ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the role and rationale of video-reflexive ethnography (VRE) in relation to the existing healthcare research literature, and the relevant theoretical and methodological literatures. The expression ‘taken-as-given’ is often used in VRE to refer to activities that have become not just habituated but invisible to the actors – the clinicians or the patients – themselves. VRE targets behaviour on the view that people rarely get the opportunity to scrutinize themselves and each other in action, and that this denies them the opportunity to reshape their behaviour, to become more intelligent about their behaviour and to orient their behaviour better to the exigencies of everyday patient care. VRE’s point of departure is the view that front-line professionals and patients and their families know every day care by living it every day. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
