Challenges in situated knowledge production: Contributions from Southern, critical, decolonial and feminist epistemologies

Research and Intervention in Mental Health

9:00-10:30 New York/ 10:00-11:30 Buenos Aires/ 21:00-22:30 Beijing & HongKong/ 23:00 – 00:30 Sydney

**This event will be recorded. Registrants will receive the recording link via email after the live session.**

Webinar Description

Modern northwestern science is a social historical construction, culturally situated, whose definition varies historically. We consider it necessary to analyze how knowledge is produced  (its epistemological foundations) and consider it as a process in which some actors, such as researchers, governments, and economic actors, define what knowledge is and how to produce it. These mentioned social actors define how to investigate, what problems to address, and how to interpret their results. The use of diverse methodologies, from critical, decolonial and participatory perspectives, shows us that not all have a unique form to be seen and thought, it denaturalizes the views on the field and promotes situated and valid knowledge, questioning the heteronomous definition of problems that comes from dominant actors that live far from the communities. It is essential to address sociocultural diversity, and to include different social actors in the planning and evaluation processes, from the definition of what is considered problematic, the evaluation of resources, proposals, or redefinitions, to the use of results.

Addressing themes such as health-disease-care processes, as well as stigmatization, medicalization and pathologization in contemporary socio-cultural contexts, cannot be approached from perspectives that exclude the persons involved; they require tools that give rise to diverse voices, knowledge and practices involved. In this sense, we propose sharing contributions and reflections based on situated and participatory practices and experiences in research, evaluation and intervention in and with different groups and experiences.

Reviewing epistemological positions, contexts of emergence, theories and practices is key to understanding the interface health prevention and promotion. Especially in mental health, requires comprehensive, participatory approaches that include a decolonial and human rights-based perspective, working in communities and including diverse forms of culture and art. A critical and reflexive perspective, combined with an ethnographic and evaluative view, is essential to recontextualize problems that articulate from daily life and professional praxis and training, to the management, implementation and evaluation of policies.

Therefore, theoretical and practice production must recognize the involvement with others and promote participatory designs and research that allow capturing the complexity of the realities studied, integrating qualitative and quantitative tools. In the health field, it is necessary to reflect on work strategies and alternatives for insertion in new spaces, reviewing epistemological positions and historical practices.

Addressing the complexity of these processes involves rethinking interdisciplinary, intersectoral and contextualized work. The critical perspective is crucial to avoid a naturalizing and scientistic view, avoid reductionisms and promoting a complex reading and a contextualized evaluation, which are fundamental tools to understand the tensions and challenges in the implementation of policies and practices.

Curator

Dr. Hilda Wengrower

Hilda is co-editor with Sharon Chaiklin of the books The Art and Science of Dance Movement Therapy: Life is Dance, published twice in English (2009, 2016), Spanish, Korean, Hebrew, German and Russian; their newest book is Dance and Creativity within Dance Movement Therapy. International Perspectives (2021). Papers and chapters authored by Hilda are released in multiple languages on subjects related to dance movement therapy, arts-informed research, migration, psychiatry, arts therapies in schools, ASD, and groups. She has been teaching in undergraduate programs in Theatre Studies and in various training programs on DMT and on Psychodrama, supervises colleagues individually and groups live and online `with emphasis on the integration of movement/dance and creativity. Since 1981 has been working with children, adolescents and young adults. Has been coordinator of the section of DMT during two terms and fulfilled other roles in the Israeli professional association of Arts Therapies. She is the book’s reviews editor at the International Journal Body, Movement and Dance in Psychotherapy and is invited to lecture in different settings and conferences. Is a member of international networks and the research committee at ICAET. Likes very dance and theater.

Speakers

Claudia Bang

PhD in Psychology, Master in International Public Health and Psychodramatist. Researcher at the Faculty of Psychology, University of Buenos Aires and Director of projects that articulate participatory art and mental health promotion. Consultant and evaluator of research and university outreach projects.

Professor of undergraduate and graduate courses at national and international universities. Author of the book “Creatividad y Salud Mental Comunitaria”, Lugar, 2016. (Creativity and Community Mental Health) and of numerous articles in international scientific journals. Member of various organizations in defense of dignified and comprehensive care for mental health in the community.

María Marcela Bottinelli

BA in Psychology (UBA: University of Buenos Aires), Master in Scientific Research Methodology and PhD in Community Mental Health (UNLa). Lecturer and Researcher in undergraduate and graduate courses. Researcher Cat. I of the Argentine National System. Coordinator of multicenter projects and research director for different institutions in the health-education-community interface. Member of the Board of Directors of the Argentine Public Health Association and EvaluAR Network. Held various management positions in universities. President of the National Honorary Advisory Council on Mental Health and Addictions (2017-2021). Director of the Master in Dance Movement Therapy at the National University of the Arts. Advisor and evaluator for different national and international programs, projects and organizations. Author and co-author of numerous dissertations, presentations and peer-reviewed publications. Compiler and co-author of 8 books, the latest ones include: “Tramas en la formación” (Training Plots), “Cuidar en la Emergencia” (Caring in the Emergency) and “Contributions to Thinking about the State in an exceptional situation”.

Expected Outcomes:

• Rethinking questions about the validity and reliability of knowledge production processes, the ontological, epistemological, political and theoretical frameworks that allow us to include local knowledge and forms of production and interpretation of them.
• Sharing contributions and reflections based on Argentinian practices and experiences that articulate the fields of education, art and health, carried out with different social actors and groups.
• Contributing to the construction of respectful ways of working with and from diversity, the perspective of rights, relational ethics, the integration of paradigms and methodologies, the dignity of life.

This event is free for IACAET Registered members