Bernike Pasveer

Embodiment and disembodiment in childbirth narratives

In this article, our concern is to describe how body(ies) and self are performed in women’s birth narratives through the mediation of a number of significant elements, including technical devices. We will show how, in these narratives, (1) action is distributed among a series of actants, including professionals and technology; (2) that dichotomies appear which cannot be reduced to one of body/mind, but are more adequately described in terms of ‘body-in-labour’/’embodied self’, each of them being locally performed through the mediation of medical practices, knowledge and technologies, the definition of these elements and of their relations being specific to each obstetrical configuration; (3) that part of professionals’ activities is devoted to the detailed management of the articulation between the body-in-labour and the embodied self, and to monitoring their joint transformations.

Gene-talk and sport-talk: A talk from the radical middle ground

Abstract In this paper, we explore and reflect critically on what elite sport may expect or fear from genetic technologies. In particular, we explore the language in which we (where ‘‘we’’ denotes scientists, sports scientists, the media, sports coaches, academics) tend to speak about genetics, elite sport, and the human body – we call this language ‘‘gene-talk’’ – which imagines the world of elite sport as one in which genes were always dominant in athletic performance. The dominant question here seems to be whether what is thought to be possible ought to be, and can be realized. We unpack the question by asking whether the practices needed for genetics to intervene so powerfully in elite sport exist in the straightforward and uncomplicated manner that the ‘‘gene-talk’’ literature seems to suggest. We argue that there is a lack of relevant studies to support and analyse the notion of sports performance as an immensely rich and complex practice.We conclude that elite sport may be more complex and heterogeneous than ‘‘gene-talk’’ has imagined to date.

A house for knowledge: using metaphors to guide knowledge sharing and learning in development organisations

This article is based on the authors two-year period of designing and facilitating a knowledge sharing and learning process at the Radio Netherlands Training Centre (RNTC). This process was aimed at providing more effective internal sharing and learning. Based on this experience, an approach has been developed for making more visible the intangibles surrounding knowledge and learning within organisations. This approach is based on the metaphor of a ‘house of knowledge.’ Following the introduction, the metaphor of the ‘house of knowledge’ is described, together with the different components of the approach involving rooms and corridors. Next, the two main phases of work within RNTC are reviewed, namely the diagnostic scan and the transformation process. The example of the RNTC process is then used to reach some general conclusions on issues of importance to knowledge sharing and learning for other development organisations.

The particularity of dignity: relational engagement in care at the end of life

This paper articulates dignity as relational engagement in concrete care situations. Dignity is often understood as an abstract principle that represents inherent worth of all human beings. In actual care practices, this principle has to be substantiated in order to gain meaning and inform care activities. We describe three exemplary substantiations of the principle of dignity in care: as a state or characteristic of a situation; as a way to differentiate between socio-cultural positions; or as personal meaning. We continue our analysis by presenting cases on dignity in care related to us in focus groups with medical professionals. Our empirical ethical lens is in this paper is to analyse, not the meaning of dignity, but the way in which it emerges in practices where it is pursued, within relationships between people, technologies, places, regulations, and the values cherished by or embedded in them. We show that professional caregivers recognize in the dignity of the person they care for their own dignity; giving up on the one implies no less than giving up on the other. This ‘mirrored experience’ of dignity expresses itself in professional’s engagement with the situation. The value of this engagement, we argue, lies not primarily in realizing the particular content of the values at stake. We point to the importance of engagement itself, even if the values engaged with cannot be realized to the full, and even if competing versions of dignity are at stake simultaneously. In this way the caregivers provide us with interesting examples of moral actorship in situations of conflicting values.

Communication of Science, Communication in Science

The Panel, organised by CERFE, was focused on the changing role and features of science communication. Roffi, the moderator of the discussion, held in his introduction that science communication is to be viewed as a key component of the European research policies so that a deeper effort for its promotion is required. d’Andrea, in his speech, stressed that new models of science communication – based on assumptions different from those underpinning the Public Understanding of Science model - should be developed, also taking into account simultaneously what he termed “communication of science” and “communication in science”. In this perspective, a multiple-component model of science communication, which includes communication with different categories of actors was outlined. Pasveer dealt with the main current trends in scientific knowledge production, how they affect scientific communication and which “paradoxes” they produce. Bufon’s intervention was dedicated to the need for an ever increasing integration of science with the public, on the one hand, and within the various scientific communities, on the other. In this framework, he also defined a set of actions needed for promoting this integration