Healing Communities: PhD thesis

Overview

Title: Healing Communities. What if we collectively had the capacity to overcome any crisis in a matter of days? A method for teams of teams to: listen to each other, agree on priorities, put in commons resources, create few but essential and freely adaptable solutions.

Author: Fabio Balli

Supervisors

• Marguerite Mendell, social economy
• Warren Linds, arts-based participatory research
• Satoshi Ikeda, political sociology
• Philippe Caignon, experiential learning (chair)

Institution: Concordia University, Tiohtià:ke / Montreal, Canada

Programme: Individualised PhD in Social Science, a program "to promote innovative and creative approaches to issues that are outside the normal boundaries of investigation"

Methodology: creation-as-research, that is "the elaboration of projects where creation is required in order for research to emerge. [...] The ‘results’ produced also include the creative production that is entailed, as both a tracing-out and culminating expression of the research process. [...] Knowledge is produced as creative work, and not simply through their analysis and interpretation. It is in this sense that such creative work can be understood as a strong form of intervention, contributing to knowledge in a profoundly different way from the academic norm”.

Ethics: participatory action research ethics, that is the duty, as a privileged person, to generate positive collective value for society.

Funding: Concordia University (67 KC$), Quebec bursaries (TBD) – see value accounting regarding project funding.

Structure of the thesis

Part	Chapter
I. Introduction	1. Journey to the PhD 2. Research context and methodologies 3. Some theory on the commons
II. Breathing freely: creation-as-research	4. Commoning across disciplines 5. Commoning across territories 6. Commoning across commons
III. Four levers for solidarity-driven ecosystems	7. Bringing diverse people together for ludic events to overcome loneliness 8. Generating collective value to overcome material scarcity 9. Facilitating agreements across teams of teams to overcome power plays 10. Revisiting collective narratives to break free from self-servitude
IV. How thousands people could end misery within weeks	11. Festival ’taking care together’ 12. Translating Wikipedia in 80 hours: the Captcha example 13. Solving collective crises within hours 14. Applications to regain joy in our daily lives
V. Closing and references	15. Bridge to the future References

Key outcomes

Synthesis

• Pre-print abstract
• 3-minute video (open archive)

Creation

• Breathing Games
  • Website
  • Videos of co-creation
  • Repository of source codes and designs
  • Synthesis: Balli et al. Open-source games for health, multiplayer and gamepads. Co-creating fun care with children with asthma, young adults with cystic fibrosis, elders with COPD. General meeting of the Global Alliance against chronic Respiratory Diseases 2020-2021. Zenodo 2021.
• Festival 'taking care together'
  • Website
  • Videos of co-creation
  • Synthesis: Balli. Preserving our health: a common heritage [IN REVIEW].

Research

Book chapters

• Balli, Gingras. Cinq leviers pour révolutionner la recherche et l’enseignement supérieur. In Pérusse et al. L’université du XXI^e siècle : enjeux, défis et prospectives. Acfas 2020.
• Bousquet et al. Asthma in the digital world [CLOSED]. In Nadif. Asthma in the 21st Century. Elsevier 2023.
• Wu et al. Mobile applications and wearables for chronic respiratory disease monitoring. In Gomez et al. Precision in Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine. Springer 2020.

Articles

• Balli. Game jams to co-create respiratory health games prototypes as Participatory Research methodology. Forum: Qualitative Social Research 2018; 19(3).
• Balli. Developing digital games to address airway clearance therapy in children with cystic fibrosis: Participatory design process. JMIR Serious Games 2018; 6(4).
• Balli F. Quand l'autorité reconnaît la sagesse du groupe :  principes pédagogiques pour s’accorder et mettre en communs nos connaissances face aux défis de société [IN REVIEW].
• Balli F. The Nurturing Child: Rethinking collective narratives and solidarity through TA and Giftedness [IN REVIEW].
• Balli, Carpentier. Health and law-making: collectively re-creating narratives. In Haller, Soliev. Commons and Policy: Compilation of Inputs and Reflections – IASC Europe and CIS Colloquium Series 2022. Zenodo 2023.
• Balli, Lebel. Éditorial : les savoirs en partage. Acfas Magazine 2019.
• Balli, Roy. Collaborer et publier avec des logiciels libres. Acfas Magazine 2019.
• Chelabi et al. Validation of a portable game controller to assess peak expiratory flow against conventional spirometry in children: Cross-sectional study. JMIR Serious Games 2020; 9(1).
• Maheu-Cadotte et al. Effectiveness of serious games and impact of design elements on engagement and educational outcomes in healthcare professionals and students: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. BMJ Open 2018; 8.
• Silva-Lavigne et al. Acceptability of serious games in pediatric asthma education and self-management: a pilot study. JMIR Pediatrics and Parenting 2022; 5(2).
• Valderrama et al. When thousands of citizens innovate: how policy-makers can contribute. Canadian Science Policy Center 2020.

