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Ignorance in nursing
Published in Amélie Perron, Trudy Rudge, On the Politics of Ignorance in Nursing and Healthcare, 2015
The application of audit technology to estimate nursing effectiveness, through the amplification of knowledge and visibility, requires to be understood, therefore the articulation of ignorance and invisibility in the process of audit must be unpacked. Recalling the scandals highlighted at the beginning of this book, we can see how audit techniques have reinforced the need to measure more, or better, or to regulate more firmly to avoid such situations. In audit culture, the impetus is to do better with the audit, leaving the examination of the processes of audit and its limitless production of ignorance outside of examination, and therefore ‘unlimitedly productive’ (see Davis and McGoey 2014: 79). In such a situation, audits and the culture surrounding them have deeply contradictory impulses embedded in their strategies―what we see as counter-strategies that reinforce audit’s failure to predict the unknowns that develop in healthcare bureaucracies, where knowledge is always already incomplete. The codification of new rules following a corporate scandal is that knowledge generally becomes more expert and more inscrutable, and therefore less accessible or accountable. Yet, paradoxically, through the launch of yet another inquiry or through the introduction of new rules, the illusion of transparency is strengthened, and individuals sigh in relief over the observation that at least something is being done.(McGoey 2007: 219; emphasis added)
Interpreter-Mediated Medical Encounters as a Field of Research
Published in Elaine Hsieh, Bilingual Health Communication, 2016
Translator (in)visibility has been a major research topic in translation studies (Venuti, 2008). Translators adopt specific strategies to assume an invisible voice/presence in their translated work, despite the fact that their interpretation of the source texts is inevitable (and essential) as they identify the proper rendition in the target texts. The illusion of transparency is necessary to claim credibility for their work and thus uphold the authentic voice of the source texts (Hsieh, 2002; Venuti, 2008). The rise of professional interpreting after World War II was predominately in international politics and the justice system (e.g., the Nuremberg Trials), which shaped the theoretical development of interpreting by highlighting the importance of neutrality, detachment, and faithfulness to the source narratives (Gaiba, 1998; Wadensjö, 1998). In these professional settings, interpreters often work for one specific client, interpreting unidirectionally in isolated booths. In short, interpreter visibility is not only hidden from the physical environment but also becomes a taboo topic in interpreting practice. After all, suggesting interpreters’ subjective interpretations were involved in speaker narratives in international courts is unthinkable. For these professional interpreters, claiming invisibility is necessary to maintain credibility and trustworthiness in contemporary British-American culture (Venuti, 2008). The development of codes of ethics has been heavily influenced by these historical backgrounds. Professional interpreters are trained to claim invisibility by adopting various strategies that allow them to create the illusion of transparency (for more discussion, see Chapter 6).
Photography on the brain
Published in Lester D. Friedman, Therese Jones, Routledge Handbook of Health and Media, 2022
Transparency can be conceptualized as a window which visually connects two spaces while maintaining physical separation between inside and outside. As a literal and metaphorical ideal, transparency firmly linked visibility to rationality, knowledge, and progress (Rowe and Slutzky 45; Dijck 14). In the case of medical imaging, technology enables a metaphorical window through which the external viewer (usually, a physician) peers into the body’s interior (of the patient), moving visually from surface to depth. However, in The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging, José van Dijck notes that “transparency…is a contradictory and layered concept”: “Imaging technologies claim to make the body transparent, yet their ubiquitous use renders the interior body more technologically complex. The more we see through various camera lenses, the more complicated the visual information becomes” (3–4). The idea (or ideal) of a transparent living body is only possible through the mediation of technology. In the case of x-rays, electromagnetic radiation penetrates softer tissues and is blocked by denser materials like bones. In the cases of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI and fMRI), magnetic fields are used in conjunction with radiofrequencies to measure water content and blood oxygenation and flow, respectively, to generate data used to create visualizations of interior bodily structures (MRI) and functions (fMRI). As technological complexity and mediation increase, so does the illusion of transparency. Even as contemporary medical imaging becomes increasingly removed from photography from technological and material standpoints, it has inherited the authority and reputation first garnered by photography in the 19th century as a “natural” technology – both “as technical transmitter of nature and as natural phenomenon itself” (Geimer 134) – that medicine continues to employ with the aim of achieving bodily transparency and knowledge (Wilder 352).
Interviewing in Criminal and Intelligence-Gathering Contexts: Applying Science
Published in International Journal of Forensic Mental Health, 2019
How cooperative might a subject be, in both criminal interviews and hospital settings? Revealing potentially damaging and often intimate secrets is not likely to happen easily. In the criminal context, research has shown that both guilty and innocent suspects try to convince interviewers that they are innocent, but they tend to use different strategies (Goodman-Delahunty, Martschuk, & Dhami, 2009). Subjects who are unwilling to “tell all” are likely to develop a plan or strategy before the interview (Gudjonsson, Sigurdsson, & Einarsson, 2007) and avoid disclosing information (Hartwig, Granhag, & Strömwall, 2010). If they cannot avoid disclosure, they tend to deny (Gudjonsson et al., 2007). Innocent suspects are not likely to plan or strategize; instead, they are more likely to be forthcoming —that is, to provide a complete and truthful account, most likely because they believe they deserve to be believed and because of the illusion of transparency—that is, that their innocence “shines through” (Giebels & Taylor, 1998). As an illustration of the illusion of transparency, U.S. studies have shown that innocent suspects are more likely to waive their Miranda rights than guilty suspects, arguing that they have nothing to hide and that the interviewer should see that they are innocent (Kassin, Appleby, & Perillo, 2004).