Globalizing transit worker stress.

Health scientists have claimed that urban transit workers suffer from higher rates of stress-related disease than workers in most other occupations. This paper examines how a network of scientists and labor organizers constructed the problem of transit worker stress as a global phenomenon. According to study participants, transit workers worldwide are subject to a similar set of stress-related risks, which can serve as a basis for worker solidarity. This paper analyzes how the concept of stress has been used to identify pathogenic environments and considers anthropological claims that the concept often abstracts and depoliticizes harmful arrangements. The findings show that scientists and labor organizers use the stress concept to construct a figure of a universally at-risk transit worker that serves the ends of transnational labor organizing. At the same time, by focusing on the case of San Francisco's transit workers, this analysis shows that a persistent association between stress and 'hard work'-in both lay and scientific discourses-may block recognition of stress-related harms for transit workers who are accused of being lazy and overpaid.

A hipnose entre os modernos: reflexões antropológicas e outras sugestões / Hypnosis among moderns: anthropological reflections and other suggestions

Esta dissertação apresenta uma reflexão antropológica acerca da prática da hipnose. Para tanto, a pesquisa se dividiu em duas partes. A primeira, uma reflexão que parte de dois momentos controversos da história da hipnose com o intuito de delinear alguns conceitos e problemas centrais tanto para a definição da experiência da hipnose quanto para a dificuldade de sua legitimação social enquanto objeto de conhecimento científico. A segunda parte procura apresentar uma reflexão etnográfica sobre a prática da hipnose entre terapeutas alternativos. Estabelece uma caracterização geral do campo, delineia seu grau de dispersão relativo ao próprio caráter marginalizado da prática. Esboça uma explicação das diferentes estratégias de legitimação frente ao campo fragmentado. E finalmente apresenta um relato da experiência em um curso de hipnose terapêutica no qual são descritos alguns procedimentos que nos aproximam do discurso contemporâneo dos hipnólogos, o objeto de seu saber e sua forma de produção de experiência subjetiva.(AU)

Abstract : This work presents an anthropological reflection on the practice of hypnosis. In the way of doing that, research was divided into two parts. The first, a reflection that has its start point in two controversial moments in the history of hypnosis in order to outline some central concepts and problems, both to definition of the experience of hypnosis as to the difficulty of its social legitimacy as a scientific object of knowledge. The second part seeks to present an ethnographic reflection on the practice of hypnosis among alternative therapists. Establishes a general characterization of the field, outlining their degree of dispersion relative to itself marginalized nature of the practice. Sketches an explanation of the different legitimation strategies across the fragmented field. And finally, it presents a report of an experience on a course of therapeutic hypnosis in which some procedures that bring us close to the contemporary discourse of hypnotists are described, the object of his knowledge and his way of producing subjective experience.(AU)

For an ecology of scientific work: science, politics and the case of streams Pampa and Luiz Rau in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil / Por uma ecologia do trabalho científico: a ciência e a política e caso dos arroios Pampa e Luiz Rau em Novo Hamburgo, Brasil

If, like Weber writes, every knowledge is objective in terms of evolving the interests of researchers and the agencies, in this article, we investigate that, which has been researched about two streams: Pampa and Luiz Rau. In doing so, in addition to highlighting what has caught the researchers' attention, this paper manages to point out a few gaps and fruitful fields of study which extend beyond the hard sciences. This study is, therefore, characterized as an essay review paper that sets out to use anthropology of science to think about the limitations and advances the studies about the two streams have achieved, as well as their social impact.

Resumo Se como escreve Weber, todo o conhecimento é objetivo na medida em que envolve interesses de pesquisadores e agências nos questionamos nesse texto sobre, quando falamos nos arroios Pampa e Luiz Rau, aquilo que têm sido pesquisado sobre esses dois arroios. Desta feita, além de colocar em evidência o que têm despertado o interesse, seu mérito reside em apontar algumas lacunas e campos profícuos de estudo que vão para além das ciências duras. Esse estudo se caracteriza, portanto, por um estudo bibliográfico e ensaístico que busca através da antropologia ciência pensar os limites e avanços que se obteve nos últimos anos nesse estudos e seu impacto social.

For an ecology of scientific work: science, politics and the case of streams Pampa and Luiz Rau in Novo Hamburgo, Brazil

If, like Weber writes, every knowledge is objective in terms of evolving the interests of researchers and the agencies, in this article, we investigate that, which has been researched about two streams: Pampa and Luiz Rau. In doing so, in addition to highlighting what has caught the researchers' attention, this paper manages to point out a few gaps and fruitful fields of study which extend beyond the hard sciences. This study is, therefore, characterized as an essay review paper that sets out to use anthropology of science to think about the limitations and advances the studies about the two streams have achieved, as well as their social impact.

