Melanie Rock
Biographic Data
| ID | 84818 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Melanie Rock |
| GIVEN NAMES | Melanie |
| FAMILY NAME | Rock |
| SIGNATURE | ROCK M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Calgary |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2436-3159 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 55 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 267 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 55 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2000 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Governing cities as more-than-human entities: From the population of databases to the legibility of urban populations
The field of urban studies has scrutinised digital technologies and their proliferation, but rather little attention has been paid to databases. Furthermore, contributions to date have focused almost exclusively on how digital technologies interface with human populations in cities. By contrast, we draw attention to databases maintained by city governments that contain identifying information about pet dogs and their legal owners in cities. Metho…
Débats autour des races canines et de la santé publique à Montréal et au Québec (2016–2019)
Healthy publics as multi-species matters: Solidarity with people’s pets in One Health promotion
Climate change is contributing to local disasters, and pets increasingly figure in mediated views and responses. By theorizing such responses, we expand on the conceptualization of “healthy publics”. In our view, healthy publics can arise from multi-species entanglements, out of which enactments of solidarity may emerge. Such enactments may encompass people with pets, as well as the pets themselves. Such enactments are selective, however, because…
Normative Tensions in the Popular Representation of Children with Disabilities and Animal-Assisted Therapy
This article contributes to the critical disability and human-nonhuman animal studies literatures through a discourse analysis of newspaper stories about animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and children with disabilities published in the United States and Canada. The articles in our corpus form a recognizable genre that we call AAT human-nonhuman animal interest stories. We pose two central questions of the genre: (1) how is the therapeutic value of AA…
Genomic trans-biopolitics: Why more-than-human geography is critical amid the Covid-19 pandemic
The rapidity of technological change underpins the centrality of genomes in framing COVID-19 problems and proposals for remedies. We counter such framings through a critical perspective that seeks to infuse more-than-human geographies into public health
Rethinking public participation in the smart city
In efforts to become “smart cities,” local governments are adopting various technologies that promise opportunities for increasing participation by expanding access to public comment and deliberation. Scholars and practitioners encounter the problem, however, of defining publics—demarcating who might participate through technology‐enhanced public engagement. We explore two case studies in the city of Calgary that employ technologies to enhance pu…
From more-than-human solidarity to multi-species biographical value: Insights from a veterinary school about ethical dilemmas in One Health promotion
This article features a partnership between a veterinary school and a charity that aims to enhance the wellbeing of low-income people. Through this partnership, the charity periodically hosts veterinary clinics for clients and their pets. Even as the veterinarians and veterinary students duly examine people's pets, these pop-up clinics aim to help people and their pets. Hence our analysis revolves around the ethics of 'more-than-human solidarity'…
What drives distress? Rethinking the roles of emotion and diagnosis among people with diabetes in Nairobi, Kenya
Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a condition that both results from and produces social and psychological suffering. As 'diabetes' increases among low income patients in poorer nations, new challenges arise that drive, co-occur, and result from the condition. In this article, we describe how social suffering produces diabetes by way of addressing the varied social, psychological, and biological factors that drive diabetes and are reflected in diabetes…
When the dog bites’: What can we learn about health geography from newspaper coverage in a ‘model city’ for dog-bite prevention
Discrimination towards People Partnered with Assistance Dogs in Canada: Implications for Policy and Practice
This study examines alleged discrimination towards people partnered with assistance dogs, as represented by Canadian newspapers. Doing so expands understanding of attitudes held toward assistance dogs and highlights everyday challenges faced by the people with whom they are partnered. Articles included for analysis were tabulated according to where instances of alleged discrimination happened, the type of assistance dog that was involved, and the…
Towards ‘smart cities’ as ‘healthy cities’: Health equity in a digital age
Critical social science with public health: Agonism, critique and engagement
