INDEX

 List of authors alphabetically in Part I (scroll down or use Ctrl F keys to locate last name)

 
1.Absalonsen, Kalanguak

 

2.Barrera Herrera, E.

ABSTRACT: Who Speaks for the Fire? The Numinous Storyteller in the Huichol Chant of the Dead
Eduardo Barrera, Independent Researcher

 

3. Beeler, Betty   ABSTRACT: All About Bakhtin; and European On-Line Moderator

 

4. Besson, D. and Valitova, A. ABSTRACT: Quantum Storytelling Analogies by Dominique Besson & Aysylu Valitova

 

5.Boje, David  Pre-Conference Workshop with Gerri McCullogh

 

6.Bonifer, Mike. BigStory

 

7.Cajete, Greg Keynote:

 

8.Calliou, Brian ABSTRACT: The First Two Indigenous Persons to Enter the Legal Profession in Canada.

 

9.Cousar, W. ABSTRACT: African American SANDE Storytelling Co- Created from Quantum Storytelling

Wanda Tisby- Cousar /  MaBondo Kayakoh                                                                 

 

10.Desrosiers, C. Sowing Worlds: Multispecific Families or for a Multispecies Alliance

By Claudine Desrosiers, visual artist and author

 

11.Edwards, O.L. ABSTRACT Quantum African American Storytelling and the Network Effect

Submitted by Oscar Lee Edwards

 

12.Egebjerg-Rantzau & Absalonsen ABSTRACT: Postcolonial narratives explored through ensemble storytelling

Ditte Marie Egebjerg-Rantzau and Kâlánguak Absalonsen

 

13.Egebjerg-Rantzau and Sibel  ABSTRACT  Co-Creating Leadership for social change

Peter Egebjerg-Rantzau and Jim Sibel

 

14.Fortier, M. ABSTRACT  Some problems with the notion of resource in management

By Michel Fortier, UQAR. (University of Quebec at Rimouski)

 

15.Frota de Oliveira, C. ABSTRACT. Setting White and Indigenous Ways of Knowing (WWOK and IWOK) as a Continuum Problematics. by Cristiano Frota de Oliveira,

 

16. Gardner, C.  ABSTRACT  Obstruction: Ocular and Bureaucratic by Carolyn Gardner

 

17.Gephart, R. ABSTRACT “Risk Sensemaking, Temporalities, and the Loss of Agency in the Ft. McMurray Wildfire.” By Robert Gephart

 

18.Gladstone, J.S. ABSTRACT  Transplanar Wisdom and Economic Justice

Joseph S. Gladstone, Washington State University Everett

 

19.Haley, Usha ABSTRACT: Stories of Haute Cuisine (See Boje)

 

20.Hird, Myra J. ABSTRACT: Comments on Terminal Capitalism, Extracting Reconciliation, and the More-Than-Human

 

21.Kent, P ABSTRACT: Aging in Place(s): An Autoethnographical Learning Journey with the More-Than-Human World.  Paula Kent, Doctoral Candidate, Royal Roads University, Canada

 

 22.Kilroy, Wil. Author: Now available!  Improvisation the Michael Chekhov Way, Routledge

https://www.routledge.com/Improvisation-the-Michael-Chekhov-Way-Active-Exploration-of-Acting-Techniques/Kilroy/p/book/9781032422886

 

23. Long, Kenneth.  ABSTRACT: Title: Navigating VUCA Environments: The Role of Narrative Cognition and Storythinking in Decision-Making

 

24.Martinez, Yolanda  Drumming Session and new book: Following Earth Mother’s Heartbeat: Memoirs of Yolanda

 

25. McCullogh G. ABSTRACT. Material Transitions: Khora, Kairos & acoustic vital materialism with regenerated myth.

Gerri Elise McCulloh, PhD

 

26.Melchor Duran, Irery  ABSTRACT  The intersection between entrepreneurship and insecure neighborhoods. Cross- disciplinary agenda to solve social problems.  Irery Melchor-Durán

Escuela de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Universidad Panamericana, Aguascalientes, México.

 

27 & 28. Ng, Richard and Foreman, Jake: Indigenous Economic Development

 

29.Mølbjerg Jørgensen, K, Tracy Trägårdh, Sissi Ingman, Filippa Säwe, Hope Witmer

ABSTRACT: Love and Hannah Arendt: Thinking and the Ethics of Care

 

30.Montiel Mendez et al., ABSTRACT. Organizational Metastasis: An Analogy of Dissemination and Corporate Collapse.by Dr. Oscar Javier Montiel Méndez[1],  Dra. Araceli Alvarado Carrillo[2]Dr. Mark Clark[3],  Yazmín Alexandra González Iñiguez[4]

 

31.Mushin-Makedonskiy, A. ABSTRACT Artem Mushin-Makedonskiy

Story Gatherer, Board member, Storytelling In Organizations group of the National Storytelling Network

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourstorytel

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-aYTfIiOEMdtH1mY1jzmFQ

cel.: +7(916)590-23-24 (Moscow)

 

 

33. Pelly, D, and Rabeau, M.C. ABSTRACT: When the Antenarrative is the Only Narrative – Echoes of Before Narratives in Higher Education.  Duncan Pelly and Marie Claude Rabeau

 

34. Pepion, Donald D.  ABSTRACT Is the Piikani (Blackfeet) Ookaan Ceremony a Metaphor for the Essence of Knowledge?

by Donald D. Pepion, Ed.D.

35. Ritter, Eva ABSTRACT:  Working with stories in times of loss and grief: How living story webs can prevent us from falling and help to reconnect.  Eva Ritter, Ph.D., Institute Nordic Perspectives, Flensburg, Germany eva.ritter@nordicperspectives.com

 

36. Rosile, Grace Ann  ABSTRACT: HorseSense Embodiment and Storytelling

 

37.Saylors, J. ABSTRACT: The jester obfuscates the liberation system: visualization of a joker's third eye.

 

38.Saylors, R ABSTRACT: Deradicalization through critical clarity: a cure for online brain rot 

 

39.Sibel, Jim ABSTRACT: Co-Creating Leadership

 

40.Stanford, Lois ABSTRACT Food Nostalgia and Identity: The Role of Food Stories in Mesilla, New Mexico

Lois Stanford, Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University

 
Abstracts In This Section, alphabetical by Author

2.Barrera Herrera, E.

ABSTRACT: Who Speaks for the Fire? The Numinous Storyteller in the Huichol Chant of the Dead
Eduardo Barrera, Independent Researcher

 

Analysis of the Corrida del Alma (Chant of the Dead) among the Huicholes of Tuapurie. The particular chant was that of Tacho and was performed by Mara'akame Lionisio. An all night chant where the Mara'akame is chanting repeating what Tatewarí (Grandfather Fire) is saying while the tribal civil authorities are present in the case Tacho's fall from a cliff to see if it was a murder. The Mara'akame repeated everything the fire Whatever the Mara'akame repeats in that chant (with the chorus of two segundeadores flanking him) is regarded as the binding truth about that case. The limitations of Western theories of the Narrator from Bakhtin (heteroglossia and polyphony) to Genette's typology of narrators (homodiegetic, heterodiegetic and autodiegetic) are exposed when it comes to numinous storytelling in indigenous ceremonies.

