Month: December 2018

Yet another event from Cultures of Cultures next year. We have organised an open panel in the next 4S Conference, which will take place in New Orleans between the 4^th and 7^th of September, 2019. The deadline for submission is on the 1^st of February, 2019. Find below the abstract to our panel. More information about the conference and the submission can be found following this link.

Title: New Social Forms of the Post-Antibiotic Era: More-than-Human Hybrids, Governance and Knowledge of Human-Microbe Relations

Abstract:

During the past decade, microbes have come to occupy new and central spaces in scientific enquiry as well as their social analysis.  As microbes mutate, adapt and evolve towards resistance to antibiotics, there is mounting pressure to search for new ways of preventing illness. While antibiotics are no longer readily available to do their ‘magic’, new social forms that enable peaceful coexistence with microbes are emerging, instead of a war against microbes that Pasteur established and Latour documented in Pasteurisation of France. Societies are rethinking relationships between humans, animals, and environment in radically new ways, e.g. by building immunity through fermentation or enhancement of gut microbiota; development of vaccines, phage therapy or novel antibiotics; and promotion of sustainable food production. In this process, drug resistance is not only framed as a medical concern but also social, economic and political.

Re-situation of microbes is present in biomedical research and care, policy and governance, and everyday practices. STS offers tools to regenerate understanding of microbes; interruptions caused by the absence of efficient medical countermeasures; and innovative practices that emerge as a result. This panel puts microbes at the centre of social analysis and opens up new avenues for thinking about microbial knowledge, governance, and more-than-human relations.

We welcome presentations focusing on, among others:

• Practices where traditional narratives about microbes are subverted;
• Formation of more-than-human hybrids including microbial forms of life;
• Governance practices and strategies aimed at regulating microbial relations;
• New communities of knowledge around new practices with microbes.

The session is organized by Salla Sariola; salla.sariola (at) helsinki.fi, and Jose A. Cañada; jose.a.canada (at) helsinki.fi. Feel free to get in touch with them if you have any questions about the session!

Inside the context of Cultures of Cultures, some of our members have organised a thematic session in the next NordicSTS Conference, which will take place in Tampere during the 13^th and 14^th of June, 2019. The deadline for submission is on the 18^th of January, 2019. More information about the conference and the submission can be found following this link.

Title: Governance and knowledge of human-microbe relations

Abstract: During the past decade, 130 years after the discovery of microbes, microbes have come to occupy new and central spaces in scientific enquiry as well as their social analysis. Faced by the threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and with more knowledge of the impact of healthy gut microbiota to human health in general, science is beginning to change its understanding of microbes, infections and antibiotics. On the one hand, microbes are being redefined as supportive non-human neighbours whose number vastly exceeds the number of humans on the planet. On the other, the prospect of increasing resistance requires redefinition of how infections are cured and prevented. Consequently, relationships between humans, animals, and environment are changing, evident e.g. in the practices of building immunity through fermentation or enhancement of gut microbiota; development of vaccines against bacterial infections, phage therapy or novel antibiotics; promotion of sustainable food production; and readjustments in mundane medical practices. This re-situation of microbes is present in biomedical research and care, policy and governance, and everyday practices in medical contexts and households. STS offers tools to regenerate understandings of the microbial more-than-human forms of life and their governance; human-microbe relations; interruptions caused by the absence of efficient medical countermeasures to AMR; and innovative practices that emerge as a result.

This session puts microbes at the centre of social analysis and opens up new avenues for thinking about microbial knowledge, governance, and more-than-human relations. We welcome presentations focusing on, among others:

• Practices where traditional narratives about microbes are subverted;
• Microbial forms of life as more-than-human hybrids;
• Governance and strategies aimed at regulating human-microbial relations;
• New communities of knowledge around new practices with microbes;
• Medical practices where novel forms of human-microbe relations emerge;
• Everyday practices in households that regenerate human-microbe relations (e.g. fermentation).

The session is organized by Salla Sariola; salla.sariola (at) helsinki.fi, Jose A. Cañada; jose.a.canada (at) helsinki.fi, and Tiina Vaittinen, tiina.vaittinen (at) uta.fi. Feel free to contact them if you have any questions about the session!