This article is about a mode of scholarly practice we call critical social science with public health. The article responds to our dissatisfaction with established approaches to social science engagement with public health that have developed out of Straus’ early distinction between sociology in and of medicine. By critical social science with public health we mean a set of research practices that orients to epistemological and political differen…
Beyond bare bones: Critical, theoretically engaged qualitative research in public health
Who or what is ‘the public’ in critical public health? Reflections on posthumanism and anthropological engagements with One Health
This paper extends the terms of engagement between social science, posthumanist debates and One Health by questioning whether ‘the public’ may include non-human animals. The One Health concept refers to interdependence between human beings and non-human species in socio-ecological systems. One Health interventions and critiques have tended to emphasize the prevention of zoonotic infections, whereas this paper reflects on more than a decade of eng…
When ‘Places’ Include Pets: Broadening the Scope of Relational Approaches to Promoting Aging-in-Place
Aging-in-place is a well-established concept, but discussions rarely consider that many older adults live with pets. In a ‘pet-friendly’ city, we conducted semi-structured interviews to explore perspectives of community-based social support agencies that promote aging-in-place, and those of animal welfare agencies. Applying a relational ecology theoretical framework, we found that pets may contribute to feeling socially- situated, yet may also ex…
Dog-bites, rabies and One Health: Towards improved coordination in research, policy and practice
Multi-species entanglements, anthropology, and environmental health justice
This chapter considers the growing interest in multi-species entanglements as an opportunity to bring medical anthropology and environmental anthropology into deeper dialogue, through discussions of social justice that acknowledge the presence and absence of non-human animals in shared environments. It begins with an overview of medical anthropology, particularly as regards theories of disease, illness, sickness, and suffering. This overview high…
Changes in visitor profiles and activity patterns following dog supportive modifications to parks: A natural experiment on the health impact of an urban policy
Urban parks are important settings for physical activity, but few natural experiments have investigated the influences of park modifications on activity patterns and visitor profiles.We assessed the impact of implementing a municipal policy on off-leash dogs in city parks in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). Systematic observation undertaken in 2011 and 2012 within four parks captured patterns of use, activities, and visitors׳ characteristics. After bas…
Public engagement and community participation in governing urban parks: A case study in changing and implementing a policy addressing off-leash dogs
Health promotion views collaborations between local governments and citizens as key to improving health and lessening inequities in urban areas. Public parks, which are typically managed by local governments, are key settings for promoting physical activity, positive social interactions and overall well-being. Yet research on civic participation in park management is essentially absent from the health promotion literature. When the City of Calgar…
Supportive neighbourhood built characteristics and dog-walking in Canadian adults
Dog-walking, dog-fouling and leashing policies in urban parks: Insights from a natural experiment designed as a longitudinal multiple-case study
Policies on pets for healthy cities: A conceptual framework
Drawing on the One Health concept, and integrating a dual focus on public policy and practices of caring from the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion, we outline a conceptual framework to help guide the development and assessment of local governments' policies on pets. This framework emphasizes well-being in human populations, while recognizing that these outcomes relate to the well-being of non-human animals. Five intersecting spheres of activit…
Habitus and responsible dog-ownership: Reconsidering the health promotion implications of ‘dog-shaped’ holes in people’s lives
Responsible dog ownership has been identified as a point of intervention to promote physical activity, based upon an expectation of dog walking in public space. Nevertheless, quantitative research has found variability among owners in their dog walking. In this study, we explore the implications for health promotion of such variability. We do so by drawing on the concepts of habitus and social capital to analyse qualitative interviews. Participan…
Public health ethics and more-than-human solidarity
Newspaper Portrayals, Local Policies, and Dog-Supportive Public Space: Who's Wagging Whom
Dog-walking promotes physical activity and positive social interactions, and thus dog-walking has implications for people's physical and mental health. As a result, experts in public health have endorsed designing and managing public space to support dog-walking. Nevertheless, the presence of dogs in public space is subject to negotiation and can be controversial. Generally, municipal governments or local councils exercise political jurisdiction …
