Annelieke Driessen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Talks by Annelieke Driessen
I gave this talk together with A. Driessen at 4/S EASST - 'Sciences and Technology by Other Means... more I gave this talk together with A. Driessen at 4/S EASST - 'Sciences and Technology by Other Means. Exploring collectives, spaces and futures', in the panel 'Doing theory by other means: how does architectural production challenge STS and ANT'
Papers by Annelieke Driessen
SSM - Qualitative Research in Health
Science, Technology, & Human Values, Mar 20, 2023
In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing ... more In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing use of diverse technologies to ease the experience of dying. Because it is accepted patients cannot recover, the primary value to preserve life underpinning much of biomedical practice is contrasted by a commitment to make people’s last period of life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible. Drawing on illustrative cases from an ethnography of palliative care in central London, we discuss how these different priorities construct the patient in different ways. We present two different repertoires of practice, the first of which cares for human life, while the second adopts an idea of personhood to support and maintain patients’ social ties with the wider world. The two concepts inscribe different boundaries of the patient and can help guide what might be the best thing for staff, patients, and others to do. Our examples show that while these two repertoires can emerge in tension in end-of-life care, they are never fully opposites. We argue for a reaffirmation of the concept of the person to accompany contemporary posthuman and more-than-human debates in order to think about “more-than” beyond a focus on the material.
For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult t... more For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk The Forms of Care project team consists of Prof. Simon Cohn (LSHTM), Dr. Erica Borgstrom (OU) and Dr. Annelieke Driessen (LSHTM). Forms of Care has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant ref: ES/P002781/1). @Formsofcare h2ps://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/forms-of-care Conclusion: We argue that rather than solely being opportuni6es to plan or make decisions about pa-6ent care, MDTs are in themselves a produc6ve form of doing care [3].
Palliative Medicine, Jun 10, 2022
The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs How much inf... more The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs How much information is 'reasonable'? A qualitative interview study of the prescribing practices of palliative care professionals
Cambridge Anthropology, 2018
Springer eBooks, Jul 20, 2017
Then, 1 finally, Ella Veenstra 2 gets out of bed, and walks to her bathroom. Ella, as her care wo... more Then, 1 finally, Ella Veenstra 2 gets out of bed, and walks to her bathroom. Ella, as her care workers affectively call her, is living with Alzheimer's disease in a Dutch suburban care home called 'Zonneweide'. 3 She moved here six years ago, when she was no longer able to manage by herself. That Ms Veenstra gets up in the morning is the result of a lot of work on the part of her care workers. Every day anew, when asked to get up, she insists on staying in bed, stating that she has a headache. Indeed, Ms Veenstra is known to have had migraines for most of her life and is given a light pain killer every morning and 'more if necessary'. However, so her care workers tell me, her headaches 'may have become a bit of an excuse to not get up'. Her caregivers check her perspiration and her eyes to determine when she 'really' has a headache. When the care worker on duty thinks she does not, she 4 starts to encourage Ms Veenstra to get up, acting on the team's agreement that it is best for Ms Veenstra to get out of bed: once she is up, she eats with the other residents and forgets about wanting to stay in bed.
Sociology of Health and Illness, Nov 8, 2019
In the face of warnings about total institutions and growing concern about the quality of care, h... more In the face of warnings about total institutions and growing concern about the quality of care, health care professionals in Western Europe and North America have increasingly been exhorted to tailor their services to individuals in their care. In this article we invite our readers to become more interested in the kinds of differences care is being tailored to, and with what effects. Focusing on food provision for residents with dementia, we present three repertoires through which care workers attend to, and enact different sets of differences between individuals: providing choice allows residents to express fleeting preferences; knowing residents places emphasis on the care providers' familiarity with a person; and catering to identities brings to the fore the tastes which make up part of who someone is. The analysis brings attending to difference to the fore as a practical process and suggests that tailoring care requires sensitivity to the different kinds of individuals that may be enacted when attending to difference. also came to be part of. Rebeca and Annelieke jointly analysed the fieldwork material, and Annelieke wrote it up, resulting in the current article. We would like to thank both teams and their guests for their support. In particular, for their constructive and valuable feedback, we thank Justine Laurent,
Medicine anthropology theory, Sep 30, 2020
In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with... more In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with instances when medical staff chose not do something, which we came to call 'noninterventions'. Such instances raised an obvious question: how does one study something that is not happening? In this Position Piece, we outline three ways in which we have tried to engage with this methodological question, from the initial grant application process to the point we are at now: first, a somewhat positivist approach, which allowed us to delineate the phenomenon of our study; second, a following technique, adopted to understand noninterventions as and when they are conceived by our informants; and third, an approach that tries to trace enactments of 'not doing' by mapping the range of different practices and, in so doing, elucidates how 'not doing' invariably occurs alongside other forms of doing. We describe what these approaches have taught us so far and reflect on the limits of each. We do so in the hope of providing others with starting points for studying nothings, 'not doings', and absences.
