Foucault’s Concept of “Local Knowledges” for Researching Nursing Practice
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Abstract
Nursing knowledge is diversely represented and contested, among academics and clinicians within and outside of nursing. This paper explores several Foucauldian concepts in relation to subjugated, local, naïve and situated forms of knowledge. We argue that these concepts relate closely to the mundane world of nursing and are useful for thinking about, teaching and researching everyday nursing practice. The discussion is tied back to data and analysis from a postmodern ethnography of nurses’ assessment practice in an Australian acute psychiatric setting. We show how Foucauldian analysis of nurses’ knowledge can usefully foreground taken-for-granted aspects of skillful practice.
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