The Matter of Hospitals is a book composed of a collection of 26 alphabetically organized essays, rediscovers the reality of those elements present in hospitals that sometimes go unnoticed from a multidisciplinary, cross-cultural and multi-scalar approach. Through these experiences, a narrative is constructed, interwoven with the lives of the people who inhabit these spaces, inviting the reader to rethink and re-create the current context of hospitals.
Read NowThe urgency to reimagine hospitals has always been present; however, in recent decades, there has been no more brutal demonstration of this need on a global scale than the one experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. The irony of the situation revealed how, while essential resources were scarce in hospitals, others were in surplus. Deeply rooted problems in the clinical setting, such as waste and structural limitations in crisis situations, came to light.
However, this was not the only lesson from that period. The pandemic also highlighted the creativity and resilience of healthcare workers, as well as society in general, who were able to adapt to a context marked by uncertainty.
The Matter of Hospitals addresses, from an perspective, the challenges that the healthcare sector currently faces. This book, composed of a collection of 26 alphabetically organized essays, rediscovers the reality of those elements present in hospitals that sometimes go unnoticed. Through these experiences, a narrative is constructed, interwoven with the lives of the people who inhabit these spaces.
As a reflection on the hospital institution, the work addresses urgent issues such as the need to rethink and recreate a space that not only accommodates medicine but also interconnects, in a sprawling manner, the various social ecosystems. In this sense, to properly address this problem, it is essential to analyze the situation from a multidisciplinary perspective. Following this logic, The Matter of Hospitals brings together contributions from historians and mathematicians to anthropologists and healthcare professionals, among others, incorporating a cross-cultural perspective that gathers experiences from different parts of the world.
It is precisely through attention to these small matters and their sensory exploration that the reader is invited throughout the work, to reconsider the functioning of hospitals.
Gratitude is extended to all contributors who made this collection of essays possible (in alphabetical order):
Samuel Bewiadzi Akakpo, Kristina Andersen, Mathew Arthur, Victoria Bates, Nicole D. Bouvy, Fanny Charbol, Nini Craenen, Jasmin Dierkes, Lukas Engelmann, Myrthe M. M. Eussen, Marlaine S. Figueroa Gray, Divine Fuh, Jeremy A. Greene, Alexander Grigoriev, Anna Harris, Matthew Harrison, Sophie Horrocks, Philomena Horsley, Tessa Keegel, Janina Kehr, Flora Lysen, Tiina Maripuu, Helen Mine, Catherine M. Montgomery, John Nott, Workshop Participants, Mirko Pasquini, Jenna Mae Peterson, Julia Rehsmann, Lily Shapiro, Amina Soulimani, Alice Street, Shanti Sumartojo, Janelle S. Taylor, Elvia Vasconcelos, Annie Zeng
