Suchergebnisse

Medical expertise plays a major role in large-scale welfare arrangements, for example, in private insurance companies. It symbolizes the objectivity and reliability of the procedures of risk selection and legitimates the acceptance and rejection of clients. To understand "reliability" in this context, this article discusses the introduction of chemical urine analysis for life insurance examination between 1880 and 1920. The article argues that reliability of urine analysis is not an intrinsic characteristic of the technology and thus cannot serve as the explanation for the relevance of this technology as a means of risk selection. The construction of a "reliable technology" went hand in hand with the development of a standardized, uniform, and predictable performance of the test and an emergence of specific network—namely, a large-scale, bureaucratic insurance practice in which examination rooms of physicians became connected to the head offices of insurance companies by administrative means. During this process, the balance of power between medical examiners and insurance companies was reversed. Insurance compa nies depended on medicine for risk selection, but physicians increasingly had to act according to the rules set by life insurance companies.

This paper provides insight into collective practices for promoting a healthy city ecology in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Using ethnography, we analyze the actions of a citizen collective to improve a park as 'urban commoning' and 'placemaking.' The analysis shows that first, the collective received ambivalent bureaucratic support; second, the open character of space commons enabled collective responsibility and democratic publics, but also made them vulnerable; and third, in providing informal security, the collective restrained itself to avoid stigma and retaliation. We conclude that open commons enable collective responsibility, but in disadvantaged city areas, they suffer from ongoing bureaucratic governance and accumulations of adversity.

Chapter 1. Introduction. Dealing With Multiple Uncertainties In Post-Soviet Health, Technologies, And Politics; Olga Zvonareva, Klasien Horstman -- Chapter 2. Flirting With The Market. The Early Soviet Government And The Private Provision Of Health Care, 1917-1932; Pavel Vasilyev -- Chapter 3. (Re)Imagining The Nation? Boosting Local Drug Development In Contemporary Russia; Olga Zvonareva -- Chapter 4. Risky Economies: Innovation Of Medical Devices In Russia; Evgenia Popova -- Chapter 5. Medico-Economic Standards In Russia. Balancing Legal Requirements And Patients Needs; Alena Kamenshchikova -- Chapter 6. Introducing 'Natural' Childbirth In Russian Hospitals. Midwives' Institutional Work; Ekaterina Borozdina -- Chapter 7. Ova Exchange Practises At A Moscow Fertility Clinic: Gift Or Commodity?; Alexandra Kurlenkova -- Chapter 8. Innovating Health-Care Governance In Ukraine: Formal And Informal Practises; Tetiana Stepurko, Paolo Carlo Belli -- Chapter 9. Radiation Science After The Cold War. The Politics Of Measurements, Risks, And Compensation In Kazakhstan; Susanne Bauer -- Epilogue; Klasien Horstman, Olga Zvonareva.

This book uses a variety of empirical cases on topics including drug development, egg donation, and governance of healthcare facilities, to investigate how actors navigate the uncertainties that permeate the interfaces of health, technologies, and politics in post-Soviet settings and what the implications of their chosen navigation routes are. Contemporary societies are imbued with uncertainties, but the authors focus on settings where uncertainties multiply, making decisions, practises, and relations in everyday life precarious. Two worlds are brought into dialogue throughout the chapters of this book with the aim of facilitating mutual learning from one another - the world of science and technology studies (STS) and the high-income liberal democracies of the West, on one hand, and studies of post-socialism on the other. In so doing, this book encourages critical learning on ensuring the resilience of individual and societal health in situations of profound uncertainties. This timely collection will be of great interest to scholars, practitioners and policy makes in the fields of sociology, biomedicine, political science and public and global health.

Incessant food safety scandals in China have given rise to a loss of public trust in food safety, stimulating a series of studies focussing on food safety governance, accountability, and trust restoration. Against this backdrop, Chinese scholars are keen to reflect on different strategies for ensuring food safety public accountability and credibility, presenting different perspectives on issues like responsibility, trust, risk communication, and transparency. In this paper, we aim to get more in-depth insight into how Chinese scholarly debates co-construct public accountability for food safety as a public issue. We selected 51 articles from 10,790 candidates drawn from four Chinese academic databases for content analysis. Drawing from political theories on public accountability as well as science and technology studies, the analysis shows that arguments for a specific public accountability model (more or less centralised, more or less stakeholder participation) are intertwined with the specific role of scientific expertise (more or less authoritative, more or less democratising). As such, the analysis shows how scholarly debates on public accountability for food safety in China co-construct a public forum for discussing supervision and accountability, risk assessment, and transparency.

