10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17031
application/pdf
2038-3460
17031
1
en
Ericka Johnson
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Dawn Goodwin, Acting in Anaesthesia. Ethnographic Encounters with Patients, Practitioners and Medical Technologies, Cambridge University Press, 2009
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
3
Book Reviews
2012-06-16
2023-05-23
2012-06-16
2023-07-10
122-124
TS
Ericka Johnson
2012/06/16
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17031
122
University of Linköping
2038-3460
1
en
124
Dawn Goodwin, Acting in Anaesthesia. Ethnographic Encounters with Patients, Practitioners and Medical Technologies, Cambridge University Press, 2009
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17031/15915
3
122 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    humanism - the translation of know-         merous points of departure for
    ledge changes the actors involved as        anyone eager to venture into this
    well as the knowledge itself, and in        landscape as well as a range of
    translating these texts, the editors        interesting, and creative answers to
    have also changed them. In her              this challenge.
    introductory chapter, Åsberg descry-
    bes how they have adapted the
    original texts in an effort to create a
    common        posthumanist      ground,                       ***
    “transposing” the texts into a post-
    humanist language to enable commu-
    nication between different disciplines
    and fields (p. 16-17). Through the                     Dawn Goodwin
    introductions and the translations,           Acting in Anaesthesia. Ethno-
    they put these texts into dialogue          graphic Encounters with Patients,
    with each other as well as with the             Practitioners and Medical
    posthumanist field. Still, in selecting,              Technologies
    introducing and translating these             2009, Cambridge University Press,
    texts, they have also been excluding.
    And although the editors assure us                          187 pp.
    that they do not want to create any
    form for canon, the texts they have
    chosen inform us that the effects may                   Ericka Johnson
    be something quite different from the               (University of Linköping)
    intention. The definitions in the
    dictionary at the back also remind us
    as readers that this is a specific          This book is about how anaesthesiol-
    version of posthumanism. Translated         ogy practices are formed, maintained,
    from other languages into Swedish, it       challenged and extended, and how
    creates something new, something            these anaesthesiology practices are
    that might be termed Swedish, or            learned through doing, in an
    Scandinavian posthumanism. Histo-           apprenticeship relationship. It is
    ries, actors, agents, objects, relations,   based on ethnographic research,
    effects, materiality and meaning is         both detailed, real-time observations
    what this posthumanism is all about.        and in-depth interviews, but it also
    The posthumanist challenge posed in         benefits from Goodwin’s past
    this book might be summed up like           experiences as an anaesthetic and
    this: How to make sense of the              recovery nurse. It is obvious that she
    complex realities of humans and             knows her ethnographic field very
    non-humans in ways that includes            well, a knowledge which allows her
    the material, challenges anthropocen-       to provide the reader with very
    trism and are ethically valid? Post-        detailed and helpful descriptions of
    humanistiska nickeltexter offers nu–        otherwise confusing medical proce–
                                                                  BOOK REVIEWS       123




dures. But she has also succeeded in        sending incoherent messages, is
distancing herself from the field to        discussed in chapter 3. Goodwin
analyse actions and taken-for-granted       shows that sometimes the body-
practices with an astute eye to the         machine patient of anaesthesiology is
learning and identity construction          not communicating clearly, yet
occurring.                                  actions must both be taken and later
The book consists of six chapters,          accounted for. Her examples and her
and through out, Goodwin illustrates        discussions of other work in STS
her discussions with rich, descriptive      show how incoherencies and disunity
scenarios, transporting the reader          are prevalent in medical practices,
between the hospital and her                and that these elements also proble-
theoretical analysis.                       matise the concept of accountability.