 

 

3.Beeler, Betty. ABSTRACT: Bahktin’s Worldview for a Storytelling World  by Betty Beeler

The aim of this talk is to point to ways that storytelling can be best explored and understood from a dialogical vision of the world. This vision rejects monoglossic communication practices which impose a dominant voice and way of speaking on members of a company or team, ignoring those on the periphery (Boje, 1991,1995). For Bakhtin (1981), “dialogue” encompasses all forms of exchanges; it is the locomotive of all existence, governing relations “between words in language, people in society, organisms in ecosystems and even between processes in the natural world” (Holquist, 2002: 41).

Storytelling naturally takes its place among these processes in the form of a dialogue between the storyteller and the audience. Together, they co-construct understanding through interconnected utterances, taking into account the contribution of multiple voices and multiple speaking styles through a never-ending chain of interconnecting “utterances” that build on each other. For this reason, it can be said that dialogical storytellers incorporate the many voices - internal, external, cultural, historical, social - which came before them, shaping the storyteller’s narrative.

Three dialogical concepts that form the heart of dialogism will be introduced during this brief talk: The first, addressivity and responsivity, conveys the idea that each utterance is attuned to previous utterances and triggers responses that contribute to new understanding. Next, polyphony refers to the participation of multiple voices in the exchange—the speakers’ voices, but also their inner voices and the echoes of people’s voices which have a bearing on the exchange. The third concept, heteroglossia, refers to different speaking styles, word use, and accents. Thanks to these concepts, we will see that dialogical exchanges are intertwined, heteroglossic, multivoiced, and embedded in the social context, providing the feeling of connectedness that makes storytelling so vital in the world today.

Bakhtin M.M., Holquist, M., Emerson, C. (1981). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M. M. Bakhtin. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Boje, D. M. (1991). The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36(1), 106–126.

Boje, D. M. (1991).  Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as ‘Tamara-land’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 38. No. 4. 997-1035.

Holquist, M. (2002). Dialogism: Bakhtin and His World. London: Routledge.

 

 

 

4.Besson and Valitova.  ABSTRACT “Quantum physics, social sciences, storytelling: some analogies”

Dominique Besson and Aysylu Valitova

 

 

9.Cousar, W. ABSTRACT: African American SANDE Storytelling Co- Created from Quantum Storytelling

Wanda Tisby- Cousar /  MaBondo Kayakoh                                                                 

 

     African American Storytelling narratives includes historical documents, narratives, visual art,

interpretive dance, and playing musical instruments. Given the exploratory framework of

qualitative studies such methods are best captured. Though social scientists had claimed as scholars that disparities of efficacy of qualitative methods when compared to quantitative methods, the claim that African Americans do not participate in research could be invalidated with the different methods applied in qualitative research and why explained. It remains paramount to redefine practices of sustainable leadership coaching using ontological storytelling methodology in the hermeneutical tradition of interpreting texts (Boje, 2007). The methods appear to be most trusted and relevant in uncovering sustainable practices by descendants of the African diaspora (Tisby-Cousar, 2015). Quantum of Storytelling of Physics has also proven to be relevant to diaspora leaders in its concepts rooted in ante-narratives, rhizomatic morphing, and spirals because these are examples of describing a leader’s existence at a given point in time (Boje, 2011). This was further confirmed in 2022 during a visit with the Deputy Vice Chancellor Dr. Samuel E.B. Nonie, Institute of Public Administration (IPAM), University of Sierra Leone who shared that his position was frequently plagued with reports of administrative problems (Personal Communication, April 26, 2022, Dr. Nonie, IPAM). which kept him resilient as his narrative compared with the antenarrative of Vice Chancellor. This is why Dr. Nonie continued to teach Physics at Fourah Bay College established in 1827, the oldest university in Sierra Leone, Fourah Bay College soon became a magnet for Sierra Leone Creoles and other Africans seeking higher education in British West Africa. These included Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ivorians and many more, especially in the fields of theology and education. It was the first western-style university in West Africa (http://fourahbaycollege.net), 2024). The researcher Dr. Tisby-Cousar concluded that the resilience to continue teaching Applied Managerial Decision Making (Business Statistics) online to 78 students for 4 years that included students migrating from campus due to COVID was a new narrative that needed to be evolved from the emotional volitional plane of anger and emotion and transition from the antenarrative that an African American woman was not suited for this rigor to the narrative that being a descendant of Africans and from the same ethnic group as Dr. Samuel E. B. Nonie, Mende elevated Dr. Tisby-Cousar to the new narrative to the Volitional plane.

It was difficult, yet put Quantum Storytelling into further perspective since at the time it was an antenarrative for an African American female to succeed at this endeavor.

     Prior research methods of using African Americans, Jewish Americans, and Native Americans in exploitative studies some that are addressed by the Institution Review Board, historical text, and media would further validate why ethnic groups have avoided some social scientist’s methods of data collection that have resulted in death, disease, and mental health diagnoses to include substance abuse to cope of their indigenous ancestors. In this paper, qualitative methods of increasing participation of African Americans in research will be discussed and how the gaps in the research have disconnected African American Storytelling from Africa as a delimitation.

Sande Storytelling’s Contemporary Quantum Storytelling Approach

     Sande Storytelling was co-created reflecting Quantum Storytelling. It captures indigenous sustainable stories connecting African history to the African American experience. An acronym has emerged from the researcher’s management consulting and teaching experiences of executives and managers, Sustainability, Adaptations, Nuances, Drivers, and Economies (SANDE). Such has emerged as a media brand for a commercial with a corporate entity through a grant awarded for the first time in 11 years since the framework was created. Such is a proposed media brand for the first time to reflect the environmental and social sustainability implications of its impact. It drives how business start-ups set the foundation for its purpose that has been found most appealing to Generation Z and Millennials, that past Generation X, Baby Boomers, and War Veteran Generations are developing Generation Z and Millennials in to future leaders of economies.

The Leadership Development of Generation Z and Millennials

 The purviews of former generations were established and interpreted using Quantum Storytelling methodology (Tisby-Cousar, 2005). The research resulted in an emergence of nuances as norms based on generation and gender of these descendants of the African diaspora and reflecting the generation closest or further from African derived stories of the African diaspora (Tisby-Cousar). This has made it critical to research using the different qualitative methods that ethnic groups are most comfortable participating in that are not delimiting, preventing the acknowledgement that they are descendants to African Ancestors.

Conclusion

    Moving toward the future may require sustaining the ontological research interpretations to sustain access to ethnic groups more representative of future leaders. The collecting data with

consent permissions may be necessary as well since it appeals to Generation Z as “digital

natives”. Moreover, the loyalty of Millennials to companies due to job fulfillment will require supporting social and environmental issues. (Refaerences are in the full paper.)

