Pregnant Box: What Happens When Opera Enacts an Embodied Analysis of Concealing Pregnancy
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2023Access:
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Catherine Conlon and Evangelia Rigaki, Pregnant Box: What Happens When Opera Enacts an Embodied Analysis of Concealing Pregnancy. In Helen Kara (Eds.) The Bloomsbury Handbook of Creative Research Methods, London, Bloomsbury Academic, 2023Download Item:
Pre-Publication Proof Conlon and Rigaki 2023.pdf (Accepted for publication (author's copy) - Peer Reviewed) 848.3Kb
Abstract:
This chapter discusses a project that originated as policy-commissioned research initiated by
Health Service practitioners to address concerns about recurring presentations of ‘concealed
pregnancy’ to health care settings in Ireland. Research was commissioned to marshal evidence
towards reducing the incidence of this ‘problem’. I conducted the study, interviewing thirteen
women about their experiences of concealing pregnancy. Engaging with the commissioned or
applied policy process evoked for me Buroway’s (2004) conceptualization of policy research as
applied or ‘instrumental knowledge’. A process in which knowledge making is premised on a
positivist paradigm that accepts the possibility of direct access to a singular ‘reality’ while
ignoring theorizations of connections between ‘knowledge’ and power and the implications of
conceptions of subjectivity for knowing the social world (Buroway 2004; Lather 2010; Bacchi
2012; Shortall 2013). A paradigm with the effect of placing the inquiry in the realm of
governmentality of women’s fertile bodies.
Sponsor
Grant Number
Department of Health and Children, Ireland
Author's Homepage:
http://people.tcd.ie/conloncehttp://people.tcd.ie/rigakie
Author: Conlon, Catherine; Rigaki, Evangelia
Other Titles:
The Bloomsbury Handbook of Creative Research MethodsPublisher:
Bloomsbury AcademicType of material:
Book ChapterAvailability:
Full text availableSubject (TCD):
Creative Arts Practice , Identities in Transformation , Inclusive Society , Making Ireland , Abortion , Human rights , Inclusive research , Performance studies , SOCIAL POLICY , Sexuality and sexual health , Social MovementsISSN:
9781350355750Licences: