CfP: Transformations of the Emergency Medical Service in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Actors – Organizations – Technologies – Innovations
An international academic conference, held in Prague (CZ) at the Faculty of Humanities of Charles University, September 26–27, 2024. Organized by the Institute of Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences; the Faculty of Humanities, Charles University and the Institute for History of Medicine and Foreign Languages at the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University.
The Emergency Medical Service (EMS), which provides professional pre-hospital emergency care, is one of the pillars of health systems in modern European countries. Compared to the situation in other countries, the history of the emergence and functioning of EMS in today’s Czech Republic has received very little attention in the humanities. Moreover, the existing works are only review works, they are positivistic in nature and lack a foreign comparative dimension or analysis of the issue in a broader socio-cultural framework.
A detailed analysis of the origins of EMS in the Czech lands and other European countries, including a reflection of the historical development of the professional identity of paramedics, can significantly contribute to the ongoing international debate on the position and role of EMS in the public health system. The lack of research on this issue is largely due to the fact that it is an interdisciplinary issue combining medical and human sciences.
The conference will focus on the identification and analysis of the processes (especially institutionalization, professionalization and modernization) in EMS development and the way in which the professional identity of its workers has (re)established in the Czech or other environments during the 20th century. Setting the EMS development in the broader context of local public health development and international medical advances is welcomed, but it can be also examined in the context of political, cultural and social development.
Within the framework of the conference, EMS is understood as an internally structured organization, which, in the context of public health can be clearly defined as a specific subject of research, subsequently viewed from different perspectives and in structural-functional relations (tensions between the ideal-typical model of professional pre-hospital emergency care, and the everyday experience of actors).
Subtopics:
- Predecessors of the emergency medical service in the 20th century (Red Cross and the Samaritans);
- State policy and expert knowledge in the process of building a pre-hospital emergency care system (including differences between the Eastern and Western blocs during the Cold War and after the fall of Iron Curtain);
- Professional identity and trajectories of medical and healthcare personnel;
- Institutional and organizational developments (transport medical service, rapid medical assistance, emergency service, emergency medical service);
- Means of transport, rescue service logistics and regional specificities (organization of emergency teams and development of vehicle/aircraft fleet);
- Technology, innovation and modernization in the context of emergency medical service;
- Pop culture images of emergency medical services;
- Pandemic in the reflection of emergency medical service workers;
- Ethics of care and dealing with death
The aim of this event is to provide a forum for scientific research carried out by researchers and PhD students. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary papers combining the history of medicine, sociology of health and medicine, contemporary history, memory and identity studies and social anthropology reflecting the development of pre-hospital emergency care in the Czech lands or abroad.
Important Dates and Information for Participants:
Conference venue: FHS UK campus, Patkova 2137/5, Prague, CZ. The working languages of the conference are English and Czech/Slovak. Presentations should not exceed 15–20 minutes and can be offered in English, Czech or Slovak. Deadline for submitting abstracts is May 31, 2024. Please send them to zzs@usd.cas.cz. The abstract must include the title and brief summary of the lecture, 5 keywords, names of the authors, institutional affiliations and country of origin and should not exceed 200 words. Final notification of abstract acceptance: June 15, 2024. Selected contributions will be published in peer-reviewed journals. There is no registration fee.
Organizing Committee:
Jiří Hlaváček, the Institute of Contemporary History of the CAS
Hana Bortlová-Vondráková, the Institute of Contemporary History of the CAS
Olga Nešporová, the Institute of Ethnology of the CAS
Lenka Krátká, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University
Petr Svobodný, Institute for History of Medicine and Foreign Languages, the First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University
Contact information: zzs@usd.cas.cz
We look forward to welcoming you to the conference.
The conference is organized as part of the project No. 23-05753S (Minutes between life and death: Changes in emergency medical service and the professional identity of its employees in the Czech lands in 1952–2003), supported by the Czech Science Foundation (principle investigator Institute of Contemporary History of the CAS; co-investigator: Institute of Ethnology of the CAS).