Skip to main content
  • Book
  • © 2020

Decentring Health and Care Networks

Reshaping the Organization and Delivery of Healthcare

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Develops a decentred analysis of health and care networks
  • Highlights the influence of dominant economic, technical, and corporate narratives
  • Acknowledges the continued influence of biomedical knowledge and professional expertise
  • Draws out key messages for practitioners and researchers alike

Part of the book series: Organizational Behaviour in Healthcare (OBHC)

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check for access.

Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xix
  2. The Contested Practice of Networking in Healthcare Management

    • Paula Hyde, Damian Hodgson, Simon Bailey, John Hassard, Mike Bresnen
    Pages 17-42
  3. Analysing the Micro Implementation of Health Care Reforms: A Decentred Approach

    • Juan I. Baeza, Alec Fraser, Annette Boaz
    Pages 43-65
  4. Buddies and Mergers: Decentring the Performance of Healthcare Provider Partnerships

    • Ross Millar, Russell Mannion, Robin Miller
    Pages 67-94
  5. Is Co-production Just Really Good PPI? Making Sense of Patient and Public Involvement and Co-production Networks

    • Oli Williams, Glenn Robert, Graham P. Martin, Esmée Hanna, Jane O’Hara
    Pages 213-237
  6. Professional Pastoral Work in a Kenyan Clinical Network: Transposing Transnational Evidence-Based Governmentality

    • Gerry McGivern, Jacinta Nzinga, Mehdi Boussebaa, Mike English
    Pages 239-266
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 267-272

About this book

Networks have become a prominent template for public service governance. Often seen as an alternative to hierarchies and contracts, networks cross institutionalized organizational or sectoral boundaries to promote collaboration and the sharing of resources when addressing complex problems. Nowhere is this more the case than in the field of health services modernization and improvement. 

Comprising unique empirical contributions, drawn primarily from the experience of the UK National Health Service (NHS), this edited collection develops a ‘decentred’ analysis of health and care networks. Contributors look beyond particular structures or patterns of governance and focus instead on the interpretation of the meaningful practices of policy actors as they encounter and enact policy instruments and structures. The approach offers a distinct form of analysis that deepens and enriches more traditional public policy accounts of network governance. It recognizes the influence of local history, highlights the influence of dominant economic, technical and corporate narratives, and acknowledges the continued influence of biomedical knowledge and professional expertise. 

Offering practical insight for current and future service leaders about the challenges of implementing, managing and working within networks, this book draws out key messages for practitioners and researchers alike.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Political Science, Berkeley, USA

    Mark Bevir

  • Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Justin Waring

About the editors

Mark Bevir is Professor at the Department of Political Science and Director of the Center for British Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. He is also a Professor at the Graduate School of Governance, United Nations University - MERIT, Maastricht, the Netherlands. He has published widely on public policy and governance.

Justin Waring is Professor of Medical Sociology and Healthcare Organisation and Deputy Director of the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham. His research deals with the changing organization and governance of public services, with a particular focus on the governance of healthcare professional work. 



Bibliographic Information

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access