Books by Michael C. Brannigan

Japan's March 11, 2011 triple horror of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown is its worst catastrophe since Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Recovery remains an ongoing ordeal. Japans Responses to the March 2011 Disaster: Our Inescapable In-between uncovers the pivotal role of longstanding cultural worldviews and their impact on responses to this gut-wrenching disaster. Through unpacking the pivotal notion in Japanese ethics of aidagara, or ';in-betweenness,' it offers testament to a deep-rooted sense of community. Accounts from survivors, victims' families, key city officials, and volunteers reveal a remarkable fiber of moral grit and resilience that sustains Japan's common struggle to rally and carve a future with promise and hope.Calamities snatch us out of the mundane and throw us into the intensity of the moment. They challenge our moral fiber. Trauma, individual and collective, is the uninvited litmus test of character, personal and social. Ultimately, whether a society rightfully recovers from disaster has to do with its degree of connectedness, the embodied physical, interpersonal, face-to-face engagement we have with each other. As these stories bring to light, along with Michael Brannigan's extensive research, personal encounters with survivors, and experience as a volunteer in Japan's stricken areas, our degree of connectedness determines how we in the long run weather the storm, whether the storm is natural, technological, or human. Ultimately, it illustrates that how we respond to and recover after the storm hinges upon how we are with each other before the storm.

Healthcare in the U.S. faces two interpenetrating certainties. First, with over 66 racial and ethnic groupings, our ';American Mosaic' of worldviews and values unavoidably generates clashes in hospitals and clinics. Second, our public increasingly mistrusts our healthcare system and delivery. One certainty fuels the other. Conflicts in the clinical encounter, particularly with patients from other cultures, often challenge dominant assumptions of morally appropriate principles and behavior. In turn, lack of understanding, misinterpretation, stereotyping, and outright discrimination result in poor health outcomes, compounding further mistrust.To address these cultural fault lines, healthcare institutions have initiated efforts to ensure ';cultural competence.' Yet, these efforts become institutional window-dressing without tackling deeper issues, issues having to do with attitudes, understanding, and, most importantly, ways we communicate with patients. These deeper issues reflect a fundamental, original fault line: the ever-widening gap between serving our own interests while disregarding the concerns of more vulnerable patients, those on the margins, those Others who remain disenfranchised because they are Other. This book examines this and how we must become the voice for these Others whose vulnerability and suffering are palpable. The author argues that, as a vital and necessary condition for cultural competency, we must learn to cultivate the virtue of Presence - of genuinely being there with our patients. Cultural competency is less a matter of acquiring knowledge of other cultures. Cultural competency demands as a prerequisite for all patients, not just for those who seem different, genuine embodied Presence.Genuine, interpersonal, embodied presence is especially crucial in our screen-centric and Facebook world where interaction is mediated through technologies rather than through authentic face-to-face engagement. This is sadly apparent in healthcare, where we have replaced interpersonal care with technological intervention. Indeed, we are all potential patients. When we become ill, we too will most likely assume roles of vulnerability. We too may feel as invisible as those on the margins. These are not armchair reflections. Brannigan's incisive analysis comes from his scholarship in healthcare and intercultural ethics, along with his longstanding clinical experience in numerous healthcare settings with patients, their families, and healthcare professionals.

Striking a Balance: A Primer in Traditional Asian Values offers a lucid, thoughtful, and thoroughly engaging review of the major ethical teachings in the dominant Asian traditions. Michael C. Brannigan applies his extensive background and scholarship to craft a concise yet comprehensive introduction to Asian ethics covering the long-standing traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, Zen Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. He does this through the skillful use of narratives from classical and contemporary Asian literature. Moreover, he demonstrates that, despite differences, these traditions share a unifying theme in their principal ethical teachings - cultivating balance is the fundamental building block for inner harmony, moral activity, and a just society. Through historical overview and discussion of essential ethical themes, Striking Balance presents the rich texture of traditional Asian moral teachings in ways that are appealing, instructive, and enlightening. The work presupposes no prior knowledge of ethics or of Asian traditions and is ideal for all who are interested in learning more about Asian cultures and moral teachings. It is also an invaluable text for students at the introductory as well as upper levels in ethics, Asian studies, philosophy, religion, and humanities.