Möten med motstånd : kultur, klass, kropp på vårdcentralen

This dissertaton is about a health care centre in Malmö, Sweden, and how the personnel reacted towards and created an understanding of a specific group of patients. Focus is on the encounter between the staff and the patients, who visited the health care centre regularly due to bodily pain and feelings of anxiety and were described by the medical staff as troublesome, complicated and difficult to handle. The aim of the study is to explore how the personnel negotiated and understood bodily consequenses of social exclusion. Which strategies were developed in order to handle the encounter with these patients? A main focus is to explore alternatives to an understanding of why certain patients are seen as incapable of specific treatments and are understood as difficult to reach.
This is a qualitative study of everyday practice at a health care centre, and the study rests on two periods of fieldwork conducted in 2001 and 2006. The material includes observations, interviews and informal conversations with members of the medical staff and patients.