Lisa J. Hardy – författare

The Inequality of COVID-19: Immediate Health Communication, Governance and Response in Four Indigenous Regions explores the use of information, communication technologies (ICTs) and longer-term guidelines, directives and general policy initiatives. The cases document implications of the failure of various governments to establish robust policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in a sample of advanced and low-income countries. Because the global institutions charged with managing the COVID-19 crisis did not work in harmony, the results have been devastating. The four Indigenous communities selected were the Navajo of the southwest United States, Siddi people in India, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia and the Maasai in East Africa.

Although these are all diverse communities, spread across different continents, their base economic oppression and survival from colonial violence is a common denominator in hypothesizing the public health management outcomes. However, the research reveals that national leadership and other incoherent pandemic mitigation policies account for a significant amount of the devastation caused in these communities.

Community Engagement Through Collaborative Writing: Storytelling Together is designed to support scholars and communities storytelling together to reach multiple audiences and facilitate social change.

Social scientists, public health practitioners, community leaders, and others recognize that there can be no forward movement in addressing the problems and inequalities facing the world today without collaboration across interdisciplinary, multisectoral, geographic, and socioeconomic divides. The book uses real-world experiences to guide individuals and groups through a process of identifying the knowledge they have and sharing that knowledge through various genres. This process includes identifying and honoring different forms of knowledge, not just academic research and training. Combining the principles of trust and collaboration with practical tools, the chapters contain discussions, examples, and instruments for working together across divides toward a common goal of telling stories together.

Community Engagement Through Collaborative Writing: Storytelling Together is a valuable resource for applied anthropologists and other social scientists doing community-engaged work for research methods courses and for fields such as public health and education.