Health States of Exception: unsafe non-care and the (inadvertent) production of ‘bare life’ in complex care transitions

Waring, Justin; Bishop, Simon

Abstract

This paper draws on the work of Giorgio Agamben to understand how the social organisation of care transitions can reduce people to their 'bare' life thereby making harmful and degrading treatment seemingly legitimate. The findings of a two-year ethnographic study show how some people experience hospital discharge as undignified, inhumane and unsafe process, expressed through their lack of involvement in care planning, delayed discharge from hospital, and poorly coordinated care. Our analysis explores how these experiences stem from the way patients are constituted as 'unknown' and 'ineligible' subjects and, in turn, how professionals become 'not responsible' for their care. In effect the person is reduce to their 'bare' life with limited value within the care system. We suggest the social production

Citation

Waring, J., & Bishop, S. (2020). Health States of Exception: unsafe non-care and the (inadvertent) production of ‘bare life’ in complex care transitions. Sociology of Health and Illness, 42(1), 171-190. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12993

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Sep 17, 2019
• Publication Date: 2020-01
• Deposit Date: Aug 19, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 18, 2020
• Journal: Sociology of Health and Illness
• Print ISSN: 0141-9889
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9566
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 42
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 171-190
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12993
• Keywords: patient safety, neglect, hospital discharge, care transitions, bio-power, homo sacer, agamben
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2448055
• Publisher URL: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9566.12993
• Additional Information: This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Waring, J. and Bishop, S. (2019), Health States of Exception: unsafe non‐care and the (inadvertent) production of ‘bare life’ in complex care transitions. Sociology of Health and Illness doi:10.1111/1467-9566.12993, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12993. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.