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In Canada, obesity is increasingly emphasised as a ‘risk’ to the health of mother and foetus.At a time when preg- nant women are under greater pressure to personally uphold the health of their foetus, understanding the impact of the... more
In Canada, obesity is increasingly emphasised as a ‘risk’ to the health of mother and foetus.At a time when preg- nant women are under greater pressure to personally uphold the health of their foetus, understanding the impact of the discourse surrounding obesity and health on young pregnant women is critical. Using a feminist poststructural- ist discourse analysis, we explore how pregnant young women construct their subjectivities either within dominant discourse on health and obesity or possibly resistant discourses. Open-ended interviews were conducted with 15 pregnant women between the ages of 18 and 28, coming from various socioeconomic and educational backgrounds in the Ottawa region.The analysis reveals that these women constitute themselves as complex, fragmented subjects who at times construct themselves within alternative and resistant discourses but generally reproduce dominant dis- courses of obesity, of individual and moral responsibility for health, and of maternal responsibility for foetal health. Implications for health promotion and policy strategies are discussed.
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The recent construction of an 'obesity epidemic' has been fueled by epidemiologically-based studies recuperated by the media and suggesting the rapid acceleration of obesity rates in the Western world. Studies linking obesity to... more
The recent construction of an 'obesity epidemic' has been fueled by epidemiologically-based studies recuperated by the media and suggesting the rapid acceleration of obesity rates in the Western world. Studies linking obesity to ill-health have also exploded with more recipes on how to wage 'a war' on obesity and dispose of 'domestic terrorists.' In this paper, we assert that the fabrication of 'evidence' in obesity research constitutes a good example of micro-fascism at play in the contemporary scientific arena. Favoring a particular ideology and excluding alternative forms of knowledge, obesity scientists have established a dominant 'obesity discourse' within which obese and 'at-risk' bodies are constructed as lazy and expensive bodies that should be submitted to disciplinary technologies (for example, surveillance), expert investigation and regulation. Using a poststructuralist approach, we examine the politics of evidence in obesity science and explore the connections between obesity discourses and the ways in which health and the body are discursively constructed by Canadian youth.
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... Conduct of the study The research question was 'What are the attitudes of older women from Aboriginal, Vietnamese Canadian, Haitian Canadian and Portuguese Canadian back-groundstowards prescription medicines, natural... more
... Conduct of the study The research question was 'What are the attitudes of older women from Aboriginal, Vietnamese Canadian, Haitian Canadian and Portuguese Canadian back-groundstowards prescription medicines, natural rem-edies, and physicians?'. ...
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In this article, we offer an introduction to the special issue of Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies. First, we present some of our own reflections and, second, we provide an overview of the articles assembled here to advance the... more
In this article, we offer an introduction to the special issue of Cultural Studies↔Critical Methodologies. First, we present
some of our own reflections and, second, we provide an overview of the articles assembled here to advance the critical
interrogation of biopedagogies and/of public health. Our own reflections focus attention on biocitizens and the ill-fated
“rescue missions” to save bio-Others. In brief, we argue that (a) within neoliberal societies, an assemblage of private and
public institutions and organizations circulate the “health imperative”; (b) this imperative leads to the creation of the fit
and productive biocitizen through various market solutions; (c) this imperative leads to biomorality and the construction
of the unfit, unwell, and unproductive bio-Other; (d) public health invests in rescue missions to “save” this bio-Other; and
(e) public health initiatives are instrumentalized within corporate schemes to expand markets in the name of health. We
then conclude our piece with thoughts on the place of cultural studies and critical methodologies in the larger project of
health and social justice, while presenting an overview of the articles selected for this special issue in connection to three
themes: biopedagogies and spaces, identifications, and affects/effects.
