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Short abstract:

In this study we explore caring practices amidst developing crises. We highlight the importance of interacting caring practices during crises, argue that such interactions cut through different layers and domains in healthcare and governance, and show that affectivities play a key role therein.

Long abstract:

Decision-making during crises is often described as a form of enacted sense-making. Considering the mindful aspects of decision-making during unexpected events, however, this perspective tends to leave more affective dimensions of governing health systems during crises implicit. Hence, in this paper we explore caring in different domains of healthcare and governance during an unfolding crisis, focusing on interactions between caring practices and affective dimensions of crisis governance.

We take as our ethnographic case-study the major 2021 flooding events in Dutch Limburg. We observed and interviewed actors in health care, crisis management and water management domains in Limburg, as well as citizens in the region. Moving back and forth between data and theory we zoomed-in on affectivities of caring and the interactions of caring practices in between these domains.

Whilst dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, regional healthcare organizations were suddenly exposed to (potential) consequences of flooding. Patients in several facilities, including a hospital, were evacuated. Professionals in different domains had to work together to deal with the uncertainties and the threats high-water levels posed to vulnerable people and the exposed river surroundings. In our analysis we stress that, even two years after the flooding-events in Limburg, specialists concerned with modelling the floods, advisors responsible for sharing knowledge on levee strengths, crisis managers who had to decide on evacuating citizens, or health care managers who had to care for their patients show that affectivities play a key role in their caring practices.