PANEL – What do they value? Anthropological perspectives on health-related professions

Datum
02. Dezem­ber – 05. Dezem­ber 2019 

Papers are invit­ed for a pan­el at the Aus­tralian Anthro­po­log­i­cal Society’s
annu­al con­fer­ence, relat­ed to ethno­graph­ic per­spec­tives of the
health-relat­ed pro­fes­sions. The pan­el seeks to explore how/why med­ical and
health­care pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give; and how/why do
they make the deci­sions that they make about diag­noses and treatment
pos­si­bil­i­ties, espe­cial­ly when med­ical knowl­edges are both increasingly
con­test­ed and rapid­ly changing?

Short abstract:

How and why do med­ical pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give? This pan­el seeks to explore the pro­fes­sions of med­i­cine and health­care, unpack­ing the val­ues held by the var­i­ous fields that influ­ence indi­vid­ual health-care providers’ deci­sion-mak­ing, diag­no­sis and treat­ment activities.

Long abstract:

Although anthro­pol­o­gists have been adding val­ue in stud­ies of insti­tu­tions and organ­i­sa­tions since the Hawthorne Stud­ies in the 1930s, there has been sig­nif­i­cant­ly less anthro­po­log­i­cal work done on the cul­tures that devel­op in pro­fes­sions. This pan­el invites anthro­pol­o­gists and anthro­pol­o­gy-adja­cent researchers to reflect on the culture/s of the med­ical and health­care pro­fes­sions, in a bid to try to under­stand how and why those cul­tures have emerged as they have. What are the changes to med­ical, health and well­ness the­o­ry; the changes to the way med­i­cine and health is taught; the chang­ing moral and eth­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions through­out society/ies, and/or; the tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions that have influ­enced the norms and val­ues held in con­tem­po­rary health­care land­scapes? What are the inter­sec­tions between the indi­vid­ual pro­fes­sion­al iden­ti­ties of health­care providers and the emer­gent cul­ture of their pro­fes­sions? Although papers are invit­ed from mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives, across a broad range of sub­fields with­in med­i­cine and health, and from any geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion or cul­tur­al frame of ref­er­ence, the pan­el will ulti­mate­ly seek to explore the ques­tions: how and why do med­ical and health­care pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give? How and why do they make the deci­sions that they make about diag­noses and treat­ment pos­si­bil­i­ties when med­ical knowl­edges are both increas­ing­ly con­test­ed and rapid­ly changing?

Papers from out­side the Aus­tralian con­text are encour­aged. For more
details, see the AAS web­site: https://www.aasconf.org/2019/panels#8185

Papers are invit­ed for a pan­el at the Aus­tralian Anthro­po­log­i­cal Society’s
annu­al con­fer­ence, relat­ed to ethno­graph­ic per­spec­tives of the
health-relat­ed pro­fes­sions. The pan­el seeks to explore how/why med­ical and
health­care pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give; and how/why do
they make the deci­sions that they make about diag­noses and treatment
pos­si­bil­i­ties, espe­cial­ly when med­ical knowl­edges are both increasingly
con­test­ed and rapid­ly changing?

Short abstract:

How and why do med­ical pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give? This pan­el seeks to explore the pro­fes­sions of med­i­cine and health­care, unpack­ing the val­ues held by the var­i­ous fields that influ­ence indi­vid­ual health-care providers’ deci­sion-mak­ing, diag­no­sis and treat­ment activities.

Long abstract:

Although anthro­pol­o­gists have been adding val­ue in stud­ies of insti­tu­tions and organ­i­sa­tions since the Hawthorne Stud­ies in the 1930s, there has been sig­nif­i­cant­ly less anthro­po­log­i­cal work done on the cul­tures that devel­op in pro­fes­sions. This pan­el invites anthro­pol­o­gists and anthro­pol­o­gy-adja­cent researchers to reflect on the culture/s of the med­ical and health­care pro­fes­sions, in a bid to try to under­stand how and why those cul­tures have emerged as they have. What are the changes to med­ical, health and well­ness the­o­ry; the changes to the way med­i­cine and health is taught; the chang­ing moral and eth­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions through­out society/ies, and/or; the tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tions that have influ­enced the norms and val­ues held in con­tem­po­rary health­care land­scapes? What are the inter­sec­tions between the indi­vid­ual pro­fes­sion­al iden­ti­ties of health­care providers and the emer­gent cul­ture of their pro­fes­sions? Although papers are invit­ed from mul­ti­ple per­spec­tives, across a broad range of sub­fields with­in med­i­cine and health, and from any geo­graph­i­cal loca­tion or cul­tur­al frame of ref­er­ence, the pan­el will ulti­mate­ly seek to explore the ques­tions: how and why do med­ical and health­care pro­fes­sion­als give the advice that they give? How and why do they make the deci­sions that they make about diag­noses and treat­ment pos­si­bil­i­ties when med­ical knowl­edges are both increas­ing­ly con­test­ed and rapid­ly changing?

Papers from out­side the Aus­tralian con­text are encour­aged. For more
details, see the AAS web­site: https://www.aasconf.org/2019/panels#8185