Ethnographische Praxis im Feld der Wissenschafts-, Medizinund Technikanthropologie Michi Knecht |... more Ethnographische Praxis im Feld der Wissenschafts-, Medizinund Technikanthropologie Michi Knecht | 245 Klassifikationen und Rückkopplungseffekte Martina Klausner | 275 Transnationale Infrastrukturen des Humanen: Technologien als Mittel der gesellschaftlichen Autopoiesis Stefan Beck | 299 Post-Akteur-Netzwerk Theorie Estrid Sørensen | 327 Autoren und Autorinnen | 346 Personen-und Sachindex | 348 Einleitung Science and Technology Studies -Wissenschafts-und Technikforschung aus sozial-und kulturanthropologischer Perspektive JÖRG NIEWÖHNER, ESTRID SØRENSEN, STEFAN BECK Wissenschaft, wissenschaftliches Wissen und Technologien sind allgegenwärtig in den Alltagen westlich-moderner Gesellschaften. Sie leisten entscheidende Beiträge zu gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsprozessen und formen damit unsere Selbstverständnisse und unser Zusammenleben. Gleichzeitig verläuft diese Wirkkette aber auch andersherum. Gesellschaft formt Wissensproduktion und Technologieentwicklung. Wissenschaft vollzieht sich in Alltagen und diese Alltage in Laboren, in Designstudios, in Krankenhäusern oder in Unternehmen sind immer auch vielfältig geprägt von den sozialen, kulturellen, politischen und ökonomischen Kontexten, in denen sie sich entfalten. Aus einer sozial-und kulturwissenschaftlichen Perspektive auf Alltagsleben sind Wissenschaft, Technologie und Gesellschaft also untrennbar miteinander verknüpft. Es ist eine zentrale Aufgabe des Forschungsfelds der Science and Technology Studies, diese Verschränkung von Wissenschaft, Technologie und Gesellschaft im Alltag zu untersuchen und damit unter anderem auch die Rolle von Wissen und Technologie in gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsprozessen näher zu bestimmen. Konkret bedeutet dies, dass in empirischen Studien vornehmlich solche Felder untersucht werden, in denen verschiedene Wissensformen und Technologien um Deutungshoheit und Wirkmacht konkurrieren; in denen sie stabilisierend oder irritierend wirken; in denen Wis-
We have come a long way from Evans-Pritchard’s famous dictum that “there is only one method in so... more We have come a long way from Evans-Pritchard’s famous dictum that “there is only one method in social anthropology, the comparative method - and that is impossible.” Yet a good 40 years later, qualitative social inquiry still has an uneasy relationship with comparison. This volume sets out “thick comparison” as a means to revive “comparing” as a productive process in ethnographic work: a process that helps to revitalise the articulation work inherent in analytical ethnographies; to vary observer perspectives and point towards “blind spots;” to name and create “new things” and modes of empirical work and to give way to intensified dialogues between data analysis and theorizing.
Contributors are Katrin Amelang, Stefan Beck, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Alexander Kozin, Henriette Langstrup, Jörg Niewöhner, Thomas Scheffer, Robert Schmidt, Estrid Sørensen, and Britt Ross Winthereik."
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015
The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structure... more The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structures that help to deliver services to a population or organization, most commonly water, energy, and information. Infrastructures mediate human interaction and shape social organization. Anthropology has developed a relational perspective on infrastructures analyzing them as the ongoing interweaving of embodied social and political choices, moral orders, and technical networks. This approach has much to offer for anthropologists, because it is largely based on ethnographic research, shows a deep commitment to materiality as practice and provides a productive way of thinking through the changing relations of center and periphery. It is an area of research with important intersections into the information sciences and urban studies.
