Introduction: Organizing Health Care Work in Late Modernity

Kajsa Lindberg, Alexander Styhre and Lars Walter
Additional contact information
Kajsa Lindberg: University of Gothenburg
Alexander Styhre: University of Gothenburg
Lars Walter: University of Gothenburg

Chapter 1 in Assembling Health Care Organizations, 2012, pp 3-22 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The contemporary period is undoubtedly deeply entangled with the advancement of the technosciences, helping human beings to lead a completely different life from that of just a few generations ago. The capacity to move the human body over continents in a few hours, which would have taken months some centuries ago, or the capacity to communicate directly with family or friends on the other side of the globe are, for instance, two accomplishments of technoscience. What would have appeared as mere magic in the medieval period is today barely noticed as technologies such as the aeroplane or the telephone are taken for granted as they become part of the infrastructure of everyday life. When we can travel from London to New York and back in less than 24 hours and still have time for shopping and lunch, we have definitely managed to “dominate nature” in terms of shrinking distances and taming geographical spaces. In the specific domain of the life sciences dealing with biological processes and biological organisms, similar remarkable accomplishments have been reported. Human reproduction is supported by sophisticated in vitro fertilization procedures, humans may acquire new organs from recently deceased individuals, and active molecular substances are brought into the human body, helping to regulate biological pathways that have ceased to function.

Keywords: Life Science; Health Care Work; Health Care Organization; Health Care Sector; Biological Entity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-02464-0_1

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137024640

DOI: 10.1057/9781137024640_1

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().