{"id":1876,"date":"2025-05-25T15:21:01","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T19:21:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sta.uwi.edu\/principal\/?p=1876"},"modified":"2025-06-24T14:24:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-24T18:24:23","slug":"towards-social-solidarity-and-justice-a-call-not-so-far-fetched-by-dr-talia-esnard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sta.uwi.edu\/principal\/towards-social-solidarity-and-justice-a-call-not-so-far-fetched-by-dr-talia-esnard\/","title":{"rendered":"Towards social solidarity and justice: A call not so far-fetched by Dr Talia Esnard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has opened the door for many new ways of communicating and relating as a people and as a region. Yet, this pandemic has also unmasked some of the many inequalities that continue to disadvantage some while benefitting others. If anything, the pandemic has signalled to us that we cannot continue to minimalise the importance of the \u201csocial\u201d nor to engage in the treatment of symptoms without grounding our actions within an understanding of the complex ways in which social currents underpin structural, cultural and psychological outcomes.<\/p>\n<p>Though we must acknowledge that many aspects of our social lives are continually enhanced, we must also take to task the still too many concerns from specific groups of workers, such as women, mothers, migrant farmers, and persons with disabilities, who are differently positioned within the social structure and relations of our societies. The urgency of this call to action is within the ongoing struggles for decent work, gender equity, equitable access to resources, and with the potential for personal and professional growth.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond all of these contestations, there is a clear need for action that challenges ongoing expressions of indifference and inequality. The Social Sciences offer many fields through which we can locate and address these concerns. Of note, for example, is a line of research within sociology that recognises the need to work through communities and institutions as sites of social justice action. This approach to building solidarity demands that we think through the systems, practices, and values that can be embraced and actioned to ensure that these goals of leading a fair and just society materialise. This line of thinking also pushes one to consider the value of disruption and subversion within social justice agendas. Disruption, however, does not necessarily translate into violence but can be strategically and culturally achieved through meaningful and collective social action that redistributes and enhances relational systems.<\/p>\n<p>While this may seem somewhat of a tall order, there are many vantage points at more micro levels from which we can learn and grow. We can all learn from some of the longstanding cultural practices of Indigenous peoples and those of their descendants who work through principles of cooperation and collective labour to ensure the general well-being of all. In Tobago, we are familiar with <em>gayap<\/em> as a socio-cultural framework or practice of solidarity and sustainability of persons within a community. The same is true in St. Lucia, where this cultural practice is referred to as <em>Koudmen,<\/em> and in Dominica, where it is referenced as <em>Koudnet <\/em>and used to reclaim the value of a community. These have also been used to cultivate social attentiveness and reciprocity that build critical safety nets.<\/p>\n<p>We can also grow from the scaling up of such self-help or organising systems to support those who are most disadvantaged across institutions. This type of collective action can be formally and loosely developed based on specific events, goals or situations as they arise and resonate with members of the group. Informally, for example, colleagues across the social sciences and humanities within The University of the West Indies (The UWI) explore the idea of a <em>Koudmen<\/em> as a practice of care and support for early career scholars. Beyond the writing and the researching, this type of engagement also allows for organic moments of sharing and working through the struggles, milestones and achievements. These moments represent the building of social and community capital where one can harness the connections and cultural assets, whether defined as linguistic, aspirational, familial, or navigational, using Tara Yosso\u2019s notion of community cultural wealth as a point of reference. Formally, we are actively working within the Department of Behavioural Sciences (UWI) to build collaborative structures through research clusters, inter-disciplinary professional development training programmes, and the strengthening of public-private partnerships to address some of the burning challenges that we face as a society.<\/p>\n<p>These practices, though always a work in progress, represent a way of humanising workspaces, institutions, and relations to leverage ties that bind and build self and others. While we are increasingly moving away from some of our culturally sustaining heritage, there are many lessons that we can take forward and action into tangible social justice interventions.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1877\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1877\" class=\"wp-image-1877\" src=\"https:\/\/sta.uwi.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/19\/2025\/06\/Talia-Esnard.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"369\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1877\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dr Talia Esnard<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Talia Esnard (PhD) is a sociologist, Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Behavioural Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St Augustine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has opened the door for many new ways of communicating and relating as a people and as a region. Yet, this pandemic has also unmasked some of the many inequalities that continue to disadvantage some while benefitting others. If anything, the pandemic has signalled to us that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":1926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uwi-scientists-speaks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Towards social solidarity and justice: A call not so far-fetched by Dr Talia Esnard - Office of the Campus Principal<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sta.uwi.edu\/principal\/towards-social-solidarity-and-justice-a-call-not-so-far-fetched-by-dr-talia-esnard\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Towards social solidarity and justice: A call not so far-fetched by Dr Talia Esnard - Office of the Campus Principal\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is no doubt that the COVID-19 pandemic has opened the door for many new ways of communicating and relating as a people and as a region. 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