Short:
How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday ... more Short: How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians in a hospital? How does it relate to professional understandings of “good cure and care”?
Abstract: The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different pr... more The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucratization, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of 'good cure and care.' Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of 'good cure and care' remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pressure, and staff shortage.
Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs, 2008
Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This ... more Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This article identifies commonalities such as the significant macroeconomic role of migration and similar main destinations for south Asia's mobile populations. It critiques popular themes in the discourse on migration, like the focus on economic benefits of moving populations and the nation state as a reference point. The article questions the existing views of what it means for people to move from their homes, many times (but not only) across international borders.
By the early 2000s, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach/Framework (SLA or SLF) had emerged as a ... more By the early 2000s, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach/Framework (SLA or SLF) had emerged as a promising and challenging re-orientation of development research and practice. It also inspired our own research, launched around 2002, in the context of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South, a research partnership network linking research organisations in the South and Switzerland. The present article reflects on roughly eight years of insights gained into this livelihoods focus. It shows that the framework was initially a crucial facilitator of research cooperation across various disciplines, and that it provided, for example, students at the PhD and Master’s levels with a guided approach to analysing the ‘real-life’ problems and opportunities of rural people. Accordingly, the SLF was partly perceived as a new ‘theory’ of rural change and development. Gradually, however, we realised that its strength was limited to a kind of checklist for people-centre...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm f... more Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm for theorising how transitional processes have unfolded in post-socialist cities. In seeking to extend literature that uses the post-socialist condition as a tool for theory building, we draw attention to the ongoing processes of institutional change in post-socialist cities. In doing so, we reject a ‘top-down’ perspective and examine how these institutional transitions are shaped through processes of ‘domestication’, negotiation and contestation between different interest groups in the city. We develop our argument, by drawing attention to the local political debates surrounding the propiska in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The propiska developed throughout the Soviet Union to control internal migration and is still used today in a less restrictive form. By discussing our case study, we hope to foster attention towards the ongoing contested processes of institutional transition in post-socialist ...
The specialisation of physicians but also of nurses is steadily increasing. What kind of tasks a ... more The specialisation of physicians but also of nurses is steadily increasing. What kind of tasks a person accomplishes within a hospital does not only depend on formal qualifications, but also on social categories such as gender, age, and migration as well as informal skills like work experience, language knowledge or one’s assertiveness.
In this article, we analyse two parallel processes taking place in the Swiss healthcare sector, n... more In this article, we analyse two parallel processes taking place in the Swiss healthcare sector, namely differentiation and standardisation: On one hand, the health sector is increasingly characterised by differentiation that originates from the specialisation of training, the differentiation and academisation of nursing, the feminisation of medicine, the migration of healthcare personnel, and the entry of men into nursing professions. In addition, a new generation joining the health sector labour force is challenging taken-forgranted notions about health professions. On the other hand, healthcare organisations such as hospitals need to ensure they are functioning well by increasingly relying on standardisation processes such as checklists, standardised protocols, or ethical guidelines. For this paper, we have conducted an institutional ethnography of a Swiss acute hospital by employing an intersectional analysis. Based on interviews and shadowing, we argue that the social differences between and among nurses and physicians are constantly negotiated every day. We demonstrate that those differences lead to power imbalances along the intersectional axes of age, gender, place of education, and professional position. Our findings have implications for general debates in health-related fields; for management and organizational studies more in general; and in particular for feminist labour geographies, as they place debates on workrelations, power, hierarchy, and intersectional social differences into a specific organizational and spatial context.
Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and path... more Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and pathways of migrations vary, as do perceptions of migration. Political debates are often organised normatively: the debate on the sustainable development goals presents migration foremost as a development issue resulting from global inequalities. The problems faced by particular migrants, and what a more sustainable approach to migration would look like are, therefore, often lost in political debates. We aim to address those gaps: the article conceptualizes, based on established academic debates, how sustainability in migration can be addressed systematically, which aspects are important for a more sustainable migration process and which trade-offs and injustices exist from several perspectives. We create a conceptual framework of sustainability in migration processes, building on the concepts of inter-and intragenerational justice, commonly accepted as the core of the sustainability concept. We apply this conceptual framework to empirical findings on labour migration and multilocality in Kyrgyzstan. The case enables consideration of the nested system effects of scale and translocality. This research is novel because it bridges the divided literature on migration, justice and sustainability, integrates theoretical and empirical insights and provokes a debate on which kind of migration we want to achieve.
