This study uses convention theory to explore the different regimes of justice that shape clinicians’ practices and experiences in public tertiary hospitals. We draw on a qualitative study of public hospitals in Kolkata (West Bengal, India), combining interviews, observations, document analysis and visual methods. We show how conventions of industrial, market and civic regimes of justice predominantly shape physicians’ clinical experiences. We illustrate two cases when these conventions compete and conflict – patient mistrust of physicians and the protests triggered by the rape and murder of a physician. We identify how people compromise, exit or craft gift worlds to reconcile these competing conventions in diverse regimes of justice. Our study advances work on the political economy of health by connecting with convention theory to shift away from a monochromatic market-based view of healthcare. Further, we advance convention theory by foregrounding the role of generosity and love in gift worlds that exceed the calculative regimes of justice. Finally, we advance a methodological contribution by proposing waiting as epistemic practice in healthcare research.
