Introduction The purpose of the article is to explore how a psychosocial approach to class can shed light on the ways in which neoliberal governmentality works through healthism’s moral judgements and how different emotions within a ‘field of judgements’ are rooted in class relations. Dahl (2012: 284) states that neoliberalism ‘is not confined to what is traditionally understood as the political sphere, but it is a new societal logic suffusing our bodies and minds’. This article explores the implications of this statement in a psychosocial perspective
This article has two aims. First, it will provide an overview of hysteria and mass hysteria phenomena throughout history, by exploring the psychosocial elements underneath selected historical episodes such as medieval ‘dance plagues’ and ‘Loudun possessions’ (1632–34), but also by presenting recent social-psychiatric and epidemiological case analysis on the topic. Second, it will present and discuss an episode of what could be described as mass hysteria, which occurred in 2010 in a secondary school in Maputo, Mozambique. Using psychoanalytic and group analytic inputs, both aims will enable a suggestion as to the psychosocial aspects that lie underneath the referred episode. The article will also consider, although in the background, the role played by apparatuses of power and colonial discourses in shaping some of the analysis and visions that mass hysteria portrayed in the case study may have acquired. A transdisciplinary perspective will allow a broader understanding of mass hysteria, highlighting the relevance of psychosocial approaches to investigations of collective phenomena.
Nielsen Harriet Bjerrum ( 2017 ), Feeling Gender: A Generational and Psychosocial Approach Palgrave Macmillan , 352 pp, Paperback: ISBN 978-1-349-95722-4 , £20.00 , Hardback: ISBN 978-1-349-95081-2 , £20.00 In Feeling Gender: A Generational and Psychosocial Approach , Harriet Bjerrum Nielsen presents essential parts of her academic work on gender in a Norwegian context. Nielsen is Professor Emerita at the Centre for Gender Research at the University of Oslo, Norway. She is interested in the development of psychosocial methodologies for
, self-alienation and defensive self-preserving psychodynamics. ‘Neoliberalism, healthism and moral judgements: a psychosocial approach to class’ by Iben Charlotte Aamann illuminates how a psychosocial approach to class sheds light on the ways in which neoliberal governmentality works through a ‘regime of judgements’ rooted in class relations. Drawing on case studies of health and two different mothers involved in their children’s preschool classes, the article concludes that class morals currently shape subjectivity and that the emotional implications of this are
This book examines the divergent medical, political and legal constructions of intersex. The authors use empirical data to explore how intersex people are embodied through these frameworks which in turn influence their lived experiences.
Through their analysis, the authors reveal the factors that motivate and influence the way in which policy makers and legislators approach the area of intersex rights. They reflect on the limitations of law as the primary vehicle in challenging healthcare’s framing of intersex as a ‘disorder’ in need of fixing. Finally, they offer a more holistic account of intersex justice which is underpinned by psychosocial support and bodily integrity.
Since 1997, child welfare services have been faced with new demands to engage fathers or develop father-inclusive services. This book emerges from work by the author as a researcher and educator over many years on the issues posed by this agenda for child welfare practitioners in a variety of contexts.
In locating fathers, fathering and fatherhood within a historical and social landscape, the book addresses issues seldom taken up in practice settings. It explores diversity and complexity in fathering in different disciplines such as psychoanalysis, sociology and psychology and analyses contemporary developments in social policies and welfare practices. The author employs a feminist perspective to highlight the opportunities and dangers in contemporary developments for those wishing to advance gender equity.
A key strength of the book is its inter-disciplinary focus. It will be required reading for students, graduate and postgraduate, of social work, social policy, sociology and child and family studies. Academic researchers will also find the book invaluable because of its breadth of scholarship.
Many of the recent reforms in public services in the UK have been driven by the image of the ‘responsible citizen’ - the service user who does not only have rights to receive services but also has responsibilities for the delivery of policy outcomes. In this way, citizens’ everyday conduct is shaped by governmental action, yet there is much evidence that both front-line staff in public services and the people who use them can sometimes act in ways that modify, disrupt or negate intended policy outcomes.
“Subversive citizens” presents a highly original examination of how official policy objectives can be ‘subverted’ through the actions of staff and users. It discusses the role of public policy in the creation of ‘good citizenship’, such as making appropriate choices about what to eat and how much to save, to being an active participant in the local community. It also examines how the roles of service delivery staff have changed substantially, and how theories of ‘power’ and ‘agency’ are useful in analysing the engagement between public policies (and those employed to deliver them) and the citizens at whom they are targeted.
The idea of subversive citizenship is explored through theoretical and empirical analyses by a range of prominent social researchers and will be of interest to students of social policy, sociology, criminology, politics and related disciplines, as well as policy makers involved in public services.
This book presents a psychosocial examination of the changing relationships between users of services, professionals and managers in the post-war welfare state. It: develops practice-based perspectives on changing social relations of care; discusses the psychic dimensions of entitlement, risk, responsibility, compassion and dependency in the welfare system; develops a grid to link the interpersonal, institutional and sociopolitical dimensions of successive post-war welfare settlements; explores the potential contribution of psychoanalytic concepts to social policy and practice.
This book is aimed at all those who have an interest in the development of responsive welfare institutions, including policy makers, professionals and academics.
Women are encouraged to believe that they can occupy top jobs in society by the example of other women thriving in their careers. Who better to be a role model for career success than your mother? Paradoxically, this book shows that having a mother as a role model, even for graduates of top universities, does not predict daughters progressing in their own careers.
It finds that mothers with careers, whilst highly influential in their daughters’ choice of career path, rarely mentor their daughters as they progress. This is partly explained by ‘quiet ambition’ – the tendency of women to be modest about their achievements. Bigger issues are the twin pressures from contemporary motherhood and workplace culture that ironically lead career women’s daughters to believe that being a ‘good mother’ means working part-time. This stalls career progress.
Based on a large, cross-generational qualitative sample, this book offers a timely and original perspective on the debate about gender equality in leadership positions.