 

 

 

 

10.Desrosiers, C. ABSTRACT

Sowing Worlds: Multispecific Families or for a Multispecies Alliance

By Claudine Desrosiers, visual artist and author

The Latin origin of the word converse means to live with. To converse, we are not obliged to get along, nor to have a common language, but rather to have to share an environment, to cohabit, to maintain each other.

If we can get close to the birds, it's probably because they've let us come, they have the ability to reconnect us to the world around us. We make each other by the affection we have for our companion species. I contain within me a little of all the living, recognizing it recomposes the landscape of my attachment. All the living things on earth, in their brazen diversity, in their sometimes-unusual mode of communication, become one with the other. When you live in a territory, you are also completely inhabited by it. Everything becomes rhythm, landscape, patterns, material for expression.

Inspiration

Une pluie d’oiseaux

Marielle Macé

Biophilia, Éditions Corti, 2022.

 

Parce que l’oiseau

Fabienne Raphoz

Biophilia, Éditons Corti, 2018.

 

Vivre avec le trouble

Donna J. Haraway

Éditions des mondes à faire, 2020.

Traduit par Vivien Garcia

 

Comment pensent les forêts

Edouardo Kohn

Éditions Zones Sensibles, 2017.

Traduit par Gregory Delaplace

 

Habiter en oiseau

Vinciane Despret

Éditions Actes sud, Mondes sauvages, 2019.

 

 

11.Edwards, O.L. ABSTRACT Quantum African American Storytelling and the Network Effect

Submitted by Oscar Lee Edwards

 

Abstract This paper describes a study that examines an African American storytelling context at the intersection of Western (WWOK) and Indigenous ways of knowing (IWOK) and its relationship to David Boje's shared experience of a Māori braided river as a pathway to living story networks. The study aims to explore the concept of a 'scaffolding effect, 'which refers to the support and guidance provided by one knowledge system to another and how it may manifest in the narratives of African Americans. This qualitative research paper will conduct a comparative textual analysis of lived stories in ways of knowing as described between the South African philosophy of ubuntu, a place of humanity, communal, society and spiritual (as espoused by Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu) and the African American embrace of the Beloved Community a place of (created by Dr, Josiah Royce and notably advocated by Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. after his death Thich Nhat Hanh's extension to non-duality and connection to life and all things) as IWOK identities. I have studied and practiced in both areas for the past eight (8) years at UCLA as demonstrations of nature-spiritual science. This work explores whether there may be a scaffolding effect through using Boje's 7-ante narratives in traversing the lived experiences of African Americans at a point in time as an identifiable quantum realm of purposeserving unification. My entry to this storytelling research journey started with the interview with David Boje and myself discussing True Storytelling and the upcoming Intercultural Module on the Legacy of Law-and-Order podcast, December 14, 2020, by Glenn Aparicio Parry. I stated then on the podcast, "We share all our stories; they are all stories, it is like water, it is one, and it can flow like water. Right now, we lack the collective wisdom to do that. Even though (our stories) come from different streams, it is one source." From then to now, I see a more profound truth in my words and my life story of a sustainable future. The study and paper will conclude with critical outcomes of the third eye experiences as living stories indicative of the Māori braided river philosophy of WWOK and IWOK with the amended 7 antenarratives bringing forth oneness of being, together- telling and sensemaking. Keywords: Quantum storytelling, African American, Indigenous Storytelling, WWOK, IWOK, living story networks, ubuntu, beloved community, antenarrative, environment-nature, sustainability.

 

 

 

12.Egebjerg-Rantzau, D.M. and Absalonsen, K. 

ABSTRACT: Postcolonial narratives explored through ensemble storytelling

 

Ditte Marie Egebjerg-Rantzau and Kâlánguak Absalonsen

In this collaborative session, Ditte Marie Egebjerg-Rantzau, a white Danish woman, will engage in together-telling with Inuit Kâlánguak Absalonsen, who was adopted to Denmark from Greenland at the age of four. Kâlánguak Absalonsen will share her story and read an excerpt from her book ‘Little’[i], which is a narration of her experience of being separated from her mother and siblings and adopted into a Danish family who would take her with them to Denmark.

Kalanguak has been a guest speaker in Ditte Marie’s undergraduate postcolonial course at DIS in Copenhagen. The course invites students to engage in ever widening circles of together-telling: From the first day of class, we co-create our learning community through together-telling. One of the ways that we widen the storytelling circles is through the voices that have been - and are - othered in postcolonial Europe. These voices do not only bring nuance to the narrations of present-day European identities, but also allow for more empathetic and embodied understandings of the ways that the stories we collectively hold onto, have real impact on those not included in these national narrations.

Denmark is rarely mentioned in relation to European colonialism or postcolonial studies. Dominant narrations of Denmark have to a large extent successfully managed to marginalize the importance of Denmark’s engagement in the Transatlantic Slave Trade as well as its colonial endeavors in general. When it comes to Denmark’s colonial engagements in Greenland, national narratives have centered on ideas of benevolence and ‘civilizing’ missions. Ideas that permeate current Danish discourses about Greenland and Greenlanders.

This co-narrated session will draw upon Gloria Wekker’s concept white innocence, which was developed in a Dutch context, but which applies just as poignantly to the ways that Danes predominantly have seen themselves in relation to social injustice: as being a small, but just, ethical nation; color-blind, thus free of racism; as being inherently on the moral and ethical high ground, thus a guiding light to other folks and nations.[ii]

As an opener for Kalanguak’s talk about her book Little, Ditte Marie, will introduce Minna Salami’s concept ‘sensuous knowledge[iii]’ and discuss how embodied postcolonial narratives may contribute to a questioning of white Eurocentric thought paradigms. 

Kâlànguak will join the conference via zoom, and alongside Ditte Marie, she will engage in conversations in plenary after the talk.

 

 

 

13.Egebjerg-Rantzau, Peter, and Sibel, Jim ABSTRACT  Co-Creating Leadership for social change

 

As a white, Danish, heterosexual man in my fifties, I have been engaged in an inner process of transformation since 2020. The process is provoked by the rise of nationalism across the western world and the increasing othering of minority groups who don’t live up to certain heteronormative standards.

The first part of my session

In the first part of my session, I will share some of the key insights from my learning journey described above. I will also discuss a new leadership course I am currently developing with my wife (we teach undergraduate students at a study abroad program in Copenhagen) - and why we think that this course is needed at this moment in time. The course challenges more conventional approaches to leadership and it aims specifically at attracting American college students who envision to become change leaders. In my leadership understanding, I am inspired by the studies of Jerry Colonna[iv], who invites us to be aware that self-inquiry and curiosity about where we come from, can help us understand how we are complicit in creating the situation that we are looking to change. A central approach of his is that those who have the capacity to look inward, face difficulties and make changes to their own belief systems, make the best leaders. In addition, Colonna emphasizes that leaders who hold power and privilege have an especially important role to create the conditions for others to feel love, safety and belonging. These are the types of leaders the world needs now.

