Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting

This paper opens up the relationship between vulnerability and the temporalities of care. It takes ‘care’ as not just a material practice that supports, manages and sustains vulnerable bodies, but as a temporal practice, one that produces time in situations that are otherwise felt to be stuck or...

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Main Authors: Baraitser, Lisa, Brook, William
Format: Online
Language:English
Published: Oxford University Press 2022
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Online Access:https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/54693
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author Baraitser, Lisa
Brook, William
author_browse Baraitser, Lisa
Brook, William
author_facet Baraitser, Lisa
Brook, William
author_sort Baraitser, Lisa
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This paper opens up the relationship between vulnerability and the temporalities of care. It takes ‘care’ as not just a material practice that supports, manages and sustains vulnerable bodies, but as a temporal practice, one that produces time in situations that are otherwise felt to be stuck or ‘chronic’. It draws on some co-written anecdotes about the use of ‘watchful waiting’ by medical practitioners working in general practice in the UK’s National Health System (NHS) to think through the meanings of waiting in relation to chronic health and mental health crises. The offer of ‘watchful waiting’ as a response to ‘chronic crisis’ becomes a test case for understanding a more general condition of watchful waiting as a form of care, in a context in which waiting for healthcare has become an agony for many, experienced as a form of abandonment or a key sign of health service failure. The paper attempts to re-think ‘waiting times’ within a wider history of the temporalities of care, in order to elucidate the ways an offer of waiting can itself be understood as a response to vulnerability through a practice of staying with or alongside the chronic temporalities of others.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-818752025-01-18T13:19:09Z Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting Baraitser, Lisa Brook, William Temporality, waiting, care, crisis, mental health, general practice, NHS This paper opens up the relationship between vulnerability and the temporalities of care. It takes ‘care’ as not just a material practice that supports, manages and sustains vulnerable bodies, but as a temporal practice, one that produces time in situations that are otherwise felt to be stuck or ‘chronic’. It draws on some co-written anecdotes about the use of ‘watchful waiting’ by medical practitioners working in general practice in the UK’s National Health System (NHS) to think through the meanings of waiting in relation to chronic health and mental health crises. The offer of ‘watchful waiting’ as a response to ‘chronic crisis’ becomes a test case for understanding a more general condition of watchful waiting as a form of care, in a context in which waiting for healthcare has become an agony for many, experienced as a form of abandonment or a key sign of health service failure. The paper attempts to re-think ‘waiting times’ within a wider history of the temporalities of care, in order to elucidate the ways an offer of waiting can itself be understood as a response to vulnerability through a practice of staying with or alongside the chronic temporalities of others. 2022-05-26T04:02:15Z 2022-05-26T04:02:15Z 2022-05-25T13:00:00Z 2021 chapter https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/54693 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/81875 eng open access image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/54693/1/Bookshelf_NBK569815.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/54693/1/Bookshelf_NBK569815.pdf Oxford University Press db4e319f-ca9f-449a-bcf2-37d7c6f885b1 Vulnerability and the Politics of Care Wellcome Trust d859fbd3-d884-4090-a0ec-baf821c9abfd Wellcome 15 open access
spellingShingle Temporality, waiting, care, crisis, mental health, general practice, NHS
Baraitser, Lisa
Brook, William
Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title_full Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title_fullStr Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title_full_unstemmed Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title_short Chapter 11 Watchful Waiting
title_sort chapter 11 watchful waiting
topic Temporality, waiting, care, crisis, mental health, general practice, NHS
topic_facet Temporality, waiting, care, crisis, mental health, general practice, NHS
url https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/54693
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