Discipline and resistance: order and disorder in a cardiac rehabilitation clinic

The author of this article offers an analysis of cardiac rehabilitation based on fieldwork conducted in two cardiac rehabilitation clinics. Disciplinary power is exercised through confessional, disciplinary, and surveillance technologies of cardiac rehabilitation. Through her analysis, the author shows how clients adhere to but also challenge agendas of rehabilitation. Transgressing, complaining about, and clowning despite the rules and regimens of the clinic, clients actively create and negotiate the social world of the clinic. Order and disorder prevail, as the scope of the medical gaze is contingent and tenuous. The analysis reveals pleasurable and productive possibilities experienced by clients and describes enabling bodily, self, and social transformations made possible by the disciplinary, confessional, and surveillance technologies of rehabilitation.