 

Second part of the session

For the second part of the session, I will join Jim Sibel for a conversation about leadership in a practical setting. During the converstion I wil interview Jim about topics such as power, “othering” and “belonging” in an organizational setting and how new forms of leadership based on self-inquiry, equity and inclusion might create a new, better and more responsible way forward.

 

14.Fortier, M. ABSTRACT  Some problems with the notion of resource in management

By Michel Fortier, UQAR. (University of Quebec at Rimouski)

For a long time, it has been considered business as usual that management and management science aim at the optimal use of resources to achieve the objectives set by owners or managers, most often by making a profit as the ultimate goal. In this context, we have already criticized the use of human beings as mere resources that can be bought, rented, sold or thrown away (see Fortier and Albert, 2015, but also Gantz, 2017). This perspective placed human beings at the center of concerns and the treatment of other resources was sidelined.

What about the other resources? In this text, we will explore some of the unfortunate consequences of giving moral status only to human beings and perceiving non-humans as resources that can be exploited at will without a second thought. For example, the beginning of the colonization of North America was marked by an extensive fur trade, which decimated the populations of lynx, otters, mink, marten, wolves, foxes, pecans, and other mammals to the point where some species almost disappeared.

In the same vein, the status of being a subject has long been granted only to humans and it is only recently in the West that animals have acquired certain rights and protections against at least the worst abuses. Despite this, the biomass of wild animals has drastically decreased constantly, and domestic animals and humans now represent 70% of the living vertebrates on our planet.

In the same way, plants, which are nevertheless living beings, have been used without any concern for sustainability. Forestry companies don't talk about trees in general, they use terms that make them seem like inanimate objects. We harvest wood resources that are estimated in cubic meters.  At present, very little of the primary forests remain. In eastern North America, they are just a memory (see Marsh,1867, to grasp what the forests really were before the European conquest, and Humboldt,1849, for the dire consequences of clear-cutting forest such as flood and fire), and in many other countries, this is what seems to be taking shape as well. However, recent studies show that trees have a form of "mind," (see Calvo, 2022) that they communicate with each other, that they help the youngest (Simard, 2021, Kohn, 2013). Our knowledge of life has dramatically changed in the last decades (Margulis & Chapman, 2010). For example, mushrooms are more closely related to animals than to plants (Sheldrake, 2020).

If other living beings can acquire the status of subjects, how can we take this into account in our way of thinking about management? There has been talk for a long time of the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, but we seem unable to recognize those that are already present and at the same time foreign to our own. It therefore seems that we need to reconstruct both our conception of what a subject is, but also the very notion of resources. Our management models often include racist (Bhattacharyya, 2018, Zinn, 2011), sexist (Criado Prez, 2019, Federici, 2021 and the telling story of women in art, Nochlin, 1971/2021), and ethnic biases. We must also consider the blind anthropocentrism that determines our business strategies and our management of societies (Haraway, 2016). Above all, we need to find a new way to tell what's important, to create stories that open the eyes, the mind and the heart (Tsing et al. 2017). Because we are a species that needs and is fascinated by stories, the very notion of resources must be conceptualized anew and the narrative to talk about them must be true.

(References are in the full paper.)

 

15.Frota de Oliveira, C. ABSTRACT

Setting White and Indigenous Ways of Knowing (WWOK and IWOK) as a Continuum Problematics

Cristiano Frota de Oliveira,

This abstract is based on two works with the aim of tracing problems and develop a figure that interprets a continuum of studies on narratives. The first work discusses the possibilities of different narrative methods to describe reality beyond the methods of the Western Way of Knowing (WWOK) (Boje, in press), and the second work, in which Cunliffe (2011) defends, from Habermans, Geiger, Ricouer, Schutz and Garfinkel, that classify a new range of studies focused on what she coined as intersubjectivity. Thus, figure 1 goes on to show how the different narrative methods listed by Boje, from some of its onto-epistemological characteristics applied to management research, form and are situated in a paradigmatic continuum. Furthermore, and perhaps most importantly, it is to situate both the Western Way of Knowing (WWOK) and the Indigenous Way of Knowing (IWOK) as coexisting parts of a continuum and not a spectrum in management research.

 

16.Gardner, C.  ABSTRACT  Obstruction: Ocular and Bureaucratic by Carolyn Gardner

This will be a True Storytelling of my experience of hierarchy, embodiment, and obstruction in both my ocular vision and in a workplace setting. This story is about embodied cultural and metaphorical implications of minds as the site of beingness, authority, and singular truth metaphor. Why not, “I feel therefore I am??” Does the mind’s true storytelling power really come from bossing bodies around? Are inherited metaphorical boundaries privileging minds over bodies for order to keep the earth-matter dirt outside where it belongs, per Mary Douglas’s definition of “dirt as matter out of place”? Does organizational power fear dirty bodies, per this dead metaphor, lead to the definition of power as obstructing the Other (including one’s own body) from the movement requirements of individual body circumstances and needs? Continuing a complete life with meaning, is impeded when bodies are defined as problems, particularly in context of ability embodiment. Boundaries define states as ontological entities seeking to reinforce that claim to power by continually reinscribing the stuck metaphors of limitation and obstacles as enacting power, while cutting off the resources needed for life. My personal ongoing living story is a moving scenario of both obstacles and nourishment through the flow of meaningful understandings via my own living and porous multi-level fascial connections among my loving and mutually supportive medical, legal, osteopathic, family, friends, imaginary, and scholarly communities. Together, we play with what metaphors, what new meaning and emergent adaptations, support flowing, healing, earth-centric, and compassionate learning

 

17.Gephart R. ABSTRACT Risk Sensemaking, Temporalities, and the Loss of Agency in the Ft. McMurray Wildfire.  Robert Gephart, University of Alberta

 

A small wildfire ignited 5 miles outside of Fort McMurray, Alberta on the morning of May 1, 2016.  Water bombers and firefighters were immediately dispatched.  They were shocked to find the fire had expanded from 4 to 150 acres in two hours.  The intense fire expanded to 2000 acres by the next day. And by May 3, it had become the largest wild fire in the history of Canada and forced the largest human evacuation due to fire in the history of North America (Vaillant, 2023, p. 172).

 

Fire fighters’ conception of “fire” itself was completely disrupted as they sought, and failed, to control the fire.  They, as well as the entire population of Fort Mc Murray, were forced to evacuate – or more accurately escape – the fire.  By the night of May 3, an ariel view from a passing aircraft showed only “a vast and luminous smoke cloud where the city had been (p. 173).

 

Vaillant’s “Fireweather: The Making of a Beast” offers extensive evidence of the fire and the crisis it produced.  It also offers a case study of how risk sensemaking fails, and the role of time and temporalities in human actions that seek to restore sensemaking and human agentivity in the face of the uncontrollable. Fire is “the rapid oxidation of material in the exothermic processes of combustion” (Wikapedia), and gas wood are the materials that fed the fire.  Thus this paper will explore the roles of risk sensemaking, temporalities and agentivity in the midst of material chaos.

