RESISTING A DIAGNOSTIC-TECHNIQUE - THE CASE OF REFLEX ANAL DILATATION

This paper looks at the deployment of a medical technique, reflex anal dilatation and contrasts the way in which its deployment was a subjec t of enormous controversy in the Cleveland child sexual abuse affair w ith its comparatively unproblematic previous use to identify homosexua lity. We interpret this contrast using two general frameworks: recent work in the sociology of scientific knowledge, particularly actor-netw ork theory, and Foucauldian work on dangerousness and visibility. We a rgue that the specific historical conditions surrounding the two diffe rent deployments allow an understanding of why the deployment of the t echnique was resisted in one case but not in the other. While Foucault helps us understand the potential for contestation between the propon ents of RAD in Cleveland and actors such as families and politicians, actor-network. theory enables us to examine how such conflict actually arose through tracing the sorts of resources that could be mobilised in problematising RAD. In particular, we note that the antagonists of RAD had available a 'practice of rights' towards which they could orie nt themselves in their contestation of the 'practice of care' that inf ormed the activities of the RAD proponents.