What would it be like to have a device osteointegrated into your skull to convert light into sound? Well now you can find out. There has been a lot of discussion of cyborg culture over the years and this piece from Sally Davis in the gorgeous on-line magazine/blog Nautilus (http://nautil.us/) is well worth a read. Cyborgs and the culture of the post-human is nothing new of course. In many ways physiotherapists have been involved for years in aids and adaptations that help people move and function. The key difference here is that post-human culture is getting people to move their thinking away from the use of technologies as adaptations to make up for some sort of loss, to … [Read more...] about Bodies-as-machines / post-humans / skull-candy
Zachariah A et al (2013) ‘Towards a critical medical practice: reflections on the dilemmas of medical culture today’
A recent book review for a book titled 'Towards a Critical Medical Practice: Reflections on the Dilemmas of Medical Culture Today' made me reflect on one of the prevailing questions facing physiotherapy in the 21st century. The review said this: The study of the postcolonial Indian healthcare system with its manifold sociocultural complexities and incongruities offers rich cross-cultural perspectives; the interplay between the legacies of colonialism and the shifting priorities of a vibrant but bureaucratically entrenched state apparatus reveals that it has over the decades succumbed to pressures from neo-liberalism and the free market, and that its initial commitments to providing care … [Read more...] about Zachariah A et al (2013) ‘Towards a critical medical practice: reflections on the dilemmas of medical culture today’
Dreyfus H & Kelly SD (2011) All things shining: reading the Western Classics to find meaning in a secular age. New York; Free Press
Over the southern hemisphere summer, when things go a bit quieter at Uni (and for those of you who think we all get 3 months holiday, let me tell you I had 20 minutes off on Christmas morning!) one of my favourite things to do is to read something big...something that's going to take my brain to the gymnasium in a way that endless emails just don't do. Two years ago I read Erin Manning's astonishing book 'Relationscapes' which is the work of an astonishing mind and still gives me goose-bumps. Last year I read Deleuze and Guattari's 'A Thousand Plateaus' (well I say I read it...I read a page or two then went for a lie down!) This year I've been prompted into thinking about philosophy … [Read more...] about Dreyfus H & Kelly SD (2011) All things shining: reading the Western Classics to find meaning in a secular age. New York; Free Press