“I don’t have a crystal ball”. Time and power during colorectal cancer treatment (2025)

This article explores the relationship between time and power in the context of colorectal care. How can institutions and their workers (the hospital and doctors) control the time of others (patients)? Using ethnographic methods in hospitals, including observations and interviews, I illustrate the temporal dimension of the power dynamics of the doctor-patient relationship. Doctors set expectations for patients’ time management and availability to amend their habits and the organization of their treatment. At the same time, doctors’ work is framed by the limits of the hospital’s organization. While physicians may not be able to control their own time, they can control the time of others, placing them in a position of dominance in their relationships with patients.