Risk and responsibility at 30,000 feet: who is to blame for ‘economy class syndrome’?



Document title: Risk and responsibility at 30,000 feet: who is to blame for ‘economy class syndrome’?
Journal: Eä (Buenos Aires)
Database: PERIÓDICA
System number: 000352092
ISSN: 1852-4680
Authors: 1
Institutions: 1University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, Edimburgo. Reino Unido
Year:
Season: Abr
Volumen: 1
Number: 3
Country: Argentina
Language: Inglés
Document type: Artículo
Approach: Analítico, crítico
English abstract This paper is about health, risk, and responsibility. Any discussion of a health risk inevitably involves attributing blame for its incidence and in this in part dependant upon whether a risk is considered to be voluntarily assumed or forcibly imposed. However, deciding whether a risk has been assumed or imposed is not straightforward, and is a highly contested part of any risk construction. This paper explores this in relation to one particular risk to health, that of contracting a deep vein thrombosis on a long haul flight, more commonly known as ‘economy class syndrome’. Different groups present the risk in distinct ways, and this paper focuses on the contrasting constructions developed of the role of the airlines – either contentious but absolved of blame, or imposing the risk and creating a conspiracy of silence about it; and the passengers – either responsible for the risk through their agency, or helpless victims. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore how this is achieved, and how the conceptions of risk as assumed or imposed are enacted by different groups
Disciplines: Medicina
Keyword: Medicina social,
Salud pública,
Atención a la salud,
Riesgo voluntario,
Pasajeros,
Aerolíneas,
Trombosis venosa profunda
Keyword: Medicine,
Public health,
Social medicine,
Health care,
Voluntary risk,
Passengers,
Airlines,
Deep venous thrombosis
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