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Critical Places and Emerging Health Matters: Body, Risk and Spatial Obstacles

Hansson, Kristofer LU (2020) In Global Perspectives on Health Geography p.71-83
Abstract
The essay presents and develops the concept of “critical places” and how it can be used when studying the everyday experience of living with long-term sickness and/or disability. The concept analyses the duality of both physical risk and social benefit and how they can collide in one specific place and create a bodily situation where the individual needs to act. The concept of “critical places” explores the phenomenological thought about doing and happening in specific situations, and, as such, the concept can also be seen as an ethnographic method. As a more theoretical concept, “critical places” can be used for a hermeneutic analysis of risk-taking, hiding from stigma, identity formation, power relations in a specific place and so on. I... (More)
The essay presents and develops the concept of “critical places” and how it can be used when studying the everyday experience of living with long-term sickness and/or disability. The concept analyses the duality of both physical risk and social benefit and how they can collide in one specific place and create a bodily situation where the individual needs to act. The concept of “critical places” explores the phenomenological thought about doing and happening in specific situations, and, as such, the concept can also be seen as an ethnographic method. As a more theoretical concept, “critical places” can be used for a hermeneutic analysis of risk-taking, hiding from stigma, identity formation, power relations in a specific place and so on. I have used the concept in a couple of Swedish text concerning disability, and in these texts the concept has been elaborated with theories from geographies (Alftberg et al. Inledning: ljudmiljöer, kulturella praktiker och hörselnedsättning. [Introduction: sound environments, cultural practise and hearing impairment]. In: Ljud tar plats: Funktionshinderperspektiv på ljudmiljöer [Sound takes place: disability perspective on audio environments] 11. Lund: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, 2016). The concept has also been used by Meghan Cridland (“May contain traces of”: an ethnographic study of eating communities and the gluten free diet. Lund: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, 2017) in her ethnographic study of eating communities and by Niclas Hagen (A molecular body in a digital society: from practical biosociality to online biosociality. In: The atomized body – the cultural life of stem cells, genes and neurons. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2012) in his study about people living with Huntington’s disease. In this article, I will also develop the concept with my new research project about disability and accessibility, a 3-year project that will start in 2018. The article will introduce the concept of “critical places” to an international arena. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Asthma, Breathing, Ethnography, Risk
host publication
GeoHumanities and Health
series title
Global Perspectives on Health Geography
editor
Atkinson, Sarah and Hunt, Rachel
pages
71 - 83
publisher
Springer
external identifiers
  • scopus:105035601088
ISSN
2522-8005
ISBN
978-3-030-21406-7
978-3-030-21405-0
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-21406-7_5
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
dcbdd2d2-4d97-4a23-be48-dde18291bd19
date added to LUP
2019-09-05 08:45:04
date last changed
2026-07-01 22:05:38
@inbook{dcbdd2d2-4d97-4a23-be48-dde18291bd19,
  abstract     = {{The essay presents and develops the concept of “critical places” and how it can be used when studying the everyday experience of living with long-term sickness and/or disability. The concept analyses the duality of both physical risk and social benefit and how they can collide in one specific place and create a bodily situation where the individual needs to act. The concept of “critical places” explores the phenomenological thought about doing and happening in specific situations, and, as such, the concept can also be seen as an ethnographic method. As a more theoretical concept, “critical places” can be used for a hermeneutic analysis of risk-taking, hiding from stigma, identity formation, power relations in a specific place and so on. I have used the concept in a couple of Swedish text concerning disability, and in these texts the concept has been elaborated with theories from geographies (Alftberg et al. Inledning: ljudmiljöer, kulturella praktiker och hörselnedsättning. [Introduction: sound environments, cultural practise and hearing impairment]. In: Ljud tar plats: Funktionshinderperspektiv på ljudmiljöer [Sound takes place: disability perspective on audio environments] 11. Lund: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, 2016). The concept has also been used by Meghan Cridland (“May contain traces of”: an ethnographic study of eating communities and the gluten free diet. Lund: Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, 2017) in her ethnographic study of eating communities and by Niclas Hagen (A molecular body in a digital society: from practical biosociality to online biosociality. In: The atomized body – the cultural life of stem cells, genes and neurons. Lund: Nordic Academic Press, 2012) in his study about people living with Huntington’s disease. In this article, I will also develop the concept with my new research project about disability and accessibility, a 3-year project that will start in 2018. The article will introduce the concept of “critical places” to an international arena.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Kristofer}},
  booktitle    = {{GeoHumanities and Health}},
  editor       = {{Atkinson, Sarah and Hunt, Rachel}},
  isbn         = {{978-3-030-21406-7}},
  issn         = {{2522-8005}},
  keywords     = {{Asthma; Breathing; Ethnography; Risk}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{71--83}},
  publisher    = {{Springer}},
  series       = {{Global Perspectives on Health Geography}},
  title        = {{Critical Places and Emerging Health Matters: Body, Risk and Spatial Obstacles}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-21406-7_5}},
  doi          = {{10.1007/978-3-030-21406-7_5}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}