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Qualitative Social Work
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Untitled Moments

Theorizing Incorporeal Knowledge in Social Work Practice

Catherine Phillips

University of Plymouth, UK, catherine.phillips{at}plymouth.ac.uk

In this article I argue that social work practice is continually informed by not just a corporeal or physical body, but also by an incorporeal body. Incorporeal knowledge. I am interested in how such a body invokes questions about how we theorize (in/through) practice. To examine these questions, I work with the postmodern theoretical stance that the separation of practice and theory in social work is not tenable (Fook, 1996; Fook, 2002; John, 1994; Rossiter, 2000). I narrate effects on my body of trauma work that have been framed by the incorporeal body.

Key Words: Felix Gonzalez-Torres • incorporeal body • knowledge production • medicine • postmodern theories

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Qualitative Social Work, Vol. 6, No. 4, 447-464 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1473325007083356


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This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
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