Disciplining Old Age: The Formation of Gerontological
Knowledge.Stephen Katz. 1996. The University Press of Virginia.
An Associate Professor of Sociology at Trent University in Canada, Stephen
Katz's work is part of a series called 'Disciplining and Beyond' focusing
on 'The Aged Body and the Discourse of Senescence,' 'The Elderly
Population and the Modern Life-Course,' 'Textual Formations and the
Science of Old Age' and finally 'The Field of Gerontology and
Problematizations of Old Age.' Specific themes include aging, old age,
knowledge and disciplinarity. Drawing from the structuralist work of
Louis Althusser, several works by Foucault and Bordieu, Katz combines
theories into what he calls the "gerontological web." Katz considers the
use of categorizations of aged bodies and the illness of bodies to
emphasize social values and their relationship to these categorizations
across historical moments.
Crossing Over: Narratives of Palliative Care. David Barnard,
Anna Towers, Patricia Boston and Yanna Lambrinidou. 2000. Oxford
University Press.
This ethnographic project grre out of the authors shared interest and
experience in care for the dying as well as their dissatisfaction with
currently available stories attempting to describe what that experience
is like. The authors come from a variety of medical and academic locations,
David Barnard Ph.D. is from the Department of Medicine focused on
Palliative care as well as the Center for Bioethics
and Health Law at the University of Pittsburgh. Anna Towers, M.D. is from
McGill University focusing on Palliative Care Service at the Royal
Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Canada. Patricia Boston, R.N., Ph.D. also
works in Palliative Care at McGill University. Finally, Yanna
Lambrinidou, M.A. is at the Center for Folklore and Ethnography at the
University of Pennsylvania. The book provides narratives
of patients, families and caregivers maintaining comfort and hope in the
face of incurable diseases. Through qualitative research methods the four
participant observers share their own records and thoughts about this
project, why they chose the narratives they did and how they constructed
the book. They attempt to move beyond the cliché's about "death with
dignity."
Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media
and Representation Research. Sarah Pink. 2001. Sage Publications.
A resource for students in sociology, anthropology, media studies, and
people doing ethnographic and qualitative research, Sarah Pink draws from
her own experiences of using photography, video and hypermedia addressing
how visual images and technologies can be combined to form an integrated
process throughout the different stages of research. In Part I Pink
outlines 'Thinking about Visual Media' through visual ethnography
(photography, video, cultures and individuals) and then through examining
planning and practicing visual methods and finally appropriate uses and
ethical issues when using visual media. Part II 'Producing Knowledge'
begins by focusing on photography and then video in ethnographic research
and then considers classifying and interpreting photographic and
video materials. Part III 'Visual Images and Technologies in
Ethnographic Representation' examine ethnographic photography and printed
text, video in ethnographic representation and finally electronic
texts. Sarah Pink is located at the Department of Social Sciences at the
University of Loughborough.
Handbook of Ethnography. Edited by Paul Atkinson, Amanda
Coffey, Sara Delamont, John Lofland and Lyn Lofland. 2001. Sage
Publications.
This compilation of articles is organized in three sections. The first
attempts to outline some of the intellectual contexts within which
ethnographic research has been fostered, developed and debated including
theoretical frameworks. The second part opens with four classic areas of
analysis: health, education, deviance and work. Additionally some authors
focus on science and childhood such as hospitals, schools, prisons,
factories, laboratories and homes. Finally section two addresses oral
communications, cultural studies, material culture and visual
communication. In the last section the handbook brings together three
overarching strands, which run through and between chapters which are
(1) the practice of ethnography (2) issues of reflexivity and
representation and (3) reaffirm the interweaving of ethnographic work with
(auto) biography.
Citizenship and Social Class T.H. Marshall and Tom
Bottomore. 1950. 1992. Pluto Press.
T.H. Marshall's work is one of the earliest theorists to consider welfare
state models. Marshall's Citizenship and Social Class (1950; 1992) has
had three major impacts: first in 1950, then in 1992 when reprinted and
finally within the feminist social welfare movement in the late 1990s and
early 21st century. In Marshall's early welfare model he articulates a
citizenship model with three stages of citizenship, in roughly three time
periods. These time periods include (1) Civil citizenship in the 18th
century (2) political citizenship in the 19th century and (3) social
citizenship in the 20th century. Marshall's conception of citizenship
consisting of civil, political and social developed through both
historical and sociological perspectives. Marshall associated civic
citizenship during the end of feudalism with contracts, property, the
right to ones own labor in the 18th century. Political citizenship
according to Marshall emerged in the 19th century during post slavery time
and is associated with the right to vote and hold elected
office. Political citizenship appeared when communities were trying to
figure out how to incorporate new citizens to vote. It is linked to
representation and having a voice in making laws. Key to this (which
feminist critiques will take on to a greater extent) is those who could
vote were white, male, property owners who were heads of households.
"Outing Age: Public Policy Issues Affecting Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual
and Transgender Elders"from the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force by
Sean Cahill, Ken South and Jane Spade. 2000. NGLTF.
