RESUMEN

Drug overdose is a leading cause of death among adults in the United States, prompting calls for more surveillance data and data sharing across public health and law enforcement to address the crisis. This paper integrates Black feminist science and technology studies (STS) into an anthropological analysis of the collision of public health, policing, and technology as embedded in the US National Overdose Response Strategy and its technological innovation, the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program (ODMAP). The dystopian Netflix series "Black Mirror," which explores the seemingly useful but quietly destructive potential of technology, offers a lens through which to speculate upon and anticipate the harms of collaborative surveillance projects. Ultimately, I ask: are such technological interventions a benevolent approach to a public health crisis or are we looking into a black mirror of racialized surveillance and criminalization of overdose in the United States?

RESUMEN

This is a review essay based primarily on the 2021 Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies, edited by Hannah Star Rogers, Megan K. Halpern, Dehlia Hannah, and Kathryn de Ridder-Vignone. It focuses particularly on the use of art for public engagement with science and technology and it also draws upon the following books: Dialogues Between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies (2023), edited by Henk Borgdorff, Peter Peters, and Trevor Pinch, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture (2020) by Patrick McCray, and Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge (2022), by Hannah Star Rogers.

RESUMEN

In this chapter, we identify three distinct avenues of research on the philosophical, historical, and sociopolitical dimensions of engram research. First, we single out the need to refine philosophical understandings of memory within neuroscientific research on the engram. Specifically, we question the place of constructivist and preservationist philosophical claims on memory in the formulation of the engram concept and its operationalization in contemporary neuroscience research. Second, we delve into the received historiography of the engram claiming its disappearance after Richard Semon's (1859-1918) coinage of the concept. Differently from this view, we underline that Semon's legacy is still largely undocumented: Unknown are the ways the engram circulated within studies of organic memory as well as the role Semon's ideas had in specific national contexts of research in neurosciences. Finally, another research gap on the engram concerns a socio-anthropological documentation of the factual and normative resources this research offers to think about memory in healthcare and society. Representations of memory in this research, experimental strategies of intervention into the engram, as well as their translational potential for neurodegenerative (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) and psychiatric (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder) conditions have not yet received scrutiny notwithstanding their obvious social and political relevance.All these knowledge gaps combined call for a strong commitment towards interdisciplinarity to align the ambitions of a foundational neuroscience of the engram with a socially responsible circulation of this knowledge. What role can the facts, metaphors, and interventional strategies of engram research play in the wider society? With what implications for philosophical questions at the foundation of memory, which have accompanied its study from antiquity? And what can neuro- and social scientists do jointly to shape the social and political framings of engram research?

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Relationships, built on trust, knowledge, regard, and loyalty, have been demonstrated to be fundamental to health care delivery. Strong relationships between patients and providers have been linked to more compassionate care delivery, and better patient experience and outcomes, and may be particularly important in primary care. The rapid adoption of digital technologies since the onset of COVID-19 has led health care systems to seriously consider a "digital-first" primary care delivery model. Questions remain regarding what impact this transformation will have on the therapeutic relationship. Using a rapid ethnographic approach this study explores how patient and provider understandings of therapeutic relationships and digital health technologies may influence relationship-building or maintenance between patients with complex care needs and their care providers. Three team-based primary care sites in Toronto, Ontario, Canada were included in the study. Across the three sites 9 patients with chronic health conditions, 1 caregiver, and 10 healthcare providers (including family physicians, family medicine residents, social workers, and nurse practitioners) participated. Interviews were conducted with all participants and 8 observations of virtual clinical encounters (phone and video visits) were conducted. Using social representation theory as a lens, analysis revealed that participants' constructions of therapeutic relationships and digital technologies were informed by their identities, experiences, and expectations. For participants to see technologies as enabling to the therapeutic relationship, there needed to be alignment between how participants viewed the role of technology in care and in their lives, and how they recognized (or constructed) a good therapeutic relationship. This exploratory work suggests the need to think about how both patients' and providers' views of technology may determine whether digital technologies can be leveraged to meet patient needs while maintaining, or building, strong therapeutic relationships.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

This study explores the integration of a web-based electronic database technology containing patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) with electronic health records for refugees with PTSD, emphasizing the systematic inclusion of patient perspectives in clinical decision-making. Our research addresses the notable gap in literature regarding training clinicians for the competent integration of health information technology in healthcare. The training program developed aimed at equipping clinicians, particularly inexperienced with technology, to effectively utilize an electronic PROM system for collecting systematic patient information. Our study is set in the context of the Mental Health Services (MHS) in Denmark, focusing on a specialized clinic for treating trauma-affected refugees. The multidisciplinary team involved in this project reflects a wide range of healthcare professionals. The training program employed a variety of activities over nearly 2 years, adapting to feedback and aiming to engage clinicians in continuous improvement processes. Analyzing qualitative data with thematic analysis we interpreted that the training's extended focus on discussion of the implementation process, with limited hands-on experience, potentially reinforced clinicians' hesitations toward new technology, rather than reducing them. Clinicians prioritized immediate concerns over potential long-term benefits. Despite this, their approach reflects a strong commitment to patient welfare and careful evaluation of new practices. Notably, there were also positive engagements with the technology, highlighting its potential in patient care. This study concludes that the successful integration of technology in clinical settings hinges on its alignment with clinicians' workflows, respect for their professional judgment, and clear benefits to patient care.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

