Project Duration: 2020 - 2022
The research project is concerned with trajectories of human-microbial coexistence in the Czech Republic. It builds on three key theoretical concepts of microbiopolitics, (micro)biological citizenship, and situated biologies. It investigates the modes, developments, and challenges of microbiological citizenship as situated in the postsocialist context. It maps out how embodied subjectivities, biosocialities, and state governance are being (re)configured in relation to and through microbial agents. The project consists of two contrasting thematic inquiries—a study into food fermentation practices and a study into practices of antibiotic use—which arguably represent different biopolitical regimes of human-microbial coexistence: the probiotic and antibiotic. Such juxtaposition promises to shed light on the multiplicity, dynamics, conflict zones, and tensions within microbiological citizenship. It also challenges any notion of a clear cut difference between the probiotic and antibiotic regimes, and allows for a more nuanced study of their overlaps and the messy spaces between.
The project team includes Tereza Stöckelová, Kateřina Kolářová and Lukáš Senft.
In 2022, the team set up, together with Jan Gojda (3rd Faculty of Medicine, Charles University), the Multidisciplinary Platform for the Study of Metabolism and Nutrition in Social and Ecological Contexts.
Principal Investigator:
Themes:
Sociology of Sciences, Health, Environment
Contracting authority:
Grant Agency of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Department:
