1,720,987 research outputs found

    Constitution of the market through social media: Dialogical co-production of medicine in a virtual health community organization

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    This research explores new systems of marketing, and new roles and relationships of organizations and consumers developing in healthcare as a result of transformations occurring in technology, consumer/marketer value systems, forms of discourse and institutional roles. Inspired by observations from a Medicine 2.0 community organization, which turn social networking into a business phenomenon – PatientsLikeMe (PLM) – I explore how such systems develop and function and the institutionalizations that reconstitute roles and maintain relationships among actors in these systems through netnographic research. That is, (1) why and how patients in PLM participate in the social co-production of medical knowledge and experience, and (2) how the ‘community’ organizes roles and relations, and institutionalize ‘sharing’ in healthcare where privacy dominates relations. Findings articulate a dialogical approach to organizing roles and relations with the dilution of provisioning in this co-mediated market system, which reflects collaborative, connective and communal relations built on dialogues among diverse healthcare actors. From a theoretical vantage point, Foucauldian notions of biopower and govern-mentality are reconsidered in order to articulate why and how such a system may be attracting healthcare actors and maintain their interest and sharing in this community

    Platformization of COVID and the Rise of Biosocial Surveillance

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    The emergence of participatory medicine and patient-generated medical research and knowledge is gaining more traction, especially with the current global health crisis. Digital platform organizations bring together diverse market actors for partnership for the creation and distribution of aggregate medical data and find cures for diseases, hence challenging the conventional medical knowledge production and disease control. In this paper, I articulate how such platformization of patient/citizen-led medical research and disease control is organized and sustained through Foucauldian notion of biopower and Rabinow’s concept of biosociality to then draw attention to what I call biosocial surveillance, which is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s risk society. Indeed, global exacerbation of the Covid-19 pandemic pushes us to rethink the conventional slow-moving medical discovery and surveillance processes driven by dominant macro-institutions, and how the patient-citizen increasingly becomes an active partner of the surveillance of this pandemic together with macro institutions. I conclude with the limits and risks of biosocial surveillance through diverse platforms while acknowledging their efforts for a more democratized and accessible patient care and citizen-led medical research

    Social Production of Medicine in a Virtual Health Community Organization

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    International audienceThis research explores new systems of marketing developing as a result of transformations in technology (Web 2.0), consumer/marketer value systems, forms of discourse and institutional roles, and provides insights into developments in healthcare provision through a netnographic inquiry of a web-based Medicine 2.0 community organization, patientslikeme.com (PLM). I attract attention to the meso level legitimation processes that develop and maintain these new forms of interaction, and enable people’s participation in sharing their private health data and experiences. Theoretically, I point to (1) the shift from government intervention to the multitude of diverse healthcare actors in organizing sharing of private health information and negotiating meanings of privacy/disclosure through non-dominating discursive regimes, and (2) (re)institutionalization of surveillance in healthcare through clinical research and multilevel connectedness among healthcare actors enabled by PLM.<br/

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed

    Variations on the Author

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    “Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship

    Symbolic and Experiential Consumption of Body in Virtual Worlds : From (Dis)embodiment to Symembodiment

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    International audienceThis study examines the symbolic meanings of the body concept in a virtual world called Second Life (SL). Using audio-visual approach to netnography, we investigate the ways in which consumers are involved in SL, the meanings attached to their avatars, the process of (re)constructing their avatars, and the experiences lived through their avatars. In light of our findings, we draw attention to the conceptualization of body as experience, which brings the enhancement in the perception of body as a means of self-presentation to experiencing the body for the sake of the body. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of symembodiment as a means of articulating the presence of body in SL and reemphasizing the non-resolvable embodiment/disembodiment paradox of the body in the virtual world.<br/

    Symbolic and Experiential Consumption of Body in Virtual Worlds: from (Dis)Embodiment to Symembodiment

    No full text
    This study examines the symbolic meanings of the body concept in a virtual world called Second Life (SL). Using audio-visual approach to netnography, we investigate the ways in which consumers are involved in SL, the meanings attached to their avatars, the process of (re)constructing their avatars, and the experiences lived through their avatars. In light of our findings, we draw attention to the conceptualization of body as experience, which brings the enhancement in the perception of body as a means of self-presentation to experiencing the body for the sake of the body. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of symembodiment as a means of articulating the presence of body in SL and reemphasizing the non-resolvable embodiment/disembodiment paradox of the body in the virtual world

    Re-imagining the utopian: Transformation of a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages

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    This research elucidates the transformative nature of sustainable lifestyles in ecovillages as ostensibly utopian spaces. Using archival data from several ecovillages, in-depth interviews with ecovillage residents, and participatory observations made at the EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), New York, and Imeceevi, Turkey, the article explains the processes by which utopian ideals are re-imagined and re-configured based on the social configuration of the sustainable lifestyle. The findings suggest that consumers organize alternative life modes in their quest to explore and internalize environmentally sustainable lifestyles in multi-faceted ideological fields. The study documents the transformation of ecovillages from intentional to incidentally utopian communities where residents equally prioritize and contest relational sustainability. Drawing on these findings, the article also presents public policy implications on new educational programs and sharing economy
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