Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia
Open accessAbstract
We all know that we have and are our bodies. But might it be possible to leave this common place? In the present article we try to do this by attending to the way we do our bodies. The site where we look for such action is that of handling the hypoglycaemias that sometimes happen to people with diabetes. In this site it appears that the body, active in measuring, feeling and countering hypoglycaemias is not a bounded whole: its boundaries leak. Bits and pieces of the outside get incorporated within the active body; while the centre of some bodily activities is beyond the skin. The body thus enacted is not self-evidently coherent either. There are tensions between the body’s organs; between the control under which we put our bodies and the erratic character of their behaviour; and between the various needs and desires single bodies somehow try to combine. Thus to say that a body is a whole, or so we conclude, skips over a lot of work. One does not hang together as a matter of course: keeping oneself together is something the embodied person needs to do. The person who fails to do so dies.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Ambrose, A., Wittgenstein, L., & Anscombe, G. E. M. (1954) · Philosophy and Phenomenological Research · doi:10.2307/2103745 · Cited by 12,289 · see citing works
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1982) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203981139 · Cited by 11,931 · see citing works
Butler, J. (2011) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203828274 · Cited by 10,369 · see citing works
Philosophy in the flesh: the embodied mind and its challenge to Western thought
VEREZA, S. C. (1999) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.37-0239 · Cited by 9,867 · see citing works
Bodies that Matter: on the Discursive Limits of 'Sex'
Storr, M., & Society for Women in Philosophy UK (1994) · Women’s Philosophy Review · doi:10.5840/wpr19941213 · Cited by 7,450 · see citing works
The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice
Mol, A. (2002) · doi:10.1215/9780822384151 · Cited by 4,381 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception.
Loudon, J. B., Foucault, M., & Smith, A. M. (1974) · Man · doi:10.2307/2800095 · Cited by 3,481 · see citing works
The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics
Frank, A. W. (1995) · doi:10.7208/chicago/9780226260037.001.0001 · Cited by 3,214 · see citing works
Warnock, M., Merleau-Ponty, M., & Smith, C. (1964) · The Philosophical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2217780 · Cited by 3,172 · see citing works
The Wounded Storyteller: Body Illness, and Ethics
(1996) · Nature Medicine · doi:10.1038/nm0196-98 · Cited by 3,025 · see citing works
Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts
Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1986) · Oxford University Research Archive (ORA) (University of Oxford) · Cited by 2,997 · see citing works
Manser, A. (1963) · Philosophical Books · doi:10.1111/j.1468-0149.1963.tb00795.x · Cited by 2,900 · see citing works
Laboratory life: The social construction of scientific facts
Austin, J. (1982) · Social Science & Medicine · doi:10.1016/0277-9536(82)90228-3 · Cited by 2,899 · see citing works
The birth of the clinic : an archaeology of medical perception
Foucault, M., & Sheridan, A. (1974) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203406373 · Cited by 2,679 · see citing works
(1989) · Annals of Internal Medicine · doi:10.7326/0003-4819-111-1-98_1 · Cited by 1,805 · see citing works
Latour, B. (1988) · Harvard University Press eBooks · Cited by 1,679 · see citing works
Embodiment and Experience: The Existential Ground of Culture and Self
Csordas, T. (1995) · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute · doi:10.2307/3034915 · Cited by 1,229 · see citing works
Medicine, Rationality, and Experience: An Anthropological Perspective
Morgan, L. M., & Good, B. J. (1995) · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute · doi:10.2307/3034282 · Cited by 1,152 · see citing works
Brodwin, G., Good, M.-J. D., Brodwin, P., Good, B. J., & Kleinman, A. (1994) · University of California Press eBooks · doi:10.1525/9780520354722 · Cited by 1,035 · see citing works
The Taste of Ethnographic Things
STOLLER, P. A. (1990) · University of Pennsylvania Press eBooks · doi:10.9783/9780812203141 · Cited by 673 · see citing works
Sutton, D. E. (2001) · doi:10.5040/9781350044883 · Cited by 591 · see citing works
Complexities: social studies of knowledge practices
Law, J., & Mol, A. (2003) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.40-3932 · Cited by 553 · see citing works
Self-citationMurphy, R. F. (1987) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 504 · see citing works
The taste of ethnographic things: the senses in anthropology
(1990) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.27-4590 · Cited by 503 · see citing works
Remembrance of Repasts: An Anthropology of Food and Memory
Sutton, D. E. (2001) · Cited by 479 · see citing works
Bermúdez, J. L., Marcel, A. J., & Eilan, N. (1995) · Cited by 452 · see citing works
Toombs, S. K. (1992) · Philosophy and medicine · doi:10.1007/978-94-011-2630-4 · Cited by 427 · see citing works
Casper, M. J. (1998) · Duke University Press eBooks · doi:10.1215/9780822399179 · Cited by 405 · see citing works
