The political ethics of consumerism

This article draws on research into the development and growth of ethical consumption in the UK to suggest why consumerism and citizenship are not necessarily opposed practices. Consumer-oriented activism offers important pathways to political participation for ordinary people. The organisations involved in this field embed consumer-oriented activism in wider programs of mobilisation, activism, lobbying and campaigning, enrolling ordinary people in active political engagement

‘The body says it’: the difficulty of measuring and communicating sensations of breathlessness

Breathlessness is a sensation affecting those living with chronic respiratory disease, obesity, heart disease and anxiety disorders. The Multidimensional Dyspnoea Profile is a respiratory questionnaire which attempts to measure the incommunicable different sensory qualities (and emotional responses) of breathlessness. Drawing on sensorial anthropology we take as our object of study the process of turning sensations into symptoms. We consider how shared cultural templates of ‘what counts as a symptom’ evolve, mediate and feed into the process of bodily sensations becoming a symptom. Our contribution to the field of sensorial anthropology, as an interdisciplinary collaboration between history, anthropology and the medical humanities, is to provide a critique of how biomedicine and cultures of clinical research have measured the multidimensional sensorial aspects of breathlessness. Using cognitive interviews of respiratory questionnaires with participants from the Breathe Easy groups in the UK, we give examples of how the wording used to describe sensations is often at odds with the language those living with breathlessness understand or use. They struggle to comprehend and map their bodily experience of sensations associated with breathlessness to the words on the respiratory questionnaire. We reflect on the alignment between cognitive interviewing as a method and anthropology as a disciplinary approach. We argue biomedicine brings with it a set of cultural assumptions about what it means to measure (and know) the sensorial breathless body in the context of the respiratory clinic (clinical research). We suggest the mismatch between the descriptions (and confusion) of those responding to the respiratory questionnaire items and those selecting the vocabularies in designing it may be symptomatic of a type of historical testimonial epistemic injustice, founded on the prioritisation of clinical expertise over expertise by experience

Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption

Globalizing Responsibility: The Political Rationalities of Ethical Consumption presents an innovative reinterpretation of the forces that have shaped the remarkable growth of ethical consumption. *Develops a theoretically informed new approach to shape our understanding of the pragmatic nature of ethical action in consumption processes. *Provides empirical research on everyday consumers, social networks, and campaigns. *Fills a gap in research on the topic with its distinctive focus on fair trade consumption. *Locates ethical consumption within a range of social theoretical debates -on neoliberalism, governmentality, and globalisation. *Challenges the moralism of much of the analysis of ethical consumption, which sees it as a retreat from proper citizenly politics and an expression of individualised consumerism

Invisible Breath

In this article we introduce the creative writing workshop “Dear Breath” and explore how those living with breathlessness tell the story of their breathlessness through letters. We explore what types of character letter writers bestow on breath (as friend, ally, or enemy) and whether they locate the troubling plotline of their breathlessness as a problem in the air or within their body. Starting with the premise that letters are stories, we were interested in how the choice of materials became part of the storytelling. Through creating letters as visual stories, participants discover which type of story they are in (restitution, resolution, or retribution). We explore two thematic storylines: stories that explore the boundaries between breath, body, air, and personhood; and stories that explore the impermanence of the breath as “other” and entreaties for it to stay. We share visual examples of practice

Medical students' experience of mindfulness training in the UK:wellbeing, coping reserve and professional development.

Medical school can be a stressful experience for students, resulting in stress-related mental health problems. Policy recommendations from the General Medical Council (GMC), the body responsible for improving medical education in the UK, recommend the use of mindfulness training to increase well-being and resilience to stress. Students participating in an eight-week mindfulness training between Autumn 2011 and Spring 2015 were invited to complete a free text survey at the end of their mindfulness course. In addition, six qualitative interviews were conducted lasting between 60 and 90 minutes. Interviews used a topic guide and were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We used the framework approach to analyse the data. Students reported a new relationship to their thoughts and feelings which gave a greater sense of control and resiliency, an ability to manage their workload better, and more acceptance of their limitations as learners. The small group context was important. Students described improved empathy and communication skills through building inner awareness of thoughts and feelings, noticing judgments, and developing attentive observation. The findings show how resiliency and coping reserve can be developed within medical education and the role of mindfulness in this process. We present a conceptual model of a learnt cycle of specific vulnerability and describe how MBCT intercepts at various junctures in this self-reinforcing cycle through the development of new coping strategies that embrace an “allowed vulnerability.

Orienting to Emotion in Computer-Mediated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Exploring emotions is a defining feature of psychotherapy. This study explores how therapists explore emotions when they cannot see or hear their clients. In analysing 1,279 sessions of online text-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (<i>CBT</i>) we focused on therapists’ commiserations (e.g., “I’m sorry to hear that”) and their affective inferences (e.g., “that sounds very scary for you”). Both practices routinely prefaced moves to pursue a range of therapeutic activities, many of which did not prioritise sustained focus on the emotion that had just been oriented to. By separating message composition from message transmission, the modality used for these therapy sessions enabled therapists to combine orientations to emotion with attempts to shift the focus of discussion. Our analysis finds that although physically co-present and computer-mediated psychotherapy share a common focus on emotional experience, the modality used for therapy can be relevant in the design and use of these orientations. Data are in British English