
Blood’s ontologies-entangled: qualitative inquiry into the enactment, representation, and organizational modes of coordination of blood’s multiplicity in a Belgian blood establishment
- Author
- Nathan Wittock (UGent) , Michiel De Krom (UGent) and Lesley Hustinx (UGent)
- Organization
- Abstract
- Since British sociologist Titmuss authoritatively conceived blood donation as an altruistic ‘gift relationship’, blood establishments have adopted blood’s highly symbolic status as a core professional belief. However, important developments since the 1970s have resulted in blood’s bio-objectification, making blood a renewed object of concern. Because different versions of this bio-object are simultaneously present and interfere with one another, we ask how the organization renders this multiplicity workable? Studying how ontological versions are enacted in a specific blood establishment and how the organizational model of a blood establishment functions as a mode of coordination, we develop a praxiographic appreciation of blood in the context of a specific Belgian blood establishment. We show how the organizational mode of coordination allocates versions of blood in specific departments along functional and chronological dimensions. Blood remains the object of a gift relationship but is accompanied by blood’s enactment and representation as the object of suspicion, management, research/biology, and a blood economy. Furthermore, the organizational mode of coordination also allocates personalized and depersonalized enactments according to the level of contact with the donor population. This reflects a third dimension: (de)personalization of blood. Whereas the organizational mode of coordination is successful in rendering blood’s multiplicity workable, at times, it causes suboptimal practices. Moreover, we showed how sometimes a focus on intra-departmental modes of coordination is necessary to understand how blood’s multiplicity complicates the practices of the blood establishment.
- Keywords
- Blood-supply management, enactment, modes of coordination, multiplicity, organization, praxiography, renewed object of concern
Downloads
-
Accepted version ORG-17-0150.R2.docx
- full text (Accepted manuscript)
- |
- open access
- |
- Word
- |
- 129.20 KB
Citation
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-8582542
- MLA
- Wittock, Nathan, et al. “Blood’s Ontologies-Entangled: Qualitative Inquiry into the Enactment, Representation, and Organizational Modes of Coordination of Blood’s Multiplicity in a Belgian Blood Establishment.” ORGANIZATION, vol. 26, no. 4, 2019, pp. 470–91, doi:10.1177/1350508418808234.
- APA
- Wittock, N., De Krom, M., & Hustinx, L. (2019). Blood’s ontologies-entangled: qualitative inquiry into the enactment, representation, and organizational modes of coordination of blood’s multiplicity in a Belgian blood establishment. ORGANIZATION, 26(4), 470–491. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418808234
- Chicago author-date
- Wittock, Nathan, Michiel De Krom, and Lesley Hustinx. 2019. “Blood’s Ontologies-Entangled: Qualitative Inquiry into the Enactment, Representation, and Organizational Modes of Coordination of Blood’s Multiplicity in a Belgian Blood Establishment.” ORGANIZATION 26 (4): 470–91. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508418808234.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- Wittock, Nathan, Michiel De Krom, and Lesley Hustinx. 2019. “Blood’s Ontologies-Entangled: Qualitative Inquiry into the Enactment, Representation, and Organizational Modes of Coordination of Blood’s Multiplicity in a Belgian Blood Establishment.” ORGANIZATION 26 (4): 470–491. doi:10.1177/1350508418808234.
- Vancouver
- 1.Wittock N, De Krom M, Hustinx L. Blood’s ontologies-entangled: qualitative inquiry into the enactment, representation, and organizational modes of coordination of blood’s multiplicity in a Belgian blood establishment. ORGANIZATION. 2019;26(4):470–91.
- IEEE
- [1]N. Wittock, M. De Krom, and L. Hustinx, “Blood’s ontologies-entangled: qualitative inquiry into the enactment, representation, and organizational modes of coordination of blood’s multiplicity in a Belgian blood establishment,” ORGANIZATION, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 470–491, 2019.
@article{8582542, abstract = {Since British sociologist Titmuss authoritatively conceived blood donation as an altruistic ‘gift relationship’, blood establishments have adopted blood’s highly symbolic status as a core professional belief. However, important developments since the 1970s have resulted in blood’s bio-objectification, making blood a renewed object of concern. Because different versions of this bio-object are simultaneously present and interfere with one another, we ask how the organization renders this multiplicity workable? Studying how ontological versions are enacted in a specific blood establishment and how the organizational model of a blood establishment functions as a mode of coordination, we develop a praxiographic appreciation of blood in the context of a specific Belgian blood establishment. We show how the organizational mode of coordination allocates versions of blood in specific departments along functional and chronological dimensions. Blood remains the object of a gift relationship but is accompanied by blood’s enactment and representation as the object of suspicion, management, research/biology, and a blood economy. Furthermore, the organizational mode of coordination also allocates personalized and depersonalized enactments according to the level of contact with the donor population. This reflects a third dimension: (de)personalization of blood. Whereas the organizational mode of coordination is successful in rendering blood’s multiplicity workable, at times, it causes suboptimal practices. Moreover, we showed how sometimes a focus on intra-departmental modes of coordination is necessary to understand how blood’s multiplicity complicates the practices of the blood establishment.}, author = {Wittock, Nathan and De Krom, Michiel and Hustinx, Lesley}, issn = {1350-5084}, journal = {ORGANIZATION}, keywords = {Blood-supply management,enactment,modes of coordination,multiplicity,organization,praxiography,renewed object of concern}, language = {eng}, number = {4}, pages = {470--491}, title = {Blood’s ontologies-entangled: qualitative inquiry into the enactment, representation, and organizational modes of coordination of blood’s multiplicity in a Belgian blood establishment}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508418808234}, volume = {26}, year = {2019}, }
- Altmetric
- View in Altmetric
- Web of Science
- Times cited: