Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal

Coreen McGuire

ISBN 10: 1526143178 / ISBN 13: 9781526143174

Published by Manchester University Press, GB, 2020

About this Item

Measurements, and their manipulation, have been underestimated as crucial historical forces motivating and guiding the way we think about disability. Using measurement technology as a lens, and examining in particular the measurement of hearing and breathing, this book draws together several existing discussions on disability, phenomenology, healthcare, medical practice, big data, embodiment, and emerging medical and scientific technologies around the turn of the twentieth century. These are popular topics of scholarly attention but have not, until now, been considered as interconnected topics within a single book. As such, this work connects several important, and usually separate academic subject areas and historical specialisms. The standards embedded in instrumentation created strict, but, ultimately arbitrary thresholds of what is categorised as normal and abnormal. Considering these standards from a long historical perspective reveals how these dividing lines shifted when pushed.An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY) licence.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781526143174

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Measuring Difference, Numbering Normal
• Publisher: Manchester University Press, GB
• Publication Date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1526143178
• ISBN 13: 9781526143174
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 435 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Measurements, and their manipulation, have been underestimated as crucial historical forces motivating and guiding the way we think about disability.

Using measurement technology as a lens, and examining in particular the measurement of hearing and breathing, this book draws together several existing discussions on disability, phenomenology, healthcare, medical practice, big data, embodiment, and emerging medical and scientific technologies around the turn of the twentieth century. These are popular topics of scholarly attention but have not, until now, been considered as interconnected topics within a single book. As such, this work connects several important, and usually separate academic subject areas and historical specialisms. The standards embedded in instrumentation created strict, but, ultimately arbitrary thresholds of what is categorised as normal and abnormal. Considering these standards from a long historical perspective reveals how these dividing lines shifted when pushed.

An electronic edition of this book is freely available under a Creative Commons (CC BY) licence.

About the Author

Coreen McGuire is Lecturer in Twentieth-Century British History at Durham University