Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India
In India, care work for people in late-stage dementia is primarily conducted in the home. Using source material from urban India and drawing on Foucauldian theory, we illustrate the significance of three power/knowledge scripts in this context: social and cultural notions of acceptable, public bodie...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
2008
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27270 |
| _version_ | 1848752217173000192 |
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| author | Brijnath, Bianca Manderson, L. |
| author_facet | Brijnath, Bianca Manderson, L. |
| author_sort | Brijnath, Bianca |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In India, care work for people in late-stage dementia is primarily conducted in the home. Using source material from urban India and drawing on Foucauldian theory, we illustrate the significance of three power/knowledge scripts in this context: social and cultural notions of acceptable, public bodies; medicalized forms of care; and the cultural contexts of the individual caregivers. The caregiver is the embodiment of these discourses and is charged with the task of mapping discipline onto inherently undisciplinable bodies. A tension exists between the caregiver's struggle to contain the unruliness of the person with dementia and, simultaneously, to act as a broker between the world of the care-recipient and the social world. We conclude that although the caregiver is the starting point for the exercise of discipline, the three power/knowledge scripts that inform care work are as much about surveying, routinizing and mobilizing caregivers' bodies as they are about disciplining the bodies of people with dementia. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:05:06Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-27270 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:05:06Z |
| publishDate | 2008 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-272702017-09-13T15:33:14Z Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India Brijnath, Bianca Manderson, L. In India, care work for people in late-stage dementia is primarily conducted in the home. Using source material from urban India and drawing on Foucauldian theory, we illustrate the significance of three power/knowledge scripts in this context: social and cultural notions of acceptable, public bodies; medicalized forms of care; and the cultural contexts of the individual caregivers. The caregiver is the embodiment of these discourses and is charged with the task of mapping discipline onto inherently undisciplinable bodies. A tension exists between the caregiver's struggle to contain the unruliness of the person with dementia and, simultaneously, to act as a broker between the world of the care-recipient and the social world. We conclude that although the caregiver is the starting point for the exercise of discipline, the three power/knowledge scripts that inform care work are as much about surveying, routinizing and mobilizing caregivers' bodies as they are about disciplining the bodies of people with dementia. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2008 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27270 10.1007/s11013-008-9111-5 restricted |
| spellingShingle | Brijnath, Bianca Manderson, L. Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title | Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title_full | Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title_fullStr | Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title_full_unstemmed | Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title_short | Discipline in chaos: Foucault, dementia and aging in India |
| title_sort | discipline in chaos: foucault, dementia and aging in india |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/27270 |