Introduction. Dealing with Multiple Uncertainties in Post-Soviet Health, Technologies, and Politics

Abstract

This chapter demonstrates that post-Soviet health domain is characterised by multiple and profound uncertainties born out of rapid societal transformations, non-transparent and exclusionary decision-making, and instabilities in governance arrangements. It elaborates the specific focus of this book: How actors navigate these uncertainties and what the implications of their chosen navigation routes are for relations between health, technologies, and politics. This chapter also introduces insights from the two domains of scholarship that, for the most part, have flourished independently from each other: Science and technology studies (STS) research on health, technology, and politics, and studies of post-socialism concerned with informality. Drawing on these insights, the book explores what actually happens when healthcare, public health, and research and development spheres are continuously destabilised.