Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Early puberty and public health: a social scientific pinboard
AU - Roberts, Celia
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Whilst a number of social scientists have described significant changes in cultural practices and discourses around girls’ sexual development in the contemporary moment, there is almost complete silence on the question of widely reported changes in the physical and public health-related aspects of this seemingly ‘sped up’ development. This article addresses this deficit by critically exploring a range of technoscientific, biomedical, popular and environmentalist discourses describing such changes. Using science studies theorist John Law's device of the ‘pinboard’, I provide a map of the field of early puberty and elaborate areas of popular and expert concern, of controversy and debate, and of incoherence and confusion. Using the pinboard's facility for jarring juxtaposition and lateral connection, I raise critical questions about links between early puberty and other biomedical conditions and question the role of normative assumptions in the field
AB - Whilst a number of social scientists have described significant changes in cultural practices and discourses around girls’ sexual development in the contemporary moment, there is almost complete silence on the question of widely reported changes in the physical and public health-related aspects of this seemingly ‘sped up’ development. This article addresses this deficit by critically exploring a range of technoscientific, biomedical, popular and environmentalist discourses describing such changes. Using science studies theorist John Law's device of the ‘pinboard’, I provide a map of the field of early puberty and elaborate areas of popular and expert concern, of controversy and debate, and of incoherence and confusion. Using the pinboard's facility for jarring juxtaposition and lateral connection, I raise critical questions about links between early puberty and other biomedical conditions and question the role of normative assumptions in the field
KW - children
KW - health
KW - sexuality
KW - puberty
U2 - 10.1080/09581596.2010.508103
DO - 10.1080/09581596.2010.508103
M3 - Journal article
VL - 20
SP - 429
EP - 438
JO - Critical Public Health
JF - Critical Public Health
SN - 0958-1596
IS - 4
ER -