Review of the book “Participatory Technology Assessment – European Perspectives” (edited by Simon... more Review of the book “Participatory Technology Assessment – European Perspectives” (edited by Simon Joss and Sergio Bellucci, 2002)
Building on the works of sociologists of health and illness that have highlighted the effects of ... more Building on the works of sociologists of health and illness that have highlighted the effects of visible difference and stigmatisation since Goffman, this article examines the ambivalence of visibility experienced by people with cystic fibrosis (CF), a fatal chronic disease and the artful tactics they employ in carving out a habitable space in an ableist world. Dealing with the ambivalence of being at once inherently ill and apparently healthy is a process of giving constant care and attention to one's body and its presence in public, and if successful, enabling those affected by it to acquire a new-albeit temporary-healthy self with the help of therapy.
The aim of this contribution is twofold: First, it shows methodologically an ethnographic mode of... more The aim of this contribution is twofold: First, it shows methodologically an ethnographic mode of research that we call co-laborative. This mode enables new forms of reflexivity in European Ethnology and makes them analytically productive. Second, we argue on the basis of such a co-laborative research with social psychiatry that the dominant analytical dichotomies of the social and cultural sciences-namely normal vs. pathological or care vs. control-only insufficiently describe today's psychiatric treatment processes. Our ethnographic material shows how 'normal everyday life' is choreographed in hospitals for therapeutic purposes, and how this choreographing becomes problematic in post-clinical everyday lives. On the basis of these findings we discuss the extent to which a practice theoretical approach can extend the established critique of subjectification by focusing on the processuality of psychiatric treatment and thus problematizing the multiple embeddedness of the production of everyday life in clinical and urban environments.
Bestandig ruckt der Begriff des »Lebens« weiter ins Zentrum sozialanthropologischer und soziologi... more Bestandig ruckt der Begriff des »Lebens« weiter ins Zentrum sozialanthropologischer und soziologischer Analysen: das ›nackte Leben‹ des »homo sacer«, das biologische Leben der Lebenswissenschaften, das biographische und politische Uber-Leben der Philosophie und Literaturkritik, das Leben-an-sich geformt durch Macht-Wissen oder das Leben-als-solches als das konkret gelebte Leben von Geburt bis Tod. Der Band basiert auf einer deutsch-franzosischen Kooperation und widmet sich in seinen Beitragen im Modus der ethnographischen Untersuchung »Leben« in verschiedenen Praxisformen. Dabei stehen biomedizinische Praxisfelder im Vordergrund, anhand derer aber auch allgemeinere Fragen von Herrschaft, Kollektivitat und Kosmologie verhandelt werden.
Kommentar zu Alexa Farbers „Potenziale freisetzen” Alexa Farber entwickelt aus ihrer Analyse des ... more Kommentar zu Alexa Farbers „Potenziale freisetzen” Alexa Farber entwickelt aus ihrer Analyse des Schnittfeldes von ANT/ Assem blageforschung und Stadtforschung erstens ein Pladoyer fur ein Ver standnis von stadtischen Raumen als multipel. Zweitens argumentiert sie, dass empirische Forschung, die diesem Raumverstandnis gerecht wer den mochte, der Welt als immer schon erfahrenem Raum empirisch zugewandt sein sollte. Drittens folgert sie, dass eine derartige Forschung letztlich nur uber konsequent interdisziplinare Arbeit moglich sei, die aber im heutigen Wissenschaftsbetrieb nicht zur Entfaltung komme. Ihre Analyse und Bewertung dieses Forschungsfeldes erscheinen mir ebenso plausi bel wie stringent. Die Stosrichtung, fur die sie pladiert, unterstutze ich. In einigen Details der Ausrichtung der Forschung und ihrer Begrundung bin ich jedoch anderer Meinung. Drei davon mochte ich in Kurze aus (stadt-) anthropologischer Sicht ausfuhren.
