing the complexities of weight. The war metaphor provides a way of understanding the intensity of the firestorm surrounding the construct of weight. New understandings from what we might refer to as veterans of the war on weight offer hope for transformation, not just win or lose, but a hermeneutic wager of possibility. Keywords: weight, body image, weight bias, hermeneutics, qualitative research PubDate: Tue, 05 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -060
Authors:Roya Haghiri-Vijeh; Dr. Carol McDonald Abstract: For decades, hermeneutics has been used as a qualitative research approach to enhance understanding of the experiences of individuals within a particular context. However, after reviewing the literature, it became evident that only a few published articles use intersectionality as an analytical lens along with Gadamerian hermeneutics. This article draws on examples from a 2021 study that explored experiences of LGBTQI+ migrants with healthcare providers. Utilizing the philosophical underpinnings of Gadamerian hermeneutics and the theoretical foundations of intersectionality, the confluences and the tensions between these two approaches is explored. Moreover, suggestions are provided for how intersectionality as an analytical lens can expand understandings and interpretations of research findings using Gadamerian hermeneutics. PubDate: Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -070
Authors:Dr. Michael J Lang; Dr. Catherine M Laing Abstract: This first installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Amanda’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial to the series, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the film). Although attenuated, Amanda’s involvement in the film provides valuable insight into important safeguards that should be in place when using DST in healthcare settings. Using the metaphor of broken bones and open wounds, this interpretive article highlights the importance of recognizing chaos narratives and unstoried emotions in the early stages of the DST process. It concludes with three practical “wound care” measures that can help safeguard participant wellbeing as they find, tell, craft, and share their digital story. PubDate: Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -070
Authors:Dr. Michael J Lang; Dr. Catherine M Laing Abstract: This second installment of the Emerging Horizons series explores Harmony’s digital storytelling (DST) experience (please see the introductory editorial to the series, Crafting Meaning, Cultivating Understanding, to access the film). In this article I lean on the philosophy of Paul Ricœur to suggest that 1) the metaphorical possibilities of DST could enable Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) cancer survivors to come to a deeper understanding of their own cancer experiences and 2) the process of “emplotment” in the creation of a digital story has the power to transform the random and coincidental, pre-narrative experience of cancer into a meaningful whole. I conclude by discussing how attaching meaning to, and learning from, an otherwise meaningless cancer experience through the DST process, can help AYA cancer survivors construct their own answer to the “big question” of cancer in young adulthood. PubDate: Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -070
Authors:Katherine Wong Abstract: The question of death, and what happens after, is a query with no certain answer. Philosophers, scientists, artists, poets, and healthcare providers have grappled with the question of death and how best to answer it. Children with life-limiting illnesses (LLI) who face death in childhood are in a unique situation where their typical sources of information (i.e., the adults in their lives) may not be able to come up with a suitable answer when asked what happens when we die. As Plato stated, there is an inner child in all of us who is not totally convinced by assurances of an afterlife. What children with LLI understand of death and dying is not always easily conveyed in everyday language, but can be revealed in their artistic forms of expression. Artwork, poetry, and stories seem to carry the unintelligibility of death so that both children and adults may cope with it. Keywords: children, life-limiting illness, understanding death, pediatric palliative care, hermeneutic philosophy PubDate: Sat, 22 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -070
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