CFP: PhilosophicalNews, vol. 22, 2021
Ethics, Health Data, and Bio-Citizenship
Submission Deadline
Full paper: January 1st, 2021
Aims and Background
Adriana Petryna first introduced the
term “biological citizenship” in her ethnography of the aftermath of the
Chernobyl post-disaster emergency, Life Exposed [Petryna A. 2002. Life Exposed:
Biological Citizens after Chernobyl. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.].
As stated by Rose and Novas, biological citizenship can be defined as an active
form of citizenship that produces new forms of belonging, claims to
acknowledgement of experiences, and access to resources revolving around
biological and medical claims. Within this frame, the “emergency” refers to
those “emerging forms of life” and introduces a new element into the
philosophical, ethical, and sociological reflection: something which arises
from the intertwining of modes of theoretical thinking and moral agency
pertinent to different areas – medical, legal, economic, political, moral – and
is not directly postulated by any of them; something whose characteristics can
be identifiable, but whose result cannot be predicted. Several factors have
contributed to defining the concept of biological citizenship. These include:
1. A gnoseological expansion
leading to a proliferation of disease categories in the biomedical field;
2.
New forms of bio-sociality
emerging in connection with the increase in rare diseases;
3. The consolidation of new
biopolitical systems and new forms of governance;
4.
The rise of new political and
moral economies of hope;
5.
An increased relevance of
patient associations in decision making.
However, biological citizenship should
not be constructed merely as a resurgence of the medicalization of life
(Foucault), or a form of liberalization and privatization of eugenics
(Habermas). In this context, this special issue aims at investigating the
multidisciplinary background of the expanding moral claim to bio-sociality and
bio-citizenship. As a matter of fact, being a bio-citizen carries an underlying
demand for more suitable public policies and socio-economic rights to shape the
universalization of fragility and vulnerability as human conditions in contemporary
society. On the one hand, bio-citizenship may therefore be viewed as a
proactive proposition for patient-centred healthcare within an enlarged
framework of cultural and political meanings: the patient is no longer a
subject, who happens to suffer from a specific impairment at a specific moment
in time; rather, being a patient is a universal condition, shared by all human
beings. The idea is to move from a generally negative perception of the term
“patient” to a neutral or positive perception of the same concept. On the other
hand, however, biological citizenship also implies an underlying and constant
connection between the patient status and the involvement of health data in
order for patient-centred technologies to run efficiently. This entails new (cyber)
risks and vulnerabilities that might not only impoverish the empathic and
emotional quality of the care relationship, but also favour a concept of
democratic citizenship based on Big-data-oriented sovereignty, thus paving the
way from bio-citizenship to bio-data-citizenship. This idiosyncrasy is very
evident in the ongoing global experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are
learning how contingent the necessity is to rethink the link between ethics,
Big data, patient empowerment, and healthcare technology.
Original contributions discussing issues
such as gender, big data, biocitizenship, or any other relevant topic will be
considered, subject to approval by the Editorial Board.
Submission Details
•
8000 words (spaces included)
•
Each text has to include an
abstract written in English, 300 words max.
•
All material should be
submitted via e-mail to the special issue’s editors Antonio Carnevale (a.carnevale AT cyberethicslab.com)
and Emanuela Tangari (e.tangari AT cyberethicslab.com).
The volume will be published in June
2021.
For further information as well as the
submission of the paper, please refer to the guidelines or visit http://www.moralphilosophy.eu/cfp/cfp-no-22/
orcid.org/0000-0002-0192-8965
