In this article I argue that despite the claims of some, all whites in racialized societies “have race.” But because of the current context of race in our society, I argue that scholars of “whiteness” face several difficult theoretical and methodological challenges. First is the problem of how to avoid essentializing race when talking about whites as a social collective. That is, scholars must contend with the challenge of how to write about what is shared by those racialized as white (...) without implying that their experiences of racialization all will be the same. Second, within the current context of color-blind racial discourse, researchers must confront the reality that some whites claim not to experience their whiteness at all. Third, studies of whiteness must not be conducted in a vacuum: racial discourse or “culture” cannot be separated from material realities. Only by attending to and by recognizing these challenges will empirical research on whiteness be able to push the boundaries of our understandings about the role of whites as racial actors and thereby also contribute to our understanding of how race works more generally. (shrink)

Clerical frames for nursing practice: missionary nurses at Rehoboth This paper presents a discourse analysis of publications of the Christian Reformed Church regarding its Rehoboth Mission near Gallup, New Mexico, among the Navajo. All issues of The Banner, Acts of Synod of the Christian Reformed Church, the Rehoboth Hospital Bulletin, and the Annual Report of the Rehoboth Mission from 1880 to the present were reviewed for references to health‐care at Rehoboth from 1903 to 1943. Four religiously framed discourses were identified: (...) discourses justifying provision of health‐care at the mission, discourses of the Navajos as immature and potentially dangerous, needing to be civilized, discourses of cleanliness, and discourses of calling. This paper adds to a growing body of knowledge about religious frames within which nurses have practiced in North America. (shrink)

A provocative critique of Western attitudes about the Orient, this history examines the ways in which the West has discovered, invented, and sought to control the East from the 1700s to the present.

Discourse analysis is a relatively recent form of inquiry without a strict step‐by‐step method. The methodology of discourse analysis has a longer history in Continental Europe than in other countries.1 The complex theoretical assumptions, the goals and the target (discourse) have been explicated, but the methodology may be applied in different ways. This paper will describe discourse analysis and give examples of some of the possible variations. It is the claim of this paper that discourse analysis deserves consideration as a (...) methodology for nursing inquiry. (shrink)

The unbearable whiteness of being (in nursing) My purpose in writing this paper is to uncover some of the ways in which nursing participates in, reproduces, and resists the detrimental practices associated with white cultural privilege and to share some instances of its personal and social costs. It draws upon the body of scholarship which interrogates racism as it is enacted through whiteness in North America. Whiteness is depicted not as a preordained biological property, but as a socially constructed category (...) of race, wherein non‐white people are racially designated, while whites escape such designation and occupy positions which allow them to carry on as if what they say is neutral, rather than historically and ideologically situated. While the concept of whiteness may not have much resonance in nursing, it offers another way to talk about racism, one that does not stop with the scrutiny of the racialized Other. The presumed neutrality of whiteness has been institutionalized so that its authority to define knowledge, membership, and language, as well as its ability to stipulate and enforce the rules and regulations of everyday concourse and discourse within nursing is concealed. (shrink)

The recent growth of whiteness studies has brought whiteness under increasing scrutiny as a racial category that is both constructed and morally problematic. Two approaches dominate this relatively new discourse on the proper approach to whiteness. The first approach is eliminativism , which starts from the insight that the discursive categories of race, including whiteness, lack the biological ground that Enlightenment era theorists thought they had, and therefore calls for the elimination of the idea of race. The other, more heterogeneous, (...) approach is that of the critical conservationists who agree with the general spirit of the eliminativists (namely that the idea of whiteness lacks a biological referent) but for various reasons do not think that racial categories should be eliminated. This article suggests an alternative to these two models of whiteness studies. The alternative is grounded in the pragmatism of W. E. B. Du Bois and John Dewey. It reconciles the two dominant approaches by showing how white folk can develop a determinate, historical critique of whiteness. The pragmatist method advocated here fragments whiteness into more authentic and liberatory cultural categories that recognize the unwarranted privileges associated with whiteness and takes action to relinquish them. Key Words: critical conservationism • John Dewey • W. E. B. Du Bois • eliminativism • Terrance MacMullan • pragmatism • race • whiteness • Naomi Zack. (shrink)

"In the first three chapters, the author examines definitions of postmodern and postcultural approaches and ways in which they can be used to influence and inform us about health care. Chapters 4 and 5 look at the practical aspects of proposing and carrying out research projects using these approaches. Cheek concludes by reviewing the "intellectural journey" required in coming to grips with the meaning and application of these approaches, and she suggests ways in which the reader can continue to grow (...) in his or her pursuit."--BOOK JACKET. (shrink)

Keeping the lid on infection: infection control practices of a regional Queensland hospital 1930–50 Nurses have played an important role in infection control practices throughout the past century. However, the desire for minimisation of cross infection has not always been the basis for many of the activities undertaken by nurses within the general ward. This paper is a historical analysis of those practices that formed the basis of infection control within the medical and surgical wards of the Rockhampton Hospital between (...) 1930 and 1950. In particular, those activities dealing with the disposal of body fluids, ward cleaning, aseptic techniques and associated sterilisation of instruments and articles, the nurses’ personal cleanliness and isolation nursing have been addressed. This study has identified economic factors, professional image and local traditions as being influential in the origins and persistence of many activities which may be loosely grouped as infection control measures. (shrink)