This message comes from CPN members Barbara Gibson and Jenny Setchell - co-editors of the new Critical Research and Perspectives section of the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation. Dear Friends and Colleagues, Please consider submitting an article to the new section on Critical Research and Perspectives in the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation. For those of you who don’t know the journal, it is an online, open access, no fee, multimedia platform for research, scholarship, art, literature, and narrative that bring the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences to all things rehabilitation. The Critical section is devoted to research and ‘perspectives’ that draw … [Read more...] about Submit your work to the new Critical Research and Perspectives section of the Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation
A call for critical papers
The Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation’s new section, Critical Research and Perspectives is dedicated to publishing papers and other works that employ critical perspectives on rehabilitation. The creation of this focused section of JHR presents an exciting opportunity to showcase rigorous critical rehabilitation research and scholarship. See the full call for papers here. We seek submissions that explore the application of critical, post-structural, or postmodern theories (broadly defined) to advance understandings of rehabilitation—including original research, think pieces, and theoretical discussions of the philosophical basis of rehabilitation practices, education, and/or … [Read more...] about A call for critical papers
Review of Barbara Gibson’s book ‘Rehabilitation: a post-critical approach’
There are a lot of physiotherapy books in print, but not many of them engage in the kinds of (post)critical thinking celebrated by the CPN. One exception is Barbara Gibson's superb Rehabilitation: a post-critical approach, published last year by Taylor and Francis. Earlier this week a new review of the book came out in the eminent journal Disability & Society. The review highlights the many radical and important features of the book, and celebrates Barbara's ability to 'extend[s] these discussions and bring[s] a critical eye to bear on concepts that remain under-theorised within the field'. There is a link to the review in the title of the journal above, but if you'd prefer, … [Read more...] about Review of Barbara Gibson’s book ‘Rehabilitation: a post-critical approach’
Karl Marx would have loved physiotherapy
There's a great thesis to be written on the politics of physiotherapy. It would include something about how the profession fought hard to become an ally to governments looking to return men to the Western Front during World War I. It would look at the ways physiotherapists transferred this experience into rehabilitation and ensured people returned to work as soon as possible so that they would be productive members of society, rather than a 'drain' on the State or their communities. It might even look at how largely silent physiotherapy has been about social inequality and injustice, and how we have managed to convince ourselves that for more than 100 years that physiotherapy was … [Read more...] about Karl Marx would have loved physiotherapy
New book – A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity
This new book comes from CPN member Dr Jonathan Harvey. Jonathan is a brain injury survivor and a social scientist who specialises in neurological rehabilitation. Jonathan recently completed a PhD at the Open University (2015), entitled ‘Navigating the complexities of acquired brain injury: theorising everyday activities in identity (re)construction’. Inspired by the author’s own personal experience of sustaining acquired brain injury (ABI), this path-breaking book explores the (re)construction of identity after ABI. It offers a way of understanding ABI through a social scientific lens, promoting an understanding that is generated through close engagement with the lives and experiences … [Read more...] about New book – A Sociological Approach to Acquired Brain Injury and Identity
Blaise Doran – Healing dramas and clinical plots – 30DoS #19
Healing dramas and clinical plots (1998) is an ethnographic account by anthropologist, Cheryl Mattingly, of occupational therapists’ work in rehabilitation settings during the mid-1980s. She uses diverse sources to support her ideas from literary and narrative theory, phenomenology and hermeneutics, and anthropological perspectives on ritual and narrative. In doing so, she presents the rehabilitation process, and its clinical interactions, as a form of drama, adhering to a socially constructed narrative plot. She proposes that, if narrative (as has been suggested) reflects the lived experience, it does so through narrative drama rather than narrative cohesion. As an undergraduate, I came … [Read more...] about Blaise Doran – Healing dramas and clinical plots – 30DoS #19
See Me Before You go
The title of this blogpost is a rather poor effort at a catchy streamline I grant you, but the message in no way belies what is an important issue for physiotherapists, health professions, or anyone who cares about the way disabled people are portrayed in the popular media. There has been some serious criticism of the new English film Me Before You in recent days. The film portrays a millionaire disabled man, played by non-disabled actor Sam Claflin, who strikes up a relationship with his carer, Emilia Clarke, after being paralysed in an accident. The depiction of a man with so much, wanting to die, has enraged some disability rights activists because it offers yet another negative … [Read more...] about See Me Before You go