This article aims to show how incorrect ideas about COVID-19 were promoted by physicians in Brazil, contributing to a catastrophic response at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, and to examine the implications of this episode for the social studies of science, technology and medicine. The literature on the relationship between science and society takes two broad approaches, which are sometimes at odds with each other: (i) there is a traditional critique of science that points to unsupported claims of certainty and thus undue interference in general human affairs; (ii) there are many examples of attempts to undermine reasonable scientific claims, when they clash with economic and/or political interests of certain groups. Navigating those extremes is particularly critical in situations in which accurate knowledge is necessary for intervening in people's lives, as is the case in health-related issues. Determining who has actual epistemic expertise is a key factor in solving this conundrum. This became painfully clear during the unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the uncertainties of science in guiding decisions being made in real time, and provided opportunities for many forms of disinformation and conspiracy theories that hampered public health measures and promoted useless or even dangerous "treatments". This article discusses an instructive example of such developments in the chaotic response to the pandemic challenge in Brazil, which saw, among other unfortunate situations, physicians aligned with the denialist federal government advocating for unproven - or proven as ineffective - treatments and disseminating unfounded doubts about vaccines. Presumed expertise on the basis of professional training clearly did not translate into actual expertise in the necessary domains to ascertain the validity of such claims and scientific advice was overridden by ideology.

RESUMEN

The advent of direct-acting antiviral hepatitis C medications has reshaped experiences of hepatitis C treatment and cure. Positioned as a treatment revolution, the new medications mean a world without hepatitis C has become imaginable, and this optimism is reflected in Australia's commitment to the WHO's target of 'eliminating' the virus as a public health threat by 2030. Alongside optimism about new treatments, Australia's current National Hepatitis C Strategy also emphasises the importance of partnerships with, and the 'meaningful involvement' of, priority populations for elimination to be achieved. We draw on Fraser and Seear's (2011) work on hepatitis C as a 'gathering' to examine these developments, and to approach hepatitis C as a disease in-the-making. Analysing 50 interviews conducted with people affected by the virus, we identify three key articulations that combine to trouble the distinction between old and new treatments: (1) the new treatment constitutes the disease as readily curable; (2) nevertheless, those who have been cured are responsibilised against acquiring it again by managing and monitoring their conduct; and (3) in the process, hepatitis C becomes re-constituted as an ongoing threat requiring continual post-cure medical and other monitoring. We argue that while treatment experiences have dramatically improved, responsibilising people affected by hepatitis C to attain cure in the context of an elimination agenda constitutes cure as valuable as much for the greater good as for self-care. This raises pressing ethical and political questions. Overall, we shed light on how, even in a context shaped by the availability of highly effective treatment, the hepatitis C-free body is never hepatitis C-free, but must be continually reproduced through regulatory practices.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

After a decade of oral HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the next generation of PrEP is being anticipated, including long-acting pills, injections, and implants. The unevenness of international PrEP implementation is increasingly recognised, with successful rollout in some settings and failure in others. There is a need to better understand conditions of PrEP implementation, and its localised (and sometimes unanticipated) effects. Implementation science explores how contexts and health systems shape the successful translation of health interventions. In this essay, we consider how PrEP is evolving and argue for an 'evidence-making' approach in relation to evidence and intervention translations. This approach emphasises how both interventions and their implementation contexts are co-constituted and evolve together. Unsettling the assumed universality of an intervention's effects and potential in relation to its implementation contexts helps to harness the localised possibilities for what PrEP might become. As the next generation of PrEP offers renewed promise, we must explore how PrEP is put to use and made to work in relation to its evolving situations. We urge implementation science to consider implementation processes as 'evidence-making events' in which evidence, intervention and context evolve together.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Maintaining routines of medication dosing requires effort amidst the variabilities of everyday life. This article offers a sociomaterial analysis of how the oral HIV prevention regimen, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), is put to use and made to work, including in situations which disrupt or complicate dosing regimes. Other than a daily pill, PrEP can be taken less frequently based on anticipated sexual activity and HIV risk, including 'on-demand' and 'periodic' dosing. Drawing on 40 interviews with PrEP users in Australia in 2022, we explore PrEP and its dosing as features of assemblages in which bodies, routines, desires, material objects and the home environment interact. Dosing emerges as a practice of coordination involving dosette boxes, blister packs, alarms, partners, pets, planning sex, routines and domestic space, and as an effect of experimentations with timing to suit life circumstances and manage side effects. Dosing is materialised in the mundane; a practice that is made to work, as well as domesticated, in its situations. Although there are no 'simple' solutions to adherence, our analysis offers practical insights into how routine, planning and experimentation come together to capacitate PrEP to work in people's lives, in sometimes unexpected ways, including through adaptations of PrEP dosing.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

