TY - JOUR

T1 - Knowledge matters

T2 - producing and using knowledge to navigate healthcare systems

AU - Willis, Karen

AU - Collyer, Fran

AU - Lewis, Sophie

AU - Gabe, Jonathan

AU - Flaherty, Ian

AU - Calnan, Michael

PY - 2016/4/20

Y1 - 2016/4/20

N2 - 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).

AB - 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).

KW - choice

KW - healthcare

KW - knowledge

KW - health systems

KW - Bourdieu

U2 - 10.1080/14461242.2016.1170624

DO - 10.1080/14461242.2016.1170624

M3 - Article

VL - 25

SP - 202

EP - 216

JO - Health Sociology Review

JF - Health Sociology Review

SN - 1446-1242

IS - 2

ER -