Confronted with advancing resource frontiers, local communities increasingly rely on conflict to ... more Confronted with advancing resource frontiers, local communities increasingly rely on conflict to re-establish order in the face of problematic interdependences brought about by mining transactions. This article captures the interactions at national level that engender these interdependences in the first place. We explore how national actor groups influence emerging regularities of behaviour in mining through the example of gold mining in Kyrgyzstan – a fragile resource-dependent country divided by mining conflicts. For the analysis of these emerging patterns of behaviour, we focus on shared beliefs and norms that in interaction with perceived dimensions of transactions provide motivation to act. The identified regularities of behaviour help differentiate the otherwise crude dichotomy of conflict and cooperation, pointing to shades of conflicts. Mining conflicts in Kyrgyzstan are driven by profound structural factors that are rooted in weak governance, lack of institutional trust and...
This paper introduces the notion of 'phenomenography'. Phenomenography is an ethnographic... more This paper introduces the notion of 'phenomenography'. Phenomenography is an ethnographic research practice that attempts to combine practice-theoretical approaches (praxiography) to investigations of human-environment-technology relations with phenomenological perspectives on knowing and experiencing these relations. It is rooted within relational anthropology (Beck, 2008). The paper introduces a set of basic premises guiding phenomenography before relating four short empirical sequences, the analyses of which suggest specific analytical sensitivities: mind, brain and body in social interaction; knowledge and experience in psychiatric treatment; reproductive technologies in shaping sociality and kinship; (digital) infrastructures' impact on ways of being-in-the-world. The paper concludes by defining phenomenography as a co-laborative research practice that aims to curate concepts jointly with research partners and that aims to provide a new form of reflexivity within an...
Infrastrukturen waren lange Zeit Untersuchungs- und Gestaltungsobjekte der technischen Diszipline... more Infrastrukturen waren lange Zeit Untersuchungs- und Gestaltungsobjekte der technischen Disziplinen. Zwar vermitteln Infrastrukturen "reflection and action upon the world" und sind somit häufig unmittelbar verwickelt in das Ordnen menschlicher Interaktion und Praxis. Trotzdem hat sich die sozial- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung diesem Phänomen lange Zeit nicht produktiv gewidmet.
Ethnographische Praxis im Feld der Wissenschafts-, Medizinund Technikanthropologie Michi Knecht |... more Ethnographische Praxis im Feld der Wissenschafts-, Medizinund Technikanthropologie Michi Knecht | 245 Klassifikationen und Rückkopplungseffekte Martina Klausner | 275 Transnationale Infrastrukturen des Humanen: Technologien als Mittel der gesellschaftlichen Autopoiesis Stefan Beck | 299 Post-Akteur-Netzwerk Theorie Estrid Sørensen | 327 Autoren und Autorinnen | 346 Personen-und Sachindex | 348 Einleitung Science and Technology Studies -Wissenschafts-und Technikforschung aus sozial-und kulturanthropologischer Perspektive JÖRG NIEWÖHNER, ESTRID SØRENSEN, STEFAN BECK Wissenschaft, wissenschaftliches Wissen und Technologien sind allgegenwärtig in den Alltagen westlich-moderner Gesellschaften. Sie leisten entscheidende Beiträge zu gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsprozessen und formen damit unsere Selbstverständnisse und unser Zusammenleben. Gleichzeitig verläuft diese Wirkkette aber auch andersherum. Gesellschaft formt Wissensproduktion und Technologieentwicklung. Wissenschaft vollzieht sich in Alltagen und diese Alltage in Laboren, in Designstudios, in Krankenhäusern oder in Unternehmen sind immer auch vielfältig geprägt von den sozialen, kulturellen, politischen und ökonomischen Kontexten, in denen sie sich entfalten. Aus einer sozial-und kulturwissenschaftlichen Perspektive auf Alltagsleben sind Wissenschaft, Technologie und Gesellschaft also untrennbar miteinander verknüpft. Es ist eine zentrale Aufgabe des Forschungsfelds der Science and Technology Studies, diese Verschränkung von Wissenschaft, Technologie und Gesellschaft im Alltag zu untersuchen und damit unter anderem auch die Rolle von Wissen und Technologie in gesellschaftlichen Ordnungsprozessen näher zu bestimmen. Konkret bedeutet dies, dass in empirischen Studien vornehmlich solche Felder untersucht werden, in denen verschiedene Wissensformen und Technologien um Deutungshoheit und Wirkmacht konkurrieren; in denen sie stabilisierend oder irritierend wirken; in denen Wis-
We have come a long way from Evans-Pritchard’s famous dictum that “there is only one method in so... more We have come a long way from Evans-Pritchard’s famous dictum that “there is only one method in social anthropology, the comparative method - and that is impossible.” Yet a good 40 years later, qualitative social inquiry still has an uneasy relationship with comparison. This volume sets out “thick comparison” as a means to revive “comparing” as a productive process in ethnographic work: a process that helps to revitalise the articulation work inherent in analytical ethnographies; to vary observer perspectives and point towards “blind spots;” to name and create “new things” and modes of empirical work and to give way to intensified dialogues between data analysis and theorizing.
