Abstract
This paper addresses the questions of what it is to engage in social change through knowledge work. The authors engage critically with the constitution as a ‘social reality’ of ‘evidence-based practice’ in relation to ADHD.
Our bigger project – of which this paper is a part – is to draw attention to the constitution as ‘real’ (rather than ‘discovery’) of, so-called, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD); uncover, through fieldwork, the means through which ADHD is socially constituted; surface and contest the ‘truthing’ regimes through which claims that constitute ADHD are given the status of ‘knowledge’ and the discourses of evidential effectiveness through which adult social violence against children is given the status of ‘evidence based treatment’. In this paper we engage critically with the constitution as a ‘social reality’ of ‘evidence-based practice’ in relation to ADHD but we hope this paper is relevant to allies engaging critically with ‘evidence-based practice’ in relation to other socially constituted phenomena.