Katie Featherstone
Biographic Data
| ID | 257901 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katie Featherstone |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katie |
| FAMILY NAME | Featherstone |
| SIGNATURE | FEATHERSTONE K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Cardiff University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4999-8425 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
The arrhythmia of bodily urgency: Using rhythmanalysis to understand the organisation of care people living with dementia experience within acute hospital wards
This article posits Henri Lefebvre's concept of Rhythmanalysis as a novel methodology for observing and understanding the everyday life of the hospital ward and its consequences. To do so we draw on observational data taken across three multi-site studies of acute NHS hospital wards in England and Wales (22 wards across 12 hospitals) between 2015 and 2023. Our analysis of the rhythms of the ward, and of the arrhythmias patients can produce, allow…
Privileges, and Permissions: Theorising Intersectionality and Cultures of Control in the Care of People Living With Dementia in Acute Hospital Settings
A longstanding body of public enquiries and research identifies people living with dementia experience systemic inequalities within hospital settings, concluding a focus on improving care cultures is required. Drawing on a 3-year multi-sited hospital ethnography, this paper examines everyday cultures of care in NHS acute hospital wards to interrogate how ethnicity, gender and social class intersects to shape the care of people living with dementi…
Personhood as projection: The value of multiple conceptions of personhood for understanding the dehumanisation of people living with dementia
‘Physical well‐being is our top priority’: Healthcare professionals' challenges in supporting psychosocial well‐being in stroke services
BACKGROUND: Following stroke, a sense of well-being is critical for quality of life. However, people living with stroke, and health professionals, suggest that well-being is not sufficiently addressed within stroke services, contributing to persistent unmet needs. Knowing that systems and structures shape clinical practice, this study sought to understand how health professionals address well-being, and to examine how the practice context influen…
Becoming restrained: Conceptualising restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia in acute hospital settings
The use of restrictive practices within health and social care has attracted policy and practice attention, predominantly focusing on children and young people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism. However, despite growing appreciation of the need to improve care quality for people living with dementia (PLWD), the potentially routine use of restrictive practices in their care has received little attention. PLWD are at s…
Hope: The Dream We Carry (2021)
Book review of De Nora, Tia, 'Hope : the dream we carry', Palgrave Macmillan. 1st ed. 2021 edition (22 April 2021); ISBN-10: 3030698696; ISBN-13: 978–3030698690
Presentation of the clothed self on the hospital ward: An ethnographic account of perceptual attention and implications for the personhood of people living with dementia
This study contributes to our understanding of the 'medical gaze' and its impact on the ways in which people living with dementia experience care during a hospital admission. Visual perception has a powerful effect on our emotional and moral reactions to others. One aspect of how we perceive and respond to others is through clothing, which relates strongly to class and social position. Our focus is on exploring the ways in which patient clothing …
Who does this patient belong to?' boundary work and the re/making of (NSTEMI) heart attack patients
This ethnography within ten English and Welsh hospitals explores the significance of boundary work and the impacts of this work on the quality of care experienced by heart attack patients who have suspected non-STsegment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) /non-STelevation acute coronary syndrome. Beginning with the initial identification and prioritisation of patients, boundary work informed negotiations over responsibility for patients, th…
Representation and Practical Accomplishment in the Laboratory: When is an Animal Model Good-enough
Biomedical science is dependent on standardised rodents. These lab-rats and lab-mice are different from their wild cousins. Interest in the genetic basis of a variety of phenotypes has meant that lab-rodents have been bred over many decades as resources for experimental science. We focus on the use of lab-rodents as animal models in the study of single-gene human medical conditions. The animals' status as models is not a given. Scientists calibra…
Kinscapes, timescapes and genescapes: Families Living With Genetic Risk
This article synthesises recent research examining how families live with genetic risk and the processes of genetic decision-making and disclosure among family members who have been or are at risk of transmitting a familial genetic condition. Its aim is to generate substantive theory that can inform our understanding of the interactional processes at work in the distribution of mutual knowledge and awareness of genetic risk in families. The artic…
