6. Developing Individual Skills: Building Capacity Flashcards
Contemporary globalization
accelerated constellation of processes by which nations, businesses, and people are becoming more interconnected and interdependent
Economic globalization
the increasing flow of capital, labour, and goods across national boundaries.
At local levels, it is characterized by flatter tax rates, decreased state regulation and assistance to those in need, and the concentration of wealth and employment opportunities in urban centres
Cultural globalization
the globalization of perception and consciousness, the transmission of cultural symbols and systems (including knowledge systems), and the actual movement of people across and within national borders.
Is the following statement True or False?
The increasing homogeneity of systems of knowledge is an example of cultural globalization.
True
Cultural globalization refers to the globalization of perception and consciousness, the transmission of cultural symbols and systems (including knowledge systems), and the actual movement of people across and within national borders. While cultural globalization potentially exposes people to alternative knowledge systems, a critical postmodern approach to empowerment enables us to understand how globalization leverages large amounts of structural power which tends toward the homogenization of knowledge.
Individual empowerment
often taken to mean the development of individual skills via activities aimed at health education, life-skills enhancement, and individual and social development
Individual empowerment is not enough to achieve healthier communities
Community Empowerment
- Health-related systems and policy organizations must be in accordance with community needs and realities
- Health, as self-defined by communities, and empowerment, as the means to health, are both culturally contingent
- There are interrelationships among social identities, cultural systems, and empowerment processes
Literacy
- a determinant of health
- central to the development of individual capacities and empowerment
- many forms of literacy, such as conversation, reading and writing, linguistic, cultural, spiritual, and technologic
The Rainbow Approach
The Rainbow Approach to literacy
* proposes that there are several forms of Aboriginal literacy, each of which can be characterized by a colour
* not [just] a skill to be learned
* An approach to life that includes healthy relationships, healthy nutrition, language instruction, ceremonial practices and family literacy”
- red is mother tongue literacy
- green is English and/or French literacy,
- yellow is the literacy of symbolism
- blue the literacy of technology,
- indigo is spiritual literacy
- violet is holistic literacy—an appreciation of the interconnections between mind, body, spirit, and family for a healthy life.
Low levels of literacy are associated with:
- Low self-esteem
- Obesity
- Violence
- Cultural assimilation
A. Low self-esteem
Low literacy has indirect effects on health related to difficulty obtaining and retaining employment, low income, low self-esteem, social isolation, and the abuse of alcohol and tobacco.
Power-culture
refers to the interplay of dynamics of power and culture that are operative in any context and influence all stages of self-determination or empowerment, including the development and mobilization of individual skills
Material deprivation
Lack of access to environmental capacities conducive to health
Relative deprivation
By virtue of having “less,’’ some sectors of the population are excluded socially and materially from the life of society
internal empowerment terrain
The more subjective or psychologic elements of empowerment
Consciousness
*Knowledge, critical thinking, spontaneity, and intuition
Identity
*Sense of self and herstory/history
*Self-esteem, sense of belonging
Culture
*Internalized systems of meaning
*Worldview and symbols shared by a collective
external empowerment terrain
The more outwardly orientated, material elements and relational aspects of empowerment
Colonization
Economic Globalization
*Global movement of capital and goods
Culture and Globalization
*Migration, electronic, and print media
Dominant social structures and institutions
*Rules, norms, conventions, democracy, religion, professions
Economic and physical resources
*Housing, healthcare access, etc
Social and interorganization networks
Postmodern Approach to Empowerment
- Reality is socially and culturally constructed
- Pluralism is a fact of life
- Power, oppression, and inequality are important considerations
