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Our concluding chapter draws together the threads of the arguments spanning across the chapters to summarise how war is brought to book, both literally and figuratively. We then return to the ideas sketched out previously in this... more
Our concluding chapter draws together the threads of the arguments spanning across the chapters to summarise how war is brought to book, both literally and figuratively. We then return to the ideas sketched out previously in this introductory chapter, about the specificities of time and place which result in the contemporary British military memoir being as it is. We discuss the relationships that exist between military memoirs as factual accounts, and the fictional representations of war and military activities that sit alongside military memoirs but are distinct from that genre. We conclude with observations about how we can recognise contemporary military memoirs not as vectors of militarisation but rather as moral documents about armed conflict and military activities.
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In this chapter, we define the sole form of text with which Bringing War to Book is concerned, the contemporary military memoir. We start by introducing the genre, and its twin goals of telling stories rooted in factual information about... more
In this chapter, we define the sole form of text with which Bringing War to Book is concerned, the contemporary military memoir. We start by introducing the genre, and its twin goals of telling stories rooted in factual information about military participation, and presenting narratives which prioritise the individual, lived experience of that participation in texts which claim authenticity on the basis of the witnessing of events recounted. We continue this introduction by discussing the diversity of the genre and exploring the range of types of military memoir that our immersion in the genre has shown. We then outline three ideas which frame the social production of the military memoir and which thread through this book. These are the extent and limits of communicative possibility in these books, the role of paratext in these text-based accounts, and the way what we term ‘military literacy’ functions to help explain the journey so many individuals make, from military operative to ...
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This chapter asks what is included and excluded in the military memoir. We consider this question not as an issue of factual accuracy and the exposition of ‘truth’, but rather, taking our authors’ lead, we explore how these claims to... more
This chapter asks what is included and excluded in the military memoir. We consider this question not as an issue of factual accuracy and the exposition of ‘truth’, but rather, taking our authors’ lead, we explore how these claims to truth which all memoirs make sit in relation to an awareness all military memoirists share about the demands of convention and genre. We discuss self-censorship, and the efforts authors make to balance a need for veracity with a need for operational security, and the need to protect groups and individuals, particularly the relatives of others described in a text, from detailed information about events and occurrences which may be too traumatic to know. We examine official state censorship and the interventions made by the Ministry of Defence and branches of the armed forces, which of course have an interest in what their serving and former personnel publish. We also explore the less formalised interventions of military institutions. We ask how authors’ ...
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In this chapter, we ask why military memoirs look like they do. We focus in this chapter on the book covers, and do so using a framework suggested by an existing literature on paratext. We examine in detail some of the key paratextual... more
In this chapter, we ask why military memoirs look like they do. We focus in this chapter on the book covers, and do so using a framework suggested by an existing literature on paratext. We examine in detail some of the key paratextual features of the covers of military memoirs, looking at the titles of books, the way in which an author’s name is presented, and the overall design of the cover, including the imagery and other features used. Given that the cover is so significant for the sales of a book, we then go on to consider how covers and their imagery comprise a visual economy, and in turn how this suggests a relationship to wider narratives about war through which it is given meaning in contemporary public cultural life.
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This chapter explores how military memoirs, the published autobiographical books written by military personnel about the experience of military participation, might be used to inform our thinking about the relationships between gender and... more
This chapter explores how military memoirs, the published autobiographical books written by military personnel about the experience of military participation, might be used to inform our thinking about the relationships between gender and military phenomena. We consider how the genre is itself gendered, and establish its defining features. We then discuss how memoirs portray particular ideas about the constitution and expression of gender identities within military forces. We look at how memoirs inform arguments about the roles and functions of armed forces within liberal democracies. We consider how memoirs engage with questions about women’s military participation. We conclude with some reflections on military memoirs as a data source in the context of social scientific research on gender and the military.
This chapter examines the UK Reserve armed forces and their relationships to the sociology of military and security privatization. The basic features of the UK Reserves are introduced, and an overview provided of how current policies... more
This chapter examines the UK Reserve armed forces and their relationships to the sociology of military and security privatization. The basic features of the UK Reserves are introduced, and an overview provided of how current policies aimed at their transformation sit within the context of wider military, economic and social changes. Some key features of military and security privatization in the UK are summarized to provide contextual information. The data source and methodological strategy are discussed. The chapter then considers features of Reservist participation which speak directly to the negotiations that Reservists conduct between their military participation and their lives as civilian employees and which speak to sociological ideas about the privatization of security. Reservists are considered in comparison with private military and security contractors for the insights this gives about the ways Reservists negotiate the contingencies of their military participation. The in...
