IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v226y2019icp123-134.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Matter beginning to matter: On posthumanist understandings of the vital emergence of health

Author

Listed:
  • Andrews, Gavin J.
  • Duff, Cameron

Abstract

In recent years much health research across the social sciences and humanities has undergone a noticeable, albeit by no means cohesive or comprehensive, ‘turn’ towards a posthumanist theoretical orientation. This paper reviews the radical ideas about health's emergence that have accompanied this turn, noting the core processes that are understood to always be in play. In particular, while acknowledging that not all humanistic ideas have been rejected in this work, it describes how some have been reworked and extended in 'other-than-fully conscious' and 'more-than-human' terms. The paper assesses and synthesizes this diverse literature, emphasising the novel understandings of corporeality, materiality, assemblage, relationality, vitality and affect that have become distinctive features of it.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2019. "Matter beginning to matter: On posthumanist understandings of the vital emergence of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 123-134.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:226:y:2019:i:c:p:123-134
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.045
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953619301182
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.02.045?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jennie Middleton, 2011. "“I'm on Autopilot, I Just Follow the Route†: Exploring the Habits, Routines, and Decision-Making Practices of Everyday Urban Mobilities," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(12), pages 2857-2877, December.
    2. Kajsa Lindberg & Alexander Styhre & Lars Walter, 2012. "Assembling Health Care Organizations," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-02464-0, December.
    3. Andrews, Gavin J. & Cutchin, Malcolm & McCracken, Kevin & Phillips, David R. & Wiles, Janine, 2007. "Geographical Gerontology: The constitution of a discipline," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 151-168, July.
    4. Mei-Po Kwan & Tim Schwanen, 2016. "Geographies of Mobility," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 106(2), pages 243-256, March.
    5. Cameron Duff, 2016. "Atmospheres of recovery: Assemblages of health," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(1), pages 58-74, January.
    6. Wakefield, Sarah E.L. & Poland, Blake, 2005. "Family, friend or foe? Critical reflections on the relevance and role of social capital in health promotion and community development," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(12), pages 2819-2832, June.
    7. Andrews, Gavin J. & Chen, Sandra & Myers, Samantha, 2014. "The ‘taking place’ of health and wellbeing: Towards non-representational theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 210-222.
    8. Courtenay, Will H., 2000. "Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: a theory of gender and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(10), pages 1385-1401, May.
    9. Williams, Allison, 1998. "Therapeutic landscapes in holistic medicine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1193-1203, May.
    10. David Bissell, 2011. "Thinking Habits for Uncertain Subjects: Movement, Stillness, Susceptibility," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 43(11), pages 2649-2665, November.
    11. David Bissell, 2009. "Obdurate Pains, Transient Intensities: Affect and the Chronically Pained Body," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(4), pages 911-928, April.
    12. Gesler, Wilbert M., 1992. "Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in light of the new cultural geography," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 735-746, April.
    13. Young, D. & Borland, R. & Coghill, K., 2010. "An actor-network theory analysis of policy innovation for smoke-free places: Understanding change in complex systems," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 100(7), pages 1208-1217.
    14. Matthew Cook & Tim Edensor, 2017. "Cycling through Dark Space: Apprehending Landscape Otherwise," Mobilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, January.
    15. Hannah Macpherson, 2009. "The Intercorporeal Emergence of Landscape: Negotiating Sight, Blindness, and Ideas of Landscape in the British Countryside," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 41(5), pages 1042-1054, May.
    16. Fox, Nick & Ward, Katie J., 2008. "You are what you eat? Vegetarianism, health and identity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(12), pages 2585-2595, June.
    17. Paul Simpson, 2017. "A sense of the cycling environment: Felt experiences of infrastructure and atmospheres," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(2), pages 426-447, February.
    18. Cummins, Steven & Curtis, Sarah & Diez-Roux, Ana V. & Macintyre, Sally, 2007. "Understanding and representing 'place' in health research: A relational approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(9), pages 1825-1838, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rhodes, Tim & Lancaster, Kari, 2019. "Evidence-making interventions in health: A conceptual framing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1-1.
    2. Lupton, Deborah & Lewis, Sophie, 2022. "Sociomaterialities of health, risk and care during COVID-19: Experiences of Australians living with a medical condition," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 293(C).
    3. Hooker, Claire & Hor, Suyin & Wyer, Mary & Gilbert, Gwendolyn L. & Jorm, Christine & Iedema, Rick, 2020. "Trajectories of hospital infection control: Using non-representational theory to understand and improve infection prevention and control," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 256(C).
