PANEL – Dis/entangling living bodies and medical technologies in the post-genomic era: Health and wellbeing at the nexus between vulnerabilities, responsibility and solidarity

We are pleased to invite you to sub­mit abstract pro­pos­als to our pan­el „Dis/entangling liv­ing bod­ies and med­ical tech­nolo­gies in the post-genom­ic era: Health and well­be­ing at the nexus between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, respon­si­bil­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty ” (TRACK 2) at the 8th STS Italia Con­fer­ence “Dis/Entangling Techno­science: Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, Respon­si­bil­i­ty and Jus­tice”, Uni­ver­si­ty of Tri­este, Italy, 18–20 June 2020.

Fol­low this link: https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts and sub­mit a title, and a short abstract of less than 300 words by Feb­ru­ary 9th. If you have any ques­tions please email myself at <stefano.crabu@polimi.it>

Best wish­es,

Ste­fano Crabu and Fed­eri­co Neresini

—-

Track: Dis/entangling liv­ing bod­ies and med­ical tech­nolo­gies in the post-genom­ic era: Health and well­be­ing at the nexus between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, respon­si­bil­i­ty and solidarity

Con­venors: Ste­fano Crabu (Politec­ni­co di Milano) & Fed­eri­co Neresi­ni (Uni­ver­si­ty of Padova)

Descrip­tion of the track:

Post-genom­ic sci­ences and relat­ed tech­nolo­gies of life are con­sid­ered the cor­ner­stone of con­tem­po­rary  bio­med­i­cine:  pre­ci­sion  med­i­cine,  clin­i­cal  genomics,  gene-tar­get­ed  ther­a­pies, direct-to-con­sumer  genet­ic  tests  are  some  of  the  most  rel­e­vant  devel­op­ments  that  are recon­fig­ur­ing   med­ical   prac­tices,   and   the   rela­tions   between   patients   and   med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers, as well as the align­ment between the nor­mal and the patho­log­i­cal. Hence, even if  it  has  yet to  real­ize  its  rad­i­cal  poten­tial,  post-genom­ic  based  med­i­cine is  often  cel­e­brat­ed by  prac­ti­tion­ers  and  pol­i­cy­mak­ers  as  an  instance  for  a  new  dis­rup­tive  par­a­digm  for health­care, being based on “promis­so­ry virtues” such indi­vid­u­al­ized diag­no­sis, more effec­tive per­son­al­ized  pre­ven­tion  and  risk  pre­dic­tion,  as  well  as  patient  empow­er­ment.  Alter­na­tive­ly, these devel­op­ments are dis­missed as an out­come of a med­ical reduc­tion­ism in which liv­ing bod­ies, health and well­be­ing are increas­ing­ly under­stood in mol­e­c­u­lar terms, as an objec­tive to  accom­plish  via  tech­ni­cal  means.  Thus,  post-genom­ic  era  is  con­sid­ered  as  the  cli­max  of the  injec­tion  of  neolib­er­al  archi­tec­ture  to  health  care.  The  aim  of  this  track  is  to  inte­grate sci­ence  and  tech­nol­o­gy  stud­ies  (STS),  phi­los­o­phy  of  sci­ence,  pol­i­cy  stud­ies,  and  more  in gen­er­al  inter­dis­ci­pli­nary  stud­ies  of  health  and  bio­med­i­cine  with  the  aim  to  chal­lenge  these polar­ized   and   dichoto­mous   views,   by   explor­ing   both   emerg­ing   forms   of   inequal­i­ties, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and nov­el process of cit­i­zens, and patients empow­er­ment with­in post-genom­ic landscapes.

We  there­fore  encour­age  social  sci­en­tists,  STS  schol­ars  and  bio­med­ical  researchers  to sub­mit   the­o­ret­i­cal­ly,   empir­i­cal­ly,   and/or   method­olog­i­cal­ly   ori­ent­ed   papers   that   aim   at exploring:

•Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties   and   sol­i­dar­i­ty:   In   which   ways   rel­e­vant   actors   and   stake­hold­ers engaged  in  the  field  of  post-genomics  med­i­cine  should  be  active­ly  empow­ered,  thus  to pre­vent  and  reduce  pos­si­ble  dis­crim­i­na­tions  in  access  to  health­care?  Here  we  invite con­tri­bu­tions  aimed  at  explor­ing  issues  of  pri­va­cy,  dis­crim­i­na­tion,  and  con­cerns  about  the poten­tial of post-genomics med­i­cine to exac­er­bate dis­par­i­ties in healthcare;

