Rethinking the social role of nursing through the work of Donzelot and Foucault

Evy Nazon; Amelie Peron; Thomas Foth

doi:10.25071/2291-5796.23

Authors

Evy Nazon Université du Québec en Outaouais
Amelie Peron University of Ottawa School of Nursing
Thomas Foth

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.23

Keywords:

nursing history – charity – philanthropy – gouvernemntality – invention of the social.

Abstract

The history of nursing is often perceived as the history of a profession with charitable and philanthropic objectives of helping others live a healthy life. Many historians have celebrated the major role played by charitable women in nursing. Moving beyond this charitable and dedicated image of nurses, we argue that nursing, through “the social,” became a pivotal component of the governance of the everyday lives of populations. As such, nursing became part of the evolving idea that all areas of life must be managed through a process of normalization that seeks to maximize the life of both the individual and the population. Populations thus became the focus of governmental projects. Jacques Donzelot’s notion of invention of the social and Michel Foucault’s concept of govenmentality make possible a reassessment of the conventional image of nurses, and in particular, that of charitable nurses.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Evy Nazon, Université du Québec en Outaouais

Evy Nazon, RN, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nursing at the University of Quebec in Outaouais. Her doctoral project, by bringing a critical perspective to the historical discussions surrounding the development of the nursing profession and discipline, examined the construction of nursing knowledge in Quebec and highlighted the social and political role of nurses since the beginnings of the profession. As a nurse, she has worked mostly in acute care specially in medical and surgical units. She teaches several courses at the undergraduate level that deal with nursing in an acute context and at the graduate level, she teaches the epistemological process of the nursing discipline, the construction of knowledge and the role of nurses. In terms of research, she is generally interested in the nursing history, critical approach, nursing workforce, education, role, skills and knowledge of nurses in healthcare settings.

Amelie Peron, University of Ottawa School of Nursing

Amélie Perron, RN, PhD, is an Associate professor at the School of Nursing at the University of Ottawa and Co-President of the Nursing Observatory. Her clinical practice is grounded in community psychiatry and crisis intervention. As a researcher, she has worked on many research projects in psychiatric nursing and forensic psychiatry in Canada, France and Australia. Her work is grounded in Critical Theory. Her research interests include nursing care to captive and marginalised populations; power relationships between health care professionals, patients and care settings; issues of discourse, risk, gender and ethics; and nursing epistemology. Through her work with the Nursing Observatory, she is more specifically interested in the sociopolitical aspects of care and nurses' political consciousness and action. She is co-author of "On the politics of ignorance in nursing and health care: Knowing ignorance" (2015, Routledge) and co-edited "Power and the Psychiatric Apparatus: Assistance, Repression and Transformation" (2014, Ashgate) and "(Re)Thinking Violence in Health Care Settings: A Critical Approach" (2012, Ashgate). She has published 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and has presented at numerous international peer-reviewed conferences in a range of disciplines. She is also Editor of Aporia - The Nursing Journal.

Thomas Foth

Thomas Foth, RN, PhD is an assistant professor at the School of Nursing in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Ottawa. As a nurse, he has worked in different areas of the profession. His doctoral research project explores the participation of nurses in the killing of more than 200,000 sick persons during the Nazi regime. He has worked on many research projects in the fields of interdisciplinary cooperation between nurses and physicians, nursing professionalization processes in Germany as well as psychiatry in that country. Foth’s fields of interest include history of nursing, critical theory of nursing action, nursing theories, philosophy of science, ethics, care provided to marginalized populations, technologies and nursing, power relationships between health care professionals and patients as well as gender. Most of his work is based on the discourse analytical approach, oriented on the works of Michel Foucault, queer theorists and postcolonial studies. He also uses approaches from actor-network theories and the “newer” critical theory in Germany.

References

Archives Ville de Montréal (AVM). (1958). 240 anges-gardiens veillent sur la santé des enfants par Hervé Lépine , Fonds du Comité de santé -Bureau de santé (VM 045-800.3), 1-2.

Beaudoin, J.-A. (1924). La coupe commune. La Veilleuse, 1(7), 13-15.

Berman, E. H. (1983). The influence of the Carnegie, Ford, and Rockefeller foundations on American foreign policy: The ideology of philanthropy. Albany: State University of New York.

Biggar, J.-L. (1930). La civilisation et la santé. La Garde-Malade Canadienne-Française 3(8), 399-402.

Boucher, S. (1934). L’oeuvre de l’infirmière. La Garde-Malade Canadienne-Française 7(2), 76-77.

Bremner, R. H. (1956). From the depths: The discovery of poverty in the United States. New York: New York University Press.

Burchell, G. (1991). Peculiar interest: Civil society and governing: The “system of natural liberty.” In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality (pp. 119-150). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Castel, R. (1995). Les métamorphoses de la question sociale: Une chronique du salariat. Paris: Fayard.

Cohen, Y. (2010). Femmes philanthropes: Catholiques, Protestantes et Juives dans les organisations caritatives du Québec. Montréal: Champ Libre. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/books.pum.4456

Dean, M. & Bolton,G. (1980). The administration of poverty and the development of nursing practice in nineteenth-century England. In C. Davies (Ed.), Rewriting nursing history (pp. 76-101). London: Barnes & Noble Books.

Dean, M. (2010). Govermentality: Power and rule in modern society. London: Sage.

Desrosiers, G., Gaumer, B., & Keel, O. (1989). L’évolution des structures de l’enseignement universitaire spécialisé de santé publique au Québec : 1899-1970. Bulletin Canadien d’Histoire de la Médecine, 6, 3-26. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.6.1.3

Donzelot, J. (1994). L’invention du social: Essai sur le déclin des passions politiques. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.