At a time when agri-food biotechnologies are receiving a surge of investment, innovation, and public interest in the United States, it is common to hear both supporters and critics call for open and inclusive dialogue on the topic. Social scientists have a potentially important role to play in these discursive engagements, but the legacy of the intractable genetically modified (GM) food debate calls for some reflection regarding the best ways to shape the norms of that conversation. This commentary argues that agri-food scholars interested in promoting a more constructive agri-food biotechnology discussion could do so by blending key insights, as well as guarding against key shortcomings, from the fields of science communication and science and technology studies (STS). Science communication's collaborative and translational approach to the public understanding of science has proven pragmatically valuable to scientists in academia, government, and private industry, but it has too often remained wedded to deficit model approaches and struggled to explore deeper questions of public values and corporate power. STS's critical approach has highlighted the need for multi-stakeholder power-sharing and the integration of diverse knowledge systems into public engagement, but it has done little to grapple with the prevalence of misinformation in movements against GM foods and other agri-food biotechnologies. Ultimately, a better agri-food biotechnology conversation will require a strong foundation in scientific literacy as well as conceptual grounding in the social studies of science. The paper concludes by describing how, with attention to the structure, content, and style of public engagement in the agri-food biotechnology debates, social scientists can play a productive conversational role across a variety of academic, institutional, community-level, and mediated contexts.

RESUMEN

Scholarship flourishes in inclusive environments where open deliberations and generative feedback expand both individual and collective thinking. Many researchers, however, have limited access to such settings, and most conventional academic conferences fall short of promises to provide them. We have written this Field Report to share our methods for cultivating a vibrant intellectual community within the Science and Technology Studies Food and Agriculture Network (STSFAN). This is paired with insights from 21 network members on aspects that have allowed STSFAN to thrive, even amid a global pandemic. Our hope is that these insights will encourage others to cultivate their own intellectual communities, where they too can receive the support they need to deepen their scholarship and strengthen their intellectual relationships.

RESUMEN

Interdisciplinary research needs innovation. As an action-oriented intervention, this Manifesto begins from the authors' experiences as social scientists working within interdisciplinary science and technology collaborations in agriculture and food. We draw from these experiences to: 1) explain what social scientists contribute to interdisciplinary agri-food tech collaborations; (2) describe barriers to substantive and meaningful collaboration; and (3) propose ways to overcome these barriers. We encourage funding bodies to develop mechanisms that ensure funded projects respect the integrity of social science expertise and incorporate its insights. We also call for the integration of social scientific questions and methods in interdisciplinary projects from the outset, and for a genuine curiosity on the part of STEM and social science researchers alike about the knowledge and skills each of us has to offer. We contend that cultivating such integration and curiosity within interdisciplinary collaborations will make them more enriching for all researchers involved, and more likely to generate socially beneficial outcomes.

RESUMEN

There is growing need for hybrid curricula that integrate constructivist methods from Science and Technology Studies (STS) into both engineering and policy courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels. However, institutional and disciplinary barriers have made implementing such curricula difficult at many institutions. While several programs have recently been launched that mix technical training with consideration of "societal" or "ethical issues," these programs often lack a constructivist element, leaving newly-minted practitioners entering practical fields ill-equipped to unpack the politics of knowledge and technology or engage with skeptical publics. This paper presents a novel format for designing interdisciplinary coursework that combines conceptual content from STS with training in engineering and policy. Courses following this format would ideally be team taught by instructors with advanced training in diverse fields, and hence co-learning between instructors and disciplines is a key element of the format. Several instruments for facilitating both student and instructor collaborative learning are introduced. The format is also designed for versatility: in addition to being adaptable to both technical and policy training environments, topics are modularized around a conceptual core so that issues ranging from biotech to nuclear security can be incorporated to fit programmatic needs and resources.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