Medical Anthropology, Apr 19, 2019
In this article, I examine building-user interactions on three dementia wards in the Netherlands.... more In this article, I examine building-user interactions on three dementia wards in the Netherlands. I coin the concept of "sociomaterial awareness" to articulate a collective situational sensitivity to the ways in which the built environment invites its users (professionals, but also people with dementia themselves) to act in specific ways, as well as to possibilities to adjust (elements of) the building. I argue that along with different enactments of dementia, different positions become available for residents when the built environment is acknowledged as actively shaping care interactions.
In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with... more In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with instances when medical staff chose not do something, which we came to call 'noninterventions'. Such instances raised an obvious question: how does one study something that is not happening? In this Position Piece, we outline three ways in which we have tried to engage with this methodological question, from the initial grant application process to the point we are at now: first, a somewhat positivist approach, which allowed us to delineate the phenomenon of our study; second, a following technique, adopted to understand noninterventions as and when they are conceived by our informants; and third, an approach that tries to trace enactments of 'not doing' by mapping the range of different practices and, in so doing, elucidates how 'not doing' invariably occurs alongside other forms of doing. We describe what these approaches have taught us so far and reflect on the limits of each. We do so in the hope of providing others with starting points for studying nothings, 'not doings', and absences.
Anthropology In Action, Dec 1, 2019
In this article, we describe experiences with dialogue evenings within a research collaboration o... more In this article, we describe experiences with dialogue evenings within a research collaboration on long-term care and dementia in the Netherlands. What started as a conventional process of 'reporting back' to interlocutors transformed over the course of two years into learning and knowing together. We argue that learning took place in three diff erent articulations. First, participants learnt to expand their notion of knowledge. Second, they learnt to relate diff erently to each other and, therewith, to dementia. And third, participants learnt how to generate knowledge with each other. We further argue that these processes did not happen continuously, but in moments. We suggest that a framework of collaborative moments can be helpful for research projects that are not set up collaboratively from the start. Furthermore, we point to the work required to facilitate these moments.
Springer eBooks, Jul 20, 2017
Science, Technology, & Human Values
In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing ... more In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing use of diverse technologies to ease the experience of dying. Because it is accepted patients cannot recover, the primary value to preserve life underpinning much of biomedical practice is contrasted by a commitment to make people’s last period of life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible. Drawing on illustrative cases from an ethnography of palliative care in central London, we discuss how these different priorities construct the patient in different ways. We present two different repertoires of practice, the first of which cares for human life, while the second adopts an idea of personhood to support and maintain patients’ social ties with the wider world. The two concepts inscribe different boundaries of the patient and can help guide what might be the best thing for staff, patients, and others to do. Our examples show that while these two repertoires can emerge in tension in end-o...
