The project I describe in this report took place over the course of three months, coinciding with the outbreakof the coronavirus pandemic, and is the culmination of my BA in “Design + Change”. Inherent in this courseis a proposition that is central to my work here.The “Design + Change” programme covers a wide range of Design practices, and offers an overview of manypressing issues in need of socially and environmentally sustainable change. As I see it, the rubric of “Change”appeals to a sense of Urgency; and “Design” is a promising site of Agency. These two keywords have beencentral to my project from the beginning, and when brought together, I believe they make an appeal to values.Between the Urgency and the Agency of the present moment, is Crisis. “Crisis”, from the Ancient Greek,krinein, means: “to choose, to decide”. We are currently in a position of empirical urgency, but we are alsoin subjective and intersubjective crisis. Not only is the environment under threat, but so is the public realmwhich is vital for concerted action. It is increasingly common to feel that it is “easier to imagine the end of theworld than the end of capitalism”1, and maybe most alarmingly, it is harder and harder to sustain constructivedialogue about any of the crises we face with those we don’t agree with. If we want to overcome this impasse,we have to collectively entertain basic questions about how we want to live and what we want to live for.The work I detail here aims to provide fruitful answers to my carefully assembled research question:“How do I sustain myself while working towards Sustainment?”(Sustainment is the view of sustainability concerned with the long-term existence of life on Earth, and distinctfrom its pervasive, hollowed-out version, given in to the marketing of “sustainable consumerism”.)In my framing of this project I made the deliberate choice to remain consistent with this urgency even if thistranscended the boundaries of design. This approach is captured perfectly in Naomi Klein’s adage that “Thereare no non-radical options left on the table”.This project comes out of is an uncompromising curiosity for the kinds of practices that might evoke theagency to bring about meaningful systemic transformation, whether or not they are understood as design. Itis a process of “prototyping” these kinds of practices with others, since we are all designers and everything isdesigned.This was only possible, however, after taking an unflinching look at disciplines’, professions’ and employment’srole in driving change.The “method” that came out of this is the confluence of Learning (Pedagogy, research), Alternatives (Prefigurativepolitics), Together (Participatory Design, Design Activism).

Positive adaptations experienced in spite of challenges faced is known as resilience. Comparatively little research has focused on in-depth descriptions regarding how resilience is manifested in children. The purpose of this study was to add to previous research in the identification of characteristics of resilience in students, and to determine the extent to which band membership has aided their resilience in other domains. Data was collected from a random sample of band seniors from the class of 2011 (n = 3) who attended a large high school in the South. Specific research questions were: (1) What characteristics of resilience are present in the talk of participants in a high school instrumental music program? (2) To what extent has this population perceived that membership in band aided their resilience in other domains? A descriptive study design was chosen that used qualitative data. Following data analysis that included category matrices, prominent themes emerged from the participants’ responses. These included self-improvement, forward thinking, optimism, inner drive, increased achievement, determination, development of relationships to peers and adult mentors, and development of connectedness to the school. The findings of this study complemented previous research on characteristics of resilient students, and suggested that the participants derived positive benefits from group membership and from positively contributing to the school. Recommendations based on these findings for researchers included the need for resilience to be studied across other subject areas in school, and across different populations of students. Recommendations for teachers and administrators included varied opportunities for extra-curricular and co-curricular student engagement.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of a PhD in Community Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2012. / South Africa is one of the most violent countries with most crimes committed by the youth. Following conviction and sentencing of a young person the transition is normally very difficult for the family. It may indicate a need for change in order to find harmony. The study examined resilience in 50 Xhosa speaking families who have a juvenile delinquent that has been sentenced for a period of not less than 1 year. In each family one parent (n=50) and one adolescent (n=50) were interviewed. The researcher used self-report questionnaires to access information. A standardized questionnaire was used for gathering information regarding family composition, employment, level of education, income, age and gender of the respondent’s nuclear family members. The questionnaire had an open-ended question which asked for the respondents’ opinion on which factors or strengths they believed helped their family through the difficult time. The following standardized questionnaires were also used; Family Hardiness Index (FHI), Social Support Index (SSI), Relative and Friend Support Index (RFSI), Family Time and Routine Index (FTRI), Family Problem Solving Communication (FPSC), Family Attachment and Changeability Index 8 (FACI 8) and Family Crises Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale (F-COPES). The key coping strategies used by individuals, spouses, parents and siblings were reliance on spirituality, seeking support of relatives and friends, sharing with family and remaining positive in the midst of adversity. There is however a need for more research to be done in a wider population of South Africa so as to allow for generalizability of the findings.