The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
Kuriyama, S. (2023) · Zone Books · doi:10.2307/jj.20093332 · Cited by 325 · see citing works
The woman beneath the skin: a doctor's patients in eighteenth-century Germany
Fissell, M. E. (1992) · Europe PMC (PubMed Central) · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer
Stacey, J. (1997) · Cited by 226 · see citing works
Conein, B., Dodier, N., & Thévenot, L. (1993) · Éditions de l’École des hautes études en sciences sociales eBooks · doi:10.4000/books.editionsehess.9831 · Cited by 199 · see citing works
The expressiveness of the body and the divergence of Greek and Chinese medicine
栗山, 茂. (1999) · Zone Books · Cited by 186 · see citing works
The Woman Beneath the Skin: A Doctor's Patients in Eighteenth-Century Germany
Duden, B. (1991) · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Science incarnate: historical embodiments of natural knowledge
Armstrong, D. (1998) · Choice Reviews Online · doi:10.5860/choice.36-0927 · Cited by 153 · see citing works
Teratologies: A Cultural Study of Cancer
Gallagher, E. B. (1998) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-199811000-00019 · Cited by 135 · see citing works
Science Incarnate: Historical Embodiments of Natural Knowledge
Timmermans, S., Lawrence, C., & Shapin, S. (1999) · Contemporary Sociology A Journal of Reviews · doi:10.2307/2654878 · Cited by 102 · see citing works
In what sense is contemporary medicine dualistic?
Sullivan, M. D. (1986) · Culture Medicine and Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/bf00049269 · Cited by 69 · see citing works
Die soziale Konstruktion der Transsexualität : über die Medizin und den Geschlechtswechsel
Hirschauer, S. (1993) · Cited by 68 · see citing works
Lived reality and the multiplicity of norms: a critical tribute to George Canguilhem
Mol, A. (1998) · Economy and Society · doi:10.1080/03085149800000020 · Cited by 64 · see citing works
Self-citationBarley, N., Arnoldi, M. J., Geary, C. M., et al. (1998) · Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute · doi:10.2307/3034434 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Adams, M., Arnoldi, M. J., Geary, C. M., et al. (1998) · African Arts · doi:10.2307/3337632 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Clinical specificity and the non-generalities of science
Lettinga, A. T., & Mol, A. (1999) · Metamedicine · doi:10.1023/a:1009947524766 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationOn Reassembling One's Life: Overcoming Disability in the Academic Environment
Golledge, R. G. (1997) · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · doi:10.1068/d150391 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
INHALING DRUGS AND MAKING WORLDS:
Willems, D. L. (1998) · Duke University Press eBooks · doi:10.2307/j.ctv1220pvr.9 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Inhaling Drugs and Making Worlds: The Proliferation of Lungs and Asthmas
Willems, D. L. (2020) · Duke University Press eBooks · doi:10.1515/9780822399179-007 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- Strauss, Anselm et.al. (1985), Social Organisation of Medical Work, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
The digitally engaged patient: self-monitoring and self-care in the digital health era
Lupton, D. (2013) · Social Theory & Health · doi:10.1057/sth.2013.10 · Cited by 728 · see citing works
Critical Perspectives on Digital Health Technologies
Lupton, D. (2014) · Sociology Compass · doi:10.1111/soc4.12226 · Cited by 330 · see citing works
Articulating Sensory Sensitivity: From Bodies with Autism to Autistic Bodies
Belek, B. (2019) · Medical Anthropology · doi:10.1080/01459740.2018.1460750 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Toward an Enactive Conception of Productive Practices: Beyond Material Agency
Di Paolo, E. A., Lawler, D., & Vaccari, A. P. (2023) · Philosophy & Technology · doi:10.1007/s13347-023-00632-9 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“Bodies are not fully individuated givens; we literally enact them (see, e.g., Mol & Law, 2004).”
Background
- Authors
- Mol, A., & Law, J.
- Affiliations
- Duke University (US)
- ORCID
- Mol, Annemarie
- Venue
- Body & Society
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-06
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2-3
- Pages
- 43-62
- ISSN
- 1357-034X (ISSN-L)
- 1460-3632
- OpenAlex
- W2162965362
- Cited by
- 699
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 31 · 2025: 36 · 2024: 51 · 2023: 45 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 51 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 56 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 29 · 2014: 32 · 2013: 28 · 2012: 41
- FWCI
- 3.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.utwente.nl
- Locations
- Body & Society (publishedVersion)
- University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion)
- Open Research Online - ORO (The Open University) (submittedVersion)
- Open Research Online (The Open University) (submittedVersion)
- University of Twente Research Information (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Posthumanist Ethics and Activism
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › General Arts and Humanities › Corporeality, Perception, and Education
- Keywords
- hypoglycemia, diabetes mellitus, embodiment, bodily action, body boundaries, self-control
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
