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 … [Read more...] about ‘Connectivity: An emerging concept for physiotherapy practice’ available online
Wild bodies
Robert Macfarlane is currently one of the UK's best-loved non-fiction authors. His recent book Landmarks is a tour de force of physical and metaphorical walks through the landscape - literal and linguistic - of Britain's ancient physical language. In Landscapes Macfarlane writes about the word hoard that surrounds the 'islands, rivers, strands, fells, lochs, cities, towns, corries, hedgerows, fields and edgelands uneasily known as the British Isles.” (Link to The Guardian book review). I love Macfarlane's writing, not least because it's so physical. Reading a Macfarlane book is like an exploration into the language of the body and its interaction with the natural world. There are a … [Read more...] about Wild bodies
When was physiotherapy born?
I've recently been reading quite a lot of new historical writing around the early history of physiotherapy. Much of it has concentrated on the effect of the First World War on the profession in North America, Britain and the Antipodes, but I've also been reading Anders Ottosson's excellent, and provocative recent papers. Many of you will know of Anders's work, especially his paper The manipulated history of manipulations of spines and joints (pdf) and his thesis Sjukgymnasten - vart tog han vägen?: En undersökning av sjukgymnastyrkets maskulinisering och avmaskulinisering 1813-1934, which argue that physiotherapy originated with the mechano-therapy and medical gymnastics of Pehr Henrik … [Read more...] about When was physiotherapy born?