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Hidden geographies: The changing lifeworlds of women with multiple sclerosis

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  • Dyck, Isabel

Abstract

This paper discusses the microgeographies of unemployed women with multiple sclerosis, as they manage the physical, social and economic consequences of their illness. Recent directions in the geography of health and health care draw attention to the relationships between space, place and health experience, and in this paper a focus on the everyday lives of women with Multiple Sclerosis reveals the complex interweaving of space, physical impairment and gender in how they experience place. In-depth interviews were used in the study to investigate how women occupied and used home and neighbourhood space after leaving the paid labour force. The majority of women were found to experience shrinking social and geographical worlds which rendered their lives increasingly hidden from view as patterns of social interaction changed and use of public space diminished. The paper discusses the women's residential and household changes, mediated by marital and socio-economic status, and presents two brief case studies to illustrate the remapping of the meanings of work and place as women renegotiate their lifeworlds. The focus of the study on the spatio-temporal settings of the women's everyday lives revealed an interplay of biomedical discourse, policy structures, sociocultural norms and local sets of social relations that shaped the strategies the women used in reconstructing their lives. The women showed a diversity of responses, but these were all characterized by a restructuring of home and neighbourhood space, a recordering of personal relationships and increasing interpenetration of the public sphere in their private lives. The findings suggest that attention to the body in its geographical as well as social context provides an avenue for investigating the links between subjective experience and the broader social relations and processes which shape the illness experience.

Suggested Citation

  • Dyck, Isabel, 1995. "Hidden geographies: The changing lifeworlds of women with multiple sclerosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 307-320, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:40:y:1995:i:3:p:307-320
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    Cited by:

    1. Thomas, Felicity, 2006. "Stigma, fatigue and social breakdown: Exploring the impacts of HIV/AIDS on patient and carer well-being in the Caprivi Region, Namibia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(12), pages 3174-3187, December.
    2. Brendan Gleeson, 2001. "Disability and the Open City," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 38(2), pages 251-265, February.
    3. Massimiliano Pau & Micaela Porta & Giancarlo Coghe & Jessica Frau & Lorena Lorefice & Eleonora Cocco, 2020. "Does Multiple Sclerosis Differently Impact Physical Activity in Women and Man? A Quantitative Study Based on Wearable Accelerometers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-13, November.
    4. Green, Gill & Todd, Jennifer & Pevalin, David, 2007. "Biographical disruption associated with multiple sclerosis: Using propensity scoring to assess the impact," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 524-535, August.
    5. 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.
    6. Crooks, Valorie A., 2007. "Exploring the altered daily geographies and lifeworlds of women living with fibromyalgia syndrome: A mixed-method approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 577-588, February.
    7. Lucherini, Mark, 2020. "Spontaneity and serendipity: Space and time in the lives of people with diabetes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 245(C).
    8. McQuoid, Julia, 2017. "Finding joy in poor health: The leisure-scapes of chronic illness," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 88-96.
    9. 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.
    10. Jane Aronson & Sheila M. Neysmith, 2001. "Manufacturing Social Exclusion in the Home Care Market," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 27(2), pages 151-165, June.
    11. Boyle, Louise E., 2019. "The (un)habitual geographies of Social Anxiety Disorder," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 231(C), pages 31-37.
    12. Bell, Sarah L. & Tyrrell, Jessica & Phoenix, Cassandra, 2016. "Ménière's disease and biographical disruption: Where family transitions collide," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 177-185.

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