Challenging Diversity: Steering Effects of Buzzwords in Projectified Health Care

Abstract

This article discusses the effects of two trends in contemporary biomedicine that have so far been largely addressed separately: the steering of fields through programmatic “buzzwords” and the projectified nature of contemporary health research, care, and promotion. Drawing on a case study of an Austrian diversity-sensitive health promotion project related to obesity prevention, we show how the articulation of these trends—governance by buzzwords and projectification—often leads to not unproblematic and often paradoxical outcomes. Buzzwords such as “diversity” become especially important in an innovation-driven environment encouraging a promissory rhetoric. At the same time, the project form shapes and restricts how buzzwords (as typically vague terms that need to be fleshed out) are articulated and translated into a specific project design. In our case study of an obesity prevention program, the need to translate diversity into a “doable” project encouraged the identification of seemingly clearly delineated target groups and thus promoted a rather narrow understanding of diversity, which stands in tension with much more fluid and context-sensitive ways of performing “diversity.” We show how actors grapple with these paradoxes. This restricts the full power a buzzword such as diversity could achieve in terms of social justice.

From the wall of the industry to the soul of society: a review and multi-level analysis on projectification

“…Projectification has been studied in varied contexts, such as entrepreneurship (Auschra et al, 2019;Li et al, 2020), public sector organizations (Godenhjelm et al, 2015), conservation of traditional rural biotopes (Cwikla and Jalocha, 2015;Raatikainen, 2018), health care (Glasdam et al, 2015;Marten and Sullivan, 2020;Penkler et al, 2020), pharmaceutical companies (Biedenbach, 2011), media broadcast (Clegg and Burdon, 2021) and in performing arts (Lindgren and Packendorff, 2007). From a geographic perspective, studies also examined the regional influences of projectification in European (Dornisch, 2002;Mukhtar-Landgren and Fred, 2019;Schoper et al, 2018) and in African countries (Bardosh, 2015;Marten and Sullivan, 2020) and as a crucial element to promote and coordinate collective innovation strategies in high-growth emerging countries (Clegg and Burdon, 2021;Midler, 2019a).…”

“…Funding initiatives have increasingly adopted control by projects to improve accountability and funders' confidence (Cicmil and O'Laocha, 2016;Hodge and Adams, 2016), as project management has proved to be more efficient, flexible and cost-effective, bringing benefits both for funders and beneficiaries (Penkler et al, 2020). Therefore, as funding agents increasingly demanded a project rationale, there was a diffusion of the project management culture across universities, non-government organizations, civil organizations, healthcare and arts firms (Cwikla and Jalocha, 2015;Czibere and R acz, 2015;Dollinger, 2020;Fowler et al, 2015;Packendorff and Lindgren, 2014).…”

“…In the public sector, projectification has complications that are not yet sufficiently understood (Jensen et al, 2018), the lack of funding for initiatives after the end of a project being one of them (Penkler et al, 2020).…”

A Probe Into the Psychological Mechanism of Generation Z College Students Using Network Buzzwords in the Internet Era

“…Thus, Generation Z is the first group to accept and respond to internet culture and network buzzwords ( Seemiller and Grace, 2017 ). Scholars have analyzed the connotation of network buzzwords from linguistics and researched these words from pedagogy, psychology, and sociology ( Cluley, 2013 ; Chen et al, 2016 ; Penkler et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Thus, Generation Z is the first group to accept and respond to internet culture and network buzzwords (Seemiller and Grace, 2017). Scholars have analyzed the connotation of network buzzwords from linguistics and researched these words from pedagogy, psychology, and sociology (Cluley, 2013;Chen et al, 2016;Penkler et al, 2019). Rinker et al (2016) stated that college students aged from 18 to 29 years are the dominant group of Chinese Internet users and that internet technology has a very important impact on the daily learning and life of college students (Rinker et al, 2016).…”