Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Stunning analysis of the Emergency Medical System (EMS), its frontline workers, and patients . . . . A great source for highlighting how well-intentioned labor processes within seemingly benevolent occupations can further marginalize people and reproduce social inequalities."
* British Medical Journal, Medical Humanities *
"An exemplar of a kind of ethnographic work that reinvigorates the sociological imagination, connecting the deeply felt personal troubles of patients and the daily joys and frustrations of ambulance crews with the stratification of suffering in urban America." * Symbolic Interaction *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Preface
Author’s Note
Acknowledgments
Introduction
PART I BANDAGING BODIES: INSIDE THE AMBULANCE
1. People Work
2. Ditch Doctors and Taxi Drivers
3. Feeling the Ambulance
PART II SORTING BODIES: THE AMBULANCE BETWEEN HOSPITALS AND SQUAD CARS
4. The Fix-Up Workers
5. The Cleanup Workers
6. Burden Shuffling
PART III HUSTING BODIES: THE AMBULANCE UNDERNEATH BUREAUCRACY AND CAPITAL
7. The Barn
8. Supervision
9. Payback
Conclusion
Appendix: Notes on Data and Methods
Notes
Reference List
Index
