***Apologies for cross posting***
Please join us for the second of our LSHTM Medical Anthropology seminars this term on Tuesday 19th February from 4-5pm in the Jenny Roberts room, LSHTM, Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH.
Medical Anthropology Research Seminar Series, Spring 2019
Tuesday 19 February 2019 - Prof Jeannette Pols (Socrates professor 'Social Theory, Humanism and Materialities', University of Amsterdam).
'Making sense with numbers. Unraveling practices of self-quantification<https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/newsevents/events/jeannette-pols-making-sense-numbers-unraveling-practices-self-quantification>'
4-5pm in the Jenny Roberts room, LSHTM, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH.
Abstract:
One of the conceptual tools for policy makers in the west to imagine a retreating welfare state is the notion of self-management. Individuals should manage their own health and the health of those near and dear in order to alleviate the pressure on professional caregivers. This would make care more efficient and of higher quality, as, so the policy makers argue, self-management is what people want. In this presentation I will discuss a particular branch on the self-management tree: self tracking, or self quantification, using an empirical ethics approach that studies values and their workings in practice. By using health apps to measure and analyse data about 'what we do' and to what end, the optimistic idea is that individuals can -and will- change their life styles. Health is an offer one simply cannot refuse. But what kind of 'ethico-psychological subjects' emerge in actual practices of self-tracking? The ethico-psychological subject gets a description in terms of how it how it acts as well as made to act. It is a 'subject explained through outer factors (as an object of the life sciences), but also an object actively shaping itself (as in the humanities). How do people make sense of numbers, and how do numbers make sense of them? The dream of the prevention optimists will not hold, but vistas are opened up on the variety of ways in which people may live with self-quantifications.
This lecture is funded by the LSHTM Anthropology and Sociology Hub<https://www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/anthropology-sociology-hub>
UPCOMING SEMINARS:
Tuesday 19th March - Prof James Fairhead (University of Sussex)
'Is the Ebola reservoir in people? A critique of the idea of 'Patient Zero' and 'spillover' in the narration and comparative analysis of Ebola epidemic origins, and its implications.'
4-5pm in the Jenny Roberts room, LSHTM, 15-17 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9SH.
For more information please contact one of the organisers:
Annelieke Driessen ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Fred Martineau ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Rebecca Lynch ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Melissa Parker ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
Annelieke Driessen
Research Fellow (Medical Anthropology)
http://blogs.lshtm.ac.uk/formsofcare/
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
15-17 Tavistock Place, room 110, London, WC1H 9SH
Tel: 020 7958 8295 ext. 8295
*************************************************************
* Anthropology-Matters Mailing List
* http://www.anthropologymatters.com *
* A postgraduate project comprising online journal, *
* online discussions, teaching and research resources *
* and international contacts directory. *
* To join this list or to look at the archived previous *
* messages visit: *
* https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/Anthropology-Matters *
* If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all *
* those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: *
* [log in to unmask] *
* *
* Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new *
* CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com *
* an international directory of anthropology researchers *
To unsubscribe please click here:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=ANTHROPOLOGY-MATTERS&A=1
***************************************************************
|