•Socio-tech­ni­cal  prac­tices  of  genomics-based  tech­nolo­gies:  In  which  ways  rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tion between patients, cit­i­zens, and health pro­fes­sion­als do change with the intro­duc­tion  of  post-genomics  inno­va­tions?  Here  we  solic­it  con­tri­bu­tions  on  how  diverse groups  of  patients  and  cit­i­zens  inte­grate  post-genomics  inno­va­tions  and  new  com­putable health  infor­ma­tion  and  bio­da­ta  into  their  dai­ly  lives  and  prac­tices.  A  fur­ther  ques­tion  is whether  bot­tom-up citizen’s prac­tices (such as the online-based  genet­ic  test­ing  ser­vice,  or data coop­er­a­tives) cre­ate ten­sions, con­flicts, or new form of com­pli­ance with the prac­tices of health­care professionals;

•Respon­si­ble Inno­va­tion in post-genom­ic era: Here we invite con­tri­bu­tions ori­ent­ed to study  how  dif­fer­ent  forms  of  co-cre­ation  and  engage­ment  (also  from  below)  of  cit­i­zens, patients  and  con­cerned  groups  of  peo­ple  can  con­tribute  to  respon­si­ble  inno­va­tion  in post-genom­ic era. In par­tic­u­lar, we wel­come inves­ti­ga­tions on the roles patients asso­ci­a­tions, fab lab,  liv­ing  lab,  mak­er­space,  and  oth­er  col­lec­tives  can  take  in  post-genomics  inno­va­tion process­es  and  knowl­edge  pro­duc­tion,  as  well  as  the  needs,  oppor­tu­ni­ties  and  effects  of cit­i­zen involve­ment in post-genomics sciences

-- 
Stefano Crabu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Sociology (Politecnico di Milano | Dep. of Design)

Via Durando, 38A - 20158 Milano
Ph. +39 02 2399 7244 | Mob. +39 340 6159556
M@il: stefano.crabu@polimi.it
www.meta.polimi.it

--
Research Fellow at PaSTIS
Padova Science, Technology & Innovation Studies (University of Padova)
http://www.pastis-research.eu/

We are pleased to invite you to sub­mit abstract pro­pos­als to our pan­el „Dis/entangling liv­ing bod­ies and med­ical tech­nolo­gies in the post-genom­ic era: Health and well­be­ing at the nexus between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, respon­si­bil­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty ” (TRACK 2) at the 8th STS Italia Con­fer­ence “Dis/Entangling Techno­science: Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty, Respon­si­bil­i­ty and Jus­tice”, Uni­ver­si­ty of Tri­este, Italy, 18–20 June 2020.

Fol­low this link: https://www.stsitaliaconf2020.com/call-for-abstracts and sub­mit a title, and a short abstract of less than 300 words by Feb­ru­ary 9th. If you have any ques­tions please email myself at <stefano.crabu@polimi.it>

Best wish­es,

Ste­fano Crabu and Fed­eri­co Neresini

—-

Track: Dis/entangling liv­ing bod­ies and med­ical tech­nolo­gies in the post-genom­ic era: Health and well­be­ing at the nexus between vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties, respon­si­bil­i­ty and solidarity

Con­venors: Ste­fano Crabu (Politec­ni­co di Milano) & Fed­eri­co Neresi­ni (Uni­ver­si­ty of Padova)

Descrip­tion of the track:

