Systems theory and the sociology of health and illness : observing healthcare / edited by Morten Knudsen and Werner Vogd.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Part 1. Polycontextural Constructions -- Part 2. Societal Arrangements -- Part 3. Organizational Arrangements -- Part 4. Reflections -- --

1. Health Care Systems Theory and Polycontexturality: An Introduction / Morten Knudsen and Werner Vogd -- -- Part 1. Polycontextural Constructions -- 2. Drugs in Modern Society: Analysing Polycontextural Things under Condition of Functional Differentiation / Anna Henkel -- 3. Polycontexturality and the Body / Holger Højlund and Anders la Cour -- -- Part 2. Societal Arrangements -- 4. Two Ways of Dealing with Polycontexturality in Priority Setting in Swedish Healthcare Politics / Dimitris Michailakis -- 5. Heterophony and Hyper-Responsibility / Hanne Knudsen -- -- Part 3. Organizational Arrangements -- 6. Arranging Medical and Economical Logics: Investigating the Influence of Economic Controlling in Internal Medicine Department / Werner Vogd -- 7. Hospital Management in Between Medical Professionalism and Management / Sarah Poranzke -- 8. Sustainability in Integrated Care Partnerships: A Systems and Network Theoretical Approach for the Analysis of Co-Operation Networks / Daniel Lüdecke -- -- Part 4. Reflections -- 9. The Multiplication and Realization of Speakers as Polyphony / Armin Nassehi, Irmhild Saake and Katharina Mayr -- 10. The Polycontextural Realities of Research Ethics in Medicine / Barry Gibson and Jennifer Burr -- 11. Personal Leadership in Polyphonic Organizations / Morten Knudsen.

"Modern societies and organizations are characterized by multiple kinds of observations, systems, or rationalities, rather than singular identities and clear hierarchies. This holds true for healthcare where we find a range of different perspectives - from medicine to education, from science to law, from religion to politics - brought together in different types of arrangements. This innovative volume explores how this polycontexturality plays out in the healthcare arena. Drawing on systems theory, and Luhmann's theory of social systems as communicative systems in particular, the contributors investigate how things - drugs, for example - and bodies are observed and constructed in different ways under polycontextural conditions. They explore how the different types of communication and observation are brought into workable arrangements - without becoming identical or reconciled - and discuss how health care organizations observe their own polycontexturality. Providing an analysis of healthcare structures that is up to speed with the complexity of healthcare today, this book shows how society and its organizations simultaneously manage contexts that do not fit together. It is an important work for those with an interest in health and illness, social theory, Niklas Luhmann, organizations and systems theory from a range of backgrounds including sociology, health studies, political science and management."--Publisher's website.