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In line with the conference Ethnografeast III. Ethnography and the Public Sphere, from which it stems, this issue aims at equating uses and products of ethnography as they relate with each other within the context of the public sphere. Keeping the conference's commitment to interdisciplinarity, pluralism in genres and theoretical suasions, it focuses on the way political and civic uses of ethnography enter into the conceptual elaboration of its products, and, conversely, on how the design and implementation of ethnographic research may contribute to enhance public debate. ; Em linha com a conferência "Ethnografeast III: Etnografia e Esfera Pública", na qual teve origem, este dossier visa equacionar os usos e os produtos da etnografia e o modo como se articulam entre si na esfera pública. Mantendo os princípios de interdisciplinaridade, de pluralismo nos géneros e nas filiações teóricas que marcaram a conferência, pretende focar a maneira como os usos cívicos e políticos da etnografia podem tomar parte na elaboração conceptual das suas produções e, conversamente, no modo como o desenho e a realização da investigação etnográfica pode contribuir para a qualidade do debate público. ; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) ; Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, Center for Research in Anthroplogy ...

Attitudes vis-à-vis vaccines take on today a variety of forms in Euro-American societies. Drawing on an ethnographic research in several French and Portuguese settings, we examine the meaning and the experiential basis of some contemporary forms of vaccine acceptability as they emerge in routine vaccination. Against the backdrop of forms circumscribed to particular cultural scenes or bounded systems of ideas, we focus more specifically on a cross-cut diffuse tendency which resonates with wider contemporary transformations. Its analysis cannot however be framed within the narrow limits of health and risk management. Health and the body are but one of the realms in which a same pattern arises. It is by exploring the political dimensions of such pattern that the cultural production of consent and that of dissent with respect to vaccine acceptability stand in relation to one another as two sides of the same coin. ; Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia ...

DNA profiling is frequently described as the gold standard for individual identification and thus an important tool for crime prevention, detection and deterrence. While the scholarly discourses tend to privilege a focus on the oppressive elements of DNA profiling and surveillance, the political and public discourses usually highlight the benefits of forensic DNA technologies to fight and prevent crime. Most arguments are based on abstract concepts with little empirical evidence to support their respective assumptions. In this paper we argue that there is a call for an insight about how surveillance works in concrete terms for a diversity of social actors: for those who are surveilled (i.e. convicted individuals), for surveillants (i.e. agents who are responsible for the regulation and daily management of forensic DNA databases) and for academics involved in crime studies. This situated perspective contributes to a more nuanced debate about the benefits, risks, uncertainties and effects of the use of DNA databasing for surveillance purposes and crime control. ...