Sweet blood and social suffering: Rethinking cause-effect relationships in diabetes, distress, and duress
I draw upon anthropological engagements with bioscience and embodiment in order to unpack current approaches to defining and preventing diabetes mellitus. The analysis stems from the conviction that carefully considering the symbolic frames through which we conceive of diseases, their origins, their distribution, and their consequences will assist us in planning and implementing interventions to improve population health. I argue that research an…
Animal-human connections, "one health," and the syndemic approach to prevention
Public health ethics and more-than-human solidarity
Trans-biopolitics: Complexity in interspecies relations
This article introduces the concept of trans-biopolitics to account for complexity in the intermingling of animal and human bodies, with particular attention to diseases capable of crossing the species divide from animals to humans. While zoonotic diseases never disappeared, they had re-emerged as pressing concerns by the 21st century. The concept of trans-biopolitics takes into account the power relations inherent in human and nonhuman lives in …
Dog-walking and sense of community in neighborhoods: Implications for promoting regular physical activity in adults 50 years and older
Beyond bare bones: Critical, theoretically engaged qualitative research in public health
People, other animals and health knowledges: Towards a research agenda
Diabetes in People, Cats, and Dogs: Biomedicine and Manifold Ontologies
If people express salient beliefs and values in caring for pets then it is worth considering that dogs and housecats are routinely treated using the biomedical armamentarium. To investigate animal-human connections in the treatment of dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conducted ethnographic interviews in Canada with 12 pet owners and six health professionals in conjunction with a review of documentation on diabetes in cats, dogs, and people. Tr…
Rethinking public participation in the smart city
In efforts to become “smart cities,” local governments are adopting various technologies that promise opportunities for increasing participation by expanding access to public comment and deliberation. Scholars and practitioners encounter the problem, however, of defining publics—demarcating who might participate through technology‐enhanced public engagement. We explore two case studies in the city of Calgary that employ technologies to enhance pu…
Newspaper Portrayals, Local Policies, and Dog-Supportive Public Space: Who's Wagging Whom
Dog-walking promotes physical activity and positive social interactions, and thus dog-walking has implications for people's physical and mental health. As a result, experts in public health have endorsed designing and managing public space to support dog-walking. Nevertheless, the presence of dogs in public space is subject to negotiation and can be controversial. Generally, municipal governments or local councils exercise political jurisdiction …
Classifying Diabetes; or, Commensurating Bodies of Unequal Experience
Melanie Rock is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. She also is affiliated with the Department of Anthropology and the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary as well as with the Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Santé at the Université de Montréal. Her current work focuses on social inequality and health knowledges, particularly as manifested in the politics of c…
How medical specialists appraise three controversial health innovations: Scientific, Clinical and Social Arguments
Medical specialists play a pivotal role in health innovation evaluation and policy making. Their influence derives not only from their expertise, but also from their social status and the power of their professional organisations. Little is known, however, about how medical specialists determine what makes a health innovation desirable and why. Our qualitative study investigated the views of 28 medical specialists and experts from Quebec and Onta…
Discounted lives? Weighing disability when measuring health and ruling on "compassionate" murder
Dog-bites, rabies and One Health: Towards improved coordination in research, policy and practice
Pet Ownership, Other Domestic Relationships, and Satisfaction with Life among Seniors: Results from a Canadian National Survey
Given unprecedented aging in the global population along with the physical and psychological challenges associated with aging, it is important to identify ways to protect and promote quality of life for seniors. Previous research has suggested that pet ownership may confer a variety of health and social benefits among seniors. The purpose of this analysis was to determine whether pet ownership was associated with satisfaction with life among Cana…
Figuring Out Type 2 Diabetes through Genetic Research: Reckoning Kinship and the Origins of Sickness
