Knowledge circulations in inter-para/professional practice: a sociomaterial enquiry

Abstract

In studies of professional learning, the rise of sociomaterial accounts draw attention to the political importance of nonhuman as well as human actors, the material as well as discursive, as inter-related in knowing and action. Of particular relevance to the issue of inter-professional work in health services, some researchers have argued that multiple worlds - not just multiple worldviews - are produced through socio-material processes. This article focuses on the complex activities involved in combining the multiple worlds of different professions with what some term para-professions. Such arrangements may not be recognised as inter-professional by their practitioners, with problematic consequences for care. The case is emergency mental health care, involving paramedics, police, hospital admissions staff, psychiatric nurses and A&E consultants. A sociomaterial analysis is used to trace how knowledge and practice circulates (or doesn't) within and across different material worlds of practitioners, and the ontological politics produced at their boundaries.