The lived temporalities of prognosis: fixing and unfixing futures

Sakellariou, Dikaios ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2668-2834, Nissen, Nina and Warren, Narelle 2021. The lived temporalities of prognosis: fixing and unfixing futures. Cambridge Anthropology 39 (2) , pp. 138-155. 10.3167/cja.2021.390210

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Abstract

In this article, we explore the ways in which a man with motor neurone disease, Gareth, and his wife and carer, Maggie, enact different temporal orientations, when the expected future, an early death, does not arrive. We attend to the tensions between everyday priorities and uncertain futures to discuss the ways Gareth and Maggie negotiate action to deal with problems that are yet to come, but, despite this, already matter. We argue that prognosis thrusts people towards multiple presents and futures; while the future is fixed in time through prognosis and repaired through present action, it is also unfixed as lived experience unfolds over time. What emerges is a dialogue between multiple futures, pre-determined and uncertain, and practices that aim to repair the future, even if they cannot do so.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Healthcare Sciences
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Publisher:	Berghahn Journals
ISSN:	0305-7674
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	31 March 2021
Date of Acceptance:	31 March 2021
Last Modified:	23 May 2023 14:36
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/140221

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