Post-genom­ic sci­ences and relat­ed tech­nolo­gies of life are con­sid­ered the cor­ner­stone of con­tem­po­rary  bio­med­i­cine:  pre­ci­sion  med­i­cine,  clin­i­cal  genomics,  gene-tar­get­ed  ther­a­pies, direct-to-con­sumer  genet­ic  tests  are  some  of  the  most  rel­e­vant  devel­op­ments  that  are recon­fig­ur­ing   med­ical   prac­tices,   and   the   rela­tions   between   patients   and   med­ical prac­ti­tion­ers, as well as the align­ment between the nor­mal and the patho­log­i­cal. Hence, even if  it  has  yet to  real­ize  its  rad­i­cal  poten­tial,  post-genom­ic  based  med­i­cine is  often  cel­e­brat­ed by  prac­ti­tion­ers  and  pol­i­cy­mak­ers  as  an  instance  for  a  new  dis­rup­tive  par­a­digm  for health­care, being based on “promis­so­ry virtues” such indi­vid­u­al­ized diag­no­sis, more effec­tive per­son­al­ized  pre­ven­tion  and  risk  pre­dic­tion,  as  well  as  patient  empow­er­ment.  Alter­na­tive­ly, these devel­op­ments are dis­missed as an out­come of a med­ical reduc­tion­ism in which liv­ing bod­ies, health and well­be­ing are increas­ing­ly under­stood in mol­e­c­u­lar terms, as an objec­tive to  accom­plish  via  tech­ni­cal  means.  Thus,  post-genom­ic  era  is  con­sid­ered  as  the  cli­max  of the  injec­tion  of  neolib­er­al  archi­tec­ture  to  health  care.  The  aim  of  this  track  is  to  inte­grate sci­ence  and  tech­nol­o­gy  stud­ies  (STS),  phi­los­o­phy  of  sci­ence,  pol­i­cy  stud­ies,  and  more  in gen­er­al  inter­dis­ci­pli­nary  stud­ies  of  health  and  bio­med­i­cine  with  the  aim  to  chal­lenge  these polar­ized   and   dichoto­mous   views,   by   explor­ing   both   emerg­ing   forms   of   inequal­i­ties, vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties and nov­el process of cit­i­zens, and patients empow­er­ment with­in post-genom­ic landscapes.

We  there­fore  encour­age  social  sci­en­tists,  STS  schol­ars  and  bio­med­ical  researchers  to sub­mit   the­o­ret­i­cal­ly,   empir­i­cal­ly,   and/or   method­olog­i­cal­ly   ori­ent­ed   papers   that   aim   at exploring:

•Vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties   and   sol­i­dar­i­ty:   In   which   ways   rel­e­vant   actors   and   stake­hold­ers engaged  in  the  field  of  post-genomics  med­i­cine  should  be  active­ly  empow­ered,  thus  to pre­vent  and  reduce  pos­si­ble  dis­crim­i­na­tions  in  access  to  health­care?  Here  we  invite con­tri­bu­tions  aimed  at  explor­ing  issues  of  pri­va­cy,  dis­crim­i­na­tion,  and  con­cerns  about  the poten­tial of post-genomics med­i­cine to exac­er­bate dis­par­i­ties in healthcare;

•Socio-tech­ni­cal  prac­tices  of  genomics-based  tech­nolo­gies:  In  which  ways  rela­tions and com­mu­ni­ca­tion between patients, cit­i­zens, and health pro­fes­sion­als do change with the intro­duc­tion  of  post-genomics  inno­va­tions?  Here  we  solic­it  con­tri­bu­tions  on  how  diverse groups  of  patients  and  cit­i­zens  inte­grate  post-genomics  inno­va­tions  and  new  com­putable health  infor­ma­tion  and  bio­da­ta  into  their  dai­ly  lives  and  prac­tices.  A  fur­ther  ques­tion  is whether  bot­tom-up citizen’s prac­tices (such as the online-based  genet­ic  test­ing  ser­vice,  or data coop­er­a­tives) cre­ate ten­sions, con­flicts, or new form of com­pli­ance with the prac­tices of health­care professionals;

•Respon­si­ble Inno­va­tion in post-genom­ic era: Here we invite con­tri­bu­tions ori­ent­ed to study  how  dif­fer­ent  forms  of  co-cre­ation  and  engage­ment  (also  from  below)  of  cit­i­zens, patients  and  con­cerned  groups  of  peo­ple  can  con­tribute  to  respon­si­ble  inno­va­tion  in post-genom­ic era. In par­tic­u­lar, we wel­come inves­ti­ga­tions on the roles patients asso­ci­a­tions, fab lab,  liv­ing  lab,  mak­er­space,  and  oth­er  col­lec­tives  can  take  in  post-genomics  inno­va­tion process­es  and  knowl­edge  pro­duc­tion,  as  well  as  the  needs,  oppor­tu­ni­ties  and  effects  of cit­i­zen involve­ment in post-genomics sciences

-- 
Stefano Crabu, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor in Sociology (Politecnico di Milano | Dep. of Design)

Via Durando, 38A - 20158 Milano
Ph. +39 02 2399 7244 | Mob. +39 340 6159556
M@il: stefano.crabu@polimi.it
www.meta.polimi.it

--
Research Fellow at PaSTIS
Padova Science, Technology & Innovation Studies (University of Padova)
http://www.pastis-research.eu/