“Anything that we can do to help, it’s got to be good”

The Wellcome Centre for Cultures + Environments of Health is a centre of excellence that aims to develop and sustain cultures and environments that support health and well-being.

Wellcome Centre Cultures + Environments of Health

The everyday pragmatism of NHS charities.

Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health AND Online

<h3>About this event</h3><p>Crisis no longer seems to represent a momentary state of emergency, but rather an ongoing situation that is continually defining our present. After over a decade of austerity measures in the UK, which have led to cuts in the public sector and rising poverty rates, NHS and other charities have expanded. Examining the work of these organisations offers an interesting example of how the ‘mixed economy of welfare’ works in practice, and how a historically blurry line within the NHS – between what should be state-funded, or simply an ‘add-on’ that can be provided via charitable or voluntary means – is thought of and navigated by different people, at a time of extended crisis. Drawing from an ethnographic case-study in an English city and with an NHS charity, this talk explores the role of the charity in supplementing healthcare while also fulfilling the role of a welfare service. I introduce the idea of <em><em>everyday pragmatism</em></em> to explain people’s motivations to work, volunteer, and fundraise for the NHS, informed by Cooper’s work on ‘everyday utopias’ (2014), and ‘prefiguration’ (2016; 2020), and Berlant’s <em><em>Cruel Optimism</em></em> (2011). In doing so, I aim to call attention to people actively doing what they can to improve the present moment through day-to-day practices, while imagining, demanding, and waiting for a better future. As opposed to viewing participants as passively accepting, or defeated by, the current situation, everyday pragmatism rather seeks to illuminate how people negotiate ambivalence in an active and participatory manner.</p><p><br></p><h3>Speaker</h3><p>Francesca Varghi is Research Associate at the School of Social &amp; Political Science, University of Glasgow. Working with Professor Ellen Stewart, she conducts research on the work of contemporary NHS charities as part of the Border Crossings project: <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmore.bham.ac.uk%2Fborder-crossings%2Fborder-crossings%2Fprojects%2F&data=05%7C02%7CH.Nelson%40exeter.ac.uk%7C696ab76c58be497ec72108dcdecf2840%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C638630228626144981%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JXC8T8IcLKO%2B8hlhsxLbG%2BLNKN3vcORUatHSA0NRE%2F0%3D&reserved=0" title="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmore.bham.ac.uk%2Fborder-crossings%2Fborder-crossings%2Fprojects%2F&data=05%7C02%7CH.Nelson%40exeter.ac.uk%7C696ab76c58be497ec72108dcdecf2840%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C638630228626144981%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=JXC8T8IcLKO%2B8hlhsxLbG%2BLNKN3vcORUatHSA0NRE%2F0%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">https://more.bham.ac.uk/border-crossings/border-crossings/projects/</a> . Francesca completed her PhD in Anthropology at SOAS, University of London, in 2019. This investigated how children create self and peer identities through food and eating practices, how children’s food policy fits into family intervention policies in the context of Britain’s mixed economy of welfare, and how notions of ‘good food’ and ‘good parenting’ (particularly mothering) are interlinked. Her thesis is the basis for her recent (2023) monograph, <a href="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Feprints.gla.ac.uk%2F321571%2F&data=05%7C02%7CH.Nelson%40exeter.ac.uk%7C696ab76c58be497ec72108dcdecf2840%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C638630228626173689%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XEVHCView9J2ryCxozLRlpcrZU6X1kIFg5fgA44XJcI%3D&reserved=0" title="https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Feprints.gla.ac.uk%2F321571%2F&data=05%7C02%7CH.Nelson%40exeter.ac.uk%7C696ab76c58be497ec72108dcdecf2840%7C912a5d77fb984eeeaf321334d8f04a53%7C0%7C0%7C638630228626173689%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=XEVHCView9J2ryCxozLRlpcrZU6X1kIFg5fgA44XJcI%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer"><em><em>Food Policy and Practice in Early Childhood Education and Care: Children, Practitioners, and Parents in an English Nursery.</em></em></a></p><p><br></p><h3>Useful Information</h3><ul><li><a href="https://www.accessable.co.uk/university-of-exeter/streatham-campus/access-guides/queen-s-building" title="https://www.accessable.co.uk/university-of-exeter/streatham-campus/access-guides/queen-s-building" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Queen's Building accessibility guide</a></li><li>The event will have live closed captions to aid hearing imparied attendees</li><li>A recording of the event will be available to watch on our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@wellcomecentre7607/playlists" title="https://www.youtube.com/@wellcomecentre7607/playlists" target="_blank" data-msys-clicktrack="0" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">YouTube channel</a></li><li>Online attendees will receive a Zoom link 24 hours before the start time, and again 10 minutes before the start time.</li></ul>