Nolwenn Buhler
Biographic Data
| ID | 333034 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nolwenn Buhler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nolwenn |
| FAMILY NAME | Buhler |
| SIGNATURE | BUHLER N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lausanne |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2941-8032 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 12 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 24 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Health systems governance, shocks and resilience
INTRODUCTION: It is often argued that health system resilience to shocks is influenced by governance. Multiple theoretical perspectives seemed to have emerged in the literature, but there has been limited analysis of their foundation and implications so far. To address this gap, the aim of this paper is to carry out a scoping review of conceptualisation and theories on the definition and relationship between governance and health system resilienc…
Health-Related Expertise in the Digital Age
Special Issue "Health-Related Expertise in the Digital Age: Reconfigurations and Redistributions", guest edited by Sandra Bärnreuther, Nolwenn Bühler and Giada Danesi
Doing Health in the Clinical Research Centre
Health examinations are an essential part of cohort studies: questionnaires are filled in, biological samples drawn, bodies weighed and measured, their capacities and functions tested. Drawing on an ethnography of these clinical encounters, in the context of a population-based environmental health cohort in Switzerland, I describe the choreography of data production and how it blurs the boundary between healthcare and scientific research. In cont…
Between data providers and concerned citizens
This empirical article explores the dynamics of exchange and reciprocity between cohorters, that is, study organizers, and cohortees, that is, study participants. Drawing on literature on bioeconomy and valuation, we analyze cohortees’ expectations in return for the “clinical labor” they perform in the pilot phase of a Swiss precision public health study. Based on an ethnography of this cohort and data from seven focus groups with cohortees ( n =…
Willingness to participate in a personalized health cohort – insights from the swiss health study pilot phase
Overall, the study reveals a positive attitude towards personalized health research, with a strong willingness to share data and samples. Key insights focus the meaning of informed consent for participation, the relevance of sampling and representativeness, as well as the significance and challenges of personalized feedback, especially regarding environmental health concerns. Findings emphasize participants' supportive yet reflexive stances, unde…
Les pesticides, un risque pour la santé
Cet article se penche sur la façon dont les incertitudes et la confusion liées au danger des pesticides pour la santé se construisent au quotidien chez les professionnel·les agricoles du canton de Vaud (Suisse). S'appuyant sur les études de la ' fabrique de l'ignorance ' (Counil & Henry, 2016 ; Dedieu, 2022), l'article propose d'étudier le rôle des agriculteur·rices dans le maintien de la confusion autour de la toxicité de ces produits. En mettan…
Enjeux et défis d’une ethnographie embarquée en santé publiqueLe cas de SociocoViD durant la pandémie en Suisse
Quelle place pour l’anthropologie en temps de crise sanitaire ? Cet article propose d’aborder cette question en retraçant la naissance et le développement de SociocoViD, un projet d’anthropologie médicale développé dans le cadre d’une collaboration interdisciplinaire avec une équipe d’épidémiologistes et de médecins spécialisés en médecine sociale, dans le Canton de Vaud en Suisse. L’objectif de cet article est de mettre en lumière les différents…
Prevalence of Sars-CoV-2 infection and associated risk factors among asylum seekers living in asylum centres
Despite the lack of severe complications of Covid-19 disease in this study, findings suggest that developing targeted public health measures, especially for the low health literacy population, would be necessary to limit the risk of outbreaks in asylum centres and improve this population's safety. Further investigations and qualitative approach are required to understand more finely how living conditions, risks and behaviours such as tobacco cons…
Precision public health in the making
Expanding the concept of "precision" or "personalized" medicine, personalized health and precision public health designate the use of various kinds of data-genomic, other omics, clinical, or those produced by individuals themselves through self-tracking-to optimize health interventions benefiting the whole population. This paper draws on an ethnography of the implementation of a population-based environmental health cohort to shed light on the re…
Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services
Global anthropogenic environmental degradations such as climate change are increasingly recognized as critical public health issues, on which human beings should urgently act in order to preserve sustainable conditions of living on Earth. “Planetary Health” is a breakthrough concept and emerging research field based on the recognition of the interdependent relationships between living organisms—both human and non-human—and their ecosystems. In th…
Powering life through MitoTechnologies
Mitochondria, the organelles providing the cell with energy, have recently gained greater public visibility in the UK and beyond, through the introduction of two reproductive technologies which involve their manipulation, specifically ‘mitochondrial donation’ to prevent the maternal transmission of inherited disorders, and ‘Augment’ to improve egg quality and fertility. Focusing on these two ‘MitoTechnologies’ and mobilising the conceptual framew…