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Operation Banner saw the deployment of over 300,000 British soldiers to Ulster during the Troubles and as such they can be seen as constituting a third community during this period. Drawing on interviews with former service personnel... more
Operation Banner saw the deployment of over 300,000 British soldiers to Ulster during the Troubles and as such they can be seen as constituting a third community during this period. Drawing on interviews with former service personnel structured around their personal photographs, and using published memoir accounts of military deployment to Northern Ireland, this chapter explores the memory work undertaken by former personnel to make sense of their past experience. Individuals, some still teenagers and serving in a hostile environment that for many looked just like home on the UK mainland, often experienced traumatic and life changing events when deployed. Using the themes of ‘youth and experience’, ‘security and danger’ and ‘trauma and memory’ we examine the often conflicting emotions and responses of these former military personnel to their experiences of the Troubles, and the work undertaken in the present to contain and make sense of this.
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Max Travers, The Reality of Law: Work and Talk in a Firm of Criminal Lawyers, Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1997, £40.00, xv+175 pp. (ISBN 1-84014-028-X). Max Travers and John F. Manzo (eds.), Law in Action: Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic Approaches to Law, Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1998, £40....more
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Abstract. War and military activities are multi-layered social phenomena mediated for public understanding and consumption by the press and other forms of mass media. The medium of text is important, but it is the photographic image that... more
Abstract. War and military activities are multi-layered social phenomena mediated for public understanding and consumption by the press and other forms of mass media. The medium of text is important, but it is the photographic image that can define in the public's ...
Max Travers, The Reality of Law: Work and Talk in a Firm of Criminal Lawyers, Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1997, £40.00, xv+175 pp. (ISBN 1-84014-028-X). Max Travers and John F. Manzo (eds.), Law in Action: Ethnomethodological and Conversation Analytic Approaches to Law, Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1998, £40....more
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Following developments in the use of ethnographies in systems design, this article illustrates an investigation into using ethnography for healthcare system implementation, change management and benefits realization. The article... more
Following developments in the use of ethnographies in systems design, this article illustrates an investigation into using ethnography for healthcare system implementation, change management and benefits realization. The article illustrates the possibility of creating ethnographically enriched process maps. These are process maps that are created for specific implementation sites to facilitate the locally situated work of implementation, change management and benefits realization teams. The simple premise is that, to change and improve what you are doing, you need to know what you are currently doing. Reported are the pros and cons of a potential solution and, importantly, why it was not adopted. While not producing a definitive solution, this approach to looking at the problems, and using ethnographically enriched process maps, does suggest itself as an area for further development.
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This article looks at the need for integrated care records (ICRs) that are ‘fitfor-purpose’ and how this can be facilitated by data about what are glossed as ‘social factors’. Social factors, while increasingly considered in systems... more
This article looks at the need for integrated care records (ICRs) that are ‘fitfor-purpose’ and how this can be facilitated by data about what are glossed as ‘social factors’. Social factors, while increasingly considered in systems design, also need to be considered in the implementation, change management and benefits realization that are part of the work of ICR programmes such
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London: Routledge, 2016.
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Military occupations are continually evolving in relation to the geopolitical changes of societies, their conflicts and conflict management strategies, and technological developments in military hardware and software. Military occupations... more
Military occupations are continually evolving in relation to the geopolitical changes of societies, their conflicts and conflict management strategies, and technological developments in military hardware and software. Military occupations studies undertaken by the academy have been key to informing government strategy towards the maintenance of functioning armed forces. Since the 1950s, such studies have prioritised ‘top-down’ quantitative sociological methodologies. This paper reviews these studies and the role of the dominant Institutional/Occupational model. The paper then considers less influential ‘bottom up’ interpretive methodological studies of military occupations. It is suggested that the reliance on ‘top down’ modelling approaches has led to the paucity of studies describing the range and experiential detail of military occupations. The Military–Academy nexus, and the priorities of the discipline of sociology are suggested as reasons for this emphasis.
