Introduction: Organizing Health Care Work in Late Modernity

Abstract

The contemporary period is undoubtedly deeply entangled with the advancement of the technosciences, helping human beings to lead a completely different life from that of just a few generations ago. The capacity to move the human body over continents in a few hours, which would have taken months some centuries ago, or the capacity to communicate directly with family or friends on the other side of the globe are, for instance, two accomplishments of technoscience. What would have appeared as mere magic in the medieval period is today barely noticed as technologies such as the aeroplane or the telephone are taken for granted as they become part of the infrastructure of everyday life. When we can travel from London to New York and back in less than 24 hours and still have time for shopping and lunch, we have definitely managed to “dominate nature” in terms of shrinking distances and taming geographical spaces. In the specific domain of the life sciences dealing with biological processes and biological organisms, similar remarkable accomplishments have been reported. Human reproduction is supported by sophisticated in vitro fertilization procedures, humans may acquire new organs from recently deceased individuals, and active molecular substances are brought into the human body, helping to regulate biological pathways that have ceased to function.