Other communications

• Go to www.fabioballi.net/publications

Timeline

Period	Focus	Detail	Research project
1 Sept 2015	Preparation	Meetings with supervisors to build my committee.
16 Sept 2015	Application	Application submitted. →	v1. Question: How does personal growth (emerging group regulation) and collaborative production (peer work released under commons licence) affect individuals in their optimal experience (flow) and autonomy, and organizations in their integrity and societal impact?
20 Nov 2015	Admission	Admitted in MA as previous graduate studies are not acknowledged as research with option to fast-track and have credits transfered after courses are done.
Jan 2016 to Aug 2017	Coursework MA and research	Global futures Social economy and impact (commons) Experiential learning Participatory action research Participatory design of games for health Mixed studies reviews (at McGill University)
13 April 2017	Fast-track	Request to shift from MA to PhD. →	v2. Refocus on Breathing Games. Question: How can co-created and freely adaptable games and devices for respiratory health help prevent, recognize, diagnose and treat chronic respiratory diseases at individual, local and international scales? How does the structure of the commons evolve over time? How does the experience of commoners evolve over time? How many individuals use the games/hardware and how (ludic experience, knowledge acquired, health practice)? What are the data gathered throughout the commons and how do they inform about health outcomes?
15 June 2017	Admission	Admitted to the PhD.
05 Sep 2017	Conversion	3 of 19 MA credits recognized for the PhD.
Sept 2017 to March 2018	Coursework PhD and research	Money, distributed data, and Commons Distributed governance of health commons University teaching: conception of a MOOC Participatory research and games for health Applied ethics Applied mixed methods in health research (at McGill University) Adv. mixed methods seminar health research (at McGill University) Global health delivery (based on Harvard University course)
5 Oct 2020	Comprehensive exam	Five questions on the growing presence of the commons in the dominant economic paradigm, problems related to the medical system, how health commons can address these issues; how to empower participants, and what methodologies help achieve positive outcomes. ▶ Chapters 3, 13
5 Nov 2020	Feedback	Committee input on the comprehensive exam.
April 2017 to Feb 2021	Research
28 Feb 2021	Research proposal	Summission of my research proposal. →	v3. Review of the realizations done, connecting the dots. Thesis structured in three parts: Co-creation of libre games and controller for children with asthma; International deployment of a health commons; Large-scale cooperation. ▶ Chapters 4, 5, 6
	Feedback	Committee input on the research proposal.
Feb 2021 to July 2021	Research		v4. Inclusion of context and research journey. ▶ Chapters 1, 2
15 July 2021	Pre-submission 1	Thesis submission to the committee for review.
3 Aug 2021	Feedback	Committee input on thesis.
Aug 2023 to Feb 2023	Research		v5. Integration of the research journey chapter throughout the thesis. New critical reflection part building on ongoing articles. Inclusion of taking care together festival. Closing added. ▶ Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 14
8 Jan 2023	Pre-submission 2	Thesis submission to the committee for review.
27 Jan 2023	Feedback	Committee input on thesis.	v6. Inclusion of captcha example, review of closing. ▶ Chapters 12, 15
11 Feb 2023	Submission	Initial thesis submission to Concordia.
Feb 2023 to June 2023	Copyediting
June 2023 ?	Defence
Aug 2023 ?	Final submission	Publication under CC BY-SA licence in editable LaTex format.