CPN end-of-year quick review
We had our annual Strategic Planning meeting for the CPN Exec last week and had most of our present and past Exec members present.
Here is a brief summary of the CPN in 2019:
Current Eight-member Exec: Co-chairs Viviana Silva Guerrero (Australia/Colombia) and Dave Nicholls (New Zealand), supported by Tone Dahl-Michelsen (Norway), Jeanette Praestegaard (Denmark), Anna Rajala (Finland/UK), Aydee Luisa Robayo (Colombia), Nicky Wilson (UK), and Adriane Vieira (Brazil)
650 members in 57 countries
UK by far the largest members group (120), followed by Australia (50), Canada (42), New Zealand (38), Denmark (32), Norway (28) and USA (26)
This year's work:
Authors drafting 15 chapters for 2nd critical physiotherapy book - Mobilising knowledge - due for submission 1st January 2020. Book published by Routledge mid-2020
Blog remains main focus for website, 150 posts this year, most in last 5 years, averaging 65,000 site visits per year, 300,000 over last 5 years, 500,000 connections on Facebook, 350,000 mentions on Twitter
CPN Digest run each week for the year, lots of positive feedback from readers.
Website needs careful monitoring from Jo Bloggs, added better security this year to counter phishing and attempted hacks.
Critical Physiotherapy Course ran for first time: 7 speakers once a month from Feb to Aug. Ran really well, great talks and discussion. Averaging 15-20 participants on-line per session. Really good feedback.
30 Days of September campaign polled members on CPN work for next 5 years. Top responses were: to offer the course again next year, to continue collaborating on journal articles, to set up a discussion forum, and to help link philosophy to physiotherapy
Our first Latin American CPN group has formed with help of Viviana and Aydee, first meeting used innovative zine-methods to capture ideas and experiences
Our plans:
Encourage members to send in suggestions for CPN Digest
Talk with authors from nearly 50 submitted abstracts for the 2nd book about other publishing options, including Journal of Humanities in Rehabilitation with special subsection edited by Prof Barbara Gibson
Website: update member information, add a news ticker for upcoming events, improve tagging to streamline searching, open up discussion forum, update members on using the site
Prepare Critical Physiotherapy Course for 2020 focusing on clinical vignettes as starting point for discussion of theory/philosophy, link into a new YouTube channel
Support Latin American group's growth and involvement
Look at reaching out to continents with isolated members, especially Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe
Start work on 'next big thing' - possibly an encyclopaedia of critical physiotherapy ideas
Keep everything else going ...
And just in case you forgot, these are still our objectives:
Actively exploring the world beyond the current boundaries of physiotherapy practice & thought
Challenging physiotherapy to critically examine its position on alterity & otherness, abnormality, deviance, difference & disability
Recognising & problematising power asymmetries inherent in physiotherapy practice, particularly where they marginalize some groups at the expense of others
Developing a culture & appreciation for the exploration of all views that deviate from conventional thought & practice in physiotherapy
Actively embracing ideas that promote thinking against the grain/challenging in physiotherapy
Being open to a plurality of ideas, practices, objects, systems & structures that challenge contemporary physiotherapy practice & thought
Promoting critically-informed thinking, encouraging ideas from diverse disciplines uncommon in mainstream physiotherapy, including anthropology, the arts, cultural studies, critical theory, education, geography, historiography, quantum physics, humanities, linguistics, philosophy, politics, sociology & others
Providing a space for ideas that promote a more positive, diverse & inclusive future for the profession.
A final note of thanks:
A special thanks needs to go to all of the members of the Exec and Jo Bloggs our amazing site caretaker. Everyone gives their time freely, sometimes meeting early in the morning and late at night each month. It's still the happiest, funnest group on the planet, and five years in we're still looking to push the 'otherwise'. And finally to all our members, friends and followers, thank you. We're doing this for each other.
Aroha nui
Dave