The Construction of Lay Rescuers in Bystander CPR Classes

Abstract

There are many situations in society and life in which the body is expected to play an important role for the acquisition of particular skills. This article reports on a study of such a situation, namely when information about first aid and how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CRP) is mediated to nonmedical professionals. The aim of the article is to tease out how different modes of informing feature in first aid and CPR classes for the lay public in order to transform participants in such classes into CPR-trained lay rescuers ready to intervene in cases of what is suspected to be cardiac arrests. The understanding of the role of the body in information-related activities is based on a practice-theoretical approach. How information figures in the practice of first aid and CPR training is also discussed in light of Foucault's notions of biopolitics and self-technologies. The practice-theoretical approach illuminates how bodies are entwined in information activities, and the notions of biopolitics and self-technology illuminate how the practice of bystander CPR training instantiates control through the different kinds of informing activities that occur in classes. This study is based on material gathered through observations in bystander CPR classes.

Untangling the knot: The information practices of enthusiast car restorers

“…Approaches to problems often depend on access to an array of corporeal and social information sources and the need to develop strategies to pool together knowledge and expertise to create work‐arounds for mechanical problems where expertise and explicit knowledge may be lost or not documented. This aspect has emerged in earlier research by Lloyd () and Olsson (), and more recently in studies related to diabetes (Jean, Jindal, & Chan, ) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation by bystanders (Lindh, ), thus highlighting the need to ensure that exploration of information practices is not limited or reduced to cognitive elements, but considers the role of the corporeal modality in the construction of practice. In this respect, the body is viewed as performing signifying and instrumental roles (who is an expert), revealing the nature of the site, in terms of what knowledges are valued and forms of practical reasoning.…”

“…The concept of embodiment is also central to a conceptualization of practice and is explored across numerous disciplines and fields. In LIS, it has relevance to research related to information literacy and ways of knowing (Lloyd, ), information practices (Gorichanaz, ; Lindh, ; Lloyd, 2007; Olsson, , Veinot, ), information behavior (Lueg, ), and human–computer interaction (Dourish, ). A recent special edition of the Journal of Documentation (Cox; Griffin & Hartel, 2017) has highlighted the centrality of the embodied experience and questioned why this aspect of information research has been neglected, echoing Lloyd's () claim that insufficient attention is paid to the body which exists as an absent presence in our current theorizing about the information experience (Lloyd, ; Shilling, ).…”

Invisible Search and Online Search Engines

“…The practice turn has brought new oxygen into information behaviour research. Information has been studied as emergent from specific ways of doing things and entangled across various objects, most significantly the human body (Lindh 2015(Lindh , 2018), but also for example compost heaps (Haider 2011) or vault inspection forms (Veinot 2007). Not least Lloyd's work on supplementing coded knowledge in information literacy research with sensitiveness also to corporeal knowledge, with inspiration primarily from Theodore Schatzki, has been influential.…”

Information literacy and the body in the Kente-weaving landscape

“…He explains that other than regarding the body as a mere tool through which people experience life, the body is vital to the enactment of social life. Studies have suggested that there is a relationship between IL and the body in social life (Bates, 2018;Gherardi, 2009;Hicks, 2018a; http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/16.2.3273 Hicks, 2018b;Lindh, 2018;Lloyd, 2010b;Lloyd, 2012;Lloyd, 2017;Lloyd & Olsson, 2018;Lloyd & Olsson, 2019). Underpinning this relationship is the fact that information sometimes makes meaning to people precisely in relation to their bodies (Keilty & Leazer, 2018, p. 468).…”