I gave this talk together with A. Driessen at 4/S EASST - 'Sciences and Technology by Other Means... more I gave this talk together with A. Driessen at 4/S EASST - 'Sciences and Technology by Other Means. Exploring collectives, spaces and futures', in the panel 'Doing theory by other means: how does architectural production challenge STS and ANT'
SSM - Qualitative Research in Health
Science, Technology, & Human Values, Mar 20, 2023
In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing ... more In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing use of diverse technologies to ease the experience of dying. Because it is accepted patients cannot recover, the primary value to preserve life underpinning much of biomedical practice is contrasted by a commitment to make people’s last period of life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible. Drawing on illustrative cases from an ethnography of palliative care in central London, we discuss how these different priorities construct the patient in different ways. We present two different repertoires of practice, the first of which cares for human life, while the second adopts an idea of personhood to support and maintain patients’ social ties with the wider world. The two concepts inscribe different boundaries of the patient and can help guide what might be the best thing for staff, patients, and others to do. Our examples show that while these two repertoires can emerge in tension in end-of-life care, they are never fully opposites. We argue for a reaffirmation of the concept of the person to accompany contemporary posthuman and more-than-human debates in order to think about “more-than” beyond a focus on the material.
For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult t... more For more information on Open Research Online's data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policies page. oro.open.ac.uk The Forms of Care project team consists of Prof. Simon Cohn (LSHTM), Dr. Erica Borgstrom (OU) and Dr. Annelieke Driessen (LSHTM). Forms of Care has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grant ref: ES/P002781/1). @Formsofcare h2ps://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/forms-of-care Conclusion: We argue that rather than solely being opportuni6es to plan or make decisions about pa-6ent care, MDTs are in themselves a produc6ve form of doing care [3].
Palliative Medicine, Jun 10, 2022
The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs How much inf... more The Open University's repository of research publications and other research outputs How much information is 'reasonable'? A qualitative interview study of the prescribing practices of palliative care professionals
Cambridge Anthropology, 2018
Springer eBooks, Jul 20, 2017
Then, 1 finally, Ella Veenstra 2 gets out of bed, and walks to her bathroom. Ella, as her care wo... more Then, 1 finally, Ella Veenstra 2 gets out of bed, and walks to her bathroom. Ella, as her care workers affectively call her, is living with Alzheimer's disease in a Dutch suburban care home called 'Zonneweide'. 3 She moved here six years ago, when she was no longer able to manage by herself. That Ms Veenstra gets up in the morning is the result of a lot of work on the part of her care workers. Every day anew, when asked to get up, she insists on staying in bed, stating that she has a headache. Indeed, Ms Veenstra is known to have had migraines for most of her life and is given a light pain killer every morning and 'more if necessary'. However, so her care workers tell me, her headaches 'may have become a bit of an excuse to not get up'. Her caregivers check her perspiration and her eyes to determine when she 'really' has a headache. When the care worker on duty thinks she does not, she 4 starts to encourage Ms Veenstra to get up, acting on the team's agreement that it is best for Ms Veenstra to get out of bed: once she is up, she eats with the other residents and forgets about wanting to stay in bed.
Sociology of Health and Illness, Nov 8, 2019
In the face of warnings about total institutions and growing concern about the quality of care, h... more In the face of warnings about total institutions and growing concern about the quality of care, health care professionals in Western Europe and North America have increasingly been exhorted to tailor their services to individuals in their care. In this article we invite our readers to become more interested in the kinds of differences care is being tailored to, and with what effects. Focusing on food provision for residents with dementia, we present three repertoires through which care workers attend to, and enact different sets of differences between individuals: providing choice allows residents to express fleeting preferences; knowing residents places emphasis on the care providers' familiarity with a person; and catering to identities brings to the fore the tastes which make up part of who someone is. The analysis brings attending to difference to the fore as a practical process and suggests that tailoring care requires sensitivity to the different kinds of individuals that may be enacted when attending to difference. also came to be part of. Rebeca and Annelieke jointly analysed the fieldwork material, and Annelieke wrote it up, resulting in the current article. We would like to thank both teams and their guests for their support. In particular, for their constructive and valuable feedback, we thank Justine Laurent,
Medicine anthropology theory, Sep 30, 2020
In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with... more In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with instances when medical staff chose not do something, which we came to call 'noninterventions'. Such instances raised an obvious question: how does one study something that is not happening? In this Position Piece, we outline three ways in which we have tried to engage with this methodological question, from the initial grant application process to the point we are at now: first, a somewhat positivist approach, which allowed us to delineate the phenomenon of our study; second, a following technique, adopted to understand noninterventions as and when they are conceived by our informants; and third, an approach that tries to trace enactments of 'not doing' by mapping the range of different practices and, in so doing, elucidates how 'not doing' invariably occurs alongside other forms of doing. We describe what these approaches have taught us so far and reflect on the limits of each. We do so in the hope of providing others with starting points for studying nothings, 'not doings', and absences.