Contributors are Katrin Amelang, Stefan Beck, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Alexander Kozin, Henriette Langstrup, Jörg Niewöhner, Thomas Scheffer, Robert Schmidt, Estrid Sørensen, and Britt Ross Winthereik."
International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, 2015
The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structure... more The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structures that help to deliver services to a population or organization, most commonly water, energy, and information. Infrastructures mediate human interaction and shape social organization. Anthropology has developed a relational perspective on infrastructures analyzing them as the ongoing interweaving of embodied social and political choices, moral orders, and technical networks. This approach has much to offer for anthropologists, because it is largely based on ethnographic research, shows a deep commitment to materiality as practice and provides a productive way of thinking through the changing relations of center and periphery. It is an area of research with important intersections into the information sciences and urban studies.
Review of the book “Participatory Technology Assessment – European Perspectives” (edited by Simon... more Review of the book “Participatory Technology Assessment – European Perspectives” (edited by Simon Joss and Sergio Bellucci, 2002)
Building on the works of sociologists of health and illness that have highlighted the effects of ... more Building on the works of sociologists of health and illness that have highlighted the effects of visible difference and stigmatisation since Goffman, this article examines the ambivalence of visibility experienced by people with cystic fibrosis (CF), a fatal chronic disease and the artful tactics they employ in carving out a habitable space in an ableist world. Dealing with the ambivalence of being at once inherently ill and apparently healthy is a process of giving constant care and attention to one's body and its presence in public, and if successful, enabling those affected by it to acquire a new-albeit temporary-healthy self with the help of therapy.
The aim of this contribution is twofold: First, it shows methodologically an ethnographic mode of... more The aim of this contribution is twofold: First, it shows methodologically an ethnographic mode of research that we call co-laborative. This mode enables new forms of reflexivity in European Ethnology and makes them analytically productive. Second, we argue on the basis of such a co-laborative research with social psychiatry that the dominant analytical dichotomies of the social and cultural sciences-namely normal vs. pathological or care vs. control-only insufficiently describe today's psychiatric treatment processes. Our ethnographic material shows how 'normal everyday life' is choreographed in hospitals for therapeutic purposes, and how this choreographing becomes problematic in post-clinical everyday lives. On the basis of these findings we discuss the extent to which a practice theoretical approach can extend the established critique of subjectification by focusing on the processuality of psychiatric treatment and thus problematizing the multiple embeddedness of the production of everyday life in clinical and urban environments.
Bestandig ruckt der Begriff des »Lebens« weiter ins Zentrum sozialanthropologischer und soziologi... more Bestandig ruckt der Begriff des »Lebens« weiter ins Zentrum sozialanthropologischer und soziologischer Analysen: das ›nackte Leben‹ des »homo sacer«, das biologische Leben der Lebenswissenschaften, das biographische und politische Uber-Leben der Philosophie und Literaturkritik, das Leben-an-sich geformt durch Macht-Wissen oder das Leben-als-solches als das konkret gelebte Leben von Geburt bis Tod. Der Band basiert auf einer deutsch-franzosischen Kooperation und widmet sich in seinen Beitragen im Modus der ethnographischen Untersuchung »Leben« in verschiedenen Praxisformen. Dabei stehen biomedizinische Praxisfelder im Vordergrund, anhand derer aber auch allgemeinere Fragen von Herrschaft, Kollektivitat und Kosmologie verhandelt werden.