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different pr... more The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.
... Picture 1: One of the participants of the film in close distance to the camera (picture taken... more ... Picture 1: One of the participants of the film in close distance to the camera (picture taken by Kazu AHMED, 2007) [20]. The ... Kazu AHMED (laughing): "No honestly speaking, we didn't know what to do. We had so much material. We ...
Promoting sustainable mountain development means enhancing the prospects of mountain people. As m... more Promoting sustainable mountain development means enhancing the prospects of mountain people. As migration has become an inextricable part of life in many mountain regions, this involves supporting mountain communities in making the most of migration while minimizing the risks and social costs. Targeted initiatives and enabling frameworks reduce the pressure to migrate, enhance the benefits from financial and social remittances, increase the well-being of those left behind and promote sustainable land use.
The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in th... more The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Contents may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that the original authors and source are properly acknowledged and cited and that the original authors' endorsement of users' views, products or services is not implied in any way. Permission for commercial use of any contents must be obtained from the original authors of the relevant contents. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher and partners concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by the institutions mentioned in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the institutions mentioned.
The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in th... more The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Contents may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that the original authors and source are properly acknowledged and cited and that the original authors' endorsement of users' views, products or services is not implied in any way. Permission for commercial use of any contents must be obtained from the original authors of the relevant contents. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher and partners concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by the institutions mentioned in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the institutions mentioned.
Short:
How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday ... more Short: How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians in a hospital? How does it relate to professional understandings of “good cure and care”?
Abstract: The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different pr... more The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucratization, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of 'good cure and care.' Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of 'good cure and care' remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pressure, and staff shortage.
Economic and Political Weekly: a journal of current economic and political affairs, 2008
Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This ... more Migration within and out of south Asia has been a practice steeped in historical processes. This article identifies commonalities such as the significant macroeconomic role of migration and similar main destinations for south Asia's mobile populations. It critiques popular themes in the discourse on migration, like the focus on economic benefits of moving populations and the nation state as a reference point. The article questions the existing views of what it means for people to move from their homes, many times (but not only) across international borders.
By the early 2000s, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach/Framework (SLA or SLF) had emerged as a ... more By the early 2000s, the Sustainable Livelihoods Approach/Framework (SLA or SLF) had emerged as a promising and challenging re-orientation of development research and practice. It also inspired our own research, launched around 2002, in the context of the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) North-South, a research partnership network linking research organisations in the South and Switzerland. The present article reflects on roughly eight years of insights gained into this livelihoods focus. It shows that the framework was initially a crucial facilitator of research cooperation across various disciplines, and that it provided, for example, students at the PhD and Master’s levels with a guided approach to analysing the ‘real-life’ problems and opportunities of rural people. Accordingly, the SLF was partly perceived as a new ‘theory’ of rural change and development. Gradually, however, we realised that its strength was limited to a kind of checklist for people-centre...
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm f... more Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there has been remarkable enthusiasm for theorising how transitional processes have unfolded in post-socialist cities. In seeking to extend literature that uses the post-socialist condition as a tool for theory building, we draw attention to the ongoing processes of institutional change in post-socialist cities. In doing so, we reject a ‘top-down’ perspective and examine how these institutional transitions are shaped through processes of ‘domestication’, negotiation and contestation between different interest groups in the city. We develop our argument, by drawing attention to the local political debates surrounding the propiska in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The propiska developed throughout the Soviet Union to control internal migration and is still used today in a less restrictive form. By discussing our case study, we hope to foster attention towards the ongoing contested processes of institutional transition in post-socialist ...
The specialisation of physicians but also of nurses is steadily increasing. What kind of tasks a ... more The specialisation of physicians but also of nurses is steadily increasing. What kind of tasks a person accomplishes within a hospital does not only depend on formal qualifications, but also on social categories such as gender, age, and migration as well as informal skills like work experience, language knowledge or one’s assertiveness.
