Emerging socialities in 21st century health care

How are recent changes, both technological and organizational, working to shape health care in the 21st century? This volume examines how both patients and health care workers are affected as new policies, markets, and technologies shape the circumstances for new subjectivities. Taking up a range of topics - including vaccination, disability, migration, and self-medication - this volume presents twelve cases of the state of health care today. These contributions engage with Paul Rabinow's notion of biosociality, extending and revising it in innovative ways. Situated in diverse locales, these studies provide a glimpse into new dynamics, as patients' groups shape policy, states affect pharmaceutical markets, software defines nurse-patient relationships, and the Internet connects isolated patients. Together, the cases make clear that not only are new socialities emerging, but new ethics and moralities are being forged and contested alongside them. This volume emerged out of the symposium New Socialities and Subjectivities in 21st Century Health Care, held by the Medical Anthropology at Home Network in Driebergen in 2012. NB CATALOGUSTEKST CHICAGO: The landscape of healthcare is changing rapidly, both on an organisational and a technological level. This book gathers medical anthropologists to examine the ways that both patients and health care workers are being affected by new policies, market, and technologies. Contributors cover a wide range of topics, including vaccination, disability, migration, and self-medication, making clear that not only are changing circumstances leading to the emergence of new socialities, but they are also driving new ethics and moralities.