Producing paramedicine: Case studies in the medical labor process.

How is medical labor power, that being the capacity to assemble, adjust, or arrange medical subjects, converted into medical practice? Drawing on three qualitative case studies in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, we argue that this conversion is shaped by pressures channeled through the relations that medical workers enter into with patients "from below" and managers "from above." We demonstrate this by examining a common empirical object: ambulance labor. In addition to providing a unique window into the varieties of medical work, paramedicine offers a strategic venue for examining the kinds of productive relations that medical laborers enter into.

Theorising the hospice gaze: A Foucauldian collaborative ethnography of a palliative day care service.

Foucault's medical gaze has only been minimally applied to palliative care through the analysis of key policy documents. This paper develops the conceptualisation of Foucault's medical gaze using empirical data gathered from a group ethnography of a hospice daycare centre. Using Foucault's medical gaze as a theoretical aporia we conceptualise the "hospice gaze".

Exploring health work: a critical-action perspective.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe a hybrid approach to the research developed during a multi-researcher, ethnographic study of NHS management in the UK. Design/methodology/approach This methodological paper elaborates a hybrid approach to the sociological analysis - the critical-action theory - and indicates how it can contribute to the critical health management studies. Findings After exploring the various theoretical, methodological and philosophical options available, the paper discusses the main research issues that influenced the development of this perspective and the process by which the critical-action perspective was applied to the studies of managerial work in four health service sectors - acute hospitals, ambulance services, community services and mental healthcare.