This paper examines a segment of medical social life that has not been well studied: formal presentations of case histories by interns, residents, and fellows. Because they are presented by physicians in training to their status superiors who are evaluating them, case presentations are exercises in self presentation which serve as a vehicle for professional socialization. This analysis of the language of case presentation is based on case presentations collected in two intensive care nurseries and an obstetrics and gynecology service. Four features of case presentation are identified: 1) the separation of biological processes from the person (depersonalization); 2) omission of the agent (e.g., use of the passive voice,); 3) treating medical technology a s the agent; and 4) account markers, such a s "states", "reports", and "denies", which emphasize the subjectivity of patient accounts.. The language of case presentation has signficant if unintended consequences for those who use it. First, some features of case presentation eliminate the element of judgment from medical decisions and mitigate responsibility for medical decision-making. Second, some are rhetorical devices which enhance the credibility of the fmdings that are presented. Third, the language of case presentation minimizes the import of the patient's history and subjective experience. Finally, case histories socialize those who present them to a culture or world view, which may contradict the explict tenets of medical education.

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Background-In order to receive a liver transplant, patients must first be placed on the waiting list -a decision made in most transplant centers by a multidisciplinary committee. The function of these committees has never been studied.

Sociologists and other social scientists have recently renewed their interest in the concept of trust. Multidisciplinary studies have identified social psychological, economic, and structural determinants of trust; traced its development in interpersonal relationships; and explored its transformation in response to modernization. Drawing on ethnographic research at a multinational corporation operating in a politically charged environment, we reexamine these approaches to trust. We explore trust relations between Israeli and Jordanian managers in an Israeli-Jordanian industrial site. Trust, always tenuous in multinational collaboration, poses formidable challenges to this fragile relationship between former enemies. Comparing trust relations during normalization and political unrest provides a natural experiment for observing how forms of trust change in response to a transformed political environment. We show how Jordanians and Israelis apply different forms of trust alternately and interchangeably, transcending cultural dichotomies such as tradition and modernity and deviating from presupposed developmental paths. Following practice theory, our “trust repertoires” approach depicts actors as knowledgeable agents who select, compose, and apply different forms of trust as part of their cultural repertoires. By applying forms of trust, actors demarcate the boundaries of their social relationships. At the same time, actors' strategies are inextricably intertwined with the power structure and political context. In the conclusion, we consider the implications of this analysis for control and coordination in the workplace, including labor process theories.

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