Finding Our Way
Asynchronous Session
Cultivated Biodiversity and Territorial Change
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Sebastien Clement
At a time of global ecological crisis, this situation invites us to rethink our relationship with the land and to develop other ways of looking at transitions in our relationship with living things. The paper is based on research into tropical gardens, which seek to shed light on the role of the garden and gardening in the production of a ‘cultivated biodiversity’ that is the product of both cultural habitus and cultivation practices. The approach takes three forms: the collection and analysis of around twenty gardeners' accounts; a survey of the school of the planetary garden of Reunion Island; and the more experimental approach of the collective creation of a garden, fed by the aspirations and know-how of several dozen gardeners, in which the evolution of specific biodiversity is measured over the course of the experiment. This experiment shows how a ‘community’ is being built, combining individual and collective practices that teach people how to produce and consume differently. The garden plot is seen as harbouring the power to act on global environmental disorders, with the inherited model of the world garden slipping, without disappearing, towards that of the ‘planetary garden’. New ways of doing things are being experimented with, inseparable from a new relationship with natural elements and time, but also from a desire to pass on knowledge. By demonstrating the ecological, social and cultural aspects of Reunion's gardens, this research shows the need to reconsider these spaces, which are currently receiving a poor attention, unfortunately.
Liminality - Unknowing that Can Affect Knowing
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Michael Moon
This paper explores an elusive, yet common, experience: liminality. Liminality conceptualizes an interregnum loss of clarity, status, or identity between waypoints along transitional processes, such as the culturally symbolic passage from teenager to adult or one’s trace through the formless region or boundary linking familiar spaces. By definition, liminal spaces are "betwixt and between” and, thus, resist certainty. Ambivalence arising in these liminal spaces can induce unintentional and even regrettable responses. Volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) likely trigger liminality. Attending to and reflecting on one's liminal experiences requires cultivating critical consciousness about what is normally peripheral to familiar phenomenologically discrete situations. Liminal spaces are overlooked because they are assumed to represent trivial, throwaway moments — essentially reflective blindspots. However, this presentation makes the claim that unrecognized responses to liminality may "weight" the conditions under which decisions are made. A brief review of discussions in anthropology and organizational studies about liminal experiences will introduce an exploration of examples of liminality and how attending to such experiences helps us grapple with VUCA and other unstructured circumstances.
Featured Work-Life Experiences of Migrant Women Professionals in the UK Post Brexit and COVID View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Fatimah Adesanya
Migrant women professionals have increasingly driven the agenda of gender equality and resilient economies as the United Kingdom faces workforce challenges post-Brexit and COVID-19. Recent studies reveal that migrant women face both gender and racial discrimination in workplaces, impacting a range of their well-being outcomes. This study explores how the intersection of race, class, gender, and migration status influences the work-life experiences of migrant women professionals in organizational structures and processes. The research questions are: 1) What are the work-life experiences of migrant women professionals, 2) what part of motivation influences their work-life experiences and 3) what are the coping mechanisms for these women in different contexts related to race, migration, and class? This research uses an intersectionality theoretical framework allowing for an embodied analytical frame and narrative inquiry as a methodological tool. An intersectional interpretivism approach is taken by conducting semi-structured interviews for 30 participants consisting of 10 migrant women professionals each of Asian, Black, and White races who are the three dominant ethnicities in the UK. The data analysis method is a reflexive thematic analysis using the rigorous six recursive phases of identifying themes and codes. The potential contribution of this research is to evolve organizational-specific work-life practices and migrant women integration interventions for the private sector.
