Brownlie Julie, Spandler Helen
School of Social and Political Science, University of Edinburgh, UK.
School of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, UK.
Sociol Health Illn. 2018 Feb;40(2):256-269. doi: 10.1111/1467-9566.12574.
The focus of this special issue is on how everyday or mundane materialities actively mediate health and care practices. This article extends this concern with the mundane to care itself and explores how specific materialities, such as shared spaces and everyday objects, not only mediate mundane care but enable it to happen. Our focus is on mundane help in the context of ill health, between people who are not immediate family, such as neighbours, acquaintances and others with whom we interact in our daily lives. Drawing on recent empirical studies of low-level support in two different parts of the UK, we show how the materialities of care can mediate the affective risks associated with receiving such help. Specifically, we investigate how materialities help people to balance the expression of their vulnerability with a need to retain their dignity, a practice referred to as 'holding one's own'. In doing so, we argue that materialities are not just the conduits for care - what care passes through - or things that mediate care. We suggest instead that materialities are part of how relationships of mundane care are constituted and maintained.
本期特刊的重点是日常或平凡的物质性如何积极地调节健康与护理实践。本文将对平凡事物的关注扩展到护理本身，并探讨特定的物质性，如共享空间和日常物品，不仅如何调节日常护理，还使其得以发生。我们关注的是在健康不佳的情况下，非直系亲属之间的日常帮助，比如邻居、熟人以及我们在日常生活中与之互动的其他人。借鉴英国两个不同地区近期关于低水平支持的实证研究，我们展示了护理的物质性如何调节与接受此类帮助相关的情感风险。具体而言，我们研究物质性如何帮助人们在表达自身脆弱性与保持尊严的需求之间取得平衡，这种做法被称为“坚持自我”。在此过程中，我们认为物质性不仅仅是护理的渠道——护理所经过的东西——或者调节护理的事物。相反，我们认为物质性是日常护理关系得以构成和维持方式的一部分。