In the first chapter, the author            In her words, while "certainty may
introduces the fields, both the field-      be highly valued, it is also an ideal,
work environment of the anaesthesia         and in some circumstances, practice,
practices; the operating and recovery       actions and interventions must go on
rooms, and the academic field of            in spite of intense uncertainty" (p.
learning in doing, within which this        103).
book’s theoretical arguments are            In the next chapter, Goodwin
placed. In chapter 2, Goodwin               expands her ethnographic view to
discusses the concept of agency,            include the work of nurses and
demonstrating the relational aspects        operating department practitioners,
of the concept in the context of            exploring the abilities and limits
‘silent’ bodies and anaesthesiology         these participants have in shaping
technology. Using the term cyborg,          anaesthetic care. Doing so allows her
she shows that the anaesthetised            to show how knowledge, practice
body is not so much silenced and            and agency are distributed asym-
disabled as merely transformed. It          metrically across an organisation, and
can communicate, but in different           what the consequences of enacting or
ways and through augmenting                 transgressing different remits of
technology. This communication              participation are, at least in the UK
changes the trajectories a patient can      context. Goodwin’s approach in this
take      through       anaesthesiology,    chapter allows her to expand on
interesting in itself, but it also allows   existing work in discussions about
for Goodwin to demonstrate one way          communities of practice because her
agency without intentionality may           material comes from a multidiscipli-
look, indicating that "Agency is not        nary community with very regulated
contained within the body, or within        hierarchies.
the machines – it is enacted in             The final empirical chapter examines
relations’"(p. 57).                         how space and material resources are
How anaesthesiologists deliver care         involved in embodied anaesthetic
and achieve accountability, even            knowledge. Discussing situations
when the bodies and technologies are        when routine work is interrupted
124 TECNOSCIENZA – 3 (1)




    because of disturbances in the            Doing’ series. However, her work
    regular arrangements of tools, pati-      also has much to contribute to the
    ents or practitioners, Goodwin is         debates about standardizing health
    able to convincingly suggest that         care work and accountability. Her
    such disturbances are actually a          descriptions of how knowledge is
    contributing factor to the develop-       embodied and situated in practices,
    ment of expertise. "Learning to see       her ability to make invisible
    “normal appearances” from a differ-       anaesthesiology work visible, and her
    rent perspective, and to accomplish       arguments about "the primacy of the
    anaesthetic techniques from these         immediate context of action in
    altered positions, furnishes a reper-     understanding how trajectories of
    toire of techniques that can be used      care are shaped" (p. 32) ought to be
    when facing unanticipated difficul-       incorporated into policies regarding
    ties" (p. 165).                           medical technologies and clinical
    Some of the chapters in this book         guidelines. Her book would force
    have previously been published as         policy makers to ask: if agency is
    articles. Collecting them into one        recognized as enacted in relations
    volume is very useful for those of us     between bodies and machines,
    who have long been inspired by            should this not also change our
    Goodwin’s work, and it is a pleasure      understanding of who can be held
    to be able to read a substantial          accountable    for    what     within
    quantity of this research at once. But    medicine and health care?
    collecting the work this way has also
    allowed Goodwin to draw larger
    theoretical lessons from her research                      ***
    and present more nuanced ideas
    about learning and acting in
                                                           Scott Lash
    anaesthesia for the reader. Thus,
                                              Intensive Culture. Social Theory,
    because of this book, she has been
                                                 Religion and Contemporary
    able to develop her ideas about
                                                          Capitalism
    health care as practice populated by
    clinicians, patients, medical techno-              2010, Sage, 247 pp.
    logies, machines and devices, all
    acting in concert, and all relationally
    shaping action, which she discusses                   Letteria Fassari
    further in the final chapter.                 (University of Roma La Sapienza)
    These ideas are useful to us working
    in the field of science, technology
    and medicine studies and to those         As often happens in the lives of
    interested in the interplay between       scholars who have achieved a
    learning-in-practice, cognition and       deserved success, Lash allows himself
    technology, so the work is well           the luxury of an exploration,
    placed in Cambridge’s ‘Learning in        philosophically founded, on contem-
