Nursing and adolescent health promotion: an inquiry following the philosophical oeuvre of Michel Foucault
Date
2013-11-25
Authors
Ryan, Maureen Margaret
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Abstract
Following the philosophical oeuvre of Michel Foucault, I locate and discuss how the
discursive formulation of adolescent health promotion defines the conceptual
possibilities and determines the boundaries of nurses’ thinking and practices as they are
written about in nursing texts.
From my archaeological work, I locate and name two confident nursing practices within
the context of young people and their health: “reducing risk” and “promoting well
becoming” and go on to locate those practices within two broader theoretical discourses
within human science: the biological view and the social constructionist view.
From my genealogical work, I consider how the management of the adolescent body has
become a matter that situates biological life (puberty) as a political event and situates the
nurse within governing practices of pastoral power. I question the ways in which
adolescent health may be shaped through political interests of economy and social order
and question: When is an adolescent ever deemed responsible in matters pertaining to
their health?
I offer an alternative view of responsibility and argue for a shift in established binary
thinking that allows for the consideration of co-responsibility.
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Keywords
adolescent health promotion, nursing, Foucault, archaeology, genealogy, co-responsibility