Kommentar zu Alexa Farbers „Potenziale freisetzen” Alexa Farber entwickelt aus ihrer Analyse des ... more Kommentar zu Alexa Farbers „Potenziale freisetzen” Alexa Farber entwickelt aus ihrer Analyse des Schnittfeldes von ANT/ Assem blageforschung und Stadtforschung erstens ein Pladoyer fur ein Ver standnis von stadtischen Raumen als multipel. Zweitens argumentiert sie, dass empirische Forschung, die diesem Raumverstandnis gerecht wer den mochte, der Welt als immer schon erfahrenem Raum empirisch zugewandt sein sollte. Drittens folgert sie, dass eine derartige Forschung letztlich nur uber konsequent interdisziplinare Arbeit moglich sei, die aber im heutigen Wissenschaftsbetrieb nicht zur Entfaltung komme. Ihre Analyse und Bewertung dieses Forschungsfeldes erscheinen mir ebenso plausi bel wie stringent. Die Stosrichtung, fur die sie pladiert, unterstutze ich. In einigen Details der Ausrichtung der Forschung und ihrer Begrundung bin ich jedoch anderer Meinung. Drei davon mochte ich in Kurze aus (stadt-) anthropologischer Sicht ausfuhren.
Confronted with advancing resource frontiers, local communities increasingly rely on conflict to ... more Confronted with advancing resource frontiers, local communities increasingly rely on conflict to re-establish order in the face of problematic interdependences brought about by mining transactions. This article captures the interactions at national level that engender these interdependences in the first place. We explore how national actor groups influence emerging regularities of behaviour in mining through the example of gold mining in Kyrgyzstan – a fragile resource-dependent country divided by mining conflicts. For the analysis of these emerging patterns of behaviour, we focus on shared beliefs and norms that in interaction with perceived dimensions of transactions provide motivation to act. The identified regularities of behaviour help differentiate the otherwise crude dichotomy of conflict and cooperation, pointing to shades of conflicts. Mining conflicts in Kyrgyzstan are driven by profound structural factors that are rooted in weak governance, lack of institutional trust and...
This paper introduces the notion of 'phenomenography'. Phenomenography is an ethnographic... more This paper introduces the notion of 'phenomenography'. Phenomenography is an ethnographic research practice that attempts to combine practice-theoretical approaches (praxiography) to investigations of human-environment-technology relations with phenomenological perspectives on knowing and experiencing these relations. It is rooted within relational anthropology (Beck, 2008). The paper introduces a set of basic premises guiding phenomenography before relating four short empirical sequences, the analyses of which suggest specific analytical sensitivities: mind, brain and body in social interaction; knowledge and experience in psychiatric treatment; reproductive technologies in shaping sociality and kinship; (digital) infrastructures' impact on ways of being-in-the-world. The paper concludes by defining phenomenography as a co-laborative research practice that aims to curate concepts jointly with research partners and that aims to provide a new form of reflexivity within an...
Infrastrukturen waren lange Zeit Untersuchungs- und Gestaltungsobjekte der technischen Diszipline... more Infrastrukturen waren lange Zeit Untersuchungs- und Gestaltungsobjekte der technischen Disziplinen. Zwar vermitteln Infrastrukturen "reflection and action upon the world" und sind somit häufig unmittelbar verwickelt in das Ordnen menschlicher Interaktion und Praxis. Trotzdem hat sich die sozial- und kulturwissenschaftliche Forschung diesem Phänomen lange Zeit nicht produktiv gewidmet.