Genetic research on type 2 diabetes serves as a point of departure in this paper. Drawing together classic work in the anthropology of medical epistemologies and the recent revitalization of kinship studies, the paper has two main objectives: (1) further unsettling a portrait of biomedicine as having a single overarching epistemological orientation that locates the origins of disease squarely within individual human bodies; and (2) inviting furth…
Death, Taxes, Public Opinion, and the Midas Touch of Mary Tyler Moore: Accounting for Promises by Politicians to Help Avert and Control Diabetes
Anthropologists have begun to publish ethnographic accounts of policymaking, but few have studied medical or health matters, despite broad acceptance in anthropology that "biopower" permeates contemporary societies. This article presents some findings from an ethnographic study of how diabetes gained recognition as a pressing public health problem in Canada. It underlines the importance of statistics for constituting power within and across natio…
When the dog bites’: What can we learn about health geography from newspaper coverage in a ‘model city’ for dog-bite prevention
Animal Publics: Accounting for Heterogeneity in Political Life
To what extent do non-human animals participate in that particular political configuration known as a public? While conventional wisdom about publics is predicated on a vision of political agency that privileges discursive and deliberative processes, recent scholarship situated in the material turn in the social sciences and humanities challenges the notion that publics are purely human and constituted exclusively through language. With these the…
Owning the Problem: Media Portrayals of Overweight Dogs and the Shared Determinants of the Health of Human and Companion Animal Populations
Weight-related health problems have become a common topic in Western mass media. News-coverage has also extended to overweight pets, particularly since 2003 when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced that obesity was also afflicting co-habiting companion animals in record numbers. To characterize and track views in popular circulation on causes, consequences and responsibilities vis-à-vis weight gain and obesity, in pets as well as in p…
Prototypes Connect Human Diabetes with Feline and Canine Diabetes in the Context of Animal-Human Bonds: An Anthropological Analysis
This study explored whether previous experiences with human diabetes influenced how people perceived and responded to the onset of diabetes in a companion animal, and if the experience of diabetic pet care might influence people's thinking and actions in relation to human health. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with sixteen (16) pet owners who had treated dogs and cats for diabetes, along with semi-structured interviews with s…
Diabetes Portrayals in North American Print Media: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
Objectives. This study investigated how media coverage has portrayed diabetes as newsworthy. Methods. The quantitative component involved tabulating diabetes coverage in 2 major Canadian newspapers, 1988–2001 and 1991–2001. The qualitative component focused on high-profile coverage in 2 major US magazines and 2 major Canadian newspapers, 1998–2000. Results. Although coverage did not consistently increase, the quantitative results suggest an empha…
Reconstituting populations through evidence-based medicine: An Ethnographic Account of Recommending Procedures for Diagnosing Type 2 Diabetes in Clinical Practice Guidelines
This ethnographic investigation responds to calls for more social science research on - versus for or against - evidence-based medicine (EBM). It centers on the recommendations endorsed, in a set of clinical practice guidelines, by Canadian specialists in the late 1990s for diagnosing diabetes. Empirically, the article mainly relies on public presentations and discussion at the Canadian Diabetes Association Professional Conferences (1997-2001), s…
Dog-walking, dog-fouling and leashing policies in urban parks: Insights from a natural experiment designed as a longitudinal multiple-case study
Hemoglobin A1c as a Diagnostic Tool: Public Health Implications From an Actor–Network Perspective
Public health arguments for collecting hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) data, particularly in clinical settings, should be reframed to place more emphasis on nonmedical determinants of population health. We compare individual- with population-level interpretations of HbA1c titers. This comparison reveals that public health researchers need to pay close attention to diagnostic tests and their uses, including rhetorical uses. We also synthesize historical an…
Discounted lives? Weighing disability when measuring health and ruling on "compassionate" murder
Death, Taxes, Public Opinion, and the Midas Touch of Mary Tyler Moore: Accounting for Promises by Politicians to Help Avert and Control Diabetes
Anthropologists have begun to publish ethnographic accounts of policymaking, but few have studied medical or health matters, despite broad acceptance in anthropology that "biopower" permeates contemporary societies. This article presents some findings from an ethnographic study of how diabetes gained recognition as a pressing public health problem in Canada. It underlines the importance of statistics for constituting power within and across natio…