    4. Wiltshire, Gareth & Pullen, Emma & Brown, Frankie F. & Osborn, Mike & Wexler, Sarah & Beresford, Mark & Tooley, Mark & Turner, James E., 2020. "The experiences of cancer patients within the material hospital environment: Three ways that materiality is affective," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    5. Andrews, Gavin J. & Duff, Cameron, 2020. "‘Whole onflow’, the productive event: an articulation through health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    6. Camille Bellet & Lindsay Hamilton & Jonathan Rushton, 2021. "Re-thinking public health: Towards a new scientific logic of routine animal health care in European industrial farming," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Duff, Cameron, 2023. "The ends of an assemblage of health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    8. Williams, Jessy E. & Pykett, Jessica, 2022. "Mental health monitoring apps for depression and anxiety in children and young people: A scoping review and critical ecological analysis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    9. Elton, Sarah, 2021. "Relational health: Theorizing plants as health-supporting actors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    10. Rich, Emma & Lupton, Deborah, 2022. "Rethinking digital biopedagogies: How sociomaterial relations shape English secondary students' digital health practices," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    11. Neely, Eva, 2023. "Theorising mother-baby-assemblages: The vital emergence of maternal health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    12. Laetitia Zeeman & Kay Aranda, 2020. "A Systematic Review of the Health and Healthcare Inequalities for People with Intersex Variance," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(18), pages 1-18, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Andrews, Gavin J. & Chen, Sandra & Myers, Samantha, 2014. "The ‘taking place’ of health and wellbeing: Towards non-representational theory," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 210-222.
    2. Boyle, Louise E., 2019. "The (un)habitual geographies of Social Anxiety Disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 31-37.
    3. Andrews, Gavin J., 2019. "Spinning, hurting, still, afraid: Living life spaces with Type I Chiari Malformation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 13-21.
    4. Plane, Jocelyn & Klodawsky, Fran, 2013. "Neighbourhood amenities and health: Examining the significance of a local park," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 1-8.
    5. Allison Williams & Peter Kitchen, 2012. "Sense of Place and Health in Hamilton, Ontario: A Case Study," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 108(2), pages 257-276, September.
    6. Hale, James & Knapp, Corrine & Bardwell, Lisa & Buchenau, Michael & Marshall, Julie & Sancar, Fahriye & Litt, Jill S., 2011. "Connecting food environments and health through the relational nature of aesthetics: Gaining insight through the community gardening experience," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 72(11), pages 1853-1863, June.
    7. Völker, Sebastian & Kistemann, Thomas, 2013. "Reprint of: “I'm always entirely happy when I'm here!” Urban blue enhancing human health and well-being in Cologne and Düsseldorf, Germany," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 141-152.
    8. Buzinde, Christine N. & Yarnal, Careen, 2012. "Therapeutic landscapes and postcolonial theory: A theoretical approach to medical tourism," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(5), pages 783-787.
    9. Andrews, Gavin J. & Shaw, David, 2010. ""So we started talking about a beach in Barbados": Visualization practices and needle phobia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(10), pages 1804-1810, November.
    10. Rishworth, Andrea & Elliott, Susan J., 2019. "Global environmental change in an aging world: The role of space, place and scale," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 128-136.
    11. Hoyez, Anne-Cécile, 2007. "The 'world of yoga': The production and reproduction of therapeutic landscapes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 112-124, July.
    12. Proudfoot, Jesse, 2019. "Traumatic landscapes: Two geographies of addiction," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 194-201.
    13. Anna Staniewska, 2022. "Gardens of Historic Mental Health Hospitals and Their Potential Use for Green Therapy Purposes," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-23, September.
    14. Kangmennaang, Joseph & Elliott, Susan J., 2018. "Towards an integrated framework for understanding the links between inequalities and wellbeing of places in low and middle income countries," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 45-53.
    15. Schwanen, Tim & Banister, David & Anable, Jillian, 2012. "Rethinking habits and their role in behaviour change: the case of low-carbon mobility," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 522-532.
    16. Katherine N. Irvine & Sara L. Warber & Patrick Devine-Wright & Kevin J. Gaston, 2013. "Understanding Urban Green Space as a Health Resource: A Qualitative Comparison of Visit Motivation and Derived Effects among Park Users in Sheffield, UK," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(1), pages 1-26, January.
    17. Shankardass, Ketan & Robertson, Colin & Shaughnessy, Krystelle & Sykora, Martin & Feick, Rob, 2019. "A unified ecological framework for studying effects of digital places on well-being," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 227(C), pages 119-127.
    18. Elliott, Susan J., 2018. "50 years of medical health geography(ies) of health and wellbeing," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 206-208.
    19. Liamputtong, Pranee & Kurban, Hala, 2018. "Health, social integration and social support: The lived experiences of young Middle-Eastern refugees living in Melbourne, Australia," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 99-106.
    20. Brown, Tim & Bell, Morag, 2007. "Off the couch and on the move: Global public health and the medicalisation of nature," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(6), pages 1343-1354, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:226:y:2019:i:c:p:123-134. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.