Technocultures of extended metabolism

This project examines the social and cultural implications of recent advances in biomedical research and clinical practice relating to the human metabolism. These advances underscore the complexity and malleability of metabolisms and in fact expand the conception of it to include more than individual and more than human realities. Using qualitative methods, we examine how the metabolism of people living with Type 1 diabetes (Study 1) and obesity (Study 2) and on home parenteral nutrition (Study 3) is done in medical and (collective) self-care practices. We focus on the role of new wearable technologies, (self-)experimentation with diet, personalised nutrition, probiotics, and the new generation of metabolic drugs. We conceptualise these matters as mediators (Latour 2007) that extend the metabolism beyond the human gut. The project will be implemented in cooperation with the Centre for Research on Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes at Charles University. The team will design and pilot the use of a method we call ‘biosocial casuistics’ that will combine sociological and clinical data.