Part 7 - Philosophy and the place of research methods Now we get to the heart of one of the most contentious issues in QHR. If you’ve followed the series so far, we’ve covered a lot of ground: sampling, generalisability, voice, and the ‘emic’ perspective, but we’re mining the motherlode now when we talk about the place of philosophy and methods in QHR. So let’s be clear from the outset, QHR places far too much emphasis on research methods and nowhere near enough on philosophy. Anchoring a qualitative study in philosophy is perhaps the most valuable thing you can do to a research study. Firstly, it guides every step of the process - every aim, and every question you pose of the … [Read more...] about Qualitative Health Research – A guide for the perplexed
Resources for 7th Critical Physiotherapy Course
Here you can find all of the resources for the 7th critical physiotherapy course given by Filip Maric on the Fundamental violence of physiotherapy. Link to the presentation slides for the talk. … [Read more...] about Resources for 7th Critical Physiotherapy Course
The 7th and final talk in this year’s Critical Physiotherapy Course is next week
The Fundamental Violence of Physiotherapy with Filip Maric Zoom link for the meeting: https://aut.zoom.us/j/622770935 Abstract This online session builds on the eponymous article and will discuss The fundamental violence of physiotherapy: Emmanuel Levinas’s critique of ontology and its implications for physiotherapy theory and practice. Ontology and epistemology are generally thought to be the fundamental building blocks of any theory and practice. Levinas’s critique acutely highlights a significant problem that underpins both of these areas of philosophical inquiry and their understanding and positioning as fundamental. Applied to physiotherapy, this critique … [Read more...] about The 7th and final talk in this year’s Critical Physiotherapy Course is next week
Critique of the biomedical model #3 (or what it really means to be a person)
Physiotherapy, and biomedicine generally, owes a lot to René Descartes (for a refresher on an earlier post on the critical issue of Cartesian Dualism in PT, go here). But Descartes’ influence extends much further than just the body-as-machine, and has fundamentally shaped medicine and physiotherapy practice ethics for more than 100 years. 400 years ago, Descartes set out to discover what could be known beyond doubt. His method was to doubt everything, from the existence of physical objects around him, to dreams and ideas. What was left, he surmised, would be the basis upon which all knowledge could be built. The first thing Descartes believed he could trust was that he himself was … [Read more...] about Critique of the biomedical model #3 (or what it really means to be a person)
The 5th critical physiotherapy course is next week: Tobba Sudmann on ‘How to understand disability’
The 5th in our 2019 series of Critical Physiotherapy Courses will be led by Tobba Sudmann, Physiotherapist and Professor of Public Health at the Centre for Care Research, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. The session is titled 'How to understand disability? On the making of disability though discourse, materiality and practice'. 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 in. Zoom link: https://aut.zoom.us/j/408228596 Abstract This session will show how the phenomenon ‘disability’ is created through our modern history and our ways or ordering and doing ability and disability. The online … [Read more...] about The 5th critical physiotherapy course is next week: Tobba Sudmann on ‘How to understand disability’
I and You
“Without this mind-set, which Buber called “I-It,” there would be no science, economics, or politics. But, the more we engage in such thinking, the farther we drift from “I-You,” his term for addressing other people directly as partners in dialogue and relationship. Only when we say “You” to the world do we perceive its miraculous strangeness and, at the same time, its potential for intimacy. Indeed, it’s not only human beings who deserve to be called “You.” As Buber wrote, even a cat or a piece of mica can summon up in us the feeling of a genuine encounter with another: “When something does emerge from among things, something living, and becomes a being for me . . . it is for me nothing but … [Read more...] about I and You
What is the biomedical model #3
Over the last few weeks, we’ve been running a series of blog posts on the biomedical model. Biomedicine is, without doubt, one of the most powerful discourse affecting the way physiotherapists think and practice, but it is also rarely explained or explored. So over the next few blog posts I’ll be unpacking its essential features. The first two posts in the series focused on specific aetiology and germ theory. In this post, we’re going to tackle Cartesian Dualism. Cartesian Dualism gets it’s name from the work of the French skeptical philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) who, perhaps more than anyone, captured the zeitgeist of the Renaissance by defining a distinction between the mind … [Read more...] about What is the biomedical model #3