Migration is one of the most current political issues of our time, and due to the large-scale mobility of people, impacts of migration are of great interest. Suitably the second decade of the twenty-first century has seen an increased stray of literature combining migration and individual resilience in research. However, such research has been one-sided and viewed migration in a negative relation to individual resilience. The purpose of this dissertation is to introduce a positive perspective of migration to individual resilience, by investigating if migration can be considered an individual resilience strategy, meaning a process that contributes to the capacity of an individual to regain or improve one’s well-being when facing a crisis or disturbance, by recognizing how a new setting meets individual goals and aspirations. For that purpose, a qualitative approach conducted through person-centered interviews of six voluntary immigrants in Sweden from non-western countries is conducted. The immigrants in this study are regarded as voluntary migrants, and although being a blurred category, voluntary in this research include moving away from a hostile and dangerous environment by choice. A complementary method used during interviews is a Cantril ladder to perceive a general understanding of how the well-being of the six immigrants changed over the ten years of consideration in this study. The findings suggest that migration can be considered a resilience strategy, not only as a process that protects against harm but one that contributes to goal attainment. The analysis conducted according to the process-oriented resilience framework presented by Liebenberg, Joubert, and Foucalt (2017) suggests that migration enabled a positive interaction of nurturing relationships, education, and a strong ability to act while remaining positive, in a context where one shares values, which resulted in improved or regained well-being. The former mentioned interaction was allowed by the new setting where a safe and secure environment, along with a changed community meaningmaking framework, including a different set of resources and opportunities, enabled goal attainment.

Intimate partner abuse is a prevalent social concern which causes long-term physical, emotional, and cognitive effects on survivors. Studies suggest that spirituality is a useful resource for individuals recovering from trauma related to intimate partner abuse, however, more research is needed to understand the intricate ways spirituality contributes to the recovery process. Through a qualitative approach, this study examines the ways in which women who have experienced intimate partner abuse use spirituality in the process of coping and recovering. Open-ended interviews were conducted with eight women who have experienced intimate partner abuse and identified spirituality as an essential part of their lives. The results uncovered specific belief systems underlining each participant’s sense of spirituality, as well as practices, rituals, and behaviors they engaged in during their experiences in coping and recovery. Participants reported spirituality as a means of reclaiming one’s sense-of-self and as fostering empowerment in the aftermath of intimate partner abuse. They also indicated that spirituality fostered forgiveness and self-compassion, and helped them cope with the long-term effects of trauma including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. / Graduate

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The purpose of the current study was to understand the lived experiences and perspectives of high-functioning survivors of moderate or severe childhood maltreatment (CM) as related to the role of athletic participation in the development of their resilience. We emailed and screened Division I student-athletes from universities across the U. S. who did not meet criteria for a traumatic stress disorder. Using a constructivist grounded theory approach and constant comparison methodology, we obtained and analyzed interview data from 13 participants. The pathways through which participation in childhood athletics supported their coping include receiving social support from coaches and teammates, being present and engaged in their athletic participation, feeling relatively safe in their athletic environment, and spending time away from the main perpetrators of the CM. After applying concepts from existing literature to our data, we developed hypotheses to explain the processes by which participation in youth sport fosters resilience. For example, sport participation may provide opportunities for corrective emotional experiences that help young athletes heal. In addition, based on self-determination theory, maltreated elite athletes may benefit from sport participation because it meets their three basic needs (i.e., autonomy, mastery, and relatedness). We conclude this study with suggested implications for researchers and clinicians, as well as recommendations related to the training and education of coaches in terms of CM.