From the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, fears have been raised worldwide regarding the unique challenges facing socially marginalised people such as those who inject drugs. This article draws on in-depth interviews conducted during the first year of the pandemic with people who inject drugs living in urban and regional Australia. Perhaps the most surprising finding to emerge was the number of participants who reported minimal disruption to their everyday lives, even improved wellbeing in some instances. Attempting to make sense of this unanticipated finding, our analysis draws on the concept of 'care', not as a moral disposition or normative code but as something emergent, contingent and realised in practice. Working with Foucault's ethics and recent feminist insights on the politics of care from the field of Science and Technology Studies, we explore how care was enacted in the everyday lives of our participants. We examine how participants' daily routines became objects of care and changed practice in response to the pandemic; how their ongoing engagement with harm reduction services afforded not only clinical support but vital forms of social and affective connection; and how for some, care was realised through an ethos and practice of constrained sociality and solitude.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Laboratory animal science represents a challenging and controversial form of human-animal relations because its practice involves the deliberate and inadvertent harming and killing of animals. Consequently, animal research has formed the focus of intense ethical concern and regulation within the UK, in order to minimize the suffering and pain experienced by those animals whose living bodies model human diseases amongst other things. This paper draws on longitudinal ethnographic research and in-depth interviews undertaken with junior laboratory animal technicians (ATs) in UK universities between 2013 and 2015, plus insights from interviews with key stakeholders in laboratory animal welfare. In our analysis, we examine four key dimensions of care work in laboratory animal research: (i) the specific skills and sensitivities required; (ii) the role of previous experiences of animal care; (iii) the influence of institutional and affective environments and (iv) experiences of killing. We propose that different notions of care are enacted alongside, not only permitted levels of harm inflicted on research animals following research protocols, but also harms to ATs in the processes of caring and killing animals. Concluding, we argue for greater articulation of the coexistence of care and harms across debates in geography about care and human-animal relations.

RESUMEN

Although international actors operating under the United Nations umbrella put much faith in the possibility of bridging science and policy through various institutional arrangements, research in the Science and Technology Studies (STS) tradition suggests that different civic epistemologies revolve around environmental degradation issues. Civic epistemologies, which imply peculiar understandings of knowledge across cultures, are not easily bridged. This paper contends that conflicting (civic) epistemologies inevitably emerge in epistemic debates at the intergovernmental level, with strong implications for how science and knowledge are dealt with and understood in environmental negotiations. Drawing on the experience of global soil and land governance and building on the idiom of civic epistemologies, the concept of intergovernmental epistemologies is introduced as an analytical tool to capture the diverging ways of appreciating and validating knowledge in intergovernmental settings. Placing state actors and their perspectives center stage, intergovernmental epistemologies account for the tensions, contestations and politicisation processes of international institutional settings dealing with environmental issues. The paper concludes discussing the consequences of intergovernmental epistemologies for the study of global environmental governance: it cautions about overreliance on approaches based on learning and all-encompassing discourses, emphasizing the value of using STS-derived concepts to investigate the complexity of international environmental negotiations.

RESUMEN

This article uses the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries to explore how public hospitals are being reimagined and reconfigured by promissory digital health. Drawing on interviews with 42 senior leaders and staff from a large NHS hospital organisation, the article describes the imaginary of a data-driven hospital and the tensions of its operationalisation. These relate to data quality, data curation and data access, and reflect a discord between the organisation's commitment to immediate patient care and its research aspirations. These tensions, however, serve to invigorate, rather than undermine, the sociotechnical imaginary of a data-driven hospital, as they prompt the translation of a general data-driven imaginary into specific sociotechnical arrangements. The article argues that the potency of the data-driven hospital imaginary must be understood in terms of its enchanting qualities: it has the capacity to excite hospital staff and to align distinct and potentially diverging hopes and expectations regarding the societal role of public hospitals. The article concludes by suggesting that the entrenchment of the data-driven imaginary can be partly explained by its strategic utility for severely resource-constrained healthcare organisations: it provides a means for organisations to position themselves towards a viable future in an otherwise dire health-care context.

Asunto(s)

RESUMEN

Resumo O efeito placebo é um ponto de passagem obrigatório para a compreensão da racionalidade envolvida nos ensaios clínicos randomizados. A partir da antropologia da ciência e da tecnologia, este artigo analisa como a noção de efeito placebo tem sido utilizada pela ciência na produção de fronteiras biossociais. Assim, enfoca fenômenos que inicialmente eram atribuídos à imaginação e analisa as consequências de novas metodologias científicas que têm reconhecido outras potencialidades desse efeito, mas tendem a privilegiar marcadores biológicos. O argumento central é que a disputa epistemológica oculta a existência múltipla do efeito placebo que pode ser reconhecida em função das diferentes práticas às quais ele confere racionalidade.

Abstract The placebo effect is an obligatory passage point to understand rationality in randomized clinical trials. From the perspective of science and technology studies, this paper analyzes how the notion of the placebo effect has been used by science in the production of biosocial borders. Thus, it will pay attention to the phenomena considered caused by imagination, and we will analyze the consequences of new methodologies that have recognized other potentialities of this effect but tend to favor biological markers. The central argument is that the epistemological dispute hides the multiple existences of the placebo effect to be recognized due to the different scientific practices to which it confers rationality.