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Connections between Health, Science, and Technology: What Does Anthropology Have to Do With It?

 Hellen Caetano  November 12, 2024

Este conteúdo também está disponível em português.

As I became acquainted with social studies of science and technology, particularly through anthropological research, I realized it opened new doors for me, offering fresh perspectives and new possibilities for conducting scientific research. During my graduate studies, I sought to bring together two fields that had always intrigued me: the anthropology of health and the social studies of science and technology. In recent years, I have focused specifically on the regulation of cannabis derivatives for therapeutic use in Brazil. This topic, which naturally sparks heated debates and strong opinions, is fraught with controversies (Latour, 2012), especially regarding cannabis’s historical role, nationally and internationally, as both a recreational drug and a medicine. To delve deeper into these controversies, I decided to conduct research that would focus on public health discourses and scientific practice around cannabis, incorporating the Brazilian debate on public safety. The discussion of health and public safety is deeply tied to the unique position cannabis holds in Brazil. When legislators or civil society engage in debates about cannabis, distinctions between recreational and therapeutic uses often blur. One form of use tends to receive greater moral acceptance, while the other is frequently disqualified. Thus, any conversation about regulating cannabis as a health technology must consider its social and political classifications and the perceptions surrounding it. (read more...)

High Costs, Entangled Politics: What All Comes Inside a Medication’s Packaging

 Lucas Nishida  November 21, 2023

Este conteúdo também está disponível em português.

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On October 17th, 2023, two news articles about the Brazilian federal budget circulated on social media. One announced the freezing of R$116 million (US$23.3 million) from the budget of CAPES, the national agency responsible for fostering the training of scientists in Brazil. The other reported that a mere three drugs for rare diseases had accounted for an amount of R$575 million (US$115.6 million) in annual federal spending. These two budgets belong to different departments, and the spending in one does not have a direct connection to the cuts in the other. Furthermore, neither the cuts in science nor the expenses of high-cost drugs are a novelty, but rather issues that frequently appear in the news. However, the coincidence of these news stories circulating on the same day allows us to use them as anecdotes to consider the relationships between the state, science, technology, the pharmaceutical industry, economic dependency, and global circulation. (read more...)

Some Chloroquine-AZT Parallels and Science’s Credibility Struggles

 Larissa Costa Duarte  June 22, 2020

 Este conteúdo também está disponível em português.

As an anthropologist and STS researcher, a great deal of my academic career has been proudly dedicated to studying and denouncing the bias, inequalities, and prejudice within both scientific and medical practices. Such critique, far from intending to undermine scientific credibility, comes from a place of deep respect, trust, and, I dare say, great optimism regarding what kind of project we have for science in the long term: one where knowledge is comprehensive and accessible, and where expertise is not build upon the concealment of information. (read more...)

Tweaking Narratives of War

 Lina Pinto García  December 4, 2018

Este contenido está disponible en español aquí.

Stories of war and violence have permeated the daily life of Colombians for more than half a century. However, in the last decade, the voices and narratives about the armed conflict have diversified and expanded significantly. This is mainly due to the institutionalization of remembrance processes, civil society initiatives, and the opportunities opened up by the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Although these actions still fall short of the effort needed for a fuller reconciliation, they have introduced, little by little, profound changes in the ways in which society and the state remember the war, understand the armed conflict, recognize their victims, and seek to transform the past and present of violence. (read more...)