The ‘good’ of extending fertility
Since the emergence of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a specific set of technologies has been developed to address the problem of the 'biological clock'. The medical extension of fertility time is accompanied by promissory narratives to help women synchronize conflicting biological and social temporalities. This possibility also has a transgressive potential by blurring one of the biological landmarks - the menopause - by which reproductive lives …
La production biomédicale d’enfants
International audience
The making of ‘old eggs’
Caring During Covid-19
COVID-19 caused major changes in private and public arenas. Individuals were forced to reorganise their daily lives in response to the restrictive measures imposed by governments. The redistribution of gender roles and the responsibility for care provides an example of the reconfigurations that took place during the pandemic. This article sheds light on the implications of the pandemic for gender inequalities by exploring how care work was reconf…
En quête d’éthique
Dieses Dokument ist die Übersetzung des Artikels “Searching for Ethics: Legal requirements and empirical issues for anthropology” (Perrin et al. 2018). Es analysiert die neuen gesetzlichen Bestimmungen, die sich auf qualitative Forschungspraktiken auswirken und zur Institutionalisierung der Forschungsethik in den Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften in der Schweiz beitragen. Der Beitrag zeichnet die Entstehung neuer Formen der Forschungsregulierung …
Commentary 1
Reproduction research
Searching for Ethics
This paper analyses the new legal provisions impacting qualitative research practices and contributing to the institutionalization of research ethics in Switzerland. After contextualizing the emergence of new forms of research regulation, it shows how their epistemological assumptions challenge anthropology. It then explores the issues related to the articulation between procedural ethics and processual ethics. Finally, it discusses the different…
Procréation médicalement assistée
La procréation médicalement assistée (PMA) ouvre les processus biologiques de la procréation à l’intervention médicale et à la contribution biologique de tiers. Elle implique une technologisation croissante des processus de création de la vie humaine et leur inscription dans un marché globalisé. L’anthropologie est outillée pour aborder des questionnements soulevés par la PMA : transformations de la parentalité, place de la génétique, exploitatio…
"Ontological Choreography" as an Ethnographic Tool
In this article the term "ontological choreography", coined by Charis Thompson, is used as a heuristic analytical device to grasp the different realities of reproductive technologies. The question is addressed as to whether this ethnographic tool is fruitful for understanding the making of families by heterosexual people and LGBTQ. Three case studies from a research project on fertility and family in the context of assisted reproduction in Switze…
Imagining the Future of Motherhood
This article examines the ways in which the genealogical model is mobilized, challenged and / or reinforced in imaginaries related to the possibility of medically assisting the extension of female fertility and the making of older mothers. By focusing on public discourses on egg donation and egg freezing procedures, it shows firstly how oocytes may become active and visible elements in the production of genetic continuity in the female line, in c…
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Ovules vieillissants, mères sans âge? Infertilité féminine et recours au don d’ovocytes en Suisse
Cette contribution 1 examine l’impact des possibilités d’extension de la fertilité féminine ouvertes par le don d’ovocytes sur les significations de l’« âge limite de la maternité », dans le contexte suisse où cette technique est interdite. En me focalisant sur les expériences de femmes recourant au don d’ovocytes en cas d’infertilité liée à l’âge, je montrerai comment cette technique ouvre un espace de contestation et de négociation des limites …
Ovules vieillissants, mères sans âge? Infertilité féminine et recours au don d’ovocytes en Suisse
Cette contribution 1 examine l’impact des possibilités d’extension de la fertilité féminine ouvertes par le don d’ovocytes sur les significations de l’« âge limite de la maternité », dans le contexte suisse où cette technique est interdite. En me focalisant sur les expériences de femmes recourant au don d’ovocytes en cas d’infertilité liée à l’âge, je montrerai comment cette technique ouvre un espace de contestation et de négociation des limites …
Caring During Covid-19
COVID-19 caused major changes in private and public arenas. Individuals were forced to reorganise their daily lives in response to the restrictive measures imposed by governments. The redistribution of gender roles and the responsibility for care provides an example of the reconfigurations that took place during the pandemic. This article sheds light on the implications of the pandemic for gender inequalities by exploring how care work was reconf…
Imagining the Future of Motherhood
This article examines the ways in which the genealogical model is mobilized, challenged and / or reinforced in imaginaries related to the possibility of medically assisting the extension of female fertility and the making of older mothers. By focusing on public discourses on egg donation and egg freezing procedures, it shows firstly how oocytes may become active and visible elements in the production of genetic continuity in the female line, in c…