some of our own reflections and, second, we provide an overview of the articles assembled here to advance the critical
interrogation of biopedagogies and/of public health. Our own reflections focus attention on biocitizens and the ill-fated
“rescue missions” to save bio-Others. In brief, we argue that (a) within neoliberal societies, an assemblage of private and
public institutions and organizations circulate the “health imperative”; (b) this imperative leads to the creation of the fit
and productive biocitizen through various market solutions; (c) this imperative leads to biomorality and the construction
of the unfit, unwell, and unproductive bio-Other; (d) public health invests in rescue missions to “save” this bio-Other; and
(e) public health initiatives are instrumentalized within corporate schemes to expand markets in the name of health. We
then conclude our piece with thoughts on the place of cultural studies and critical methodologies in the larger project of
health and social justice, while presenting an overview of the articles selected for this special issue in connection to three
themes: biopedagogies and spaces, identifications, and affects/effects.
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This essay asks how we might best elaborate an ethics of authentic practice. Will we be able to agree on a set of shared terms through which ethical practice will be understood? How will we define ethics and the subject’s relation to... more
This essay asks how we might best elaborate an ethics of authentic practice. Will we be able to agree on a set of shared terms through which ethical practice will be understood? How will we define ethics and the subject’s relation to authoritative structures of power and knowledge? We begin by further clarifying our critique of evidence-based medicine (EBM), reflecting on the intimate relation between theory and practice. We challenge the charge that our position amounts to no more than ‘subjectivism’ and ‘antiauthoritarian’ theory. We argue that an ethical practice ought to question the authority of EBM without falling into the trap of dogmatic antiauthoritarianism. In this, we take up the work of Hannah Arendt, who offers terms to help understand our difficult political relation to authority in an authentic ethical practice. We continue with a discussion of Michel Fou- cault’s use of ‘free speech’ or parrhesia, which he adopts from Ancient Greek philosophy. Foucault demonstrates that authentic ethical practice demands that we ‘speak truth to power.’ We conclude with a consideration of recent biotechnologies, and suggest that these biomedical practices force us to re-evaluate our theoretical understanding of the ethical subject. We believe that we are at a crucial juncture: we must develop an ethics of authentic practice that will be commensurable with new and emergent biomedical subjectivities.
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Research Interests: Health Sciences, Nursing, Evidence Based Medicine, Deconstruction, Gilles Deleuze, and 11 moreMichel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Critique as Political Practice, Power, Health Science, Clinical Sciences, Scientific Research, Public health systems and services research, Scientific Knowledge, Evidence Based, and Evidence Based Design for healthcare
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In Qualitative Inquiry and Human Rights, eds. N.K. Denzin & M.D. Giardina (Left Coast Press, 2010), 218–241.
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Background: Drawing on the work of the late French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the evidence-based movement in the health sciences is outrageously exclusionary and dangerously... more
Background: Drawing on the work of the late French philosophers Deleuze and Guattari, the objective of this paper is to demonstrate that the evidence-based movement
in the health sciences is outrageously exclusionary and dangerously normative with regards to scientific knowledge. As such, we assert that the evidence-based movement in health sciences constitutes a good example of microfascism at play in the contemporary scientific arena.
Objective: The philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari proves to be useful in showing how health sciences are colonised (territorialised) by an all-encompassing cientific research paradigm – that of post-positivism – but also and foremost in showing the process by which a dominant ideology comes to exclude alternative forms of knowledge, therefore acting as a fascist structure.
Conclusion: The Cochrane Group, among others, has created a hierarchy that has been endorsed by many academic institutions, and that serves to (re)produce the exclusion of certain forms of research. Because ‘regimes of truth’ such as the evidence-based movement currently enjoy a privileged status, scholars have not only a cientific duty, but also an ethical obligation to deconstruct these regimes of power.
in the health sciences is outrageously exclusionary and dangerously normative with regards to scientific knowledge. As such, we assert that the evidence-based movement in health sciences constitutes a good example of microfascism at play in the contemporary scientific arena.
Objective: The philosophical work of Deleuze and Guattari proves to be useful in showing how health sciences are colonised (territorialised) by an all-encompassing cientific research paradigm – that of post-positivism – but also and foremost in showing the process by which a dominant ideology comes to exclude alternative forms of knowledge, therefore acting as a fascist structure.