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Research Interests: Communication, Decision Making, Qualitative Research, Autonomy, Knowledge Translation, and 17 moreMultidisciplinary, Emergency Medical Services, Stroke, Humans, Face to Face, Care, Attitudes, Decision Support, Health Professionals, Qualitative Study, Trial, PLoS one, Support, Questionnaires, Tissue Plasminogen Activator, Recombinant Proteins, and Ischaemic Stroke
Background Telecare could greatly facilitate chronic disease management in the community, but despite government promotion and positive demonstrations its implementation has been limited. This study aimed to identify factors inhibiting... more
Background
Telecare could greatly facilitate chronic disease management in the community, but despite government promotion and positive demonstrations its implementation has been limited. This study aimed to identify factors inhibiting the implementation and integration of telecare systems for chronic disease management in the community.
Methods
Large scale comparative study employing qualitative data collection techniques: semi-structured interviews with key informants, task-groups, and workshops; framework analysis of qualitative data informed by Normalization Process Theory. Drawn from telecare services in community and domestic settings in England and Scotland, 221 participants were included, consisting of health professionals and managers; patients and carers; social care professionals and managers; and service suppliers and manufacturers.
Results
Key barriers to telecare integration were uncertainties about coherent and sustainable service and business models; lack of coordination across social and primary care boundaries, lack of financial or other incentives to include telecare within primary care services; a lack of a sense of continuity with previous service provision and self-care work undertaken by patients; and general uncertainty about the adequacy of telecare systems. These problems led to poor integration of policy and practice.
Conclusion
Telecare services may offer a cost effective and safe form of care for some people living with chronic illness. Slow and uneven implementation and integration do not stem from problems of adoption. They result from incomplete understanding of the role of telecare systems and subsequent adaption and embeddedness to context, and uncertainties about the best way to develop, coordinate, and sustain services that assist with chronic disease management. Interventions are therefore needed that (i) reduce uncertainty about the ownership of implementation processes and that lock together health and social care agencies; and (ii) ensure user centred rather than biomedical/service-centred models of care.
Telecare could greatly facilitate chronic disease management in the community, but despite government promotion and positive demonstrations its implementation has been limited. This study aimed to identify factors inhibiting the implementation and integration of telecare systems for chronic disease management in the community.
Methods
Large scale comparative study employing qualitative data collection techniques: semi-structured interviews with key informants, task-groups, and workshops; framework analysis of qualitative data informed by Normalization Process Theory. Drawn from telecare services in community and domestic settings in England and Scotland, 221 participants were included, consisting of health professionals and managers; patients and carers; social care professionals and managers; and service suppliers and manufacturers.
Results
Key barriers to telecare integration were uncertainties about coherent and sustainable service and business models; lack of coordination across social and primary care boundaries, lack of financial or other incentives to include telecare within primary care services; a lack of a sense of continuity with previous service provision and self-care work undertaken by patients; and general uncertainty about the adequacy of telecare systems. These problems led to poor integration of policy and practice.
Conclusion
Telecare services may offer a cost effective and safe form of care for some people living with chronic illness. Slow and uneven implementation and integration do not stem from problems of adoption. They result from incomplete understanding of the role of telecare systems and subsequent adaption and embeddedness to context, and uncertainties about the best way to develop, coordinate, and sustain services that assist with chronic disease management. Interventions are therefore needed that (i) reduce uncertainty about the ownership of implementation processes and that lock together health and social care agencies; and (ii) ensure user centred rather than biomedical/service-centred models of care.
