Datum
23. Mai – 26. Mai 2024
Workshop at VANDA (Vienna Anthropology Days)
Workshop „Transition in Health”
VANDA (Vienna Anthropology Days) Conferenceni in Vienna
September 23–26, 2024
Organized by Eva-Maria Knoll & Malgorzata Rajtar
Deadline: 01.06.2024
Anthropology has long been preoccupied with transition. Transitions, famously captured by Van Gennep’s “rites of passage” or Turner’s concept of “liminality”, punctuate human life, which is embedded in culture and society. Transition may also serve as a lens to analyze change and adaptation in society (e.g. Hasan 2023) and was extensively used in the context of postsocialism (e.g. Buyandelgeriyn 2008). Building on this long-standing tradition of anthropological engagement with the concept of transition, this workshop invites social science, in particular ethnographic contributions focusing on spatial, structural, and temporal aspects of transitions in the medical field. In medicine, transition is e.g. understood as a “multi-dimensional process, involving patients, caregivers, providers, and the medical system as a whole” (Cheng et al. 2021). Due to the development of medical technologies and treatment modalities, an increasing number of people with chronic and/or rare diseases reach adulthood and experience a transition from pediatric to adult care (Jae 2018). In some instances, this is uncharted territory for both patients and care providers. Transitions, as passages of change, may also be experienced on a mundane level by patients who change their dietary and/or drug regimens or by health personnel who climb the medical career ladder. We encourage ethnographically grounded analyses that address both large-scale transitions and mundane moments of transition in health and healthcare. We are also interested in papers examining failed transitions or transitions that had to be abandoned.