Ruzana Liburkina
Biographic Data
| ID | 914055 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ruzana Liburkina |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ruzana |
| FAMILY NAME | Liburkina |
| SIGNATURE | LIBURKINA R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Goethe University Frankfurt |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0994-3606 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 7 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 7 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Behind and beyond the (non-)use of cord blood banking
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking has been criticised in social science scholarship as emblematic of the neoliberal responsibilisation of parenthood. Yet this article foregrounds what most parents actually do: they do not store UCB. Drawing on the concept of non-use in the social studies of technology, we examine this non-use of cryopreservation services. Our empirical material from Germany shows that non-use does not necessarily reflect inertia…
Storing Life in Public Hands
Introduction to the special issue
The politics of suspension suspended
Following recent discussions around suspended life, this paper focuses on an endeavor that sought to arrest biological material in time and space and render it available on demand. It depicts the attempt to establish a collection of cryopreserved donated cells. The study offers rare insights into how this initiative was at odds with familiar politics significant in its field, those of innovation and preparedness, and therefore was suspended itsel…
Making Futures by Freezing Life
The preservation of biological matter at extremely low temperatures has gained increasing importance in a broad range of life science fields in recent years. Social and cultural studies of cryotechnologies have often likened the freezing of life to a stillstand of time. This special issue explores the argument that cryotechnologies require us to rethink time and temporality more broadly: freezing does not simply equate to an interruption of the "…
Cryovalues beyond High Expectations
Cryopreservation attracts attention as a practice grounded in high expectations: current life is suspended for future use-to generate life, to save life, and to resurrect life. But what happens when high expectations in cryobanking give way to looming uselessness and the risk of failure? Based on ethnographic insights into the case of umbilical cord blood (CB) banking in Germany, this contribution investigates the liminal state of "non-failure." …
Extraordinary Ethnographic Encounters in Extraordinary Times
This contribution reconsiders ethnographic encounters with mainstream market actors in light of the ever-intensifying ecological crisis caused by prevalent patterns of economic activities. Effective experimental interventions in hegemonic configurations of capitalism are hitherto hard to realize due to fundamental incompatibilities between the logic of academic ethnographic work and that of conventional business operations. Viewing the private se…
Cryovalues beyond High Expectations
Cryopreservation attracts attention as a practice grounded in high expectations: current life is suspended for future use-to generate life, to save life, and to resurrect life. But what happens when high expectations in cryobanking give way to looming uselessness and the risk of failure? Based on ethnographic insights into the case of umbilical cord blood (CB) banking in Germany, this contribution investigates the liminal state of "non-failure." …
Making Futures by Freezing Life
The preservation of biological matter at extremely low temperatures has gained increasing importance in a broad range of life science fields in recent years. Social and cultural studies of cryotechnologies have often likened the freezing of life to a stillstand of time. This special issue explores the argument that cryotechnologies require us to rethink time and temporality more broadly: freezing does not simply equate to an interruption of the "…
Extraordinary Ethnographic Encounters in Extraordinary Times
This contribution reconsiders ethnographic encounters with mainstream market actors in light of the ever-intensifying ecological crisis caused by prevalent patterns of economic activities. Effective experimental interventions in hegemonic configurations of capitalism are hitherto hard to realize due to fundamental incompatibilities between the logic of academic ethnographic work and that of conventional business operations. Viewing the private se…
Extraordinary Ethnographic Encounters in Extraordinary Times
This contribution reconsiders ethnographic encounters with mainstream market actors in light of the ever-intensifying ecological crisis caused by prevalent patterns of economic activities. Effective experimental interventions in hegemonic configurations of capitalism are hitherto hard to realize due to fundamental incompatibilities between the logic of academic ethnographic work and that of conventional business operations. Viewing the private se…
Making Futures by Freezing Life
The preservation of biological matter at extremely low temperatures has gained increasing importance in a broad range of life science fields in recent years. Social and cultural studies of cryotechnologies have often likened the freezing of life to a stillstand of time. This special issue explores the argument that cryotechnologies require us to rethink time and temporality more broadly: freezing does not simply equate to an interruption of the "…
Cryovalues beyond High Expectations
Cryopreservation attracts attention as a practice grounded in high expectations: current life is suspended for future use-to generate life, to save life, and to resurrect life. But what happens when high expectations in cryobanking give way to looming uselessness and the risk of failure? Based on ethnographic insights into the case of umbilical cord blood (CB) banking in Germany, this contribution investigates the liminal state of "non-failure." …
Introduction to the special issue
The politics of suspension suspended
Following recent discussions around suspended life, this paper focuses on an endeavor that sought to arrest biological material in time and space and render it available on demand. It depicts the attempt to establish a collection of cryopreserved donated cells. The study offers rare insights into how this initiative was at odds with familiar politics significant in its field, those of innovation and preparedness, and therefore was suspended itsel…
Storing Life in Public Hands
Behind and beyond the (non-)use of cord blood banking
Umbilical cord blood (UCB) banking has been criticised in social science scholarship as emblematic of the neoliberal responsibilisation of parenthood. Yet this article foregrounds what most parents actually do: they do not store UCB. Drawing on the concept of non-use in the social studies of technology, we examine this non-use of cryopreservation services. Our empirical material from Germany shows that non-use does not necessarily reflect inertia…
Computer Science (4 works) · Law (4 works) · Political science (4 works) · Psychology (4 works) · Sociology (4 works) · Economics (3 works) · Ambivalence (2 works) · Biology (2 works) · Biomedical Ethics and Regulation (2 works) · Cryopreservation (2 works)