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

• Published in: Sociology of health & illness Vol. 42; no. 1; pp. 171 - 190
• Main Authors: Waring, Justin, Bishop, Simon
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.01.2020
• Subjects: agamben; Anthropology, Cultural; bio‐power; Care plans; care transitions; Delayed; Delivery of Health Care; Discharge; Health services; homo sacer; hospital discharge; Hospitals; Humans; Life transitions; Modes of production; neglect; Patient Discharge; Patient Safety; Patient Transfer; Unsafe; agamben; patient safety; hospital discharge; care transitions; homo sacer; bio-power; neglect

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 2‐year ethnographic study show how some people experience hospit...