Sweet blood and social suffering: Rethinking cause-effect relationships in diabetes, distress, and duress
I draw upon anthropological engagements with bioscience and embodiment in order to unpack current approaches to defining and preventing diabetes mellitus. The analysis stems from the conviction that carefully considering the symbolic frames through which we conceive of diseases, their origins, their distribution, and their consequences will assist us in planning and implementing interventions to improve population health. I argue that research an…
A Palace for a King; The Buen Retiro and the court of Philip IV
Jonathan Brown and John H. Elliott, A Palace for a King; The Buen Retiro and the court of Philip IV . New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2003. 2nd edn. ISBN 0–300–10185–6. 303 pp., 171 b. & w. illus., 94 col. illus. £40. This is a glorious second edition of A Palace for a King by the esteemed partnership of Jonathan Brown and John Elliott. First published in 1980, their book tracing the construction of the palace of the Buen Retiro whos…
Diabetes Portrayals in North American Print Media: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis
Objectives. This study investigated how media coverage has portrayed diabetes as newsworthy. Methods. The quantitative component involved tabulating diabetes coverage in 2 major Canadian newspapers, 1988–2001 and 1991–2001. The qualitative component focused on high-profile coverage in 2 major US magazines and 2 major Canadian newspapers, 1998–2000. Results. Although coverage did not consistently increase, the quantitative results suggest an empha…
Reconstituting populations through evidence-based medicine: An Ethnographic Account of Recommending Procedures for Diagnosing Type 2 Diabetes in Clinical Practice Guidelines
This ethnographic investigation responds to calls for more social science research on - versus for or against - evidence-based medicine (EBM). It centers on the recommendations endorsed, in a set of clinical practice guidelines, by Canadian specialists in the late 1990s for diagnosing diabetes. Empirically, the article mainly relies on public presentations and discussion at the Canadian Diabetes Association Professional Conferences (1997-2001), s…
Classifying Diabetes; or, Commensurating Bodies of Unequal Experience
Melanie Rock is an assistant professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary. She also is affiliated with the Department of Anthropology and the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary as well as with the Groupe de Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Santé at the Université de Montréal. Her current work focuses on social inequality and health knowledges, particularly as manifested in the politics of c…
Figuring Out Type 2 Diabetes through Genetic Research: Reckoning Kinship and the Origins of Sickness
Genetic research on type 2 diabetes serves as a point of departure in this paper. Drawing together classic work in the anthropology of medical epistemologies and the recent revitalization of kinship studies, the paper has two main objectives: (1) further unsettling a portrait of biomedicine as having a single overarching epistemological orientation that locates the origins of disease squarely within individual human bodies; and (2) inviting furth…
People, other animals and health knowledges: Towards a research agenda
Discomforting comfort foods: Stirring the pot on Kraft Dinner® and social inequality in Canada
Diabetes in People, Cats, and Dogs: Biomedicine and Manifold Ontologies
If people express salient beliefs and values in caring for pets then it is worth considering that dogs and housecats are routinely treated using the biomedical armamentarium. To investigate animal-human connections in the treatment of dogs and housecats for diabetes, we conducted ethnographic interviews in Canada with 12 pet owners and six health professionals in conjunction with a review of documentation on diabetes in cats, dogs, and people. Tr…
Animal-human connections, "one health," and the syndemic approach to prevention
Marginal voices in the media coverage of controversial health interventions: How do they contribute to the public understanding of science
While the media are a significant source of information for the public on science and technology, journalists are often accused of providing only a partial picture by neglecting the points of view of vulnerable stakeholders. This paper analyzes the press coverage of four controversial health interventions in order to uncover what voices are treated marginally in the media and what the relative contributions of these voices are to the stories bein…
Characteristics of urban parks associated with park use and physical activity: A review of qualitative research
Prototypes Connect Human Diabetes with Feline and Canine Diabetes in the Context of Animal-Human Bonds: An Anthropological Analysis
This study explored whether previous experiences with human diabetes influenced how people perceived and responded to the onset of diabetes in a companion animal, and if the experience of diabetic pet care might influence people's thinking and actions in relation to human health. We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with sixteen (16) pet owners who had treated dogs and cats for diabetes, along with semi-structured interviews with s…