Complexity and accountability: The witches’ brew of psychiatric genetics
This paper examines the role of complexity in descriptions of the aetiology of common psychiatric disorders. While scientists attest to the discovery of an underlying reality of complex inheritance — the so-called ‘witches’ brew’ of genetic and non-genetic factors — we argue that ‘complexity’ also performs rhetorical work. In our analysis of scientific review papers (1999—2008), we find a relatively stable genre of accountability in which descrip…
The practical ethics of genetic responsibility: Non-disclosure and the autonomy of affect
Performing stable angina pectoris: An ethnographic study
Cultural diasporas: A comparison between the self-imposed exiles of Joesph Conrad and Multatuli
This article explores an aspect which Multatuli and Joseph Conrad shared in common, an aspect that crossed from the borderlines of their lives and into their writing, the effect of self imposed exile. The focus shall be twofold, of a biographical and literary perspective, showing how their attitudes towards colonialism were an important factor which resulted in a differently developed sense of isolation and removal from socially acceptable behavi…
Rebirthing the Clinic: The Interaction of Clinical Judgment and Genetic Technology in the Production of Medical Science
The article reconsiders the nature and location of science in the development of genetic classification. Drawing on field studies of medical genetics, we explore how patient categorization is accomplished in between the clinic and laboratory. We focus on dysmorphology, a specialism concerned with complex syndromes that impair physical development. We show that dys-morphology is about more than fitting patients into prefixed diagnostic categories …
Dysmorphology and the spectacle of the clinic
Dysmorphology is the medical study of abnormal forms in the human and is concerned with the identification and classification of a variety of congenital malformations. Such diagnostic work rests on the inspection of images of affected individuals. Based on physical appearance individuals are classified in terms of a wide range of conditions, often with 'exotic' nomenclatures. This paper will describe the features of clinical dysmorphology and the…
Surveying 'slides': Clinical perception and clinical judgment in the construction of a genetic diagnosis
The work of clinical geneticists includes the inspection of visible abnormalities and their allocation to clinical categories. Drawing on observations of departmental clinical meetings in a medical genetics service, we describe how diagnostic work is accomplished through the practical observation and reasoning of clinical professionals. We suggest that, while the use of molecular tests is increasing the diagnostic repertoire in various ways, clin…
"Why don't they just tell me straight, why allocate it?" The struggle to make sense of participating in a randomised controlled trial
Professional constructions of family and kinship in medical genetics
Based on a period of ethnographic fieldwork among geneticists, the paper explores how clinicians and scientists construct families as objects of discourse. It documents how the family is constructed as a social object and as a set of biological relationships. The professional work of geneticists thus traverses the boundaries of the natural and the social. The pedigree, or family tree, is a boundary object between those two discursive domains
Professional constructions of family and kinship in medical genetics
Rebirthing the Clinic: The Interaction of Clinical Judgment and Genetic Technology in the Production of Medical Science
The article reconsiders the nature and location of science in the development of genetic classification. Drawing on field studies of medical genetics, we explore how patient categorization is accomplished in between the clinic and laboratory. We focus on dysmorphology, a specialism concerned with complex syndromes that impair physical development. We show that dys-morphology is about more than fitting patients into prefixed diagnostic categories …
Dysmorphology and the spectacle of the clinic
Dysmorphology is the medical study of abnormal forms in the human and is concerned with the identification and classification of a variety of congenital malformations. Such diagnostic work rests on the inspection of images of affected individuals. Based on physical appearance individuals are classified in terms of a wide range of conditions, often with 'exotic' nomenclatures. This paper will describe the features of clinical dysmorphology and the…
"Why don't they just tell me straight, why allocate it?" The struggle to make sense of participating in a randomised controlled trial
Kinscapes, timescapes and genescapes: Families Living With Genetic Risk
