In 2008, the author observed Sioban Nelson, editor of Nursing Inquiry, noting nurse academics' rising interest in Foucault's ideas while urging a shift from quantity to quality in scholarship citing Foucault. In 2012, the author observed Afaf Meleis asserting that postmodernism and post-structuralism were not useful to nursing, claiming postmodernism was irrelevant in medical sociology and that similar assumptions could be made about its utility for nursing science.

These two observations, made in 2008 and 2012 respectively, highlighted a striking contrast in nursing scholarship. The first was Nelson's conference comment acknowledging growing interest in Foucault but calling for better quality rather than simply more citations. The second was Meleis's dismissal of postmodern and post-structural approaches in a major nursing theory compendium. Together these prompted the author to explore the span of nursing postmodern, post-structural, and Foucauldian scholarship from the 1990s to the early 2010s to understand the divergent streams within that literature.

Key points

In 2008, Sioban Nelson, editor of Nursing Inquiry, commented at a conference on nurse academics' rising interest in Foucault and urged a move from quantity to quality in manuscripts citing Foucault.
In 2012, Afaf Meleis asserted that postmodernism and post-structuralism were not useful to nursing, based on her view that postmodernism was not relevant to medical sociology.
The contrast between these two observations prompted the author's exploration of nursing postmodern/post-structural/Foucauldian scholarship from the 1990s to the early 2010s.

What were the two observations made by the author in 2008 and 2012 that prompted the exploration of nursing postmodern/post-structural scholarship?

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