Intensive Geographien – die Versorgung von extremen Frühgeburten in Deutschland aus praxistheoretischer Perspektive

Abstract

Abstract. In Germany each year, more than 65 000 children are born prematurely as ‚preterm infants‘ (or ‚preemies‘). Some 4500 of these are born extremely premature. Despite being sites of enormous human suffering und huge financial costs, the places of treatment of these babies are almost non-existent in societal discourse. Therefore, the aim of this article is to understand this place, the so-called ‚NICUs‘ – Neonatal Intensive Care Units, places that seem isolated from the rest of society, but are tightly connected to it. In order to reach this aim, a ‚dense description‘ of a single NICU in Germany will be given, based on a stay of 5 months by the author. The underlying perspective of that dense description is the practice theoretical approach of social philosopher Theodore Schatzki. The description of the NICU shows that corporeality, materiality, and not least emotionality are important aspects of social phenomena. As will be seen, the underlying practice theory is a relational ontology that resists the urge to draw on micro-macro-dichotomies to understand these phenomena.