One of our early projects, when we first established the Critical Physiotherapy Network, was to try to write a paper collaboratively. We sent out a call for contributors who would be interested in writing about a theme we thought crossed quite a lot of territories, and seven CPN members responded: Karen Atkinson, Wenche Bjorbækmo, Barbara Gibson, Julie Latchem, Jens Olesen, Jenny Ralls and Jenny Setchell. We set up a basic structure for the paper, and each person added ideas from their own area. The pieces were then slotted into place and the whole paper was then edited to make it coherent and provide a clear narrative structure.
The process was remarkably quick, taking only six months from initiation to submission. And today the paper became available online of the first time. Here’s the abstract:
Having spent their first century anchored to a biomedical model of practice, physiotherapists have been increasingly interested in exploring new models and concepts that will better equip them for serving the health-care needs of 21st century clients/patients. Connectivity offers one such model. With an extensive philosophical background in phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, structuralism, and postmodern research, connectivity resists the prevailing western biomedical view that health professionals should aim to increase people’s independence and autonomy, preferring instead to identify and amplify opportunities for collaboration and co-dependence. Connectivity critiques the normalization that underpins modern health care, arguing that our constant search for deviance is building stigma and discrimination into our everyday practice. It offers provocative opportunities for physiotherapists to rethink some of the fundamental tenets of their profession and better align physiotherapy with 21st century societal expectations. In this paper, we provide a background to the place connectivity may play in future health care, and most especially future physiotherapy practice. The paper examines some of the philosophical antecedents that have made connectivity an increasingly interesting and challenging concept in health care today.
We hope you enjoy the paper. We had a lot of fun writing it, and finding how easy it was to share the workload, collaborate and coordinate, we extended the idea to our new book; Critical Studies in Physiotherapy, which we hope to compile this year.
Finally, my first article in english is out: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17511321.2019.1694059
Maybe it is “too philosophical” for pure physiotherapists, but from my view the relevancy of phenomenology for physiotherapy – as mentioned in this article – has to be more precisely clarified to bring the real practical consequences. At least it pays off in my everyday physio practice, especially with patients with “cognitive impairments”.
Enjoy!
Fantastic work Petr. Congratulations.