Embodied values: Post-pharmaceutical health and the accumulation of surplus vitality in regenerative stem cell medicine

Stem cell medicine promulgates a notion of regenerative health that is strikingly at odds with the notion of health found in pharmaceutical regimes of drug research. Hence, regenerative stem cell medicine presents one key site in struggles and strategies that seek to overcome the limitations of conventional drug therapies and their entrenched political economies of research and innovation. This paper analyzes an emerging politics of “post-pharmaceutical health” and their underlying logics of generating health and value in the global bioeconomy.  This paper analyzes an emerging form of post-pharmaceutical health and its underlying regime of value in the global bioeconomy of regenerative stem cell-based medicine (RSCM). Animated by a vision to overcome drug-based therapies and their underlying political economies, RSCM pursues a form of regenerative health that is strikingly at odds with pharmaceutical regimes of drug research, regulation and therapy. To offer a theoretical account of these competing forms of health, the paper provides an analysis of the regimes of values that underpin pharmaceutical and regenerative health respectively. This analysis is done alongside three dimensions: the interlinkage between knowledge, technology and economic value creation; its relation to normative values and ethics; and conceptions and valuations of the biomedical subject and his/her body in biomedical research, intervention and innovation. Contrasting these two diverging regimes of health and value suggests that in RSCM the pharmaceutical logic of accumulating “surplus health” is not entirely dismissed but re-articulated in a regime based on the (re-)generation of regenerative biovalue through the extraction and ex vivo accumulation of “surplus vitality”. Finally, the article discusses “post-pharmaceutical health” as a sensitizing concept that offers new research avenues into emergent forms of health, value, and subjectivity beyond RSCM.

Managing Openness and Volatility: The Role of Export Diversification

As developing countries look to embrace an outward-oriented growth strategy, some may be concerned about the possibility that increased openness will be accompanied by increased volatility. However, although a more open economy may face increased volatility in its terms of trade, openness confers diversification benefits. In this note, we argue that export diversification is a key mitigating factor for the total effect of openness on volatility. More specifically, we show that most developing countries fall on the “good” side of a diversification threshold, where they are likely to experience less volatility as they pursue a strategy of greater openness.trade, openness, volatility, export, diversification, developing countries, trade policy, imports, terms of trade, development

Trade openness reduces growth volatility when countries are well diversified

This paper addresses the mechanisms by which trade openness affects growth volatility. Using a diverse set of export diversification indicators, it presents strong evidence pointing to an important role for export diversification in reducing the effect of trade openness on growth volatility. The authors also identify positive thresholds for product diversification at which the effect of openness on volatility changes sign. The effect is shown to be positive only for a minority of countries with highly concentrated export baskets. This result is shown to be robust to both explicit accounting for endogeneity as well as the inclusion of a host of additional controls.Economic Conditions and Volatility,Achieving Shared Growth,Markets and Market Access,Free Trade,Emerging Markets

Facing the next public health emergency: How do we know how (un)prepared we are?

In the realm of political preparedness, numerous benchmarks, metrics, and best practice models have emerged as integral sites in the ongoing debate. Taking the Global Health Security Index as a specific example, this paper delves into the advantages and disadvantages of such global security rankings. This analysis aims to explore the potential uses and drawbacks of employing metrics to evaluate and modify (inter-)national preparedness plans. Situating this discussion within the broader context of the escalating significance of crisis preparedness and management, particularly in the face of acute disruptions to vital infrastructures and the immense costs they entail, as well as their adverse impact on public health and societal safety. However, the findings of this analysis reveal a notable political and strategic risk associated with an excessive reliance on these metrics. It is important to recognize that these metrics not only rely on robust scientific methodologies but also rest upon selective assumptions about the world and the definition of threats. The case of the Global Health Security Index serves as an example, as the assumptions underpinning these metrics have proven inaccurate in the face of an actual pandemic. Consequently, overconfidence and misguided approaches to crisis preparedness have ensued. Additionally, this work offers a concise historical overview of preparedness thinking, outlines the field of Global Health Security, presents the existing metrics employed, and critically reflects on these tools. While metrics provide valuable insights, they should be approached with caution and an awareness of their limitations. By adopting a critical lens and recognizing the political dimensions inherent in these metrics, policymakers can make more informed decisions and develop more effective preparedness plans in an ever-evolving world of crises

Chapter 21 The Pandemic as we know it

"Once treated as the absence of knowledge, ignorance has now become a highly influential and rapidly growing topic in its own right. This new edition of the seminal text in the field is fully revised and includes new and expanded chapters on religion; domestic law and jurisprudence; sexuality and gender studies; memory studies; international relations; psychology; decision-theory; and colonial history. The study of ignorance has attracted growing attention across the natural and social sciences where a wide range of scholars explore the social life and political issues involved in the distribution and strategic use of not knowing. This handbook reflects the interdisciplinary field of ignorance studies by drawing contributions from economics, sociology, history, philosophy, cultural studies, anthropology, feminist studies, and related fields to serve as a path-breaking guide to the political, legal and social uses of ignorance in social and political life. This book will be indispensable for anyone seeking to understand the important role played by ignorance in contemporary society, culture and politics.

Diffusion in a nonhomogeneous medium: quasi-random walk on a lattice

International audienceWe are interested in Monte Carlo (MC) methods for solving the diffusion equation: in the case of a constant diffusion coefficient, the solution is approximated by using particles and in every time step, a constant stepsize is added to or substracted from the coordinates of each particle with equal probability. For a spatially dependent diffusion coefficient, the naive extension of the previous method using a spatially variable stepsize introduces a systematic error: particles migrate in the directions of decreasing diffusivity. A correction of stepsizes and stepping probabilities has recently been proposed and the numerical tests have given satisfactory results. In this paper, we describe a quasi-Monte Carlo (QMC) method for solving the diffusion equation in a spatially nonhomogeneous medium: we replace the random samples in the corrected MC scheme by low-discrepancy point sets. In order to make a proper use of the better uniformity of these point sets, the particles are reordered according to their successive coordinates at each time step. We illustrate the method with numerical examples: in dimensions 1 and 2, we show that the QMC approach leads to improved accuracy when compared with the original MC method using the same number of particles

Quasi-Monte Carlo methods for Markov chains with continuous multi-dimensional state space

International audienceWe describe a quasi-Monte Carlo method for the simulation of discrete time Markov chains with continuous multi-dimensional state space. The method simulates copies of the chain in parallel. At each step the copies are reordered according to their successive coordinates. We prove the convergence of the method when the number of copies increases. We illustrate the method with numerical examples where the simulation accuracy is improved by large factors compared with Monte Carlo simulation