THE DRIVE FOR TRANSPARENCY: ORGANIZATIONAL FIELD TRANSFORMATIONS IN SWEDISH HEALTHCARE.

This paper provides an account of the rising clamour for transparency in the Swedish healthcare field. Previous research into accounting, auditing and classification has shown that such visualizing technologies potentially have the capacity to create new objects and ideals in a field ( Miller 1994; Power 1997; Bowker and Star 1999 ). It is thus reasonable to believe that the simultaneous use of various visualizing technologies in a field might transform it. This paper provides an analysis of the early stages of such a transformation process. The carriers that promote transparency are identified and it is shown that the drive for transparency has opened up the field to new actors. It is also shown that the drive for transparency has changed the quality discourse and as a consequence of that, the National Quality Registries are beginning to be opened up to the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]