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Short abstract:

Through the ethnographic case of a 5-months old critically ill girl, the presentation analyses how ‘transitions’ to paediatric palliative care are achieved in the mundane goings-on of providing healthcare, conceptualising this as a process of ‘becoming weak’ of dominant practices.

Long abstract:

Paediatric palliative care (PPC), as defined in guidelines and policy documents, is as an active, total approach of care that aims at improving the quality of life of children with life-limiting or -threatening conditions and providing support for their families. It begins with the diagnosis, goes on through a child’s life and, in the form of bereavement support for families, continues afterwards.

But how is a transition to paediatric palliative care achieved in the mundane goings-on (Mann 2015; Mesman 2017) of providing healthcare to patients on a day-to-day basis? And how to make sense of such moments in STS?

To address these questions, we will present ethnographic materials collected in 2023 in Switzerland in a children’s hospital. Through the case of Amira, a 5-months old, critically ill girl, we will analyse how paediatric specialists achieved that it was “clear” that the PPC team needed to be involved, called them subsequently, and administered disease directed treatments next to end-of-life care provided by their colleagues from palliative care. We will conceptualize this as a process of ‘becoming weak’ of dominant practices and contrast it to the ways in which relations between dominant and alternative practices have been theorized in STS so far: ‘othering’ (Leigh Star 1991), ‘mobilisation’ (Callon & Rabeharisoa 2003), and ‘alternatives within’ (Mol 2008).

Through the example of transitions to paediatric palliative care, the presentation will, thus, contribute to storying transformations in healthcare and STS.