Online Thursday 24th / Friday 25th October (see below for specific times in your region). We wanted to end the year with a review of this year's course, so all of this year's course leaders are back - barring Patty, who has a big research funding meeting - to review their material from this year and to begin a conversation about where to in 2020. We're really keen to hear what you've found useful and interesting, and also what you'd like us to focus on next year. So if you can come along and take part, we'd love to host you for our end-of-year party. As always, the session is free, all you need to do is click on the link below at the time of the meeting to listen … [Read more...] about Recapping this year’s online Critical Physiotherapy Course
The greatest show on (physiotherapy) earth
Only two weeks to go now until the greatest show on (physiotherapy) earth gets under way. WCPT Cape Town will be a smorgasbord of ideas, people, meetings, presentations, and inspiration, and the Critical Physiotherapy Network will be there in force. If you're attending the Congress and would like to find out more about the Network, you can pop into our Focused Symposium, which will be in Ballroom East on Monday 3rd July from 10:45-12:15pm. There, Barbara Gibson, Jenny Setchell, Viviana Silva, Mershen Pillay and I will be presenting some ideas about critical thinking in physiotherapy and discussing how physiotherapy might move forward from here. But the biggest CPN-specific event … [Read more...] about The greatest show on (physiotherapy) earth
Critical physiotherapy – best of the web update
Here are a few highlights from the web over the last couple of weeks that might be of interest. This Longform article Autobiography of a body tells a really powerful story of a young woman's struggle with sexuality and disability: "Grealy visited the Sex Maniacs’ Ball in London, an annual event hosted by the Outsiders, an organization that promotes sexual freedom for the disabled. There she discovered that her sexuality was “part of something I am, a state of being rather than a state of action. And that’s true whatever my body looks like from the outside.” This piece from The Washington Post, features Sam Tsemberis, a psychologist whose radical solution to the problem of … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy – best of the web update
Idea 27: We form our own faculty (2 mins)
Every day during September we will post up an idea for you to vote on. The most popular ideas will become the things that the inaugural Organizing Committee of the Critical Physiotherapy Network focuses on in 2015. So please make sure you cast your vote at the bottom of each post. If you've ever visited the European Graduate School website you'll know what an impressive organisation it is. It's faculty is made up some of the world's most prominent thinkers and opinion-shapers (Alain Badiou, Jean Baudrillard, Judith Butler...and that's just the 'B's'!). The school runs residential courses and delivers a lot of video content for free to a global audience to shape opinion on … [Read more...] about Idea 27: We form our own faculty (2 mins)
Being really critical about thinking
Because physiotherapy is so grounded in the biomedical sciences, most undergraduate students (and a fair few postgrads) tend to think that critical thinking is about the ability to analyze a research paper. At best this can result in a deep appreciation for the evidence that presently exists for a phenomenon, at worst the students follow a formulaic process to arrive at a score that is as predictable as it is banal. There is, however, another side to critical theory - a world of research and scholarship that these students are rarely, if ever, exposed to - the kinds of thinking that is commonplace in the arts, humanities, philosophy and sociology. I spend quite a lot of time in this … [Read more...] about Being really critical about thinking
Blank H (2012) The surprisingly short history of heterosexuality. Beacon Press
I did some research into the writings of Hanne Blank, the author of 'Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Sexuality,' see this brief interview with Thomas Rogers at Salon. I realised that there are some surprising and interesting links between Hanne's work and the history of physiotherapy. Firstly, Blank reminds us that heterosexuality was a social construct invented to normalise sexuality at a time when late-Victorian anxieties imposed some now taken-for-granted, but no less draconian notions of 'normal' sexuality. This was exactly the time when physiotherapy as a profession was being formalised. Normative values around (hetero)sexuality were pivotal to the founders of … [Read more...] about Blank H (2012) The surprisingly short history of heterosexuality. Beacon Press