A series of vaccine incidents have stimulated vaccine hesitance in China over the last decade. Many scholars have studied the institutional management of these incidents, but a qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on vaccine hesitancy in China is missing. To address this lacuna, we conducted in-depth interviews and collected online data to explore diverse stakeholders' narratives on vaccine hesitance. Our analysis shows the different perspectives of medical experts, journalists, parents, and self-defined vaccination victims on vaccination and vaccination hesitance. Medical experts generally consider vaccines, despite some flaws, as safe, and they consider most vaccine safety incidents to be related to coupling symptoms, not to vaccinations. Some parents agree with medical experts, but most do not trust vaccine safety and do not want to put their children at risk. Media professionals, online medical experts, and doctors who do not need to align with the political goal of maintaining a high vaccination rate are less positive about vaccination and consider vaccine hesitance a failure of expert-lay communication in China. Our analysis exhibits the tensions of medical expert and lay perspectives on vaccine hesitance, and suggests that vaccination experts 'see like a state', which is a finding consistent with other studies that have identified the over-politicization of expert-lay communication in Chinese public discourse. Chinese parents need space to express their concerns so that vaccination programs can attune to them.

Despite the well-developed Chinese National Immunization Program, vaccine hesitancy in China is rising. As part of the response, Chinese scholars have studied determinants and proposed solutions to vaccination hesitancy. We performed a scoping review of Chinese literature (2007-2019), drawn from four Chinese databases. We mapped relevant information and presented a systemic account of the proposed determinants and responses to vaccine hesitancy in China. We identified 77 relevant studies that reveal four approaches to vaccine hesitancy. Most Chinese studies define vaccine hesitancy as a problem of vaccine safety and vaccine incident response and place accountability on the level of governance, such as regulation deficits and inappropriate crisis management. A first minority of studies tied vaccination hesitancy to unprofessional medical conduct and called for additional resources and enhanced physician qualifications. A second minority of studies positioned vaccination hesitancy as a problem of parental belief and pointed to the role of media, proposing enhanced communication and education. Chinese literature ties vaccine hesitancy primarily to vaccine safety and medical conduct. Compared to international research, parental concerns are underrepresented. The Chinese context of vaccination scandals notably frames the discussion of vaccination hesitancy and potential solutions, which stresses the importance of considering vaccination hesitancy in specific social and political contexts.

A series of vaccine incidents have stimulated vaccine hesitance in China over the last decade. Many scholars have studied the institutional management of these incidents, but a qualitative study of stakeholders' perspectives on vaccine hesitancy in China is missing. To address this lacuna, we conducted in-depth interviews and collected online data to explore diverse stakeholders' narratives on vaccine hesitance. Our analysis shows the different perspectives of medical experts, journalists, parents, and self-defined vaccination victims on vaccination and vaccination hesitance. Medical experts generally consider vaccines, despite some flaws, as safe, and they consider most vaccine safety incidents to be related to coupling symptoms, not to vaccinations. Some parents agree with medical experts, but most do not trust vaccine safety and do not want to put their children at risk. Media professionals, online medical experts, and doctors who do not need to align with the political goal of maintaining a high vaccination rate are less positive about vaccination and consider vaccine hesitance a failure of expert–lay communication in China. Our analysis exhibits the tensions of medical expert and lay perspectives on vaccine hesitance, and suggests that vaccination experts 'see like a state', which is a finding consistent with other studies that have identified the over-politicization of expert–lay communication in Chinese public discourse. Chinese parents need space to express their concerns so that vaccination programs can attune to them.

This article investigates qualitatively the value profile of the da Vinci® surgical robot after almost two decades of extensive clinical use and research. We aimed to understand whether the swiftly growing body of published studies on robotic prostate surgery can now, that is, beyond an early stage, guide decisions on the acquisition, procurement, and public provision of this innovation. We explored both published studies and the perspectives of diverse stakeholders in the Netherlands. Both arenas represent conflicting, often polarised arguments on the (added) value of da Vinci surgery. What was unclear a decade ago due to lack of evidence is now unclear because of controversies about evidence. The article outlines controversial value issues and indicates the unlikelihood that awaiting more research — amid the mantra "further studies are needed" — will resolve the controversy. The study underscores multi-stakeholder deliberation to resolve controversies regarding the value of advanced medical innovations.

The Dutch Women's Action Committee for Early State Pensions advocated the reduction of the retirement age for unmarried women. In doing this, the committee brought forward an image of older unmarried women that was rather different from the self-images the older unmarried women presented in letters and questionnaires sent to the committee. And the image presented by the committee was again different from the image of older unmarried women that emerged in the parliamentary debate. Such a variation in images and self-images is related to the legal nature of the welfare state and the consequent comparison between social categories.

This article offers a critical analysis of how to address social inequalities in mental health. In public mental health, inequalities are commonly construed as a problem of reach, implying that existing mental health expertise often fails to reach low-income groups. We discuss two critiques on the reach-paradigm' in mental health promotion: the impoverishment of idioms of distress and the tendency to transform complex political issues into clinical ones that are assumed to be backed by evidence. Furthermore, we present the findings of our ethnographic research of an alternative approach to mental health promotion that used media storytelling focused on local knowledge and social context. Our analysis is guided by anthropological research on idioms of distress and sociological literature on health promotion and social inequalities.