Naomi Joy Godden

Gender and Declining Fisheries in Lobitos, Perú: Beyond Pescador and Ama De Casa

Climate change affects the capacity of artisanal fisherfolk in Peru to generate a reliable income. Men’s difficulty in fulfilling their traditional gender role as the primary income earner threatens social constructions of masculinity. International research explores the growing phenomenon of women engaging in non-traditional livelihoods for financial survival due to climate change. The case study of Lobitos, an isolated fishing village in northern Peru, shows that women experience emancipation and oppression with declining fisheries and livelihood adaptation. Economic and environmental uncertainty is connected to a departure from the gendered work roles of pescador [fisherman] and ama de casa [female household manager], vulnerability and safety concerns, enhanced focus on education, and increased female employment. This case study demonstrates that the machismo/marianismo paradigm, a prevailing dichotomous gender framework in Latin American literature, fails to recognise the multiplicity of gender identities and the processes of gender renegotiation in a community affected by climate change.

A co-operative inquiry about love using narrative, performative and visual methods

Participatory researchers advocate using presentational arts-based methods to collectively inquire into a social phenomenon. In a co-operative inquiry in an Australian rural community, ten community workers inquired into the ‘love ethic’ in their community work practice using narrative, performative and visual methods to gather, analyse and interpret data within cycles of reflection and action. Group members collectively and democratically chose to use presentational inquiry tools such as storytelling, dialogical performance, gift-giving, drawing and other non-traditional approaches to explore the topic and generate collaborative knowledge. These methods were engaging and empowering, and supported group members to develop a love-based framework of community practice. The group’s final collective drawing depicts the roots, trunk, fruit and saplings of a tree representing the values, process, outcomes and cyclical nature of the love ethic in community work.

Making the Invisible Visible: Disability Inclusive Development in Solomon Islands

Abstract International and national level disability inclusive discourse, policy and strategy typically render invisible the institutional structures, political economies and socio-cultural power relations that constitute the lived experience of disability. The lack of robust information on disability extends these theoretical blind spots to the absence of disability in official statistics, political dialogue and social policy. Empirically grounded, inclusive research that recognises disability as embedded in globalised political economies and culturally specific power relations is required to address the theoretical, statistical and programmatic invisibility of disability. Such research will provide a solid knowledge base on which to build effective inclusive interventions.

The Love Ethic: A Radical Theory for Social Work Practice

ABSTRACT Love is marginalised in professional social work codes of ethics in Australia and internationally. Yet, reflecting the emancipatory imperative of social work, feminist bell hooks promotes love as a political process to transform systems of injustice such as capitalism, patriarchy, and racism. Analysing the works of hooks and other relevant literature, this article discusses “the love ethic”, a model of relationship-oriented activism encompassing dialogue, nonviolence, interconnectedness between people and between people and nature, reflexivity, shared power, and solidarity. It provides some practical suggestions for love-based social work practice, such as self-forgiveness, pursuing gender-equal relationships, upholding fair workplace conditions, honouring Indigenous peoples, supporting oppressed people to assert their rights, connecting local and global action, nurturing symbiotic relationships with nature, and supporting empowering spiritualities. The love ethic supports radical social workers to engage in activism, and necessitates further exploration within academia and practice.