Knowledge matters : Producing and using knowledge to navigate healthcare systems
Journal article
Willis, Karen, Collyer, Fran, Lewis, Sophie, Gabe, Jonathan, Flaherty, Ian and Calnan, Michael. (2016). Knowledge matters : Producing and using knowledge to navigate healthcare systems. Health Sociology Review. 25(2), pp. 202-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2016.1170624
Authors | Willis, Karen, Collyer, Fran, Lewis, Sophie, Gabe, Jonathan, Flaherty, Ian and Calnan, Michael |
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Abstract | In many contemporary healthcare systems, individuals are expected to be rational actors – weighing up available knowledge and making choices about their healthcare needs. In the policy context, this has been most explicitly applied to the financing of healthcare where there is encouragement for the purchase of private health insurance. However, perceptions of public and private healthcare provision, knowledge about healthcare needs, and the types of services people choose, are far from straightforward. Drawing on Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and capital, and a study of individual experiences of choice in Australian healthcare, we explore the knowledges used by people as they navigate through the healthcare system. Such navigation takes place in a milieu where authoritative medical knowledge intersects with knowledge from other sources, including the Internet and lived experience. However, our study reveals that navigation of healthcare is assisted most of all by the capacity to draw on ‘system knowledge’. System knowledge takes two, sometimes overlapping, forms. First, acquired system knowledge is produced through drawing on experience, formal knowledge and the capacity to undertake research (primarily cultural capital). Second, assumed system knowledge enables navigation of the healthcare system through accessing and utilising networks of privilege (primarily economic and social capital). |
Keywords | choice; healthcare knowledge; health system; Bourdieu |
Year | 2016 |
Journal | Health Sociology Review |
Journal citation | 25 (2), pp. 202-216 |
Publisher | Routledge |
ISSN | 1446-1242 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/14461242.2016.1170624 |
Scopus EID | 2-s2.0-84964446977 |
Open access | Published as green open access |
Page range | 202-216 |
Funder | Australian Research Council (ARC) |
Australian Catholic University (ACU) | |
University of Sydney | |
Author's accepted manuscript | License File Access Level Open |
Publisher's version | License All rights reserved File Access Level Controlled |
Output status | Published |
Publication dates | |
Online | 20 Apr 2016 |
Publication process dates | |
Accepted | 22 Mar 2016 |
Deposited | 31 Oct 2022 |
ARC Funded Research | This output has been funded, wholly or partially, under the Australian Research Council Act 2001 |
Grant ID | DP130103876 |
https://acuresearchbank.acu.edu.au/item/8y677/knowledge-matters-producing-and-using-knowledge-to-navigate-healthcare-systems
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Author's accepted manuscript
AM_Willis_2016_Knowledge_matters_producing_and_using_knowledge.pdf | |
License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 | |
File access level: Open |
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Publisher's version
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