This collaboratively written paper takes the reader on a journey to Bawaka, in North East Arnhem Land, northern Australia, to explore how a Yolŋu ontology of co‐becoming can inform natural resource ...management (NRM) theory and practice. By focusing on the process of gathering and sharing miyapunu mapu (turtle eggs) and the foundational Yolŋu concept of wetj, we challenge NRM to take seriously Indigenous ways of knowing and becoming, and to attend to the vibrant, more‐than‐human relationality of our world. We discuss this relational cosmology, highlighting the importance of being aware and attentive, as well as the underlying ethical imperative of responsibility and obligation. We argue that as important as the concept of Caring for Country has been for NRM in Australia, it is critical that the human imperative to care for Country is balanced with a multi‐directional and beyond‐human understanding of the human–Country relationship. This requires engagement with the ways Country also cares and acknowledgement that humans are part of Country and not separate from it. We therefore propose a reframing, that we not only Care for Country but Care as Country. This has implications for understanding the ways that humans can and should relate to the environment as they exist together through co‐becoming.
The impact of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on coastal tourism communities highlights the vulnerability of tourism destinations to external shocks. Based on fieldwork conducted in Thailand in the ...wake of this disaster, this paper addresses one fundamental question: what sociopolitical and environmental conditions contributed to the vulnerability of the affected tourism community of Khao Lak in the southern Phang Nga Province. We argue that an understanding of the root causes of destination vulnerability is vital not only for the successful implementation of regional recovery plans, but also for building long‐term resilience against future shocks. In the absence of an appropriate tourism vulnerability framework, this paper analyzes Khao Lak's vulnerability through an innovative theoretical framework comprised of the sustainability vulnerability framework, relational scale and place. The findings reveal that Khao Lak's vulnerability is shaped by 13 interlinked factors. These are the complex outcomes of social norms and developmental and dynamic governance processes driven by the competing agendas and scaled actions of key government and industry stakeholders. The identification and understanding of the drivers of Khao Lak's vulnerability and a strong vulnerability framework have significant implications for the wider tourism community. First, the empirical findings provide tourism communities with a blueprint for understanding the foundations of their vulnerability to external shocks. Second, the tourism vulnerability framework presented here provides destination communities and government stakeholders with an analytical tool through which to analyze their unique sociopolitical conditions. Together, these empirical and theoretical contributions bring us closer to securing sustainable livelihood futures for tourism dependent communities.
Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with academic researchers and development organisations working to facilitate change in collaboration with local communities. This paper ...contributes to recent debates over the use of participatory approaches by examining the use of participatory research within disaster risk reduction. Drawing on research in Papua New Guinea in which participatory techniques were used with indigenous communities to determine strategies for dealing with environmental hazards, the value of such techniques is critiqued. Finally the significance of participatory research as a research methodology is discussed as is its possible contribution to disaster risk reduction policy.
Qualitative methods II Dowling, Robyn; Lloyd, Kate; Suchet-Pearson, Sandra
Progress in human geography,
12/2017, Volume:
41, Issue:
6
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Various identified ‘turns’ in human geography, such as relational, non-representational, material and performative, urge and enable geographers to rethink complex people-nature relationships as ...contingent and layered processes, and the world as projects of human and more-than-human inhabitation. This shift challenges researchers to do geography differently, or in other words, invites alterations in thinking and methods. This progress report focuses on how qualitative researchers in human geography are grappling with the challenge of more-than-human research methodologies. We chart analyses of more-than-human worlds that are reliant on conventional methodological approaches, as well as more innovative methodological approaches which extend more-than-human understandings whilst recognizing their own limits. The report finally considers a small but growing body of work that takes an additional methodological step in developing human–more-than-human collaborative research relationships that are actively engaging with power relationships by reconsidering the author-ity of their research. We conclude that although the more-than-human ‘turn’ is being thoroughly debated and engaged with in theory, the implications of this have not carried through to the same extent in terms of praxis.
