Beyond the Clinic: Restructuring the Environment in Chronic Illness Experience

Abstract

This article discusses research on the daily routines of women with chronic illness that focused on the relationship between body and environment. The analysis draws on insights from feminist theories of the body and human geography that explore the connections among the material or corporeal body, its representation in biomedical discourse and other dominant social ideas about the “able” body, and lived experience. The discussion, which is based on in-depth interviews with women about their daily lives in the spaces of home, neighborhood, and workplace, demonstrates the women's restructuring of their daily routines and environments as they respond to both the material changing of their body and its marking as “deviant.” The analysis emphasizes the powerful influence of dominant social norms about the body, which may cast certain bodies as “out of place,” not just physically but socially. The theoretical ideas are applied to case examples from occupational therapy, and implications for practice are suggested. Following from the analysis, an important focus of intervention is exploration of ways to restructure space and work with clients on issues of social identity.