Les pesticides, un risque pour la santé
Cet article se penche sur la façon dont les incertitudes et la confusion liées au danger des pesticides pour la santé se construisent au quotidien chez les professionnel·les agricoles du canton de Vaud (Suisse). S'appuyant sur les études de la ' fabrique de l'ignorance ' (Counil & Henry, 2016 ; Dedieu, 2022), l'article propose d'étudier le rôle des agriculteur·rices dans le maintien de la confusion autour de la toxicité de ces produits. En mettan…
Precision public health in the making
Expanding the concept of "precision" or "personalized" medicine, personalized health and precision public health designate the use of various kinds of data-genomic, other omics, clinical, or those produced by individuals themselves through self-tracking-to optimize health interventions benefiting the whole population. This paper draws on an ethnography of the implementation of a population-based environmental health cohort to shed light on the re…
The making of ‘old eggs’
Reproduction research
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Ovules vieillissants, mères sans âge? Infertilité féminine et recours au don d’ovocytes en Suisse
Cette contribution 1 examine l’impact des possibilités d’extension de la fertilité féminine ouvertes par le don d’ovocytes sur les significations de l’« âge limite de la maternité », dans le contexte suisse où cette technique est interdite. En me focalisant sur les expériences de femmes recourant au don d’ovocytes en cas d’infertilité liée à l’âge, je montrerai comment cette technique ouvre un espace de contestation et de négociation des limites …
"Ontological Choreography" as an Ethnographic Tool
In this article the term "ontological choreography", coined by Charis Thompson, is used as a heuristic analytical device to grasp the different realities of reproductive technologies. The question is addressed as to whether this ethnographic tool is fruitful for understanding the making of families by heterosexual people and LGBTQ. Three case studies from a research project on fertility and family in the context of assisted reproduction in Switze…
Imagining the Future of Motherhood
This article examines the ways in which the genealogical model is mobilized, challenged and / or reinforced in imaginaries related to the possibility of medically assisting the extension of female fertility and the making of older mothers. By focusing on public discourses on egg donation and egg freezing procedures, it shows firstly how oocytes may become active and visible elements in the production of genetic continuity in the female line, in c…
Making Kinship in Switzerland and Beyond
This special issue deals with the making of kinship through medical, political, affective, and legal technologies. While this primarily refers to the creation of kinship through medically assisted reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization or gamete donation, it also includes further techniques of making kinship such as marriages, the establishment of so-called ‘donor siblingship’, and more general ways of creating belonging and an …
Procréation médicalement assistée
La procréation médicalement assistée (PMA) ouvre les processus biologiques de la procréation à l’intervention médicale et à la contribution biologique de tiers. Elle implique une technologisation croissante des processus de création de la vie humaine et leur inscription dans un marché globalisé. L’anthropologie est outillée pour aborder des questionnements soulevés par la PMA : transformations de la parentalité, place de la génétique, exploitatio…
Searching for Ethics
This paper analyses the new legal provisions impacting qualitative research practices and contributing to the institutionalization of research ethics in Switzerland. After contextualizing the emergence of new forms of research regulation, it shows how their epistemological assumptions challenge anthropology. It then explores the issues related to the articulation between procedural ethics and processual ethics. Finally, it discusses the different…
Commentary 1
Reproduction research
En quête d’éthique
Dieses Dokument ist die Übersetzung des Artikels “Searching for Ethics: Legal requirements and empirical issues for anthropology” (Perrin et al. 2018). Es analysiert die neuen gesetzlichen Bestimmungen, die sich auf qualitative Forschungspraktiken auswirken und zur Institutionalisierung der Forschungsethik in den Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften in der Schweiz beitragen. Der Beitrag zeichnet die Entstehung neuer Formen der Forschungsregulierung …
La production biomédicale d’enfants
International audience
The making of ‘old eggs’
Caring During Covid-19
COVID-19 caused major changes in private and public arenas. Individuals were forced to reorganise their daily lives in response to the restrictive measures imposed by governments. The redistribution of gender roles and the responsibility for care provides an example of the reconfigurations that took place during the pandemic. This article sheds light on the implications of the pandemic for gender inequalities by exploring how care work was reconf…
Translating Planetary Health Principles Into Sustainable Primary Care Services
Global anthropogenic environmental degradations such as climate change are increasingly recognized as critical public health issues, on which human beings should urgently act in order to preserve sustainable conditions of living on Earth. “Planetary Health” is a breakthrough concept and emerging research field based on the recognition of the interdependent relationships between living organisms—both human and non-human—and their ecosystems. In th…
