Surely one of the most important projects of the next decade in physiotherapy must be to undertake a thoroughgoing critical analysis of our professional history. By this I mean how did we get to be a profession that looked so distinctly like 'this', and not something else. Perhaps one of the most important questions we need to ask is how has physiotherapy served The State - and how this will change as governments become smaller and push the responsibility for social welfare onto individuals. One of the most intriguing questions that, as far as I know, no-one has really studied, is the relationship between physiotherapy and capitalism. On first glance, it would be hard to see a … [Read more...] about Physiotherapy and capitalism
Thomas Abrams – Dis/Abling Practices – 30DoS #13
“Disabling Practices” applies a science and technology studies lens to Disability Studies and the sociology of blindness. Drawing on ethnographic work in the North of England, Schillmeier follows the disclosure of visual disability in currency use, how relations between human bodies and money technologies cause visual disability to emerge. The emphasis moves from problem bodies to problem relations. Dis/ability is not solely in bodies or in barriers—as the social or medical models would have it—but unfolds in the interaction between bodies, senses and things (the subtitle of Schillmeier, 2010, integrating this 2007 article). I first read Schillmeier’s work in my M.A. research, in … [Read more...] about Thomas Abrams – Dis/Abling Practices – 30DoS #13
Jenny Setchell – Meeting the Universe Halfway – 30DoS #4
In this post, CPN co-founder and Exec member Jenny Setchell talks about Karen Barad's book Meeting the Universe Halfway. Spanish translation provided by CPN Exec member Alma Viviana Silva. Karen Barad, a quantum physicist and post-humanist philosopher, blew my mind with her first book. It is 500+ pages so quite a read, but well worth it. I particularly recommend this book for those of you who question what comes after social constructionism. Building on the work of theorists such as Butler, Hacking, Foucault, Deleuze and Haraway, as well as quantum physicist Bohr, Barad describes an ontology called ‘agential realism’. “Barad extends and partially revises Bohr’s philosophical views in … [Read more...] about Jenny Setchell – Meeting the Universe Halfway – 30DoS #4
There was always more than one body in physiotherapy
When physiotherapists refer to the body, they're often referring to the body that's defined by biomedicine: organised into systems; physical; patho-anatomical; cellular; the place where injury and illness can be located; biological. But this only accounts for a small group of 'bodies' that we encounter in practice every day. A recent conference announcement highlighted some of the bodies that Victorians were interested in, and many of these still interest physiotherapists: busy bodies body markings disabled bodies prosthetics bodies behaving badly the body as spectacle fragmented bodies queer bodies raced bodies disciplined bodies animal bodies … [Read more...] about There was always more than one body in physiotherapy
Member Profile: Pia Kontos
From time to time we profile a member of the Critical Physiotherapy Network to find out more about them and their work. In this profile we talk to Pia Kontos who is a Senior Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and an Associate Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, at the University of Toronto, Canada. Pia is one of our non-physiotherapist members whose work closely aligns with the goals of the CPN. She is a prolific and creative researcher who uses critical social theory and arts-based approaches to examine and address the norms and assumptions underpinning care practices in long-term care and rehabilitation settings. We asked Pia to tell us more about her … [Read more...] about Member Profile: Pia Kontos
The sociology of everyday
People often think that philosophy and sociology are concerned with grand ideas like hope, suffering, the meaning of existence, and what it means to be good. And while it can be about these things, it often concerns things that are commonplace, everyday and quotidian (a lovely word, meaning occurring everyday, mundane and repeated). The latest special issue of the journal Sociology (link) is devoted to the study of everyday life and asks some really interesting questions that we can use in our thinking and practice of physiotherapy. In the guest editorial, Sarah Neal and Karim Murji argue that, 'In many ways, it is difficult to overstate the significance of the everyday because it is, … [Read more...] about The sociology of everyday
New: humanities
Although it’s going to be hard to accept, particularly by those people currently striving to make a difference in the profession, but it probably won’t be this generation of physiotherapists that bring about the radical change necessary to prepare the profession for the new world of 21st century health care. There are any number of reasons for this: Physiotherapists are, by and large, a relatively conservative bunch, who don’t instigate radical change Physiotherapy is highly respected and well patronised, so there are few indicators that we need to change much Most people in positions of authority have received a traditional training, and tend to like things the way that they are, … [Read more...] about New: humanities