Donzelot, J. (1991). Mobilizing of society. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 169-180.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Elson, P. R. (2007). A short history of voluntary sector-government relations in Canada. The Philanthropist, 21, 36-74.

Foth, T., & Holmes, D. (2017). Neoliberalism and the government of nursing through competency-based education. Nursing Inquiry, 24(2), 1-9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12154

Foth, T., Kuhla, J., & Benedict, S. (2014). Nursing during National Socialism. In S. Benedict, & L. Shields (Eds.), Nurses and midwives in Nazi Germany: The “Euthanasia Programs” (pp. 27-47). New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis Group.

Foth, T. (2013). Understanding ‘caring’ through biopolitics: The case of nurses under the Nazi regime. Nursing Philosophy, 14(4), 284-294. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12013

Foucault, M. (1975). Surveiller et punir: Naissance de la prison. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

Foucault, M. (1976). La politique de la santé. In M. Foucault, B. Kriegel, A. Thalamy, F. Buégin, & B. Fortier (Eds.), Machines à guérir: Aux origines de l’hôpital moderne (pp. 10-15). Paris: Institut de l’Environnement.

Foucault, M. (1980). Body/Power. In G. Collin (Ed.), Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings, 1972-1977 (pp. 55-62). New York: Vintage.

Foucault, M. (1982). The subject and power. Critical Inquiry, 8(4), 777-795. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/448181

Foucault, M. (1991). Governmentality. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 87-104.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Foucault, M. (1994a). La gouvernementalité. In M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits (Vol. 3, pp. 663667). Paris: Gallimard.

Foucault, M. (1994b). L’incorporation de l’hôpital dans la technologie moderne. In M. Foucault, Dits et écrits (Vol. 3, pp. 508521). Paris: Éditions Gallimard.

Foucault, M. (1994c). La naissance de la médecine sociale. In M. Foucault, Dits et Écrits (Vol. 3, pp. 207-228). Paris : Éditions Gallimard.

Foucault, M. (2004). Sécurité, territoire, population : Cours au Collège de France, 1977-1978. Paris: Seuil/Gallimard.

Gordon, C. (1991). Governmental rationality: An introduction. In G. Burchell, C. Gordon, & P. Miller (Eds.), The Foucault effect: Studies in governmentality (pp. 1-53). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gross, R. A. (2003). Giving in America: From charity to philanthropy. In L. Friedman, & M. D. McGarvie (Eds.), Charity, philanthropy and civility in American history (pp. 29-48). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Guilhot, N. (2004). Une vocation philanthropique. Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, 1, 36-48. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/arss.151.0036

Hall, S. (2001). Foucault: Power, knowledge and discourse. In M. Wetherell, S. Taylor, S. J. Yates (Eds.), Discourse, theory and practice: A reader (pp. 72-81). London: Sage Publications.

Hall, P. D. (1992) A historical overview of philanthropy, voluntary associations, and non-profit organizations in the United States, 1600-2000. In P. Hall, Inventing the nonprofit sector and other essays on philanthropy, voluntarism, and non-profit organization (pp. 32-65). Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Holmes, D. & Gastaldo, D. (2002). Nursing as means of governmentality. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 38, 557-565. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2002.02222.x

Illich, I. (1977). Disabling professions: Notes for a lecture. Contemporary Crises, 1, 359-370. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00729109

Kreutzer, S. (2010). Nursing body and soul in the parish: Lutheran deaconess motherhouses in Germany and the United States. Nursing History Review, 18, 134-50 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1891/1062-8061.18.134

Lascoumes, P. (2004). La gouvernementalité : De la critique de l’état aux technologies du pouvoir. Le Portique, 13-14, 2-13.

Lefèvre, S. (2015). Pour une approche sociopolitique de la philanthropie financière : plaidoyer pour un programme de recherche. Politiques et Sociétés, 34, 61-85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1032507ar

Maraldo, P. J., Fagin, C., & Keenan, T. (1988). Nursing and private philanthropy. Health Affairs, 7, 130-136. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.7.1.130

O’Brien, M. E. (2008). Spirituality in nursing: Standing on holy ground (3rd Ed). Sudburry, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Paul, P. (1994). The contribution of the Grey nuns to the development of nursing in Canada: Historiographical issues. Canadian Bulletin of Medical History, 11, 207-217. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3138/cbmh.11.1.207

Perron, A., Rudge, T., & Holmes, D. (2010). Citizen minds, citizen bodies: The citizenship experience and the government of mentally ill persons. Nursing Philosophy, 11, 100111. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-769X.2010.00437.x

Petitat, A. (1989). Les infirmières : De la vocation à la profession. Montréal: Boréal.

Rose, N., & Miller, P. (1992). Political power beyond the state: Problematics of government. British Journal of Sociology, 43, 173-205. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/591464

Rose, N. (1993). Government, authority and expertise in advanced liberalism. Economy & Society, 22(3), 283-299. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03085149300000019

Sioban, N. (2011). Say little, do much: Nurses, nuns and hospitals in the nineteenth century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Spector, C. (2006). Foucault, les lumières et l’histoire: L’émergence de la société civile. Lumières, 8, 169-191.

Whiteside, N. (2014). The Beveridge report and its implementation: A revolutionary project? Histoire@Politique, 3(24): 24-37. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3917/hp.024.0024

Zunz, O. (2012). Philanthropy in America: A history. Princeton: Princeton University Press.