Learning to eat strawberries in a disciplined way normalization practices following organ transplantation

This article addresses everyday strategies of coming to terms with organ transplantation that we term normalization practices. The analysis is based on focus group discussions and ethnographic interviews with transplant recipients, their relatives and waiting list patients in Sweden, Cyprus and Germany. Exploring our respondents' narratives we analytically differentiate between three levels of practices normalizing the post-transplantation experience: (1) a personal level, (2) a level of the intimate, and (3) a level of anonymous sociality. Our comparative perspective shows that sociocultural differences play a much greater role in interactive normalization practices (levels 2 and 3) than on the personal level (1), where universalized medical knowledge provides a framework that supersedes the role of cultural or social differences.