Suchergebnisse

Med udgangspunkt i det forhold, at naturvidenskabelig metode ofte også er kvalitativ – baseret på formbestemmelse og afhængig af fortolkning – diskuteres nogle af de misforståelser, som af og til præger diskussioner af objektivitet og generalisérbarhed i kvalitativ analyse. Kvalitativ forskning kan bestemmes i relation til en række forskellige videnskabelige ræsonneringsstile, men det er kun få ræsonneringsstile der kan anvendes til at vurdere kvaliteten af kvalitativ forskning. Begrebet objektivitet bestemmes med inspiration fra Latour som genstandsfeltets mulighed for at yde modstand mod den analytiske ramme. Dette objektivitetsbegreb er fælles for human, social og naturvidenskab og indebærer et radikalt opgør med forestillingen om at kvalitativ metode er mere 'subjektiv' end kvantitativ metode. Derimod er kvalitativ forskning bedre stillet til at forstå kontekstuelle forhold, herunder forskerens position i forhold til det studerede. Kontekstens rolle hvad angår analysens generelle udsigelseskraft diskuteres i lyset af en skelnen mellem deskriptiv og analytisk kvalitativ forskning, og artiklen argumenterer for, at den grundliggende forskel mellem naturvidenskab og humanvidenskab ikke kan reduceres til forkærlighed for bestemte metoder men primært beror på objektets evne til at reflektere over og reagere meningsfuldt på den menneskelige interaktion, hvori forskningsprocessen indgår. Artiklen afrundes med en diskussion af de seneste tyve års intense interesse for kvalitativ metode og de konsekvenser den har for tværfagligt samarbejde på tværs af ræsonneringsstile indenfor sundhedsforskning.

Forekomsten af såkaldt ikke-smitsomme sygdomme som eksempelvis cancer, diabetes, mentale sygdomme og tilstande som overvægt og selvskade er globalt set stigende i disse årtier og epidemisk i karakter – det vil sige i hastig udbredelse i populationer i givne områder (se Meinert og Seeberg 2008). Dette rejser en problemstilling om, hvordan disse ikke-smitsomme sygdomme og fænomener spreder sig, når dette ikke sker via klassisk biologisk smitte eller infektion.

Autism has been described as an epidemic, but this claim is contested and may point to an awareness epidemic, i.e. changes in the definition of what autism is and more attention being invested in diagnosis leading to a rise in registered cases. The sex ratio of children diagnosed with autism is skewed in favour of boys, and girls with autism tend to be diagnosed much later than boys. Building and further developing the notion of 'configuration' of epidemics, this article explores the configuration of autism in Denmark, with a particular focus on the health system and social support to families with children diagnosed with autism, seen from a parental perspective.The article points to diagnostic dynamics that contribute to explaining why girls with autism are not diagnosed as easily as boys. We unfold these dynamics through the analysis of a case of a Danish family with autism.

Biosocial Worlds presents state-of-the-art contributions to anthropological reflections on the porous boundaries between human and non-human life – biosocial worlds. Based on changing understandings of biology and the social, it explores what it means to be human in these worlds. Growing separation of scientific disciplines for more than a century has maintained a separation of the 'natural' and the 'social' that has created a space for projections between the two. Such projections carry a directional causality and so constitute powerful means to establish discursive authority. While arguing against the separation of the biological and the social in the study of human and non-human life, it remains important to unfold the consequences of their discursive separation. Based on examples from Botswana, Denmark, Mexico, the Netherlands, Uganda, the UK and USA, the volume explores what has been created in the space between 'the social' and 'the natural', with a view to rethink 'the biosocial'. Health topics in the book include diabetes, trauma, cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, prevention of neonatal disease and wider issues of epigenetics. Many of the chapters engage with constructions of health and disease in a wide range of environments, and engage with analysis of the concept of 'environment'. Anthropological reflection and ethnographic case studies explore how 'health' and 'environment' are entangled in ways that move their relation beyond interdependence to one of inseparability. The subtitle of this volume captures these insights through the concept of 'health environment', seeking to move the engagement of anthropology and biology beyond deterministic projections. ; Biosocial Worlds brings together state-of-the-art contributions to critical anthropological reflection on, and ethnographic exploration of, human and non-human life in the light of our changing understandings of biology and what it means to be human.