 

Joseph Scott Gladstone, Ph.D., MPH Kainai / Piikani / Nimiipuu Associate Professor of Management Department of Management, Information Systems and Entrepreneurship (MISE) Carson College of Business  Washington State University Everett

20.Hird, Myra J. KEYNOTE

 

 

21.Kent, Paula

Abstract : Aging in Place(s): An Autoethnographical Learning Journey with the More-Than-Human World

Paula Kent, Doctoral Candidate, Royal Roads University, Canada

This session will be the sharing of the story of my proposed research, which is framed as a learning journey. As the story unfolds, I will describe four distinct facets. First, I will reveal the pivotal event that sparked my desire to embark on this research journey, to understand my aging experience and the important connection to my childhood play in and with the trees which has shaped the research design. Second, I will tell at a high level the story of the Western world’s modern, post-industrial perspective that views the human being as an all-controlling, dominant ‘I’ and the natural world as an undifferentiated and objectified ‘IT’ without senses or spirit, merely a resource for our consumption, extraction, and control. Third, I will share insights from ecopsychology and feminist literature, along with my burgeoning ecological self-identification, which has led me to realize how contextual entanglements of Western culture and women’s experiences of aging are a direct result of human dominance over nature. Fourth, I will share an immersive experience that underscores the importance of performing rituals, adopting symbols, and articulating through words and acts systems of belief that liken the earth to a living being who is responsive, sacred, and divine. I will conclude by reflecting on my return to the trees and providing a high-level overview of the methodology and methods to enable the research and my autoethnographical exploration.

 

22.Long, K

Title: Navigating VUCA Environments: The Role of Narrative Cognition and Storythinking in Decision-Making

Dr Ken Long, Associate Professor, US Army Command & General Staff College

longke@yahoo.com

 

Abstract

This study examines the role of narrative cognition and storythinking in navigating Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) environments, with a focus on military decision-making processes. Traditional rational utility models often fall short in addressing VUCA challenges. Through conceptual analysis and brief case studies, this paper highlights the limitations of linear approaches and argues that narrative cognition and storythinking offer complementary cognitive tools that enhance adaptability and innovative problem-solving in complex situations. The study distinguishes between creativity and critical thinking, emphasizing the need for both divergent and convergent cognitive processes. While acknowledging implementation challenges, this research proposes a balanced framework combining analytical methods with narrative-based thinking. The findings suggest that fostering narrative cognition skills could significantly improve decision-making and strategic planning in VUCA environments across various professional domains.

Introduction

In an era characterized by rapid technological advancements, geopolitical shifts, and unprecedented global challenges, decision-makers across various domains find themselves navigating an increasingly Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous (VUCA) landscape (Bennett & Lemoine, 2014). The term VUCA, originally coined by the U.S. Army War College, has transcended its military origins to become a ubiquitous descriptor of the modern operational environment in business, politics, and beyond (Johansen, 2017). Within this context, traditional decision-making models rooted in rational utility theory and linear thinking are increasingly strained, often falling short in their ability to address the multifaceted challenges presented by VUCA scenarios.

For decades, professional fields, particularly those with high-stakes decision-making requirements such as military strategy, have relied heavily on structured, analytical approaches. The Military Decision Making Process (MDMP), for instance, has long been a cornerstone of strategic planning in armed forces worldwide (U.S. Army, 2019). However, as the complexity of global conflicts and crises has intensified, the limitations of such linear, step-by-step methodologies have become increasingly apparent (Paparone & Topic, 2011).

In response to these challenges, there is a growing recognition of the need for cognitive approaches that can complement traditional analytical methods. Narrative cognition and storythinking emerge as promising frameworks in this context. Narrative cognition, the process by which humans organize experiences and information into story-like structures, offers a powerful tool for sense-making in complex environments (Bruner, 1991). Storythinking, as conceptualized by scholars like Fletcher (2021), extends this approach by actively employing narrative structures to conceptualize and solve problems.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of narrative cognition and storythinking as complementary approaches to traditional decision-making models in VUCA environments. Specifically, we aim to address the following research questions:

1. How do the limitations of rational utility models manifest in VUCA environments, particularly in military contexts?
2. In what ways can narrative cognition and storythinking enhance decision-making processes in complex, uncertain scenarios?
3. How can organizations effectively integrate narrative-based approaches with existing analytical methodologies?

This study will analyze military experiences with the failures of established decision-making processes, including case studies of MDMP shortcomings. The introduction and controversies surrounding the Army Design Methodology will be discussed as an example of the shift towards more flexible thinking approaches. Subsequently, we will explore the concepts of narrative cognition and storythinking, examining their benefits and alignment with VUCA Prime strategies. The paper will also distinguish between creativity and critical thinking, emphasizing their complementary roles in problem-solving. Finally, we will address the challenges in adopting narrative approaches in professional contexts and explore future directions for research and application.

By examining these interconnected themes, this study aims to contribute to the ongoing discourse on effective decision-making in VUCA environments and provide insights for practitioners and researchers alike in developing more robust, adaptive strategies for navigating complexity and uncertainty.

 

 

24.McCullogh G.

ABSTRACT. Material Transitions: Khora, Kairos & acoustic vital materialism with regenerated myth

Gerri Elise McCulloh, PhD

 

Last year at the Quantum Storytelling conference a researcher asked a singularly brilliant question when we talked. How do we make new myths to replace the old?

In my thinking this question was closely related to: How do we change narratives?

 

Since my research led me into ancient myths that still held traces of the even more ancient matriarchal cultures that came before, I began to think how to re-present (bring into the present again) Khora and Kairos with vital materialism for this 14th Annual Quantum Storytelling conference.

 

Myth in matriarchal times was a way of teaching through theoría. Theoría is a nomadic traveler whose audience contemplates the place, visitor, history, traveler’s performance, values, beliefs, and knowledge to learn from different perspectives. Theoria is where we get the word theory. Theoría is nested within Mnemosyne, or memory in all her performances with the nine muses.

 

In this presentation I will focus on Khora (Chora) as a powerful and ancient metonymy. Figures of speech carry vibrant material and are lively components of language for expressing that which is not easily spoken and even that which cannot be spoken. Figures of speech enliven language. Metonymy is the figure of speech where matter or concepts are not necessarily called by their names, but by names or words associated with the whole. Metonymy is both the part which represents the whole and performs and translates the entangled material relations of all the parts. Feminist materialists and vital materialists celebrate metonymy’s ability to reinvigorate the changing and diverse nature of material-discourse since nested within metonymy are other vibrant figures of speech, metaphor, personification, synecdoche (the part standing in for the whole), and other figures. In matriarchy, metonymy was born in non-linearity and therefore had the power to rupture linear logical constructs and narratives of ideals and separatisms which Plato later endorsed.

 

Khora, Kairos (originally kairia—a third species of generative time), Mêtis (vital matter continually in metamorphosis), can all perform powerful metonymy in quantum storytelling. Khora as metonymy holds the commonplace khora, which is the dynamic energy in every molecule and every atom and every place. Likewise Mêtis, the first wife of Zeus, was the goddess of metamorphosis of matter and transitioning material forms, therefore mêtis (matter in transition) is also everywhere in the metonymy of Mêtis.

