craft, biology and aging: exploring the material politics ... · craft, biology and aging:...

Craft, biology and aging: Exploring the material politics of

science

NORDIC STS CONFERENCE13 June 2019

mianna.meskus@tuni.fi

https://miannameskus.net/

@mianna_meskus

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How are stem cells used in practical attempts to know

and shape ageing?

SCIENCE AS CRAFTWORK

What kinds of visions of better futures for ageing are

being produced?

SCIENCE IN SOCIETY

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local laboratory-based work

existing experimentality

the ‘material politics’ of life sciences

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I BIOLOGY OF AGEING ON THE RISE

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“The cell is where the gerontological action lies”

(Leonard Hayflick, 1974, cited in Moreira and Palladino, 2009)

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the enactment of practical skills in knowledge production

embodied engagement and affective investment with

research materials

“constitutive relationalities”

Gane, N. (2006) When we have never been human, what is to be done? Interview with Donna Haraway. Theory, Culture & Society, 23(7/8), pp. 135–158.

”constitutive encounterings”

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II ENTER THE LABORATORY OF AGING RESEARCH

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mouse intestinal epithelial organoid, https://www.stemcell.com/

mammary gland, https://www.histology.leeds.ac.uk/

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INTERMEZZO: WHERE IS THE POLITICS?

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III FROM BIOPOLITICS TO MATERIAL POLITICS

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The material politics of biomedical and biological research involves

a multitude of materials used to shape bodily processes

and ways of crafting, modulating and manipulating them.

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CONCLUSIONS

“the problem of ageing population”

“the problem of stem cell potentiality”

extending human healthspan?

ecological sustainability?