Judith Butler's Theories: Reflections for Nursing Research and Practice

Judith Butler is one of the most influential late 20th and early 21st century philosophers in regards to left wing politics, as well as an active campaigner for social justice within the US and worldwide. Her academic work has been foundational to the academic discipline of queer theory and has been extensively critiqued and applied across a hugely wide range of disciplines. In addition, Butler’s work itself is extensive covering topics such as gender, sexuality, race, literary theory and warfare. This article can only serve as a taster for the potential application of her work in relation to nursing, which is in its infancy. This introduction covers three of the potentially most productive themes in Butler’s work, namely: power, performativity and ethics. Each of these themes are critically explored in turn, sometimes in relation to their actual application in nursing literature, but also in relation to their potential for producing novel critiques of nursing practice. Suggestions are made about how Butler’s work can develop nursing research and practice. The article concludes with a short summary of Butler’s key works as well as suggested reading for people interested in examining how her theories have been applied across different academic settings.