 

First I will briefly talk about Pythagorean philosophy which will give us entry into acoustic vital materialism when braided with the research of Karen Barad, Myra J. Hird and others. Barad has urged us to remember “Materiality itself is a factor in materialization. the dynamics of matter are non-linear.” She reminds us that the metamorphic vitality of matter is contingent and always in transition. Myra J. Hird confronts linear heritability in Darwinism to enunciate the microbiologists theories of symbiogenesis, particularly those of Lynn Margulis with her institute’s work on symbiosis.

 

Kairos was the generative time Pythagorean philosophy was built around. I will introduce the “thirding’ logic stemming from the matriarchal culture transitioning to patriarchal culture during the 6th century when Pythagoras taught and wrote. I will then talk about Khora as the distinctly generative energetics that marks all matter and is also marked in the process of dunamis, the inherent and actualizing power infusing all life and vital matter. In quantum physics and vital materialism, there is no such thing as inert.

 

Pythagoras started the count with the number three, a distinctly matriarchal way of knowing that acknowledged there is no such thing as complete separability or purity. All matter, including material-discourse is always mixed and multiple. In my research, I came to understand that the sound theories Pythagoras developed, particularly in harmonics, included complex geometries, mathematics, and the notion that the world in her kairotic becoming, could speak. Acoustic languages of all vital matter are a chorus that we humans engage with, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

 

Second, I will talk about Plato and Aristotle since acoustic vital materiality was denatured by both in their linear ideals. Kairos was written once by Plato in his desire to do away with Myth and any associated metaphor. Aristotle only used the term Kairos three times in his writings. Aristotle so denatured this generative species of time that he only promoted the kind of opportunity and opportunism so rampant in the business world today. Perhaps Kairos needs to be understood as a ‘thirding’ for Kronus (past, present, and future) and Aion time (cosmological motions and circadian rhythms) to balance our material-discourse and management practices?

 

Insisting on linearity, we have created chimera, or monstrosities in our agential cuts. If we insist on ontological separateness and metaphysical individualism, eventually the monstrosities we create will destroy our systems. The cautionary Myth of Medusa and her offspring,  Khrysaor and Pegasus, will be briefly discussed.

 

Finally, I will speak about the Bighorn Medicine Wheel as an example of management practices that have foreclosed some of the acoustic life of that sacred place where I have many of my first memories (Mnemosyne and her nine muses).

 

Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway, p180.

 

 

Here is my presentation for Dec 15 2024 in case you are still traveling. 

[The scene continues with Alvida and David sitting outside a cozy outdoor café in Copenhagen, sipping their hot chocolate and engaging in a spirited conversation. It’s winter, but they have blankets.]

 

Alvida: "I've been thinking a lot about my identity as an entrepreneur.  Learning the essence of who we are. I used to be an actress, but now am I supposed to be all about business and profit?"

 

David: "Doesn’t have to be like that. I think our sense of self is deeply tied to our entrepreneurial journey to help the world of Being. How do you think your identity has influenced your path towards social entrepreneur life?" ...

---

25.Melchor Duran, Irery 

ABSTRACT  The intersection between entrepreneurship and insecure neighborhoods. Cross- disciplinary agenda to solve social problems.  Irery Melchor-Durán

Escuela de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales. Universidad Panamericana, Aguascalientes, México.

 

The economic and social reality is affected by crime in a negative way (Bustillo, & Velloso, 2016).  Insecure neighborhoods create a hostile environment for people that want to create a positive impact on them, that is the reason why some governmental institutions and ONGs doesn’t want to be part of that reality, the danger and fear create a barrier to make a positive impact. Although some organizations are unable to work in the insecure neighborhoods, other organizations are able to invest their time and resources in creating a positive impact in that chaotic environment. To solve this wicked problem is necessary to knowing it in a deep way to have the correct questions to be answer by interdisciplinary approach. The aim of the study is to identify and systematize the practical and research problems related to insecure neighborhoods to get a thick description of the problem with the purpose that entrepreneurship studies and other disciplines can be work on them. The method of this study will be layered account triography “alternating vignette structure to weave a story” (Pelly and Kulik, 2023, pp. 114). This triography will use two voices: 1) Problem owner 2) Academician. The problem owner was involved in an insecure neighborhood as a part of a gang and now he is not living in that insecure neighborhood but experience to go again to that neighborhood for personal activities. The academician will do the theoretical analysis of the story of the problem owner with the purpose to create the practical a research problem related to insecure neighborhoods. The owners of the problems and the researchers must work together to co-create the research problem and not using the problem owner as source of data (Colak & Pearce, 2019; Chen et al., 2022 and Parola et al., 2022). According to Chen et al. (2022) problem owners give centrality and specificity to the problem definition and researchers gives worthiness and divisibility.

 

At the first glance, the issue of insecurity and crime seems far from the entrepreneurship field. Perhaps the main elements related with insecurity and crime are unemployment and poverty and the contrary of unemployment and poverty is the entrepreneurship process that is capable of creating wealth and employment (McDaniel et al., 2021). Entrepreneurship has the potential to change the status quo (Audretsch, 2009). On the other hand, Colak & Pearce (2019) highlight the chronic situation of violence in Latin America and Caribbean that makes this problem urgent to work on it from social sciences and all research fields. The contribution of this paper will identify several research problems that can be solved cross-disciplinary and find the intersection between entrepreneurship to cope with the complex challenge of insecurity.

 

References

Audretsch, D. B. (2009). The entrepreneurial society. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 34(3), 245-254.

Bustillo, I., & Velloso, H. (2016). Insecurity and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean. PRISM, 5(4), 48-67.

Colak, A., & Pearce, J. (2019). Co-constructing security “from below”: A methodology to rethink and transform security in contexts of chronic violence. In G. Kloppe-Santamarıa & A. Abello Colak (Eds.), Human security and chronic violence in Mexico: New perspectives and proposals from below (pp. 31–56). Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico/Miguel Angel Porrua

Pelly, R. D. M., & Kulik, S. (2023). A triography on the sharing economy. In A World Scientific Encyclopedia of Business Storytelling Set 1: Corporate and Business Strategies of Business Storytelling Volume 1: Business Storytelling in Entrepreneurship (pp. 107-131).

Chen, S., Sharma, G., & Muñoz, P. (2022). In pursuit of impact: From research questions to problem formulation in entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.

