Exploring new frontiers of knowledge in nursing science for a just planetary order

It is an honour to have served on the International Advisory Board of Nursing Inquiry over the past 30 years, and to have worked with the Founding Editor, Professor Judith Parker, and later, Professors Sioban Nelson and Sally Thorne. The first issue of the journal (1994) has remained among my treasured possessions. In looking back at the letters from the International Advisory Board, I wrote, “I believe that not only will this journal make an important contribution to nursing scholarship, but also, it will provide a forum for dialogue among nurses from around the world” (p. 2). Nursing Inquiry has not only fulfilled what I had wished for; it has surpassed all expectations. The need for a forum for rigorous dialogue in our discipline has never been greater. The challenges that face us are daunting. According to the 2022 UN Report on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),1 “[t]he confluence of crises, dominated by COVID-19, climate change, and conflicts, are creating spin-off impacts on food and nutrition, health, education, the environment, and peace and security, and affecting all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Report details the reversal of years of progress in eradicating poverty and hunger, improving health and education, providing basic services, and much more” (United Nations, 2022a). At the time of writing this Commentary, leaders from around the globe were convening at the 27th Climate Change Conference (COP 27) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, at the 2022 G20 Bali Summit, and at the APEC 2022 Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, to address the aforementioned issues. The health of populations and of the planet were themes that resonated throughout the various forums. Reflections on these deliberations prompt us to conceptualize the intersections of the varied and complex determinants of health and well-being, not only at local and national levels, but also, globally, and to think through the implications for our discipline and our clinical practice. The challenges that confront us now, daunting as they might be, provide an opportunity to explore new frontiers of knowledge. Nursing Inquiry, from its inception in 1994, has been on the cutting edge of nursing science and the development of new knowledges. The Editors have never shied away from encouraging the exploration of theoretical perspectives that illuminate the issues of a particular historical moment, and that were not popularized in the nursing literature at that time. For example, this journal provided a space for me to delve into a genre of critical inquiry—a postcolonial feminist scholarship—and to take up ideas from Black feminist scholarship (Anderson, 2000a, 2000b, 2004), as I sought to understand and interpret the varied experiences of those who, in Homi Bhabha's words, “have suffered the sentence of history—subjugation, domination, diaspora, displacement” (1994, p. 172). The ideas from Black Feminist scholarship helped me to articulate, more clearly, the intersecting factors that needed to be considered in analysis. As I said then, The importance of an intersecting analysis inclusive of gender, class, “race” and other social relations is by no means new to nursing scholarship, but perhaps nowhere is the explication of this kind of analysis more elegantly articulated than in the work of scholars such as Collins (1990), and Brewer (1993). They have opened up a paradigm for thinking about intersectionalities and interlocking systems of oppression, by exposing the problems of dichotomous thinking (black/white; man/woman), where privilege becomes defined in relation to its other…. Collins and Brewer provide a window into a multilayered analysis that illuminates how racialized, classed and gendered identities, among others, determine the social and material conditions of people's lives (Anderson, 2004, p. 243). I emphasized, at that time, that I was “not suggesting doing research to appropriate women's voices and knowledge for the sole purpose of enriching nursing scholarship. Rather, an infusion of subjugated knowledges2 into the theories we draw on in practice is necessary if we are to fulfill our mandate within pluralistic societies—a mandate, I believe, that must embrace equity and social justice for all” (Anderson, 2000a, p. 145). Such theorizing, which is neither static, nor an end in itself in a practice discipline, helped me to understand the social, historical, and economic context of health, illness and suffering, and the systemic and structural constraints to human agency. The construction of critical knowledges through these forms of inquiry—which are always partial and incomplete—begin to lay a groundwork for decolonizing praxis, and the charting of a path towards a more socially just health and social infrastructure, equitable health care, health and healing. Alongside the issues that prompted me to pursue critical inquiry theorizing, the impact of climate change and the call for climate justice have come into sharp focus over the past 10–15 years. We know, for example, that climate change is having devastating consequences for humans and other living species, and for the natural environment. Those who inhabit the poorer nations of the world, and those who live on the margins within wealthy nations, are at greatest risk in extreme weather conditions. Praxis-oriented action will require a great deal of political engagement to bring about structural and systemic changes that recognize not only the rights of humans, but also, the Rights of Nature. We will need to be unified in holding governments to account in addressing issues of poverty within wealthy nations, and also, in meeting the commitments that were made at the COP 27 conference (United Nations Climate Action, 2022) in relation to guaranteed funding for the irreversible climate harms to the countries that are most vulnerable, and have suffered most from climate change. As we reflect on the social justice mandate of our discipline, we are reminded by the philosopher Martha Nussbaum (2019) “that there is no coherent way of separating duties of justice from duties of material aid” (pp. 236–237). The different genres of critical theorizing that inform our discipline ought to be responsive to an ever-changing global environment that affects the material needs, and health and well-being of people and the planet. A just planetary order, it might be argued, would include an equitable distribution of material goods to end poverty, one of the 17 UN's SDGs, which we know is a major social determinant of health. All this requires a shared responsibility for justice as we continue to grapple with the cogent question posed by Mbembe and Posel (2005) some years ago, “what are the obligations and responsibilities which a democracy requires of its citizens, as much as of its state?” (p. 284). The late Iris Marion Young (2011) illustrated through her writing how each one of us engages in creating social structures—including the unjust ones—albeit unwittingly. In her social connection model of responsibility she argues “that all those who contribute by their actions to structural processes with some unjust outcomes share responsibility for the injustice” (p. 96). Over the past years, as I have sought to work through some of these conceptual issues, I have found Young's writings especially illuminating. Take this quote, for example: This responsibility is not primarily backward-looking, as the attribution of guilt or fault is, but rather primarily forward-looking. Being responsible in relation to structural injustice means that one has an obligation to join with others who share that responsibility in order to transform the structural processes to make their outcomes less unjust [Italics added] (p. 96). Engagement in transformative action requires depth and breadth of knowledge. For example, it means delving into history, and historical acknowledgment, and thinking critically about the processes that have shaped, and continue to shape, our institutions; it means critical self-reflection on our actions that have, unwittingly, sustained the structures we critique. It also means extending the boundaries of our disciplinary knowledge to embrace interdisciplinary knowledges that illuminate the interdependence of life on this fragile planet. Such understanding might enable us to move towards a more socially and planetary just future, and to more equitable health and health care for all. Finally, I would like to express my thanks to Professor Sally Thorne for inviting this commentary, and for providing valuable editorial comments. Her invitation prompted me to revisit my earlier theorizing in this journal, and to reflect on my journey into late scholarship. There were many mentors along the way to whom I am indebted. I am deeply grateful to have had the opportunity to engage with a community of scholars committed to exploring new knowledge to advance our discipline, and our practice. Nursing Inquiry is strategically positioned to continue on its groundbreaking pathway into new frontiers of knowledge well beyond the next 30 years.

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