TY - JOUR
T1 - The case of the Guru Nanak Emergency Services Department
T2 - Sikh therapeutic geographies
AU - Macdonald, Arlene
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2020/8
Y1 - 2020/8
N2 - Why, in the early 21st century, has a publicly funded, publicly operated Canadian hospital incorporated the founding figure of the Sikh religion into its architecture and its identity? Drawing on qualitative research, this paper argues that the Guru Nanak Emergency Department is not an extension of the old tradition of naming hospitals after religious figures, but rather a novel development arising from the “super-diversity” of contemporary cities, the “spiritualizing” of healthcare ecologies, and the vigorous actions of Sikhs attempting to remedy social wounds and build ‘healthy spaces’ in the pluralistic urban environs they are part of. A new therapeutic geography is emergent; the Guru Nanak Emergency Department signals new trajectories of care propagated by the lively interrelations of spiritualized healthcare ecologies, precarious and mobile religious minorities, and the city that houses them both.
AB - Why, in the early 21st century, has a publicly funded, publicly operated Canadian hospital incorporated the founding figure of the Sikh religion into its architecture and its identity? Drawing on qualitative research, this paper argues that the Guru Nanak Emergency Department is not an extension of the old tradition of naming hospitals after religious figures, but rather a novel development arising from the “super-diversity” of contemporary cities, the “spiritualizing” of healthcare ecologies, and the vigorous actions of Sikhs attempting to remedy social wounds and build ‘healthy spaces’ in the pluralistic urban environs they are part of. A new therapeutic geography is emergent; the Guru Nanak Emergency Department signals new trajectories of care propagated by the lively interrelations of spiritualized healthcare ecologies, precarious and mobile religious minorities, and the city that houses them both.
KW - Canada
KW - Religious diversity
KW - Sikhism
KW - Spiritual care
KW - Therapeutic geographies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85086932438&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85086932438&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113144
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113144
M3 - Article
C2 - 32603959
AN - SCOPUS:85086932438
SN - 0277-9536
VL - 259
JO - Social Science and Medicine
JF - Social Science and Medicine
M1 - 113144
ER -