Powering life through MitoTechnologies
Mitochondria, the organelles providing the cell with energy, have recently gained greater public visibility in the UK and beyond, through the introduction of two reproductive technologies which involve their manipulation, specifically ‘mitochondrial donation’ to prevent the maternal transmission of inherited disorders, and ‘Augment’ to improve egg quality and fertility. Focusing on these two ‘MitoTechnologies’ and mobilising the conceptual framew…
The ‘good’ of extending fertility
Since the emergence of in-vitro fertilization (IVF), a specific set of technologies has been developed to address the problem of the 'biological clock'. The medical extension of fertility time is accompanied by promissory narratives to help women synchronize conflicting biological and social temporalities. This possibility also has a transgressive potential by blurring one of the biological landmarks - the menopause - by which reproductive lives …
Enjeux et défis d’une ethnographie embarquée en santé publiqueLe cas de SociocoViD durant la pandémie en Suisse
Quelle place pour l’anthropologie en temps de crise sanitaire ? Cet article propose d’aborder cette question en retraçant la naissance et le développement de SociocoViD, un projet d’anthropologie médicale développé dans le cadre d’une collaboration interdisciplinaire avec une équipe d’épidémiologistes et de médecins spécialisés en médecine sociale, dans le Canton de Vaud en Suisse. L’objectif de cet article est de mettre en lumière les différents…
Prevalence of Sars-CoV-2 infection and associated risk factors among asylum seekers living in asylum centres
Despite the lack of severe complications of Covid-19 disease in this study, findings suggest that developing targeted public health measures, especially for the low health literacy population, would be necessary to limit the risk of outbreaks in asylum centres and improve this population's safety. Further investigations and qualitative approach are required to understand more finely how living conditions, risks and behaviours such as tobacco cons…
Precision public health in the making
Expanding the concept of "precision" or "personalized" medicine, personalized health and precision public health designate the use of various kinds of data-genomic, other omics, clinical, or those produced by individuals themselves through self-tracking-to optimize health interventions benefiting the whole population. This paper draws on an ethnography of the implementation of a population-based environmental health cohort to shed light on the re…
Between data providers and concerned citizens
This empirical article explores the dynamics of exchange and reciprocity between cohorters, that is, study organizers, and cohortees, that is, study participants. Drawing on literature on bioeconomy and valuation, we analyze cohortees’ expectations in return for the “clinical labor” they perform in the pilot phase of a Swiss precision public health study. Based on an ethnography of this cohort and data from seven focus groups with cohortees ( n =…
Willingness to participate in a personalized health cohort – insights from the swiss health study pilot phase
Overall, the study reveals a positive attitude towards personalized health research, with a strong willingness to share data and samples. Key insights focus the meaning of informed consent for participation, the relevance of sampling and representativeness, as well as the significance and challenges of personalized feedback, especially regarding environmental health concerns. Findings emphasize participants' supportive yet reflexive stances, unde…
Les pesticides, un risque pour la santé
Cet article se penche sur la façon dont les incertitudes et la confusion liées au danger des pesticides pour la santé se construisent au quotidien chez les professionnel·les agricoles du canton de Vaud (Suisse). S'appuyant sur les études de la ' fabrique de l'ignorance ' (Counil & Henry, 2016 ; Dedieu, 2022), l'article propose d'étudier le rôle des agriculteur·rices dans le maintien de la confusion autour de la toxicité de ces produits. En mettan…
Health systems governance, shocks and resilience
INTRODUCTION: It is often argued that health system resilience to shocks is influenced by governance. Multiple theoretical perspectives seemed to have emerged in the literature, but there has been limited analysis of their foundation and implications so far. To address this gap, the aim of this paper is to carry out a scoping review of conceptualisation and theories on the definition and relationship between governance and health system resilienc…
Health-Related Expertise in the Digital Age
Special Issue "Health-Related Expertise in the Digital Age: Reconfigurations and Redistributions", guest edited by Sandra Bärnreuther, Nolwenn Bühler and Giada Danesi
Doing Health in the Clinical Research Centre
Health examinations are an essential part of cohort studies: questionnaires are filled in, biological samples drawn, bodies weighed and measured, their capacities and functions tested. Drawing on an ethnography of these clinical encounters, in the context of a population-based environmental health cohort in Switzerland, I describe the choreography of data production and how it blurs the boundary between healthcare and scientific research. In cont…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Reproductive Health and Technologies (9 works) · Medicine (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Biology (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes (5 works) · Humanities (5 works)