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Research Interests: Health Sciences, Medical Sciences, Primary Care, General Practice, Education, and 30 moreSocial Work, Services, Primary Health Care, Community-Based Mental Health Services, ICT, Qualitative Research, Health, Primary Care Interventions Into Social Determinants Of Health, Chronic illness, Telemedicine, Comparative Study, England, Chronic disease management, Library and Information Studies, Uncertainty, Humans, eHealth, Scotland, Chronic Disease, Business Model, Health Professionals, Cost effectiveness, Service provision, Department, Qualitative Data, Public health systems and services research, Negotiating, Large Scale, Disease Management, and Cooperative Behavior
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This paper looks at aspects of doctor-patient communication and focuses on how prescribing decisions fit into the consultation within the context of the use (and non-use) of a technological clinical decision support system (CDSS) in the... more
This paper looks at aspects of doctor-patient communication and focuses on how prescribing decisions fit into the consultation within the context of the use (and non-use) of a technological clinical decision support system (CDSS) in the UK. Analysis of 6 simulated consultations filmed as part of the evaluation of a CDSS system indicated that the general practitioners (GPs) used their computers for a short time during consultations. The data showed that doctors' utterances, occurring at an early stage of the consultations, signalled the prescribing decision and eventual outcome of the consultation. The concept of 'verbal prescriptions' is used to describe these utterances of the GPs, and facilitates an understanding of how prescribing decisions are routinely achieved. Prescribing decisions can occur in the relatively early stages of the consultation, and both prior to and independently of the CDSS. Consequently, we suggest that the pattern of GP decision-making needs to be taken into account in CDSS design. However, this is not just an issue for CDSS design and implementation, as the verbal prescription phenomenon may impact upon patient involvement in decision-making, and even the appropriate use of evidence based medicine.
Research Interests: Sociology, Information Technology, General Practice, Anthropology, Communication, and 17 moreDecision Making, Conversation Analysis, Evidence Based Medicine, Doctor-patient communication, Video Analysis, Social Science & Medicine, Humans, Verbal behavior, Great Britain, Public health systems and services research, Clinical Decision Support System, General practitioner, Patient Simulation, Doctor patient relationship, Clinical Decision Support Systems, Design and Implementation, and Video Recording
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This paper looks at aspects of doctor–patient communication and focuses on how prescribing decisions fit into the consultation within the context of the use (and non-use) of a technological clinical decision support system (CDSS) in the... more
This paper looks at aspects of doctor–patient communication and focuses on how prescribing decisions fit into the consultation within the context of the use (and non-use) of a technological clinical decision support system (CDSS) in the UK. Analysis of 6 simulated consultations filmed as part of the evaluation of a CDSS system indicated that the general practitioners (GPs) used their computers for a short time during consultations. The data showed that doctors’ utterances, occurring at an early stage of the consultations, signalled the prescribing decision and eventual outcome of the consultation. The concept of ‘verbal prescriptions’ is used to describe these utterances of the GPs, and facilitates an understanding of how prescribing decisions are routinely achieved.Prescribing decisions can occur in the relatively early stages of the consultation, and both prior to and independently of the CDSS. Consequently, we suggest that the pattern of GP decision-making needs to be taken into account in CDSS design. However, this is not just an issue for CDSS design and implementation, as the verbal prescription phenomenon may impact upon patient involvement in decision-making, and even the appropriate use of evidence based medicine.
Research Interests: Discourse Analysis, Sociology, Information Technology, General Practice, Anthropology, and 21 moreCommunication, Decision Making, Conversation Analysis, Evidence Based Medicine, Public Health, Language, Doctor-patient communication, Video Analysis, Social Science & Medicine, Humans, Social Medicine, Verbal behavior, Great Britain, Public health systems and services research, Clinical Decision Support System, General practitioner, Patient Simulation, Doctor patient relationship, Clinical Decision Support Systems, Design and Implementation, and Video Recording
In National Health Service hospitals in the UK the introduction of new drugs is controlled by a local Drug and Therapeutics Committee (DTC), which is expected to apply the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM). In the light of... more
In National Health Service hospitals in the UK the introduction of new drugs is controlled by a local Drug and Therapeutics Committee (DTC), which is expected to apply the principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM). In the light of growing expenditure on drugs, there is interest in how the decisions are made that lead to the local acceptance or rejection of a new drug. In this study the DTCs of two general hospitals were observed, tape-recorded and analysed to determine what was considered as evidence and how it was used in decision making. Evidence, as constituted by DTC members, was issues that affected the decision-making process and included: clinical trial data, cost, pre-existing prescribing of the drug, pharmaceutical company activities, decisions of other DTCs, patient demand, clinician excitement, and personality of the applicant. Debate usually started with a discussion of the scientific evidence, then the cost would be considered. Often this evidence was either inadequate or insufficient enough for a locally implementable decision and further types of evidence would be brought in to try and estimate the likely impact of adopting the new drug. EBM, while used in decision making, was supplemented by local knowledge, although decisions were accounted for in the language of scientific rationality. Both abstract scientific rationality and the local rationality of practical healthcare provision were present in the decisions of the DTCs on the adoption, or otherwise, of new drugs into local formularies and healthcare. We suggest the coming together of local and abstract in local decision-making needs to be taken into account when formulating policy and providing decision support.
