There have been times in the history of music, where the only legitimate musicians and composers were highly trained, highly skilled elites. Mozart, Beethoven and Bach were prolific geniuses who bestrode popular music and set the standard for future generations to follow. But as in all art forms, radical change came from movements at the margins with innovations born from necessity or opportunity. The new sound was often unpopular, derided as crude, and pushed to the margins from whence it came. In the 1970s, popular music was dominated by musicians who were often highly skilled in songwriting or consummate technicians. 12 minute guitar solos and whole albums of conceptually rich, but … [Read more...] about Punk physiotherapy
A revolution in physiotherapy publishing
A radical new adventure in physiotherapy research publication was launched last week. The OpenPhysio journal is the brainchild of A/Prof Michael Rowe, CPN Exec member and lecturer at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Supported by Physio-pedia, the journal is different to any journal you have probably ever seen before. Research is published immediately, with no delay for administration or peer approval. Peer review is open to everyone and all feedback is collaborative. Responses are published alongside the finished article and represent their own citable intellectual property. There are no page fees and you retain copyright. Articles can include a … [Read more...] about A revolution in physiotherapy publishing
Making enemies of friends
When Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer, was on his death-bed in 1778, he was asked by his priest if he renounced Satan, he replied "Now, my good man, this is no time to be making enemies." I heard the quote again the other day when I was talking to a friend about the way that the greatest enemies of progress are often one's own colleagues and friends. The subject came up because of two instances in nursing that had shown how unstable some professional ideologies can be when exposed to critical scrutiny. The first instance was the debate surrounding the publication of David Thompson and Philip Darbyshire's paper Is academic nursing being sabotaged by its own killer … [Read more...] about Making enemies of friends
Is it time to end the tyranny of evidence based practice?
Perhaps the greatest mind in the entire history of the world - well in my estimation anyway - once argued that it is the the things that are the most obvious and seemingly benign that we should focus all of our critical attention upon, because these are the things that are doing the best job of concealing the immense power that allows them to become so seemingly obvious in the first place. (If you hadn't realise already, that man is Michel Foucault). Well of all the seemingly obvious, taken-for-granted and largely unchallenged ideas currently pervading physiotherapy, evidence based practice must surely be one of the most obvious ideas needing critical scrutiny. Fortunately, a few … [Read more...] about Is it time to end the tyranny of evidence based practice?