CfP for the spe­cial issue „Sociotech­ni­cal imag­i­nar­ies and prac­tices of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence in health­care: rev­o­lu­tion­is­ing care or ampli­fy­ing new risks?” in the Health Risk and Soci­ety, co-edit­ed by Veron­i­ca Moret­ti and Francesco Miele.

We wel­come con­tri­bu­tions that crit­i­cal­ly explore the dual nature of arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI): as a tool for inno­va­tion and as a sys­tem deeply embed­ded with­in com­plex social, tech­ni­cal, and eth­i­cal infra­struc­tures. This spe­cial issue aims to bal­ance the promise of AI with a crit­i­cal exam­i­na­tion of its risks, lim­i­ta­tions, and poten­tial vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties in health­care contexts.

The full call for abstracts is attached. To par­tic­i­pate, please sub­mit a 500–800 word abstract by Feb­ru­ary 3, 2025. Authors of select­ed abstracts will be invit­ed to sub­mit full papers by July 21, 2025.

For any ques­tions or inquiries, feel free to con­tact me at our insti­tu­tion­al email: francesco.miele@dispes.units.it and veronica.moretti4@unibo.it

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„Ethnog­ra­phy for Health­care Improve­ment Sum­mer School”
23rd-25th July, 2025
Leices­ter Tigers Rug­by Club Events Cen­tre in Leices­ter, UK. 

This course is deliv­ered by expert ethno­graph­ic researchers and prac­ti­tion­ers from the Social Sci­ence, Applied Health­care & Improve­ment Research (SAPPHIRE) Group at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester.

This short course is designed for expe­ri­enced researchers, method­ol­o­gy edu­ca­tors, and doc­tor­al stu­dents to crit­i­cal­ly engage with the the­o­ry and prac­tice of ethnog­ra­phy in health­care set­tings. Over 3 days, you will learn more about the use of ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment, from design­ing research to man­ag­ing improve­ment and eval­u­a­tion ten­sions, nav­i­gat­ing dif­fer­ent con­texts, reach­ing audi­ences and influ­enc­ing pol­i­cy and prac­tice. Addi­tion­al­ly, you will have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a net­work of fel­low prac­ti­tion­ers and researchers with shared method­olog­i­cal inter­ests, work with expe­ri­enced ethno­g­ra­phers as men­tors, and join an inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice around ethnog­ra­phy for health­care improve­ment. The cost of the 3 day course, includ­ing all edu­ca­tion mate­ri­als and activ­i­ties, plus lunch and refresh­ments both days, is £1000. Trans­port to and from the venue and accom­mo­da­tion at is not included.
Reg­is­tra­tions are strict­ly lim­it­ed, and are now open at https://shop.le.ac.uk/product-catalogue/events-at-leicester/health-sciences/ethnography-for-health-care-improvement-summer-school-2025; book­ings will close 20 June 2025. A wait­ing list will be main­tained in the event of the course being over-sub­scribed. Please for­ward any ques­tions to Jen­nifer Creese, course lead: jennifer.creese@leicester.ac.uk.

Best wish­es, Dr Jen­nifer Creese (BA, MIM, PhD, AFHEA)
Lec­tur­er, Depart­ment of Health Sci­ences (SAPPHIRE Group)
Col­lege of Life Sciences
Uni­ver­si­ty of Leicester

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Trans­dis­ci­pli­nary Event on Ances­tral Knowl­edge and Heal­ing (in Spanish)

You are invit­ed to take part in an upcom­ing online event held in Span­ish, focused on rit­u­al knowl­edge, tra­di­tion­al plant med­i­cine and Mediter­ranean spir­i­tu­al lega­cies. It brings togeth­er per­spec­tives from clin­i­cal prac­tice, eth­nob­otany, med­ical anthro­pol­o­gy and the cul­tur­al his­to­ry of health.

Title: Encuen­tro trans­dis­ci­pli­nar sobre saberes rit­uales, botáni­ca cura­ti­va y espir­i­tu­al­i­dad mediterránea

Date and time will be deter­mined through con­sul­ta­tion with par­tic­i­pants and atten­dees. Late July, at least two hours long. The ses­sion includes open space for dis­cus­sion and questions.

Speak­ers include
– Dr. Jacques Mabit, Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Peru
– Lau­ra Mon­teagu­do and Fabio, Neu­ro­sci­en­tist and folk med­i­cine expert
– Alfre­do Panivi­no, Expert on Eleusin­ian mys­ter­ies and ancient Mediter­ranean traditions

The event explores the clin­i­cal mod­el and rit­u­al prac­tices of the Ama­zon­ian Taki­wasi Cen­ter, Iber­ian folk med­i­cine and plant knowl­edge, and the lega­cy of the Eleusin­ian Mys­ter­ies in the con­text of Mediter­ranean his­to­ry and present-day recov­ery of lost ped­a­go­gies. Fuller details at: https://research.henning.md/p/encuentro-transdisciplinar-sobre

You are invit­ed to pro­pose your avail­abil­i­ty as new speak­er, cir­cu­late the invi­ta­tion, and join the dis­cus­sion. Please, sub­scribe to the pub­li­ca­tion in case you wish not to miss fur­ther news.

2. EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy – Now an Award­ed COST Action

I am pleased to for­mal­ly announce that EU BEACON One Health Edu­ca­tion and Tech­nol­o­gy, a net­work I found­ed years ago dur­ing what accounts to tor­ture, the most severe abus­es dur­ing field­work in the EU, has been offi­cial­ly award­ed as a COST Action under the Euro­pean Coop­er­a­tion in Sci­ence and Tech­nol­o­gy frame­work. The action is now oper­a­tional and open to new mem­bers, includ­ing researchers, clin­i­cians, edu­ca­tors, tech­nol­o­gists and pol­i­cy actors. EU BEACON focus­es on advanc­ing trans­dis­ci­pli­nary, rights-based and open sci­ence solu­tions for human, ani­mal and plan­e­tary health. It address­es struc­tur­al vio­lence, epis­te­mo­log­i­cal gaps, eco­log­i­cal degra­da­tion and insti­tu­tion­al iner­tia through coor­di­nat­ed edu­ca­tion, field research and pol­i­cy engage­ment. This is a work­ing action, not an aspi­ra­tional ini­tia­tive. Its reach is glob­al, as we need to bridge and con­nect cul­tures with the now lack­ing respect, tools and fair, most need­ed means. It is designed for struc­tured imple­men­ta­tion, sup­port­ed by a grow­ing net­work of schol­ars and prac­ti­tion­ers across Europe and inter­na­tion­al­ly. If you wish to join EU BEACON and con­tribute to its work­ing groups, you are invit­ed to express your inter­est through the por­tal: https://health.int.eu.org

I encour­age and wel­come active engage­ment from those com­mit­ted to eth­i­cal, evi­dence-based trans­for­ma­tion in health, edu­ca­tion and tech­no­log­i­cal governance.

All the best,

Hen­ning (né Enric) Gar­cia Torrents

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