How medical specialists appraise three controversial health innovations: Scientific, Clinical and Social Arguments
Medical specialists play a pivotal role in health innovation evaluation and policy making. Their influence derives not only from their expertise, but also from their social status and the power of their professional organisations. Little is known, however, about how medical specialists determine what makes a health innovation desirable and why. Our qualitative study investigated the views of 28 medical specialists and experts from Quebec and Onta…
Does dog-ownership influence seasonal patterns of neighbourhood-based walking among adults? A longitudinal study
By acting as cues for physical activity, dogs may help their owners remain active across seasons. Policies and programs related to dog-ownership and dog-walking, such as dog-supportive housing and dog-supportive parks, may assist in enhancing population health by promoting physical activity
Trans-biopolitics: Complexity in interspecies relations
This article introduces the concept of trans-biopolitics to account for complexity in the intermingling of animal and human bodies, with particular attention to diseases capable of crossing the species divide from animals to humans. While zoonotic diseases never disappeared, they had re-emerged as pressing concerns by the 21st century. The concept of trans-biopolitics takes into account the power relations inherent in human and nonhuman lives in …
Pet bylaws and posthumanist health promotion: A case study of urban policy
Dog walking enables physical activity and positive social interactions, but uncontrolled dogs as well as dog feces can foster conflict and deter physical activity, for both dog owners and nonowners. This case study shows that previously reported associations with dogs (both positive and negative) can be linked to the wording and the day-to-day implementation of, or incompliance with, local governments' bylaws on pets. In this example of posthuman…
Visual and textual representations in public social science for the 21st century: A review essay
Hemoglobin A1c as a Diagnostic Tool: Public Health Implications From an Actor–Network Perspective
Public health arguments for collecting hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) data, particularly in clinical settings, should be reframed to place more emphasis on nonmedical determinants of population health. We compare individual- with population-level interpretations of HbA1c titers. This comparison reveals that public health researchers need to pay close attention to diagnostic tests and their uses, including rhetorical uses. We also synthesize historical an…
Owning the Problem: Media Portrayals of Overweight Dogs and the Shared Determinants of the Health of Human and Companion Animal Populations
Weight-related health problems have become a common topic in Western mass media. News-coverage has also extended to overweight pets, particularly since 2003 when the U.S. National Academy of Sciences announced that obesity was also afflicting co-habiting companion animals in record numbers. To characterize and track views in popular circulation on causes, consequences and responsibilities vis-à-vis weight gain and obesity, in pets as well as in p…
Connecting Lives: Reflections on a Syndemic Approach to Prevention Involving Research on How People Relate to Pets
This article elaborates on what could be meant by a syndemic approach to prevention. The main argument is that a syndemic approach to prevention comprises a set of practices intended to promote population health. These practices include research, team-building, and developing partnerships with organizations with diverse mandates. Both infectious and noninfectious diseases may be targeted, in animal as well as human populations. By way of illustra…
'It was not just a walking experience': Reflections on the role of care in dog-walking
Research into physical activity and human health has recently begun to attend to dog-walking. This study extends the literature on dog-walking as a health behaviour by conceptualizing dog-walking as a caring practice. It centres on qualitative interviews with 11 Canadian dog-owners. All participants resided in urban neighbourhoods identified through previous quantitative research as conducive to dog-walking. Canine characteristics, including bree…
Toward stronger theory in critical public health: Insights from debates surrounding posthumanism
The ‘posthumanist turn’ in critical theory comprises efforts to recognize and analyze the interdependence of human existence with non-human entities, including other animals, spaces, and technologies. Scholarship aligned to and debating posthumanism pertains to public health, but has yet to be clearly articulated for a public health audience. This commentary and an appended glossary illustrate the relevance of these ideas for enhancing critical t…
Sociology (43 works) · Medicine (38 works) · Political science (36 works) · Human-Animal Interaction Studies (31 works) · Public health (23 works) · Public relations (23 works) · Geographies of human-animal interactions (21 works) · Law (18 works) · Psychology (18 works) · Politics (15 works)