Ed Moreno
Thesis title:
Liminality and affectivity: the case of deceased organ donation
This thesis engages with contemporary debates in the social sciences on the study of affect and emotion via the development of a qualitative study on deceased organ donation conducted in Spain. The practice of transferring organs from a deceased body to a living one is a complex procedure highly contingent on the outcome of an encounter between healthcare professionals and bereaved families. Hence, the affectivity involved in this situation reveals itself as a key element in the process of becoming a donor kin. From a theoretical perspective, this particular occasion can be seen as exemplifying current debates on the limitations of adopting discursive approaches to emotions and the pertinence of turning to so-called affect theories to better understand the encounter. After reviewing the advantages and limitations of affect theories, this thesis suggests that a concept of liminality can help us to articulate a genuinely process oriented approach capable of integrating affect and discourse oriented tendencies. On the one hand, an engagement with empirical data suggests that conceiving the aforementioned encounter as a liminal situation sheds some light on the social occasioning of certain intense experiences. On the other hand, liminality provides affect theory with some analytical purchase, highlighting the intimate, paradoxical and ongoing relationship between discourse and that which exceed it, affording both change and reproduction. Thus, it is argued that becoming a donor kin can be understood as a rite of passage of sorts, summoning up the mutual reinforcement of tendencies towards its optimization and continuous attempts to escape it. As a result, theoretical and methodological conclusions can be drawn, as well as recommendations proposed to guide the practice of transplant coordination teams in Spain and other European countries with a similar legal and social context.
Supervisors:
Dr Matt Adams
Dr Katherine Johnson
