Deborah Heath

Nodes and Queries Linking Locations in Networked Fields of Inquiry

This article, based on a collaborative research project on genetic knowledge production, examines the relations between on- and off-line field sites related to three heritable diseases: epidermolysis bullosa, chondrodysplasia, and Marfan syndrome. Field sites include the Web sites, listservs, and chat rooms run by lay health advocacy groups and biomedical professionals as well laboratories, clinics, and support groups meetings. The analysis uses the notion of location work, and the concept of the node that links different elements in a network, in describing a relational approach to multisited ethnography. The article presents three case studies that examine shifting locations between online and face-to-face relations, hyperlinks as a metaphor for interactive knowledge production, and the process of negotiating a networked ethics.

The Naturecultures of Foie Gras

Abstract Based on our fieldwork with foie gras producers in the United States and France, this paper examines the relations among social, technical and nonhuman animal worlds in foie gras production. Expanding Mausss classic conception of “techniques of the body” to include techniques that link animal and human bodies, we consider insights from science studies scholars like Haraway, Latour and Goodman. Posing the question of whether foie gras is natural or pathological, we juxtapose those who view foie gras production as the apotheosis of murderous meat production, and those who consider it to be a co-production between humans and animals, one that needs to be guided by an “ethics of care.” Inspired in part by Temple Grandins concept of humane slaughter, this ethics of care necessarily considers the wellbeing of animal and human co-producers, along with food safety and quality, as equally important foci for examining animal food production.