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Id 880
Author Quinlan E., Thomas R., Ahmed S., Fichtner P., McMullen L., Block J.
Title The aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive arts: Lifeworld communication among breast cancer survivors living with lymphedema
Reference
Quinlan E., Thomas R., Ahmed S., Fichtner P., McMullen L., Block J.; The aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive arts: Lifeworld communication among breast cancer survivors living with lymphedema ;Social Theory and Health vol:12 issue: 3 page:291.0

Link to article https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84905184370&doi=10.1057%2fsth.2014.9&partnerID=40&md5=1a90b2129d5bf4da55b354be4ae392e3
Abstract The use of popular expressive arts as antidotes to the pathologies of the parallel processes of lifeworld colonization and cultural impoverishment has been under-theorized. This article enters the void with a project in which breast cancer survivors used collages and installations of everyday objects to solicit their authentic expression of the psycho-social impacts of lymphedema. The article enlists Jurgen Habermas communicative action theory to explore the potential of these expressive arts to expand participants meaningful engagement with their lifeworlds. The findings point to the unique non-linguistic discursivity of these non-institutional artistic forms as their liberating power to disclose silenced human needs: the images spoke for themselves for group members to recognize shared subjectivities. The authenticity claims inherent in the art forms fostered collective reflexivity and spontaneous, affective responses and compelled the group to create new collective understandings of the experience of living with lymphedema. The article contributes theoretical insights regarding the emancipatory potential of aesthetic-expressive rationality, an under-developed area of Habermasian theory of communicative action, and to the burgeoning literature on arts-based methods in social scientific research. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.

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Summary:



The aesthetic rationality of the popular expressive arts: Lifeworld communication among breast cancer survivors living with lymphedema. After sketching out the relevant Habermasian concepts and outlining the studys methods and participants the article will analyse the interviews with a small purposive sample of breast cancer survivors to develop an understanding of the signicance of the expressive arts used in the informal public space of workshops. State-provided healthcare is a good example that dees the binary of system and lifeworld: it requires communicative action and processes of social integration to coordinate the service to human material needs by preventing and treating disease. For the second workshop all participants were asked to create and bring a three-dimensional art installation: an assemblage of everyday objects reecting their experiences of living with lymphedema. However the production did challenge medical discourse concerning diagnoses of and treatments for lymphedema and provided a platform for the participants to speak the truthfulness of the patient voice to the expert culture of medicine.


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