Research Interests: Sociology, Anthropology, Decision Making, Evidence Based Medicine, Clinical Trial, and 11 moreSocial Science & Medicine, Humans, Decision Support, National Health Service, Decision making process, Great Britain, Local Knowledge, Public health systems and services research, Cost Benefit Analysis, Public Art Hospitals, and Tape Recording
Contemporary bioscience is seeing the emergence of a new data economy: with data as its fundamental unit of exchange. While sharing data within this new 'economy' provides many potential advantages, the... more
Contemporary bioscience is seeing the emergence of a new data economy: with data as its fundamental unit of exchange. While sharing data within this new 'economy' provides many potential advantages, the sharing of individual data raises important social and ethical concerns. We examine ongoing development of one technology, DataSHIELD, which appears to elide privacy concerns about sharing data by enabling shared analysis while not actually sharing any individual-level data. We combine presentation of the development of DataSHIELD with presentation of an ethnographic study of a workshop to test the technology. DataSHIELD produced an application of the norm of privacy that was practical, flexible and operationalizable in researchers' everyday activities, and one which fulfilled the requirements of ethics committees. We demonstrated that an analysis run via DataSHIELD could precisely replicate results produced by a standard analysis where all data are physically pooled and analyzed together. In developing DataSHIELD, the ethical concept of privacy was transformed into an issue of security. Development of DataSHIELD was based on social practices as well as scientific and ethical motivations. Therefore, the 'success' of DataSHIELD would, likewise, be dependent on more than just the mathematics and the security of the technology.
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Introduction This paper describes the deployment of a prototype demonstration tool aimed at facilitating users' engagement with the design, development and implementation of EHRs. It is not a prototype of an EHR system; rather it is aimed... more
Introduction This paper describes the deployment of a prototype demonstration tool aimed at facilitating users' engagement with the design, development and implementation of EHRs. It is not a prototype of an EHR system; rather it is aimed at engaging potential users at the conceptualisation stage; it aims to tap into mem-bers' knowledge that will be useful throughout the design, development and implementation process. Neither is it intended to replace the use of prototype systems and other user engagement techniques; it is ABSTRACT Background and aim To investigate the use of animation tools to aid visualisation of problems for discussion within focus groups, in the context of healthcare workers discussing electronic health records (EHRs). Method Ten healthcare staff focus groups, held in a range of organisational contexts. Each focus group was in four stages: baseline discussion, animator presentation, post-animator discussion and questionnaire. Audio recordings of the focus groups were transcribed and coded and the emergent analytic themes analysed for issues relating to EHR design and implementation. The data allowed a comparison of baseline and post-animator discussion. Results The animator facilitated discussion about EHR issues and these were thematically coded as:
From 2007 the English village of Wootton Bassett emerged as a site to honour British military personnel killed in action. Repatriation ceremonies developed from a spontaneous act by the citizens of the town into an informal site of... more
From 2007 the English village of Wootton Bassett emerged as a site to honour British military personnel killed in action. Repatriation ceremonies developed from a spontaneous act by the citizens of the town into an informal site of national respect for the armed forces. Initially cited by the media as an example to shame the country for its lack of respect for the military, it became both a space for public displays of grief and a site of political contention about British involvement in the Afghanistan war. Analysing newspaper coverage of the repatriations through Wootton Bassett, this first geographical analysis of the phenomenon describes that trajectory, its coverage by the media and the eventual return of formal control of the repatriation process to the military. Although it opened spaces for critical reflection on UK foreign policy, the Wootton Bassett phenomenon should be seen as part of a trend of the rehabilitation of the military in the aftermath of the Iraq war. The paper thus contributes to emergent debates about the militarisation of civilian space, and about the shifting nature of civil–military relations as a consequence of the two wars in which the UK has been engaged over the past decade. It concludes with a call for geographers to pay more attention to the formation and dissolution of spontaneous, immaterial and temporary sites of memory.
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My publications by: book, book chapter, refereed papers and unrefereed papers. For ease of viewing as many of my publications have similar titles and this may help.
