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Lozi people living on the vast Zambezi (Barotse/Bulozi) floodplain in Western Province, Zambia, are experienced agriculturalists long adapted to seasonal patterns of flooding and drought. Compounded histories of colonialism, administrative disenfranchisement and neglect, extractive activities, and the concomitant reduction of territory and authority have impoverished the regional ecology and people. Increased climatic variability and other ecological challenges threaten Lozi ways of life, crops, and biodiversity more generally. Fish stock depletion is a major challenge reportedly partially caused by chemical contamination from insecticide treated mosquito nets used for fishing, other poison-based fishing methods, and from a Canadian mining company’s activities there. A Chinese construction company that built the bridge spanning the floodplain reportedly cultivated shrimp and snail species that threaten native fish populations. While seasonal fish bans are in place, their timing does not always correspond with traditional bans, and increased hunger (along with the impossibility of enforcement) renders such bans ineffective. In addition, some fish species have disappeared altogether. Biodiversity losses, which include water serpents deemed to be responsible for maintaining the structural integrity of the river, impact biopolitical life, cultural heritage and TEK. Appeals to UNESCO for Heritage status and WWF projects are underway and may confer some protection, however local suspicion remains due to prior agreement violations (with other bodies).

Liu, Jennifer. 2023. "Mapping otherwise?: weaving waterscape knowledges" In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

Place-making practices refer to the ways in which people create and define physical spaces as meaningful and significant through their everyday activities and social interactions.[1] In Ethnography, the study of these practices is often referred to as ‘ethnography as place-making,’ which involves the exploration of the cultural meanings and practices that shape the physical and social environments in which people live. This can include examining how people create and maintain social boundaries, how they express their identities and values through the built environment,[2] and how they negotiate power and control over the spaces they inhabit.

This place in Gröpelingen is made a place through the interaction of the people tending to the urban gardening project. 

1. Pink 2008, 178ff. 

2. See: urbanization 

3. Pink 2008, 190. 

The object of the study was to determine what cultural competence means across the relationships of patients, clinicians, and administrators. The study was performed to reveal the 'barriers' in patient care becasue of cultural implications. The lack of a patient-physcian relationship due to cultural barriers whether that be race or ethnicity, lack of explanation of a diagnosis or the differences in appraoches to patient care- as percieved by administration, patients and doctors.

The study is publiched on NCBI in a library of medicine for NIHM. On this database (original publisher could not be found- presumed to be in a medical journal, the author works for Columbia University) contains may important and valid articles that contain vital information for the future of mental and physical health of others. Publications in this database are natural and presumed to be credible because its association with NIHMS.

The study was perfomed by taking three groups of people from a diverse hospital in Brooklyn-patients, administrators and physicsans and asks them the same ballpark set of question about cultural competence. And how it affects a patient-physician relationship. This is not a new way of studying issues, case studies are quite a common way (in group questioning) to determine how "populations" feel about a topic.

This study has travelled via the definition of cultural competence on many academic and medical websites regarding psychological ideologies.

Technical professionals can make use of this study as a basis of how cultral competnce should be viewed in a healthcare workplace. TO determine the needs of the patients, physicians and higher ups use culture and their expertice to determine a proper patient-physician relationship.

The study addresses vulnerable populations by presiding in an area of high culture and diversity. The study participants were from all backround and genders, so teh study would not be biased.

The study was not funded it was on a volunteer basis, where particpiants would be paid for their time and information gathered would be used for the study.