In this article, we analyse two parallel processes taking place in the Swiss healthcare sector, n... more In this article, we analyse two parallel processes taking place in the Swiss healthcare sector, namely differentiation and standardisation: On one hand, the health sector is increasingly characterised by differentiation that originates from the specialisation of training, the differentiation and academisation of nursing, the feminisation of medicine, the migration of healthcare personnel, and the entry of men into nursing professions. In addition, a new generation joining the health sector labour force is challenging taken-forgranted notions about health professions. On the other hand, healthcare organisations such as hospitals need to ensure they are functioning well by increasingly relying on standardisation processes such as checklists, standardised protocols, or ethical guidelines. For this paper, we have conducted an institutional ethnography of a Swiss acute hospital by employing an intersectional analysis. Based on interviews and shadowing, we argue that the social differences between and among nurses and physicians are constantly negotiated every day. We demonstrate that those differences lead to power imbalances along the intersectional axes of age, gender, place of education, and professional position. Our findings have implications for general debates in health-related fields; for management and organizational studies more in general; and in particular for feminist labour geographies, as they place debates on workrelations, power, hierarchy, and intersectional social differences into a specific organizational and spatial context.
Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and path... more Migration and mobility are major characteristics of societies worldwide. The reasons for and pathways of migrations vary, as do perceptions of migration. Political debates are often organised normatively: the debate on the sustainable development goals presents migration foremost as a development issue resulting from global inequalities. The problems faced by particular migrants, and what a more sustainable approach to migration would look like are, therefore, often lost in political debates. We aim to address those gaps: the article conceptualizes, based on established academic debates, how sustainability in migration can be addressed systematically, which aspects are important for a more sustainable migration process and which trade-offs and injustices exist from several perspectives. We create a conceptual framework of sustainability in migration processes, building on the concepts of inter-and intragenerational justice, commonly accepted as the core of the sustainability concept. We apply this conceptual framework to empirical findings on labour migration and multilocality in Kyrgyzstan. The case enables consideration of the nested system effects of scale and translocality. This research is novel because it bridges the divided literature on migration, justice and sustainability, integrates theoretical and empirical insights and provokes a debate on which kind of migration we want to achieve.
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different pr... more The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.
... Picture 1: One of the participants of the film in close distance to the camera (picture taken... more ... Picture 1: One of the participants of the film in close distance to the camera (picture taken by Kazu AHMED, 2007) [20]. The ... Kazu AHMED (laughing): "No honestly speaking, we didn't know what to do. We had so much material. We ...
Promoting sustainable mountain development means enhancing the prospects of mountain people. As m... more Promoting sustainable mountain development means enhancing the prospects of mountain people. As migration has become an inextricable part of life in many mountain regions, this involves supporting mountain communities in making the most of migration while minimizing the risks and social costs. Targeted initiatives and enabling frameworks reduce the pressure to migrate, enhance the benefits from financial and social remittances, increase the well-being of those left behind and promote sustainable land use.
The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in th... more The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Contents may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that the original authors and source are properly acknowledged and cited and that the original authors' endorsement of users' views, products or services is not implied in any way. Permission for commercial use of any contents must be obtained from the original authors of the relevant contents. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher and partners concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by the institutions mentioned in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the institutions mentioned.
The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in th... more The publisher and the authors encourage the use, reproduction and dissemination of material in this information product. Contents may be copied, downloaded and printed for private study, research and teaching purposes, or for use in non-commercial products or services, provided that the original authors and source are properly acknowledged and cited and that the original authors' endorsement of users' views, products or services is not implied in any way. Permission for commercial use of any contents must be obtained from the original authors of the relevant contents. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the publisher and partners concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by the institutions mentioned in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the institutions mentioned.
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Papers by Susan Thieme
How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians in a hospital? How does it relate to professional understandings of “good cure and care”?
Abstract:
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.
How do potentially market driven modes of governance manifest themselves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians in a hospital? How does it relate to professional understandings of “good cure and care”?
Abstract:
The development of the health care system in Switzerland has recently been driven by different processes such as economic rationalization, bureaucrati-zation, or digitalization, while maintaining professional notions of ‘good cure and care.’ Drawing on qualitative data from a Swiss acute hospital, we analyze how potentially market driven modes of governance manifest them-selves in the everyday activities of nurses and physicians. We show how professional understandings of ‘good cure and care’ remain persistent and intermingle with logics that we call economic rationalities, manifesting in the four interrelated issues of financial pressure, bureaucratization, time pres-sure, and staff shortage.