Table Of ContentSocial Policy and
the Body
Transitions in Corporeal Discourse
Edited by
Kathryn Ellis
Senior Lecturer in Social Policy
University of Luton
and
Hartley Dean
Professor of Social Policy
University of Luton
Consultant Editor: Jo Campling
First published in Great Britain 2000 by
MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and London
Companies and representatives throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-0-333-71385-3 ISBN 978-0-230-37753-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230377530
First published in the United States of America 2000 by
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
Scholarly and Reference Division,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-22058-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Social policy and the body : transitions in corporeal discourse I
edited by Kathryn Ellis and Hartley Dean.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-312-22058-7 (cloth)
1. Body, Human-Social aspects. 2. Social policy. 3. Welfare
state. I. Ellis, Kathryn. II. Dean, Hartley, 1949-
HM110.S62 1999
361.6'1-dc21 98-49905
CIP
Selection and editorial matter © Kathryn Ellis and Hartley Dean 2000
Introduction and Chapter 5 © Hartley Dean 2000
Chapters 1 and 2 © Kathryn Ellis 2000
Other chapters © Macmillan Press Ltd 2000
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made
without written permission.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-333-71384-6
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with
written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to
criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and
sustained forest sources.
10987654321
09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00
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Dedication
The editors wish to dedicate this volume to one of its contributors,
Noel Parry, who very sadly died on 14 October 1998. He will be
greatly missed, not least by his beloved wife, co-researcher and author,
Jose.
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Contents
Acknowledgements viii
Notes on contributors x
Introduction: Towards an Embodied Account of Welfare xi
Hartley Dean
1. Welfare and Bodily Order: Theorizing Transitions in
Corporeal Discourse 1
Kathryn Ellis
2. The Care of the Body 23
Kathryn Ellis
3. The 'Gift' of Body Organs 45
Gurch Randhawa
4. Bodies and Dualism 63
Alison Assiter
5. Bodily Metaphors and Welfare Regimes 83
Hartley Dean
6. Body-Mind Expertise: Notes on the Polarization of Health
Care Discourse 103
John Paley
7. Labouring Bodies: Mothers and Maternity Policy 122
Fiona Brooks and Helen Lomax
8. Disciplinary Interventions and Resistances around 'Safer Sex' 139
Martin Mitchell
9. The Equality of Bodies: Animal Exploitation and Human
Welfare 160
Jose Parry and Noel Parry
References 180
Author Index 202
Subject Index 208
vii
Acknowledgements
The editors are indebted to a number of people. When first we con
ceived the project to which this book gives expression, we sought the
views of the social policy academic community on the Internet, using
the Social Policy Association's 'social-policy mailbase', and we are
grateful to all those colleagues who responded so supportively: we
hope you will not be disappointed by the eventual outcome! Secondly,
we are especially grateful to Jo Campling, our consultant editor, for
the faith she placed in the book, for her encouragement and helpful
advice. Thirdly, we should acknowledge the support and stimulation
provided by a number of colleagues at the University of Luton who,
though they have not contributed chapters to the book, played an
important role in developing our thinking. In particular, Tony
Fitzpatrick read and commented constructively on early drafts of
certain chapters. Most of all, however, we should like as editors to
thank our fellow contributors: the book has been very much a
collaborative effort and has involved a considerable amount of
valuable discussion and debate between the authors.
The end result, we believe, is a collection that is greater than the
sum of its individual parts. We are conscious nonetheless that there is
a great deal more to be written on the subject of social policy and the
body. Working on our own chapters and with the other contributors,
we became aware that this book could do little more than scratch the
surface of an array of fantastically rich and complex issues.
Limitations of space have meant that it has not been possible to
accommodate every change that has been suggested to us or to
develop every argument in the manner we might ideally have wished.
In places, therefore, we decided to retain certain clearly arbitrary and
prolegemenary elements in order that they might assist the central
purpose of the book, which is to stimulate debate. In so doing, of
course, we must ourselves accept responsibility for some of the book's
inevitable deficiencies.
Post-script*
Among the contributors included in this volume is one from the
Parrys. It is an unusual piece to find in a collection such as this
because it reminds us of the important contribution of humanitarism
viii
Acknowledgements ix
in the social and legal reforms introduced in early-nineteenth-century
Britain. This strand has been screened from view with the rise of the
humanistic perspective, which gives prominence to humans as the
primary concern of welfare policy and legislation. The humanitarian
movement, one of the leading intellectuals of which was Jeremy
Bentham, sought to diminish or abolish cruelty and foster compassion:
its attitude towards the 'suffering' body included the treatment of
animals amongst its concerns. In view of his own particular con
victions, it is a fitting tribute to Noel Parry - a distinguished socio
logist of great originality and imagination - that in his last piece of
work, written with his partner, Jose, he should so inimitably challenge
the orthodoxy of anthropocentrism in social policy and the 'insuper
able line', as Bentham called it, between humans and non-humans.
Kathryn Ellis and Hartley Dean,
University of Luton
Editors' note: To avoid unnecessary duplication we have presented
the references as one list at the end of the volume.
