title: Theory and Practice Creating Conditions Conducive to Wellbeing in Human Systems
Creators: name: Marshall, Stephen Roger
Publisher: name: Griffith University
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Wellbeing
subject: Human systems
subject: Theory and development
subject: Framework
subject: Theoretical bricolage

description: This study investigates how to assist in the enhancement of wellbeing in human systems. That is, the systems and sub-systems that each individual person is comprised of, together with the social settings in which they live their lives. Answers to three consequent questions are sought: (a) What conditions are conducive to enhancement of wellbeing in human systems at the personal and interpersonal micro levels, and at the more macro community level? (b) What are the factors that inhibit and enable the creation of these conditions? (c) What practices can be adopted to respectively mitigate and nurture these inhibiting and enabling factors in order to assist in enhancing wellbeing? The central feature of the study is the assembly of the Framework for Wellbeing through a process of theoretical bricolage (Denzin &amp; Lincoln, 2000b; Kincheloe, 2005). Strands of previously verified theory are brought together: ecological theory of human development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979); interpersonal neurobiology (Siegel, 2012a, 2012b); the theory of power and practices (Bourdieu, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1990b; Bourdieu &amp; Wacquant, 1992) and the theories of knowledge constitutive interests and communicative action (Habermas, 1978, 1987, 1988). Each of these strands can be argued to have made outstanding contributions in their own right to understanding human nature. When considered in relation to each other, they complement and synergise with each other to form a new knowledge object in the form of a set of higher theoretical ideas that can be used to inform practice in assisting people to enhance the wellbeing of themselves and those with whom they share their lives. A set of theoretical propositions which articulates features that will be evident in practice consistent with the theory of the Framework is presented. The key ideas captured in these propositions are: (a) that it is harmony, as opposed to chaos and/or rigidity, in the patterns of the flow of energy through human systems that leads to wellbeing and that the probability of such patterns emerging is enhanced by processes of integration in the system (Siegel, 2012a, 2012b); (b) that the key factor that enables or inhibits integration is the distribution of capital in the system which is in turn influenced by the habitus of individual elements of the system and the prevailing doxa in the various fields of the system (Bourdieu, 1977, 1984, 1986, 1990b); (c) that the most effective way to assist in enhancing wellbeing in human systems is through initiatives that involve educational approaches which adopt an emancipatory orientation to knowledge to promote critical self-reflection and communicative action in order to challenge the habitus of individuals and the doxa of the fields in which they live their lives, and thus to promote change in the way in which capital is distributed in the system (Bourdieu &amp; Wacquant, 1992; Habermas, 1978, 1987). The overarching method adopted in this research is case study which applies analytic logic, as espoused by Yin (2014). The propositions drawn from the Framework of Wellbeing are tested and refined in the context of two cases. The first is focused upon the private sphere of people’s lives, that is, helping people to manage their own cognitive, emotional and behavioural processes and their proximal relationships with others in their everyday lives. It is a study of KNIT (Knowledge, Networking, Intervention and Training), a voluntary community education program that is an initiative of the Logan East Community Neighbourhood Association in Logan City, Queensland, Australia. A desire to understand KNIT and its positive impact on people’s lives was the starting point for the development of the theoretical framework. The second study is set in the public sphere of communal life. It is a comparative study of two significant whole of community initiatives to enhance wellbeing in Logan City: the Logan Together collective impact initiative; and, the Queensland Community Alliance – Logan relational community organising initiative. In each of these studies the author positions himself as a participant researcher thinking as a bricoleur. A comprehensive analysis of the researcher’s “inquiry paradigm” (Guba &amp; Lincoln, 2004, p.21) is presented which explains the axiology, ontology, epistemology and methodological assumptions underpinning this approach and considers some of the challenges it poses. The purpose of each study is not only to corroborate and further verify the veracity of the theoretical framework, but also to explore the relevance of the propositional knowledge (Heron &amp; Reason, 1997) of the theory to developing practical knowledge(Heron &amp; Reason, 1997) of a higher level which can be deployed by human service practitioners to assist people to enhance their wellbeing. The key findings of the study are: (a) that the practice in the case study initiatives, which have records of success, are consistent with and thus verify the theory of the Framework for Wellbeing; (b) that the theory of the Framework can be used to critique and improve the practice of the initiatives; (c) that elements of the practice adopted in the initiatives investigated in each of the case studies could be usefully deployed in the initiatives in the other cases in order to make them more consistent with the theory of the Framework and thus to enhance their efficacy. Ways in which the research undertaken to date can be built upon and extended are suggested in relation to further testing of both the theory of the Framework for Wellbeing and the efficacy of the case study initiatives.