Background Detection of disease-associated mutations in patients with familial hypercholesterolaemia is crucial for early interventions to reduce risk of cardiovascular disease. Screening for these ...mutations represents a methodological challenge since more than 1200 different causal mutations in the low-density lipoprotein receptor has been identified. A number of methodological approaches have been developed for screening by clinical diagnostic laboratories. Methods Using primers targeting, the low-density lipoprotein receptor, apolipoprotein B, and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9, we developed a novel Ion Torrent-based targeted re-sequencing method. We validated this in a West Midlands-UK small cohort of 58 patients screened in parallel with other mutation-targeting methods, such as multiplex polymerase chain reaction (Elucigene FH20), oligonucleotide arrays (Randox familial hypercholesterolaemia array) or the Illumina next-generation sequencing platform. Results In this small cohort, the next-generation sequencing method achieved excellent analytical performance characteristics and showed 100% and 89% concordance with the Randox array and the Elucigene FH20 assay. Investigation of the discrepant results identified two cases of mutation misclassification of the Elucigene FH20 multiplex polymerase chain reaction assay. A number of novel mutations not previously reported were also identified by the next-generation sequencing method. Conclusions Ion Torrent-based next-generation sequencing can deliver a suitable alternative for the molecular investigation of familial hypercholesterolaemia patients, especially when comprehensive mutation screening for rare or unknown mutations is required.
Tourism is a key driver of global socio-economic progress. However, its sustainability is at risk from multiple shocks and hazards that threaten livelihoods. Surprisingly little is known about the ...complex drivers of destination vulnerability, leading to the creation and application of ineffective resilience-building solutions. The paper presents the Destination Sustainability Framework (DSF) designed to assess destination vulnerability and resilience, and support successful resilience-building initiatives. Holistic in nature, the DSF comprises: (1) the shock(s) or stressor(s); (2) the interconnected dimensions of vulnerability - exposure, sensitivity, and system adaptiveness; (3) the dynamic feedback loops that express the multiple outcomes of actions taken (or not); (4) the contextualised root causes that shape destinations and their characteristics; (5) the various spatial scales; and (6) multiple timeframes within which social-ecological change occurs. This innovative framework is significant because it's the first framework to chart the complex manifestation of vulnerability and resilience in tourism destinations. Further, it brings tourism sustainability research in line with wider debates on achieving sustainability within the dynamic coupled human-environment system, doing so through the inclusion of insights from contemporary systems approaches, including chaos-complexity theory, vulnerability approaches, sustainability science, resilience thinking, along with the geographies of scale, place and time.
This paper shares an innovative methodology to 'co-create' a curriculum with eleven international community development organisations from seven countries to prepare undergraduate students for ...international work-integrated learning activities. The co-creation process was complex, messy, and always evolving. Here we reflect on and document the process, identifying three key methodological principles that might guide the co-creation process for others. These principles embrace the unpredictable, emotional, and personal reality of bringing together diverse ideas and perspectives, as well as opening up possibilities for more creative ways of communicating and listening to what is seen, heard, and felt.
Rapid socioeconomic and institutional changes in Vietnam since the early 1990s have opened up new geographical spaces for field research. Reflecting on the experiences of three doctoral student ...researchers engaged in distinct development geography fieldwork projects in Vietnam, this paper profiles some of the conditions and procedures for carrying out fieldwork in order to serve as a basis for comparison of changing ‘fieldwork possibilities’ in Vietnam and other developing and transitional socialist countries.
Purpose of Review
To explore how genomic testing has changed local therapy decision-making, specifically surgical timing and opportunities for de-escalation of radiation therapy in hormone ...receptor-positive, HER2-negative (HR + HER2-) breast cancer.
Recent Findings
Randomized trials have shown that genomic tests can be used to guide systemic therapy decision in HR + HER2- breast cancer, with a significant proportion of patients not receiving benefit from chemotherapy. Emerging data suggests that the use of genomic testing on core needle biopsy can also predict response to preoperative therapy and guide choices between neoadjuvant treatments when preoperative therapy is needed, especially in women with limited nodal disease that may not otherwise require chemotherapy. Further, genomic tests can stratify which patients are at the lowest risk for locoregional recurrence and may be candidates for omission of radiation therapy.
Summary
Genomic testing can guide surgical timing and opportunities for selecting the lowest-risk patients for omission of radiation therapy.
Qualitative methods 1 Dowling, Robyn; Lloyd, Kate; Suchet-Pearson, Sandie
Progress in human geography,
10/2016, Volume:
40, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this first of a series of three progress reports on qualitative methods we scope recent qualitative research in human geography through the prism of the interview. Across diverse subfields the ...interview persists as the dominant means of understanding, though increasingly supplemented or complemented by other means such as diaries and autobiography. Capturing social life as it happens is emerging in response to theoretical developments that encourage new methodological thinking, and includes cities and buildings being thought of as methodological resources as well as sites. These point to concerns with the materiality and inventiveness of method that will be explored in subsequent reports.
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