Enacting knowledge work: the genealogy of knowledge representations in hospitals

Given that knowledge (intensive) work takes place immersed in truly heterogenous networks of knowledge representations (codified, narrative, embedded in routines, inscribed in artefacts), our analysis is geared towards how the transformation of these resources are enacted in the practise of everyday, knowledge work. First, we discuss the work, strategies and mechanisms implied in the rendering of knowledge as credible, trustworthy and relevant. Second, we analyse how sediments of historically superimposed layers of knowledge need to be enacted through selective repetitions, omittance and highlighting to preserve it as `living` knowledge. Third, supplementing the more intellectually oriented aspects of knowledge work, we discuss the organisational complexity of coordination and delegation and the role of externalised knowledge in achieving this. Empirically, we study clinical work in large hospitals, a type of work, we argue, that unduely has been left out of traditional listings of knowledge workers.