28.Mølbjerg Jørgensen, K, Tracy Trägårdh, Sissi Ingman, Filippa Säwe, Hope Witmer

 

ABSTRACT: LOVE AND HANNAH ARENDT: THINKING AND THE ETHICS OF CARE

Paper submitted to Nordic Academy of Management, University of Iceland, August 15-17, 2024

Track 1: Volcanos, climate change and female thinkers, organized by Lovísa Eiríksdottir, Matilda Dahl, Jenny Helin, Josef Pallas and Erla Sólveig Kristjánsdóttir

 

Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Tracy Trägårdh, Sissi Ingman, Filippa Säwe, Hope Witmer Malmö University, Sweden

 

Based on Hannah Arendt’s notion of love, this article develops a life affirmative ethics, which we argue can guard against indifference and evil and enable ethical agency. In being the means through which existential journeys are made to what gave and gives birth to us, storytelling is important for such ethics. The love of our relations, communities, places, landscapes, oceans, family, people and animals is embedded in such storytelling. She referred to it as thinking—what she called a person’s two-in-one conversation with themself. In this storytelling, we engage in conversations with life. We use two stories of new sustainability managers to think through how love of the world—amor mundi—can help enable ethical agency in corporate contexts. Pondering over and thinking about the richness of life including pain, violence, struggle, conflict as well as joy and happiness are parts of an affirmative attitude to life that is part of maturing as a person, and which may help us learn to manage sustainably. Through Arendt, we learn that love is a question of mutual loving, where true solidarity with others relies on curious and compassionate thinking. This happens through revisiting our becoming and our experiences of the good life. Such thinking is the way in which we collect ourselves from dispersion, resist power relations and maintain a curious and caring relationship to the world’s plurality. Keywords: Arendt, love, storytelling

29.Montiel Mendez et al., ABSTRACT. Organizational Metastasis: An Analogy of Dissemination and Corporate Collapse.

Authors: Dr. Oscar Javier Montiel Méndez[5],  Dra. Araceli Alvarado Carrillo[6]

Dr. Mark Clark[7],  Yazmín Alexandra González Iñiguez[8]

 

This study aims to explore the concept of organizational metastasis, the process by which harmful practices and negative cultures/conduct spread within a company, drawing parallel with the medical phenomenon of metastasis. This study examined the impact of this spread on organizational health, employee morale, and overall performance.

An exploratory research approach was used to determine the applicability and usefulness of organizational metastasis as a construct in organizational and management studies, with a scoping review to explore contemporary issues in these research streams.

The results indicate that organizational metastasis significantly deteriorates work culture, reduces productivity, and increases employee turnover, substantially increasing the possibility of death of the organization. Key factors facilitating metastasis include poor leadership, a lack of accountability and innovation, and ineffective communication. This study identifies early warning signs and possible intervention strategies to mitigate these effects.

This study presents a novel, original framework for understanding organizational decline through the lens of medical metastasis, providing a unique perspective on how negative behaviors and cultures proliferate within companies. This study contributes to the existing literature by offering new insights into the dynamics of internal organizational collapse.

The main limitation of this study is its reliance on self-reported data, which may be subject to bias. Future research should incorporate longitudinal studies to validate these findings and explore the long-term effects of organizational metastasis.

These findings offer practical guidelines for managers and leaders to identify and address the early stages of organizational metastasis, thereby preventing widespread damage to the organization. The implementation of proactive measures can improve the overall resilience and sustainability of an organization.

Understanding and addressing organizational metastasis has broader societal implications as healthier workplaces contribute to better employee mental health and well-being, leading to more productive and harmonious communities.

 

30.Mushin-Makedonskiy, A. ABSTRACT Artem Mushin-Makedonskiy

Story Gatherer, Board member, Storytelling In Organizations group of the National Storytelling Network

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourstorytel

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-aYTfIiOEMdtH1mY1jzmFQ

cel.: +7(916)590-23-24

 

 

 

32.Pelly, D, and Rabeau, M.C. ABSTRACT:When the Antenarrative is the Only Narrative – Echoes of Before Narratives in Higher Education

  By Duncan Pelly & Marie-Claude Rabeau

This paper views reveals antenarratives in a fundamentally different way, especially with respect to the “before” component of the antenarrative. In lieu of looking at the antenarrative as having a “before” component, this paper explains that in some cases the antenarrative and the narrative may not experience any sort of divide. In such cases, the narrative finds itself in a sort of aionological (Mendez, 2024) loop where it neither progresses not regresses in spite of the fact that the world around the narrative is continuously evolving. 

 

In this work, we will explain how a “celebrity” university professor had such a powerful persona that he was able to create a master narrative, the “frozen” the narrative of his university, even well after he retired. The result was an irrelevant pedagogy and resulting teaching materials and a course framework which most students couldn’t make sense of, let alone having very little interest for it. 

 

The next section will introduce the methodology, followed by a vignette style story in a nutshell, before the theory section discusses preliminary findings. The final section is a draft discussion and conclusion.   

 

The Story in a Nutshell

 

When it comes to celebrities, one usually thinks of actors, musicians, athletes, hosts of TV shows, successful and rich businessmen/women…..

In my Business School, our legendary celebrity was Luke Martin. He had inspired a countless number of students, undergrads as much as graduates. Luke was, amongst other, renowned for his lectures in epistemology, a mandatory course in the PhD program, a course every single PhD candidate was eager to attend. I still remember how he could make complex and obscure concepts crystal clear. Under his teaching, Deleuze and Derrida’s ideas suddenly became a breeze to grasp, and he managed to make otherwise rather dull, but key authors, almost interesting. Luke was captivating. He also had a brilliant sense of humour and didn’t hesitate to rely on a fair dose of sarcasm. Junior faculty’s dream was to emulate Luke’s teaching. It was not uncommon for post-doc graduates or visiting scholars to attend his epistemology lectures. …

While this framework was tightly bound and coherent, it remained an arbitrary intellectual exercise with its own logic. Yet, with his charisma, Luke got most of the department to endorse it. He was particularly convincing at getting fully onboard junior faculty members whose first teaching assignment typically entailed teaching this mandatory course. So much so that his influence and mark perdured way after he retired. It became a defining element of the school’s identity. And as junior faculty moved forward and got tenure, they made sure new faculty members unquestionably embraced it…..The course also relied on business cases that were to be solved using a prescribed and very rigid template. I didn’t rock the boat, I delivered the lectures and moved on.

Some ten years later….nowhere else in business schools was management taught in such a way. While it comforted me in my questioning of its relevance, it also left me more and more uncomfortable having to teach it. Indeed, teaching something you question is a painful chore to handle.

This story highlights how the antenarrative of the “celebrity” professor as the before our heroine’s teaching journey….this “before” antenarrative, which could have been exciting previously, became an outdated relic in the “now” as an actual narrative….We observe that the “before” antenarrative became and remained the grand narrative, even though everything else around the course enjoyed an alternative temporality.  It appeared as if this course and its before narrative were stuck in an aionological loop (Mendez, 2024).   

 

Discussion and Conclusion

This paper makes several interesting contributions. From the perspective of education and pedagogy, it shows the farcical nature of courses that refuse to change with the times. From the perspective of theory, it shows an interesting circumstance where the before narrative becomes frozen in time and reified into the dominant narrative. This aionological time loop (Mendez, 2024) is not dissimilar from the Tamara-Land experience (Boje, 1995; Boje et al, 2022). In Tamara, participants are confronted with aionological time – in this form as a play that freezes time to concresce on fascist Italy. Participants are invited to wander from room to room, each room with its own loop that repeats in an endless cycle.  While the time loop in Tamara serves as a source of entertainment for the audience, this loop has detrimental impacts upon pedagogy as will be further developed in the full paper.      (References are in the full paper.)