Conclusion: The Cochrane Group, among others, has created a hierarchy that has been endorsed by many academic institutions, and that serves to (re)produce the exclusion of certain forms of research. Because ‘regimes of truth’ such as the evidence-based movement currently enjoy a privileged status, scholars have not only a cientific duty, but also an ethical obligation to deconstruct these regimes of power.
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No exit? Have we arrived at an impasse in the health sciences? Has the regime of ‘evidence’, coupled with corporate models of accountability and ‘best-practices’, led to an inexorable decline in innovation, scholarship, and actual health... more
No exit? Have we arrived at an impasse in the health sciences? Has the regime of ‘evidence’, coupled with corporate models of accountability and ‘best-practices’, led to an inexorable decline in innovation, scholarship, and actual health care? Would it be fair to speak of a ‘methodological fundamentalism’ from which there is no escape? In this article, we make an argument about intellectual integrity and good faith. We take this risk knowing full well that we do so in a hostile political climate in the health sciences, positioning ourselves against those who quietly but assiduously control the very terms by which the public faithfully understands ‘integrity’ and ‘truth’. In doing so, we offer an honest critique of these definitions and of the systemic power that is reproduced and guarded by the gatekeepers of ‘Good Science’.
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Drawing on the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, this paper interrogates the constitution of ‘evidence’ that defines the evidence-based movement in the health sciences. What are the current social and political conditions... more
Drawing on the philosophy of Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, this paper interrogates the constitution of ‘evidence’ that defines the evidence-based movement in the health sciences. What are the current social and political conditions under which scientific knowledge appears to be ‘true’? Foucault describes these conditions as state ‘science’, a regime that privileges economic modes of governance and efficiency. Today, the Cochrane taxonomy and research database is increasingly endorsed by government and public health policy makers. Although this ‘evidencebased’ paradigm ostensibly promotes the noble ideal of ‘true knowledge’ free from political bias, in reality, this apparent neutrality is dangerous because it masks the methods by which power silently operates to inscribe rigid norms and to ensure political dominance. Through the practice of critique, this paper begins to expose and to politicise the workings of this power, ultimately suggesting that scholars are in a privileged position to oppose such regimes and foremost have the duty to politicise what hides behind the distortion and misrepresentation of ‘evidence’.
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Research Interests: Sport and Advertizing
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Several studies on the experiences of nonheterosexual women in sport have highlighted the development of lesbian subcultures in sport, while others have emphasized the scarcity of athletic contexts embracing sexual diversity. This article... more
Several studies on the experiences of nonheterosexual women in sport have highlighted the development of lesbian subcultures in sport, while others have emphasized the scarcity of athletic contexts embracing sexual diversity. This article explores the narratives of 14 young Francophone sportswomen positioning themselves as “gaie,” lesbian, bisexual, or refusing labels altogether. Using a feminist poststructuralist perspective, we examine their discursive constructions of sport and argue that the discourses articulated in sport allow for the creation of
a space of resistance to heteronormativity. We suggest that the sport space is constructed as a “gaie” space within which a normalizing version of lesbian sexuality is proposed. We investigate how in/ex/clusion discourses are inscribed in space
and how subjects are impacted by and, in turn, impact these discourses.
a space of resistance to heteronormativity. We suggest that the sport space is constructed as a “gaie” space within which a normalizing version of lesbian sexuality is proposed. We investigate how in/ex/clusion discourses are inscribed in space
and how subjects are impacted by and, in turn, impact these discourses.
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ABSTRACT The "towards equality" project bas as its aim, the development, in association with the people involved, of the intervention tools and strategies for creating a non-sexist environment offering young... more
ABSTRACT The "towards equality" project bas as its aim, the development, in association with the people involved, of the intervention tools and strategies for creating a non-sexist environment offering young French-speaking Canadian girls the same opportunities as boys. Tbe results of a national study on this subject are presented.
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Translation into Spanish, of English Cancer's Margins chapter