This article synthesises recent research examining how families live with genetic risk and the processes of genetic decision-making and disclosure among family members who have been or are at risk of transmitting a familial genetic condition. Its aim is to generate substantive theory that can inform our understanding of the interactional processes at work in the distribution of mutual knowledge and awareness of genetic risk in families. The artic…
Who does this patient belong to?' boundary work and the re/making of (NSTEMI) heart attack patients
This ethnography within ten English and Welsh hospitals explores the significance of boundary work and the impacts of this work on the quality of care experienced by heart attack patients who have suspected non-STsegment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) /non-STelevation acute coronary syndrome. Beginning with the initial identification and prioritisation of patients, boundary work informed negotiations over responsibility for patients, th…
Representation and Practical Accomplishment in the Laboratory: When is an Animal Model Good-enough
Biomedical science is dependent on standardised rodents. These lab-rats and lab-mice are different from their wild cousins. Interest in the genetic basis of a variety of phenotypes has meant that lab-rodents have been bred over many decades as resources for experimental science. We focus on the use of lab-rodents as animal models in the study of single-gene human medical conditions. The animals' status as models is not a given. Scientists calibra…
The practical ethics of genetic responsibility: Non-disclosure and the autonomy of affect
Performing stable angina pectoris: An ethnographic study
Professional constructions of family and kinship in medical genetics
Based on a period of ethnographic fieldwork among geneticists, the paper explores how clinicians and scientists construct families as objects of discourse. It documents how the family is constructed as a social object and as a set of biological relationships. The professional work of geneticists thus traverses the boundaries of the natural and the social. The pedigree, or family tree, is a boundary object between those two discursive domains
Professional constructions of family and kinship in medical genetics
"Why don't they just tell me straight, why allocate it?" The struggle to make sense of participating in a randomised controlled trial
Surveying 'slides': Clinical perception and clinical judgment in the construction of a genetic diagnosis
The work of clinical geneticists includes the inspection of visible abnormalities and their allocation to clinical categories. Drawing on observations of departmental clinical meetings in a medical genetics service, we describe how diagnostic work is accomplished through the practical observation and reasoning of clinical professionals. We suggest that, while the use of molecular tests is increasing the diagnostic repertoire in various ways, clin…
Dysmorphology and the spectacle of the clinic
Dysmorphology is the medical study of abnormal forms in the human and is concerned with the identification and classification of a variety of congenital malformations. Such diagnostic work rests on the inspection of images of affected individuals. Based on physical appearance individuals are classified in terms of a wide range of conditions, often with 'exotic' nomenclatures. This paper will describe the features of clinical dysmorphology and the…
Cultural diasporas: A comparison between the self-imposed exiles of Joesph Conrad and Multatuli
This article explores an aspect which Multatuli and Joseph Conrad shared in common, an aspect that crossed from the borderlines of their lives and into their writing, the effect of self imposed exile. The focus shall be twofold, of a biographical and literary perspective, showing how their attitudes towards colonialism were an important factor which resulted in a differently developed sense of isolation and removal from socially acceptable behavi…
Rebirthing the Clinic: The Interaction of Clinical Judgment and Genetic Technology in the Production of Medical Science
The article reconsiders the nature and location of science in the development of genetic classification. Drawing on field studies of medical genetics, we explore how patient categorization is accomplished in between the clinic and laboratory. We focus on dysmorphology, a specialism concerned with complex syndromes that impair physical development. We show that dys-morphology is about more than fitting patients into prefixed diagnostic categories …
Performing stable angina pectoris: An ethnographic study
Complexity and accountability: The witches’ brew of psychiatric genetics
This paper examines the role of complexity in descriptions of the aetiology of common psychiatric disorders. While scientists attest to the discovery of an underlying reality of complex inheritance — the so-called ‘witches’ brew’ of genetic and non-genetic factors — we argue that ‘complexity’ also performs rhetorical work. In our analysis of scientific review papers (1999—2008), we find a relatively stable genre of accountability in which descrip…
The practical ethics of genetic responsibility: Non-disclosure and the autonomy of affect
