Brian Woods

Publications (3)2.94 Total impact

• Article: Food allergy and food intolerance: towards a sociological agenda.

  Sarah Nettleton, Brian Woods, Roger Burrows, Anne Kerr
  [show abstract] [hide abstract]
  ABSTRACT: This article asks what sociological insights an analysis of food allergy and food intolerance might afford. We outline the parameters of debates around food allergy and food intolerance in the immunological, clinical and epidemiological literatures in order to identify analytic strands which might illuminate our sociological understanding of the supposed increase in both. Food allergy and food intolerance are contested and contingent terms and it is salient that the term true food allergy is replete throughout medico-scientific, epidemiological and popular discourses in order to rebuff spurious or 'nonallergic' claims of food-related symptoms. Complexity theory is introduced as a means of gaining analytic purchase on the food allergy debate. The article concludes that the use of this perspective provides a contemporary example of the 'double hermeneutic', in that the meanings and interpretations of contemporary explanations of food allergy are both permeated by, and can be made sense of, through recourse to complexity thinking.
  Health 11/2009; 13(6):647-64. · 2.10 Impact Factor
• Article: In Pursuit of standardization: the British ministry of health's model 8F wheelchair, 1948-1962.

  Brian Woods, Nick Watson
  Technology and Culture 08/2004; 45(3):540-68. · 0.32 Impact Factor
• Article: A short history of powered wheelchairs.

  Brian Woods, Nick Watson
  [show abstract] [hide abstract]
  ABSTRACT: This article recounts some early findings on a history of powered wheelchairs in the 20th century from an analysis of archival materials, oral accounts, and secondary sources. The primary goal of this article is not to provide the definitive history of powered wheelchairs, but rather to further our understanding of wheelchair innovation through a historical analysis. The paper sheds light on some of the richness and complexities involved in powered wheelchair innovation, highlights the nonlinearity of that process, and explores the roles of and the relationships between social and technological change. Although it is evident that powered mobility has revolutionized the life experiences of many disabled people, enabling independence, social interaction, and even the facilitation of socio-psychological development, few have charted the social and technological topography that brought this revolutionary change about. In partially mapping the history of powered wheelchairs, this paper draws attention to the idea that wheelchairs are not simply technical devices, but also social and political machines entwined with socio-political conditions and expectations.
  Assistive technology: the official journal of RESNA 02/2003; 15(2):164-80. · 0.51 Impact Factor