I'm doing a talk on Monday to my School on qualitative research, and my big theme is that qualitative research far too much qualitative research is saying far too little. Ideas, theory and philosophy are being squeezed out by an unhealthy concern for research methods. This point is made far more elegantly here which, if I'd had it when I was writing my talk, would have saved me a lot of time. http://chronicle.com/article/Neuroscience-Is-Ruining-the/150141/ … [Read more...] about The shrinking world of ideas
Critical physiotherapy curios – updates, ideas and new postings
Research We have to start with this. WCPT has published a list of the 15 most influential trials in physical therapy. I loved the fact that they used a qualitative process to ascertain which blinded, controlled and randomised clinical trial they found most influential. No hint of irony there then! Fatemeh Rabiee, Anne Robbins and Maryam Khan's article in Health Education Journal Gym for Free: The short-term impact of an innovative public health policy on the health and wellbeing of residents in a deprived constituency in Birmingham, UK is well worth a look if you're interested in how community-based health interventions might work for people in marginalised communities. A paper … [Read more...] about Critical physiotherapy curios – updates, ideas and new postings
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network – New resources
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Here are some of the extra resources people thought might be linked to the project. If you have any more thoughts on what should go into the article, either add them as comments below (remember, I may post them on the blog) or send them to me via email (david.nicholls@aut.ac.nz). Lester Jones I think this document could be relevant - although I am aware it is 11 years old now. I have used it, including figure 1 - as referenced below - in curriculum design. Should be able to access pdf from link below, with figure on p29. STAKES (2003) 'Label Us Able : A Pro-active Evaluation of Finnish Development … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network – New resources
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #5 – Richard Horwood
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Over the next few days I'll post up some of the feedback and thoughts that these pieces. Remember to send comments on these things too and I'll pull them all together. This post came from Richard Horwood, Clinical Educator in the Physiotherapy Department at AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. Why Critical Physiotherapy Needs Connectivity. Modernism likes to create single forms that can be 'understood', words, labels, models, tags etc. In effect it creates simple forms from complex parts. To create these forms, 'z', it works it's way from 'a' through a series of processes, accepting each … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #5 – Richard Horwood
Philosophy and physiotherapy – reflections on @physiotalk tweet chat
Without wanting to sound too dramatic, my first experience of hosting yesterday's @physiotalk tweet chat felt like running with the bulls at Pamplona! It certainly was exhilarating. And what it also threw up were some thoughts about how physios currently relate to philosophy. Just to recap, I was asked to run a Physiotalk tweet chat last week on the subject of philosophy and physiotherapy. I prepared some pre-reading and some questions to prompt discussion (you can see these here), and then logged on at the appointed time to facilitate the discussion. Tweets fly in thick and fast and it's quite a job to keep on top of everything that's going on, but the hour flew by and a lot of … [Read more...] about Philosophy and physiotherapy – reflections on @physiotalk tweet chat
Connectivity – new book
Networkologies: A Philosophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age - A Manifesto Networkologies is the first text to develop an entire new philosophy based upon networks. While many contemporary texts on networks have presented critiques or analyses of network formations in our world, this book is the first to develop an entirely new worldview based on the structure of networks themselves. From global capitalism to artificial minds, evolutionary biology to quantum physics, networks are our future. Networkologies presents us with a new image of thought for our hyperconnected age. More information here. c/0 Filip Maric. … [Read more...] about Connectivity – new book
Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #4 – Barbara Gibson
Thanks to everyone who sent me comments and thoughts on the Connectivity writing project. Over the next few days I'll post up some of the feedback and thoughts that these pieces. Remember to send comments on these things too and I'll pull them all together. This post came from Barbara Gibson - Associate Professor, in the Department of Physical Therapy at University of Toronto, and Senior Scientist at Bloorview Research Institute, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Toronto. I am hoping that as a critical group we can use this as a point of departure to delve a little more into the philosophical approach(es) that underpin these ideas. In particular, drawing out the … [Read more...] about Connectivity – Contributions from the Network #4 – Barbara Gibson