Varieties of Biosocial Imagination

Reframing Responses to Climate Change and Antibiotic Resistance

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5337149
AutoresNick Lee (0009-0000-4635-7708, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK), Johanna Motzkau (0000-0002-8956-9011, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK)
Año2013
Volumen38
Número4
Páginas447-469
Fecha de publicación2013-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243912451498
OpenAlexW2151825714
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas18
Referencias citadas35

The authors present climate change and antibiotic resistance as emergent biosocial phenomena-ongoing products of massively multiple interactions among human lifestyles and broader life processes. They argue that response to climate change and antibiotic resistance is often framed by two varieties of biosocial imagination. Anthropocentric imaginations privilege the question of human distinctiveness. Anthropomorphic imaginations privilege the question of whether biosocial processes can be modeled in terms of centers of moral and causal responsibility. Together, these frame the matter of response in terms of deliberate human action. The authors argue that, considered as emergent biosocial phenomena, climate change and antibiotic resistance "diffract" deliberate human action and thus limit the value of this frame by rendering the human/nonhuman and intended/nonintended distinctions that are crucial to its practical operation locally irrelevant. Alternative biosocial imaginations currently developing around climate change and antibiotic resistance that allow for "diffraction" and therefore frame response differently are considered

Anthropocentrism · Biology · Biosocial theory · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Personality · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Innovation, Sustainability, Human-Machine Systems · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology · Ecology