Coalitions of touch: Balancing restraint and haptic soothing in the veterinary clinic. Issue 4 (5th March 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Llewellyn, Nick; Hindmarsh, Jon; Burrow, Robin
• Is Part Of: Sociology of health & illness. Volume 44:Issue 4/5(2022)
• Page Start: 725
• Page End: 744
• Publication Date: 2022-03-05
• Subjects: animals -- communication -- ethnomethodology -- haptic sociality -- touch -- veterinarians -- veterinary clinic; Social medicine -- Periodicals; 301.5
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13458
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0141-9889

Abstract

Abstract: This article responds to recent calls to further incorporate the study of animal health care into the sociology of health and illness. It focuses on a theme with a long tradition in medical sociology, namely clinical communication, but explores matters distinctive to veterinary practice. Drawing on video recordings of 60 consultations across three small animal veterinary clinics in the United Kingdom, we explore how clients and veterinarians (or "vets") fashion fleeting "coalitions of touch, " that aptly position the animal to enable the performance of medical work, often in the face of physical resistance. Building on recent developments in the study of haptic sociality, we analyse how care and emotional concern for animal patients is communicated through various forms of embodied action; thus, how the problematics of forced care and restraint are mitigated through distinctive ways of touching and holding animal patients. Moreover, while prior studies of small animal veterinary work have highlighted the significance of talk within the clinician–animal–client triad, we reveal the fundamentally embodied and collaborative work of managing and controlling patients during sometimes intense and fast‐moving episodes of veterinary care.