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Accounting, Organizations and Society Vol. 80 2020

Sources of dissension: The making and breaking of the individual in Swedish aged care

Niklas Wällstedt1,2

1 Stockholm School of Economics · 2 Örebro University

Abstract

It is well known that both management and professional work in areas such as health and aged care rely upon division of individuals into categories of, for example, diagnoses or costs and revenues. The present paper turns this around and asks: what happens if individuality, the indivisible wholeness of the person, is taken seriously in such practices? If every human being is interpreted as unique and special, and their wholeness is recognised in the relationship between professionals and an individual receiving care? The paper analyses two rival programmes – those of efficiency and individuality – and their operationalisation in Swedish aged care, and show how these programmes and corresponding technologies are sources of dissension that can be used to problematise how care should be conducted. However, such dissension also opens up spaces of freedom, which allow care practitioners to conduct care differently.

DOI
10.1016/j.aos.2019.101077
Volume
80
Pages
101077
Language
en
Sources
semanticscholar openalex crossref