Citation

Abadía-Barrero CE. Med. Anthropol. 2015; 34(5): 389-406.

Affiliation

a University of Connecticut , 275, Main St., # 310, Watertown , 02472 United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/01459740.2015.1048859

PMID

26131618

Abstract

Workers at the oldest maternity hospital in Colombia experienced the privatization of health care and the flexibilization of their labor. Drawing on their experience, I illustrate how neoliberalism transforms the value of life. This transformation occurs firstly in terms of its moral worth: the worth of life changes over time, as people and public hospitals are stigmatized as the 'living memory' of the old. Secondly, the hospital buildings, the land on which they sit, and the roles of workers within the hospital are all transformed. Both similarities and differences emerge between a type of systemic or chronic violence that is inherent to the capitalist system and modern practices of torture. Examining how capitalist forces transform the value of life opens up new fields of enquiry to study links between critical political economy and subjectivity.

Language: en