Resumo Se como escreve Weber, todo o conhecimento é objetivo na medida em que envolve interesses de pesquisadores e agências nos questionamos nesse texto sobre, quando falamos nos arroios Pampa e Luiz Rau, aquilo que têm sido pesquisado sobre esses dois arroios. Desta feita, além de colocar em evidência o que têm despertado o interesse, seu mérito reside em apontar algumas lacunas e campos profícuos de estudo que vão para além das ciências duras. Esse estudo se caracteriza, portanto, por um estudo bibliográfico e ensaístico que busca através da antropologia ciência pensar os limites e avanços que se obteve nos últimos anos nesse estudos e seu impacto social.

Pharmacogenomics, human genetic diversity and the incorporation and rejection of color/race in Brazil.

Public funding for research on the action of drugs in countries like the United States requires that racial classification of research subjects should be considered when defining the composition of the samples as well as in data analysis, sometimes resulting in interpretations that Whites and Blacks differ in their pharmacogenetic profiles. In Brazil, pharmacogenomic results have led to very different interpretations when compared with those obtained in the United States. This is explained as deriving from the genomic heterogeneity of the Brazilian population. This article argues that in the evolving field of pharmacogenomics research in Brazil there is simultaneously both an incorporation and rejection of the US informed race-genes paradigm. We suggest that this must be understood in relation to continuities with national and transnational history of genetic research in Brazil, a differently situated politics of Brazilian public health and the ongoing valorization of miscegenation or race mixture by Brazilian geneticists as a resource for transnational genetic research. Our data derive from anthropological investigation conducted in INCA (Brazilian National Cancer Institute), in Rio de Janeiro, with a focus on the drug warfarin. The criticism of Brazilian scientists regarding the uses of racial categorization includes a revision of mathematical algorithms for drug dosage widely used in clinical procedures around the world. Our analysis reveals how the incorporation of ideas of racial purity and admixture, as it relates to the efficacy of drugs, touches on issues related to the possibility of application of pharmaceutical technologies on a global scale.

Pesquisas com células-tronco: um estudo de caso sobre a dinâmica de um segmento do campo científico / Stem cell research: a case study on the dynamics of one segment of a scientific field

Investiga a dinâmica do campo científico de pesquisa com células-tronco através de estudo de caso realizado em uma instituição pública de ensino superior. Foram mapeados projetos de pesquisa básica com células-tronco adultas e embrionárias (experimentos em cultura de células ou em modelo animal) e de bioengenharia tecidual. O trabalho de campo incluiu observação etnográfica e entrevistas com pesquisadores (estudantes de pós-graduação e professores). Observou-se entre os pesquisadores dos projetos uma rede científica com intensa divisão de trabalho e fluxos de recursos materiais e simbólicos. Percebe-se uma dinâmica de alianças e trocas que fundamenta as relações de colaboração entre pares e estudantes. A recapitulação pelos entrevistados da história das pesquisas com células-tronco na instituição revela a organização do campo.

Based on a case study conducted at a public institution for higher education, the article investigates the dynamics of the scientific field of stem cell research. Basic research projects with adult and embryonic stem cells (experiments in cell culture or an animal model) and tissue bioengineering were surveyed. Fieldwork included ethnographic observation and interviews with researchers (graduate students and professors). Project researchers were observed to be part of a scientific network displaying a marked division of labor and workflows of material and symbolic resources. A dynamic of alliances and exchanges was found to underlie collaborative relations between peers and students. When recapping the history of stem cell research at the institute, interviewees showed the organization of the field.

Práticas de mediação na pesquisa epidemiológica sob o ponto de vista etnográfico / Mediation practices in epidemiological research from an ethnographic perspective

Durante 1998 acompanhei uma rede de comunicação cultural na produção de dados epidemiológicos, com uma abordagem etnográfica em estudos da ciência. Inserido nas atividades diárias de um grupo de pesquisa em epidemiologia, registrei alguns aspectos do processo de produção científica, como as estratégias e as negociações envolvidas na manutenção e circulação dos dados produzidos. Este trabalho descreve a trajetória de investigação epidemiológica e a rede de interação de seus atores, incluindo a participação de técnicos no processo de negociação das práticas científicas. Além de destacar atividade contínua de negociação e transformação de dados e informação epidemiológica, problematizo a separação de ciência e política ou de natureza e cultura/sociedade, e enfatizo a participação coletiva no processo de produção científica.

During 1998 I accompanied a cultural communication network in the production of epidemiological data, which used an ethnographic approach to studies of science. Inserted in the daily activities of an epidemiological research group, I registered some aspects of the scientific production process, such as the strategies and negotiations involved in the maintenance and circulation of the data produced. This paper describes the trajectory of epidemiological research and the interaction network of its actors, including the participation of technicians in the negotiation of the scientific practices. In addition to highlighting the continuous activity of negotiation and transformation of epidemiological data and information, I analyze the separation of science and politics or of nature and culture-society, and emphasize the collective participation in the process of scientific production.