Representation and Practical Accomplishment in the Laboratory: When is an Animal Model Good-enough
Biomedical science is dependent on standardised rodents. These lab-rats and lab-mice are different from their wild cousins. Interest in the genetic basis of a variety of phenotypes has meant that lab-rodents have been bred over many decades as resources for experimental science. We focus on the use of lab-rodents as animal models in the study of single-gene human medical conditions. The animals' status as models is not a given. Scientists calibra…
Kinscapes, timescapes and genescapes: Families Living With Genetic Risk
This article synthesises recent research examining how families live with genetic risk and the processes of genetic decision-making and disclosure among family members who have been or are at risk of transmitting a familial genetic condition. Its aim is to generate substantive theory that can inform our understanding of the interactional processes at work in the distribution of mutual knowledge and awareness of genetic risk in families. The artic…
Who does this patient belong to?' boundary work and the re/making of (NSTEMI) heart attack patients
This ethnography within ten English and Welsh hospitals explores the significance of boundary work and the impacts of this work on the quality of care experienced by heart attack patients who have suspected non-STsegment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) /non-STelevation acute coronary syndrome. Beginning with the initial identification and prioritisation of patients, boundary work informed negotiations over responsibility for patients, th…
Presentation of the clothed self on the hospital ward: An ethnographic account of perceptual attention and implications for the personhood of people living with dementia
This study contributes to our understanding of the 'medical gaze' and its impact on the ways in which people living with dementia experience care during a hospital admission. Visual perception has a powerful effect on our emotional and moral reactions to others. One aspect of how we perceive and respond to others is through clothing, which relates strongly to class and social position. Our focus is on exploring the ways in which patient clothing …
Hope: The Dream We Carry (2021)
Book review of De Nora, Tia, 'Hope : the dream we carry', Palgrave Macmillan. 1st ed. 2021 edition (22 April 2021); ISBN-10: 3030698696; ISBN-13: 978–3030698690
Personhood as projection: The value of multiple conceptions of personhood for understanding the dehumanisation of people living with dementia
‘Physical well‐being is our top priority’: Healthcare professionals' challenges in supporting psychosocial well‐being in stroke services
BACKGROUND: Following stroke, a sense of well-being is critical for quality of life. However, people living with stroke, and health professionals, suggest that well-being is not sufficiently addressed within stroke services, contributing to persistent unmet needs. Knowing that systems and structures shape clinical practice, this study sought to understand how health professionals address well-being, and to examine how the practice context influen…
Becoming restrained: Conceptualising restrictive practices in the care of people living with dementia in acute hospital settings
The use of restrictive practices within health and social care has attracted policy and practice attention, predominantly focusing on children and young people with mental health conditions, learning disabilities and autism. However, despite growing appreciation of the need to improve care quality for people living with dementia (PLWD), the potentially routine use of restrictive practices in their care has received little attention. PLWD are at s…
The arrhythmia of bodily urgency: Using rhythmanalysis to understand the organisation of care people living with dementia experience within acute hospital wards
This article posits Henri Lefebvre's concept of Rhythmanalysis as a novel methodology for observing and understanding the everyday life of the hospital ward and its consequences. To do so we draw on observational data taken across three multi-site studies of acute NHS hospital wards in England and Wales (22 wards across 12 hospitals) between 2015 and 2023. Our analysis of the rhythms of the ward, and of the arrhythmias patients can produce, allow…
Privileges, and Permissions: Theorising Intersectionality and Cultures of Control in the Care of People Living With Dementia in Acute Hospital Settings
A longstanding body of public enquiries and research identifies people living with dementia experience systemic inequalities within hospital settings, concluding a focus on improving care cultures is required. Drawing on a 3-year multi-sited hospital ethnography, this paper examines everyday cultures of care in NHS acute hospital wards to interrogate how ethnicity, gender and social class intersects to shape the care of people living with dementi…
Psychology (14 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Medicine (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Biology (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Psychiatry (6 works) · Dementia (5 works)