Pathways to care: how superdiversity shapes the need for navigational assistance. Sociol Health Illn

Abstract

ABSTRACT The recently developed sociological concept of superdiversity provides a potentially interesting and useful way of developing an understanding of life in contemporary Europe. Here we report on research based on individual narratives about access to healthcare, as described by a range of people from very different socio-cultural backgrounds in four European countries. This paper notes the frequent appearance in first person narratives of the need for navigational assistance in the form of knowledge, cultural completence and orientation that facilitate the identification and use of pathways to healthcare. Our dataset of 24 semi-structured interviews suggests that, in the context of needing healthcare, the feeling of being a 'stranger in a strange land' is common across a wide range of backgrounds. In social settings characterised by transnationalism and cultural heterogeneity, understanding the need for navigational assistance, particularly at times of uncertainty, has potential importance for the design and delivery of health services. The relationship between the inhabitants of contemporary Europe and the healthcare systems available in the places they live is dominated by both complexity and contingency -and this is the cultural field in which navigation operates. (187 words