The aim of the dissertation is to advance knowledge about care as situated practices within and beyond medical institutional settings. It addresses the phenomenon of substandard and falsified medical products, an issue that concerns state governments globally and organisations including the World Health Organisation. While legal sanctions and technological innovation are strongly advocated to protect legal pharmaceutical markets, this study looks at ambivalences and ambiguities in the provision and experiences of health services.

The thesis draws on the concepts of assembling and tinkering, and use empirical data collected from care seekers, physicians and pharmacy staff. The analysis suggest that the individual agency of care seekers is enacted and enabled in a context where an ability to adapt to a changing environment increasingly becomes a social norm. The findings lead to a conseptualisation of care as a tinkered practice, with attentiveness and flexibility being two essential characteristics. However, tinkered care involves risks, especially in relation to medicine access and use.

The thesis provides an empirical account of health services as a multi-actor network. It adds knowledge to the spatial-temporal dimension of care practices and offers a conceptualisation of care as tinkered practices. It argues for a need for alternative understandings of care and health services other than institutionally scripted ones.