The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structure... more The concept of infrastructure refers to the embedded, often invisible technical support structures that help to deliver services to a population or organization, most commonly water, energy, and information. Infrastructures mediate human interaction and shape social organization. Anthropology has developed a relational perspective on infrastructures analyzing them as the ongoing interweaving of embodied social and political choices, moral orders, and technical networks. This approach has much to offer for anthropologists, because it is largely based on ethnographic research, shows a deep commitment to materiality as practice and provides a productive way of thinking through the changing relations of center and periphery. It is an area of research with important intersections into the information sciences and urban studies.
Review of the book "Cellular Phones, Public Fears and a Culture of Precaution" (by Adam... more Review of the book "Cellular Phones, Public Fears and a Culture of Precaution" (by Adam Burgess, 2004).
Interdisciplinarity is needed in order to address and solve the sustainability challenges of the ... more Interdisciplinarity is needed in order to address and solve the sustainability challenges of the twenty-first century. Telecoupling research is a clear response to this need. This chapter explores how, by being aware of the different modes and logics of interdisciplinary collaboration, telecoupling research can emerge as a flexible rather than a merely integrative interdisciplinary research framework. This chapter also illustrates how discussions around scale and distance in telecoupling research indicate how telecoupling research is striving for insights concerning global land-use change that are not reducible to understandings and definitions within either the natural or the social sciences. To encourage and facilitate this interdisciplinary process, this chapter argues that telecoupling research needs to not only focus on the how to of interdisciplinarity, but also actively focus on and discuss what political, economic or research logics drive the need for interdisciplinarity.
Transformation is a multi-faceted concept with various meanings and assumptions about desired hum... more Transformation is a multi-faceted concept with various meanings and assumptions about desired humanenvironment relationships and pathways towards the ideal (sustainable) society. We need a better understanding of the different positions that scientists assume when conducting research and becoming involved in transformations of human-environment systems. In this paper we begin such an analysis by exploring how researchers at the Humboldt-Universität’s Integrative Research Institute on Transformations of Human-Environment Systems (IRI THESys) position themselves within that research. Empirical work was conducted in three steps. First, a survey was carried out among the institute’s academic staff to explore the influence of ideology, their involvement in processes outside academia, the ways in which their research relates to transformations of human-environment systems, and the type of science that gives them more recognition in their peer groups or institutions. Second, the findings f...
Hautveränderungen (Dekubitus), die infolge von Druck, Feuchtigkeit, Reibungs- und Scherkräften en... more Hautveränderungen (Dekubitus), die infolge von Druck, Feuchtigkeit, Reibungs- und Scherkräften entstehen sind in der Versorgung von schwerstkranken und sterbenden Menschen eine der häufigsten Begleiterscheinungen. Menschen jeder Altersgruppe mit Minderungen in der Aktivität können einen Dekubitus erleiden. In der Palliativversorgung steht vor allem die Symptombehandlung zur Sicherstellung einer möglichst hohen Lebensqualität im Vordergrund. Ethische Kontroversen und schwierige Entscheidungsfindungen führen hierbei nicht selten zu Unsicherheiten und Belastungen bei Pflegenden, Patienten und Angehörigen. Im Projekt "DekuProSys" wird ein Dekubitus-Prophylaxe-System mit einem Echtzeit-Monitoring für Pflegende in der stationären und ambulanten Palliativversorgung entwickelt. Das System soll Risikofaktoren für Dekubitus erfassen und Pflegende in der Entscheidungsfindung über die Versorgung von Patienten unterstützen. Im Projekt wird nach einem nutzerzentrierten Ansatz entwickelt. Die Ergebnisse und Herausforderungen werden interdisziplinär diskutiert und Lösungsansätze erarbeitet. Ein Szenarien-Katalog mit konkreten Anwendungsbeispiele des Systems wurde entwickelt, um verschiedene Problemstellungen im Feld zu veranschaulichen. Daraus abgeleitete Anforderungen werden in Prototypen umgesetzt und iterativ mit Nutzern optimiert. Parallel wurde mithilfe des MEESTAR-Modells eine »Landkarte« ethisch relevanter Problemzusammenhänge erarbeitet, die im Hinblick auf die Gestaltung und die Funktionalität des Dekubitus-Prophylaxe-Systems einen Einfluss haben. Ethische Aspekte werden im Rahmen von Statusmeetings kontinuierlich reflektiert und in die Entwicklung mit einbezogen.
