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Risky Business: Codifying Embodied Experience in the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows
Author(s) -
DORAN NOB
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
journal of historical sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.186
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1467-6443
pISSN - 0952-1909
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6443.1994.tb00165.x
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , interpretation (philosophy) , discipline , order (exchange) , power (physics) , sociology , aesthetics , michel foucault , epistemology , work (physics) , social science , law , political science , philosophy , economics , linguistics , mechanical engineering , physics , finance , quantum mechanics , politics , engineering
Foucault's theorising on power/ knowledge is combined with recent feminist work on the importance of analysing embodied experience in order to re‐examine the conventional interpretation of nineteenth century ‘friendly society’ insurance history. In contrast to conventional accounts which interpret the eventual adoption of life insurance tables as the belated acceptance of sound, scientific principles, this article argues that such a transformation also represented the destruction of a prior cultural organization of health care via the imposition of the mundane ‘disciplinary’ technique of ‘counting.’