Healing dramas and clinical plots (1998) is an ethnographic account by anthropologist, Cheryl Mattingly, of occupational therapists’ work in rehabilitation settings during the mid-1980s. She uses diverse sources to support her ideas from literary and narrative theory, phenomenology and hermeneutics, and anthropological perspectives on ritual and narrative. In doing so, she presents the rehabilitation process, and its clinical interactions, as a form of drama, adhering to a socially constructed narrative plot. She proposes that, if narrative (as has been suggested) reflects the lived experience, it does so through narrative drama rather than narrative cohesion. As an undergraduate, I came … [Read more...] about Blaise Doran – Healing dramas and clinical plots – 30DoS #19
Carley King – The sugar conspiracy – 30DoS #18
In this post, CPN member Carley King writes about Ian Leslie's article The Sugar Conspiracy. This “long read” article from the Guardian outlines how in 1972, John Yudkin raised concerns about sugar being the greatest danger to our health instead of fat. However, his research findings were ridiculed, and fat continued to be labelled as the likely cause of obesity and the numerous conditions associated with obesity. It outlines how the scientific community embraced a certain school of thought and disregarded any subsequent evidence that suggested otherwise, i.e. saturated fats are particularly bad for your health. It suggests that this tide of movement was predominantly driven by … [Read more...] about Carley King – The sugar conspiracy – 30DoS #18
Karen Yoshida – The normality of doing things differently – 30DoS #17
This book chapter is part of an important text within Canadian Disability Studies. Rethinking Normalcy: a disability studies reader edited by Tanya Titchkosky and Rod Michalko (2009). This is the first Canadian disability studies reader from a variety of interdisciplinary perspectives and draws on primary Canadian but also some international scholars. The critical perspectives in this book examine not only dominant views of disability but interrogate what is meant by normal. The specific chapter makes clear that different bodies, in different spaces engage in the world in various ways that are not seen as “normal” by abled-bodied conventions but are usual to those who see themselves as … [Read more...] about Karen Yoshida – The normality of doing things differently – 30DoS #17
Birgitte Ahlsen – The wounded storyteller – 30DoS #16
The wounded storyteller (1995/2013) has a strong position within the field of illness and health. In this book, Frank introduces the “remission society” concept, whose members include those who may be medically “cured” from illness, but “share the worries and daily triumph of staying well”. Drawing on Susan Sontag’s metaphor of two kingdoms; that of the well and that of the sick, the members of the remission society, Frank writes, are in between or secretly hidden among the healthy. Frank claims that their illness stories are more than accounts of personal suffering; they contain moral choices and social ethics. The book is perhaps most famous for the three typologies of illness narratives … [Read more...] about Birgitte Ahlsen – The wounded storyteller – 30DoS #16
Dave Nicholls – Discipline and punish – 30DoS #15
Discipline and Punish (1975) was Michel Foucault’s sixth book and it defined Foucault’s approach to what was called the history of ideas. D&P is concerned with the ways we have learnt – over many centuries – to govern people so that they do what we want without force. The book was hugely influential for historians, sociologists and philosophers and influenced a generation of critical thinkers in areas as diverse as architecture, health care and public policy. I first came across D&P when I was reading Foucault’s work for my PhD. Foucault’s explanations of the ways we have learnt to discipline our conduct to make people docile and compliant (especially observation and surveillance, … [Read more...] about Dave Nicholls – Discipline and punish – 30DoS #15
Fiona Moffatt – Thinking allowed – 30DoS #14
If you are new to the CPN or this 30 Day of September campaign, we run a month of daily posts on a different topic each year. This year we are focusing on ideas, articles, books, films, etc., that have inspired members of the Network. There will be a different post from a different CPN member each day until the end of the month. Thinking Allowed is a 30 minute, weekly radio discussion programme which focuses on the latest social science research as well as casting historical perspectives on the gurus of sociology and philosophy (for example a recent programme on the ideas and legacy of French Sociologist Pierre Bordieu http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07gg1kb ). The programme is hosted … [Read more...] about Fiona Moffatt – Thinking allowed – 30DoS #14
Thomas Abrams – Dis/Abling Practices – 30DoS #13
“Disabling Practices” applies a science and technology studies lens to Disability Studies and the sociology of blindness. Drawing on ethnographic work in the North of England, Schillmeier follows the disclosure of visual disability in currency use, how relations between human bodies and money technologies cause visual disability to emerge. The emphasis moves from problem bodies to problem relations. Dis/ability is not solely in bodies or in barriers—as the social or medical models would have it—but unfolds in the interaction between bodies, senses and things (the subtitle of Schillmeier, 2010, integrating this 2007 article). I first read Schillmeier’s work in my M.A. research, in … [Read more...] about Thomas Abrams – Dis/Abling Practices – 30DoS #13