Tis paper introduces the notion of ‘phenomenography’. Phenomenography is an ethnographic research... more Tis paper introduces the notion of ‘phenomenography’. Phenomenography is an ethnographic research practice that attempts to combine practice-theoretical approaches (praxiography) to investigations of human-environment-technology relations with phenomenological perspectives on knowing and experiencing these relations. It is rooted within relational anthropology (Beck, 2008). Te paper introduces a set of basic premises guiding phenomenography before relating four short empirical sequences, the analyses of which suggest specifc analytical sensitivities: mind, brain and body in social interaction; knowledge and experience in psychiatric treatment; reproductive technologies in shaping sociality and kinship; (digital) infrastructures’ impact on ways of being-in-the-world. Te paper concludes by defning phenomenography as a co-laborative research practice that aims to curate concepts jointly with research partners and that aims to provide a new form of refexivity within anthropology.
Perceived by many as one of the most promising areas within the emerging practice of molecular me... more Perceived by many as one of the most promising areas within the emerging practice of molecular medicine, gene therapy combines expertise from genetics, molecular biology, clinical medicine and human genomics. The Human Genome Project broadly defines gene therapy as "a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development". 1 These techniques include primarily the insertion but also the substitution, repair or regulation of genetic material. Gene therapy relies and draws heavily on our rapidly expanding knowledge of the role of gene-gene and gene-environment interactions in the pathogenesis of many diseases [1,2]. Newly emerging disciplines such as bioinformatics, and innovative technologies such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) (see Fairhurst, this volume) are beginning to provide invaluable information on gene expression in vivo. This helps to identify inherited or acquired genetic deficiencies and to reveal their (dys)functionality in disease, thereby isolating potential targets for intervention. Linking these knowledges with other findings in molecular biology, biochemistry and material science continually improves our understanding of cellular genomic and metabolic processes. These developments may one day enable the causal treatment of many diseases at the genetic level. Open any textbook on molecular medicine and gene therapy and you will find a long list of diseases which, the authors promise, will be treated directly or indirectly by means of gene therapy, e. g. cardiovascular diseases, liver diseases, neurological and haematological disorders, cancer, HIV infection and certain forms of arthritis. These are all major diseases that inflict serious pain on patients, often correlate with a range of co-morbidities and in many cases significantly reduce life expectancy or disabilityadjusted life years, respectively, while also presenting a substantial financial burden on national health budgets especially in the industrialised world. Being able to treat these diseases at their roots, in many ways would introduce a new era in medical practice. Rather than focusing on dealing with downstream symptoms, often using rather unspecific drugs, gene therapy may enable clinicians to operate far upstream
We adopted a comparative approach to evaluate and extend a generic methodology to analyse the dif... more We adopted a comparative approach to evaluate and extend a generic methodology to analyse the different knowledges held about chemical hazards in the workplace. Our study mapped existing knowledge structures of the risks associated with the use of perchloroethylene and rosin-based solder flux, in differing workplaces. 'Influence diagrams' were used to represent beliefs held by chemical experts, while 'user models'
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Books by Jörg Niewöhner
Contributors are Katrin Amelang, Stefan Beck, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Alexander Kozin, Henriette Langstrup, Jörg Niewöhner, Thomas Scheffer, Robert Schmidt, Estrid Sørensen, and Britt Ross Winthereik."
Papers by Jörg Niewöhner
Contributors are Katrin Amelang, Stefan Beck, Kati Hannken-Illjes, Alexander Kozin, Henriette Langstrup, Jörg Niewöhner, Thomas Scheffer, Robert Schmidt, Estrid Sørensen, and Britt Ross Winthereik."