This report is a detailed account of demographic information about lgbt/q
people and articulates (1) five federal programs and laws that blatantly
treat same-sex couples differently than others, (2) provide five ways to
raise awareness and finally (3) offer six major recommendations to improve
the lives of glbt old people in the U.S. The intent of this section is to
inform the genealogy constructed with specific public policy issues
related to lgbt old people.
Profit and Pleasure: Sexual Identities in Late
Capitalism. Rosemary Hennessy. 2000. Routledge.
Hennessy considers various relationships between capitalism and sexual
identity. Focusing on structures of late capitalism, labor, and
commodification Hennessy addresses the influences globalization has on
sexual identity. Hennessy suggests new forms of commodification and
agency with a particular consideration on the material reality and the
substance of men and women's everyday lives. Rosemary Hennessy is
Associate Professor of English at the University of Albany, SUNY.
A Genealogy of Queer Theory William B. Turner. 2000. Temple
University Press.
The particular sections of this book the course will focus on are
(Introduction) 'The Proliferation of Queers' (ch. 1) 'Foucault Didn't Know
What He Was Doing, Neither Do I' and (ch. 4) 'Shrinking History: Queer
Theory, Psychoanalysis, and Genealogy.'
Sorting Things Out: Classifications
and Its Consequences Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh
Star. 2000. MIT Press.
'Sorting Things Out…" is outlined in four sections. The Introduction
'To Classify is Human' begins with (ch. 1) 'Some Tricks of the
Trade in Analyzing Classification.' Part I: 'Classifications and Large
Scale Infrastructures' considers, (ch. 2) 'The Kindness of
Strangers: Kinds and Politics in Classification Systems,' (ch. 3) 'The ICD
as Information Infrastructure' and (ch.4) 'Classification, Coding, and
Coordination.' Part II: 'Classifications and Biography, or System and
Suffering' focuses on (ch. 5) 'Of Tuberculosis and Trajectories,'
(ch. 6) 'The Case of Race Classification and Reclassification under
Apartheid.' In Part III: 'Classification and Work Practice' addresses
(ch. 7) 'What a Difference a Name Makes- the Classification of Nursing
Work' and (ch. 8) 'Organizational Forgetting, Nursing Knowledge, and
Classification.' Finally, Part IV: The Theory and Practice of
Classification' (ch. 9) 'Categorical Work and Boundary
Infrastructures: Enriching Theories of Classification' and (ch. 10) 'Why
Classifications Matter.'
Margaret Mead Make Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public
Ideas. Esther Newton. 2000. Durham: Duke University Press.
The book is organized into four parts: Part I: 'Drag and Camp'
focuses on field methods from Mother Camp as well as notes and past
research, Part II: 'Lesbian-Feminism' delves into lesbians in academics as
well as addressing the personal as political within the Women's Liberation
Movement. In Part III: 'Butch,' Newton attempts to think about vocabulary
within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community challenging
gender and masculinity in unique ways sharing her own experiences as a
butch as well as drawing from the works of Freud, Ken and Barbie. Finally
in Part IV: 'Queer Anthropology' Newton delves into homophobia in
colleges, provides an anthropology of homosexuality and revisits and
reflects on her own fieldwork. Esther Newton is Professor of Anthropology
at State University of New York at Purchase.
An Introduction to Feminism and Writing Technologies.
Katie King. 2003.
Extraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in American
Culture and Literature. Rosemarie Garland Thompson.
Part I: 'Politicizing Bodily Differences' focuses on 'Disability,
Identity, and Representation: An Introduction' and then 'Theorizing
Disability' and then Part II: 'Constructing Disabled Figures: Cultural
and Literary Sites' addresses, 'The Cultural Work of American Freak Shows,
1835-1940,' 'Benevolent Maternalism and the Disabled Women in Stowe,
Davis, and Phelps,' 'Disabled Women as Powerful Women in Poetry, Morrison
and Lorde' and then concludes an analysis 'from pathology to
identity.'
Disability, Citizenship and Community Care: A Case for Welfare
Rights? Kirstein Rummery. 2002. England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
This book draws from T.H. Marshall's thesis on social citizenship in a
way
that connects current and future analyses on welfare states. It examines
the role of community care policy and practice plays in shaping disabled
people's citizenship in the UK, providing compelling evidence of the ways
in which welfare can support, or act as a barrier to disabled people's
social participation. This book is a part of 'Studies in Cash and Care'
designed to inform public debate about these policy areas and to make the
details of important policy-related research more widely available.
Sexual Strangers: Gays, Lesbians, and Dilemmas of
Citizenship. Shane
Phelan. 2001. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Through feminist theory and citizenship discourse particularly, Phelan
addresses the inclusion/exclusion issues that face lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender and queer communities when it comes to a democratic
citizenship both a group that are treated differently as a group and then
also specifies the ways in which bisexual and transgender people are often
marginalized further. This book is in the series 'Queer Politics, Queer
Theories.' Shane Phelan is Associate Professor of Political Science at
the University of New Mexico.