 

33.

Is the Piikani (Blackfeet) Ookaan Ceremony a Metaphor for the Essence of Knowledge?

By Donald D. Pepion, Ed.D., Emeritus Professor

Abstract

This article examines the idea of Piikani dancing back and forth within a ceremonial circle as a symbolic representation of the epitome of ontological knowledge. The narrative begins with a brief overview of purpose of the Ookaan ceremony and its significance to Piikani spirituality. Identification of Piikani as culture group and their traditional territory in Canada and U.S. provides some context for the reader. The cosmology and genesis stories are a prelude to an explanation of Piikani worldview as an act of becoming. The quantum nature of tribal knowledge and spirituality is a wholistic and animistic paradigm. The essay discusses Ideations of Piikani knowledge as participatory consciousness and cyclical in make-up. Lastly highlighted is  the metaphysics of Native and Piikani knowledge. The paper concludes Piikani knowledge reflects participatory consciousness while demonstrating the multilayered nature of reality between the physical and metaphysical.

 

(The full paper may be obtained from Don at: black_spot_john@hotmail.com)

 

34.Ritter, Eva ABSTRACT:  Working with stories in times of loss and grief: How living story webs can prevent us from falling and help to reconnect

Eva Ritter, Ph.D., Institute Nordic Perspectives, Flensburg, Germany eva.ritter@nordicperspectives.com

 

How do we face the inevitable? How do we navigate in our life when the life of a dear person is coming to an end? In the following, personal reflections about the help of stories, the Principles of True Storytelling, Indigenous ways of knowing and living story webs are shared.

When we are forced to realize that there is no hope to heal a person from a fatal disease - a person we love - our feeling of time changes, our senses change, questions come to our mind. What helped me in this situation was being aware of the stories that wanted to be shared with me. They were weaving a web, a security net of living stories, lingering around, finding their way to me, preparing me for what to expect.

Looking back, this collection of stories already had started before my knowing of the situation. Stories I happened to stumble across in the library just a few weeks before, stories from people in projects I had carried out some years ago. After I got the message, I practiced active listening; to stories of friends and persons who had experienced similar situations; to stories in books or even in movies.

Especially the stories from Indigenous people and their relationship to nature were helpful to me. These stories were about a deep feeling; a connectedness with the processes of life; the acceptance of changeability. This understanding helped me to accept the change, not fighting against it, but embracing it, staying in the moment.

I also used the 7 Principles of True Storytelling. I learned to feel what is true to me. True in the sense of being important at the end of a life, what needs to be said and what is not necessary to talk about anymore. ‘True’ was also about accepting what is true to the person who is leaving. Making room for her stories. What does she want to talk about? Which questions need to be clarified for her? At the end of a life, some stories are more important than others. It is good to give room for these stories.

I had to reflect about timing. Especially Kairos, but also Chronos – when to be where and with whom. Plot was difficult. Death does not give us the chance to create a plot. But I tried to be prepared for the general direction. Doing my best. Being in the (ever-changing) process. Everything happened too fast. And in the end, staging was a way of saying farewell in a beautiful way. The role of artefacts from places that have been important to her in her life. The choice of colours, of the food connecting to a place and a time in her life. Space-time-materiality.

Reflecting. I am still in the phase of reflecting. It will take a while. Maybe this feeling will stay with me forever. But I am convinced that my work with stories, my learning about Indigenous ways of knowing, the connectedness with the elements, the great circle of life, have helped me a lot. Whenever I come in doubt – I start at Principle 1 again

 

 

35. Rosile, Grace Ann ABSTRACT: HorseSense Embodiment and Storytelling

 

36.Saylors, J. ABSTRACT: The jester obfuscates the liberation system: visualization of a joker's third eye, by Jillian Saylors

 

37.Saylors, R. ABSTRACT:

 

 

39.Stanford, Lois ABSTRACT Food Nostalgia and Identity: The Role of Food Stories in Mesilla, New Mexico

Lois Stanford, Department of Anthropology, New Mexico State University

 

Early research on linked the concept of nostalgia to the pain or anguish that someone would feel when no longer in their native land. Scholars have cited the example of the Portuguese or Brazilian concept of saudade, that longing or melancholy for something that can no longer be invoked that is characteristic of Portuguese or Brazilian temperament. Yet, others recognize that that longing also represent something more positive, that is, a yearning for an idealized past, something that may be integrated or constructed from different memories. Literary works, such as those of Marcel Proust, have linked nostalgia and food to fond, idealized memories of childhood, representing a way of life and happiness now lost. The anthropological literature on nostalgia and food has focused on different topics, including rituals, societal change, and health. For these studies, the social aspect of nostalgia often invokes recollections of past family and/or community events, lending a positive sense of nostalgia.

 

How can food nostalgia invoke both the good memories of past lives and the saudade that this past is lost forever? How is this complexity expressed and conveyed?

 

In 1849, Mesilla, New Mexico was originally sited by Mexican settlers establishing a community on the west bank of the Rio Grande. By 1854, Mesilla became part of the United States, a community of 3,000 residents that initially dominated neighboring Las Cruces of less than 600 settlers. In 1881, the coming of the railroad to Las Cruces and Las Cruces’ designation as the county seat isolated Mesilla from further growth and political development. Throughout much of the 20^th century, Mesilla retained its rural, cultural roots, a small, close-knit community bound by agricultural livelihoods, subsistence orientation, Catholic religious activities, and bonds of family and kinship. Mesilla residents recall a daily life marked by the family meals, food purchases at local markets, family gardens, and rare trips to Las Cruces to purchase basic food supplies, such as flour, lard, and sugar.

 

As Mesilla developed a reputation for tourism and new shops and restaurants expanded, the nature of the community and its foodways transformed. While tourists now come to Mesilla to dine at La Posta or the Double Eagle, Mesilleros/as recall a local cuisine far more tied to the rancho and the farm than a stylized Mexican American cuisine. This paper draws on food-centered life histories with women in Mesilla, who reconstruct the community of their childhood and youth through food stories. In talking about food, the women recreate the scenes of their childhood, the morning sounds of the rollito (a small wooden rolling pin) slapping and rolling the flour dough to make the tortillas, or the smell of spicy chorizo sizzling in the pan. In these stories, the women take us back and situate us in the adobe houses, the community, that is, a cultural space that no longer exists. In this way, the stories give weight to the culinary and cultural heritage of these people. This was not a complex, nor sophisticated cuisine, never one that the restaurants could “sell” to visiting tourists. Yet, by situating the food and the cuisine within the context of memory, historic practices, and family, these voices and the stories invoke the cultural uniqueness that historically characterized this community. At the same time, these women recognize the transformations that have occurred in their lifetimes and over generations within their own families. Their stories also express their sense of loss and their efforts to recapture and pass down food traditions to their children and grandchildren.

 

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