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- Convenor:
-
Tanya King
(Deakin University)
Send message to Convenor
- Format:
- Panel
- Stream:
- Sui Generis
- Location:
- NIKERI KC2.214
- Sessions:
- Thursday 24 November, -
Time zone: Australia/Melbourne
Short Abstract:
The Sui Generis panel brings together papers that respond to the notion of 'Life Support' from varied points of view and environments.
Long Abstract:
The Australian Anthropology Society's 2022 conference invites contributions that respond to the notion of 'Life Support'. This theme draws our attention to the principles, processes, activities, and ideologies of humans and non-humans who variously foster, care for, legitimise, frustrate, and explicitly reject particular forms of life. 'Life support' is ambivalent. It evokes the discipline's focus on mutually-constituted lived experience, and the ethical drive of many disciplinary practitioners to work in support, advocacy, and activism, as well as the status of the discipline as one in search of a thriving future. Through this theme we invite panels, papers, events, provocations and performances that explore the strengths, gaps and frailties of anthropology as a practice, a discipline, a legacy, a strategy, a tool, a trope, and as a life.
'Life Support' evokes the institutions and technical apparatus that are increasingly necessary for survival at a range of scales, from the microscopic to the global. It suggests processes and situations at their beginnings and ends, the etiology of triage, entropy and palliative care, of birth, (re)creation and transubstantiation.
The theme is intentionally provocative and the conference organisers therefore also welcome contributions that critique ideas of 'life support,' including in relation to their associations with colonial histories of exploitation and pastoral care. We also welcome papers that do not explicitly speak to the theme but reflect research in the field.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Wednesday 23 November, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
This paper examines how political capital can be enhanced through social networks and expertise to navigate the direction of power flows. It argues that political capital as a dimension of power exertion is visible through collective actions to influence health systems and service delivery.
Paper long abstract:
Like any social institutions, health systems place actors and people at the core, and are shaped by power dynamics that underlie societal interactions. Recognising how individuals, groups, organisations and networks derive their power is critical to unpack how and why power flows in particular directions as well as how it might be used to promote equity-oriented health systems. Different forms or expressions of power interact one another to shape political priorities and policy trajectories. Drawing from a 10-months place-based research in Bali Province, this paper argues the emergence of epistemic communities, an interlinked and organised networks of local NGOs and academia, as a new key actor in the practice of health system strengthening. This section raises the concern that these partnerships in one hand improve local research capacity and program implementation, but on the other hand is also an effective measure for power acquisition to deploy control over local research agenda, health systems programming and interventions. This paper examines how political capital can be enhanced through social networks, expertise and economic resources to navigate the direction of power flows. It argues that political capital as a dimension of power exertion is visible through collective actions to influence health systems and service delivery.
Paper long abstract:
The extent of our physical ability and cultural development is determined by our brain and its associated neural network. In anthropology, biological anthropology deals with our human brain, as a biological component, whereas social (cultural) anthropology deals with our culture and ignores the brain most of the time. There seems to be a gap between these two parts of anthropology. In order to answer this question, Daniel H. Lende and Greg Downey, about a decade ago, proposed a new path of study within anthropology, named 'Neuroanthropology', that sought to bridge the gap between biology and culture in anthropology by keeping the brain at the centre. Neuroanthropology believes that our brains not only influence our culture but our culture influences our brains as well, in a cyclic process. This article provides an insight into Neuroanthropology, how it came into being and how it can be used in academics as a tool in order to give us a better understanding of ourselves. It also highlights the fair share of criticisms and obstacles it faces and what lies in the future for neuroanthropology.
Paper short abstract:
During the pandemic, doctors played as life support by sacrificing themselves as a shield between the pandemic and the public health; nevertheless, after the enormous effort they have been alienated from the society as well as family and have encountered and negotiated with unprecedented realities.
Paper long abstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has ushered in a new era for humanity, one that is both unprecedented and challenging. To address this challenge, doctors sacrificed themselves as a shield between the coronavirus and the crisis of public survival. They're combating the coronavirus and delivering health care support to the general public, so their role has appeared as life support in society. This article will focus on the doctors' experiences during the pandemic through encounters and negotiations. A multi-sited ethnographic approach was used in this study, as well as netnography, online and physical interviews were conducted as research methods. This study attempted to explore the experiences of doctors using the theoretical frameworks of alienation theory. The findings of this study revealed that in the context of Bangladeshi doctors, high levels of work stress, completing obligations without assuring proper safety equipment, and living in uncertainty have damaged their mental and physical health, as well as that of their families. Furthermore, because they physically serve individuals, they are referred to as COVID-19 carriers, which has alienated them from society. Therefore, the doctors haven’t only been facing the pandemic situation but have also been encountering and negotiating with several unprecedented social stigmas since the contamination has seen an upturn. The doctors performed their duties as a life support system for the masses, but their efforts alienated them from the society in which they had been serving since the pandemic began.