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Progress, public health, and power: Foucault and the Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan.

Author
Abstract
:

From 1911 to 1979, the Homemakers' Clubs of Saskatchewan mobilized and monitored extensive study and action in the field of public health. This article explores how these clubs exhorted women to strive for progress, and encouraged women to internalize such striving as fundamental to their own identities. The techniques used included encouraging commitment to shared goals, making such goals personal, structuring action, requiring women to report their thoughts and actions, rewarding certain behaviors, and linking those behaviors with emotionally compelling causes. Rooted in a Foucauldian conceptual framework, this article contributes to the sociological understanding of subject formation and governance.

Year of Publication
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2008
Journal
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Canadian review of sociology = Revue canadienne de sociologie
Volume
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45
Issue
:
3
Number of Pages
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225-45
ISSN Number
:
1755-6171
URL
:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/resolve/openurl?genre=article&sid=nlm:pubmed&issn=1755-6171&date=2008&volume=45&issue=3&spage=225
DOI
:
10.1111/j.1755-618x.2008.00015.x
Short Title
:
Can Rev Sociol
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