Medical Anthropology, Apr 19, 2019
In this article, I examine building-user interactions on three dementia wards in the Netherlands.... more In this article, I examine building-user interactions on three dementia wards in the Netherlands. I coin the concept of "sociomaterial awareness" to articulate a collective situational sensitivity to the ways in which the built environment invites its users (professionals, but also people with dementia themselves) to act in specific ways, as well as to possibilities to adjust (elements of) the building. I argue that along with different enactments of dementia, different positions become available for residents when the built environment is acknowledged as actively shaping care interactions.
In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with... more In our ethnographic study of palliative care in a UK medical setting, we concerned ourselves with instances when medical staff chose not do something, which we came to call 'noninterventions'. Such instances raised an obvious question: how does one study something that is not happening? In this Position Piece, we outline three ways in which we have tried to engage with this methodological question, from the initial grant application process to the point we are at now: first, a somewhat positivist approach, which allowed us to delineate the phenomenon of our study; second, a following technique, adopted to understand noninterventions as and when they are conceived by our informants; and third, an approach that tries to trace enactments of 'not doing' by mapping the range of different practices and, in so doing, elucidates how 'not doing' invariably occurs alongside other forms of doing. We describe what these approaches have taught us so far and reflect on the limits of each. We do so in the hope of providing others with starting points for studying nothings, 'not doings', and absences.
Anthropology In Action, Dec 1, 2019
In this article, we describe experiences with dialogue evenings within a research collaboration o... more In this article, we describe experiences with dialogue evenings within a research collaboration on long-term care and dementia in the Netherlands. What started as a conventional process of 'reporting back' to interlocutors transformed over the course of two years into learning and knowing together. We argue that learning took place in three diff erent articulations. First, participants learnt to expand their notion of knowledge. Second, they learnt to relate diff erently to each other and, therewith, to dementia. And third, participants learnt how to generate knowledge with each other. We further argue that these processes did not happen continuously, but in moments. We suggest that a framework of collaborative moments can be helpful for research projects that are not set up collaboratively from the start. Furthermore, we point to the work required to facilitate these moments.
Springer eBooks, Jul 20, 2017
Science, Technology, & Human Values
In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing ... more In this paper, we focus on how medical staff care for people who are dying and on the increasing use of diverse technologies to ease the experience of dying. Because it is accepted patients cannot recover, the primary value to preserve life underpinning much of biomedical practice is contrasted by a commitment to make people’s last period of life as fulfilling and meaningful as possible. Drawing on illustrative cases from an ethnography of palliative care in central London, we discuss how these different priorities construct the patient in different ways. We present two different repertoires of practice, the first of which cares for human life, while the second adopts an idea of personhood to support and maintain patients’ social ties with the wider world. The two concepts inscribe different boundaries of the patient and can help guide what might be the best thing for staff, patients, and others to do. Our examples show that while these two repertoires can emerge in tension in end-o...
Palliative Medicine
Background: Prescribing clinicians have to negotiate ambiguities around information provision and... more Background: Prescribing clinicians have to negotiate ambiguities around information provision and consent for medications on a daily basis, despite the availability of professional guidance. Aim: This study aims to explore some of the many factors prescribing clinicians in the United Kingdom take into account when deciding what information to give to patients about medication choices, and when. Design: In depth face-to-face interviews, utilising both a hypothetical scenario and semi-structured prompts, were conducted in order to elicit extended reflections on how clinicians individually work through such dilemmas and make decisions. Setting/participants: Ten prescribing clinicians (doctors and nurses) from a large combined team of National Health Service (NHS) secondary and community palliative care providers in England. Results: Palliative care staff regularly face choices about information provision in prescribing discussions, in particular when considering whether information mig...