Techniques de reproduction et reproduction de la société japonaise

Techniques de reproduction et reproduction de la société japonaiseLes nouvelles techniques de reproduction permettent de réaliser les désirs de procréation, là où c'était auparavant impossible. Ce texte décrit comment des femmes de Tokyo en âge de se reproduire réagissent envers l'accessibilité de la fertilisation in vitro et les tests génétiques. Ces réactions et l'analyse de leur contexte d'énonciation (notamment les notions de relations de genre au Japon) démontrent que l'interprétation de la praxis du corps en ce qui concerne ces techniques doit être mise en contexte, si bien que tout débat abstrait sur l'éthique de l'utilisation des techniques de reproduction est insuffisant. Les réactions de ces femmes sont contradictoires et révèlent, d'une part, une tension entre la rhétorique japonaise courante qui est en faveur d'un accroissement de l'individualisme et, d'autre part, les obligations envers la famille immédiate. Les techniques de reproduction sont utilisées avant tout pour créer un « contrôle des naissances » grâce auquel le rejeton « conviendra » aux attentes de la vie « normale » dans la société japonaise.Mots clés : Lock, épistémologie, savoirs populaires, techniques de reproduction, femmes, JaponReproductive Technologies and thé Reproduction ofJapanese SocietyThe new reproductive technologies permit a realization of desires about procreation which have not heretofore been possible. The responses of Japanese women of reproductive age living in Tokyo to the availability of in vitro fertilization and genetic testing are reported in this paper. These responses, together with a review of the historical and social milieu in which they are contextualized, in particular ideas about gender relations in Japan, shows the interpretation of body praxis in connection with these technologies must be contextualized and, by extension, that any abstract discussion about the ethics of the application of reproductive technologies is not adequate. Responses given by the women reveal contradictions, and an inherent tension between the current Japanese rhetoric for an increased individualism on the one hand, and immersion in and obligations towards the extended family on the other hand. Above ail, reproductive technologies are made use of to create a " planned family ", in which the offspring will " fit " with expectations about normality in Japanese society.Key words : Lock, epistemology, popular knowledge, reproductive technology, women, Japa

Les trésors perdus. Ordre/désordre social et récits de révolte des adolescents japonais

Les trésors perdusOrdre/désordre social et récits de révolte des adolescents japonaisII existe dans le Japon contemporain plusieurs formes de révolte adolescente. L'une d'elles est le refus scolaire des élèves du cycle inférieur du secondaire (7e-9e années). Divers discours ont proposé une explication de cette révolte, et ces discours ont orienté la façon de concevoir le problème et ses solutions. En général, au Japon, la révolte des adolescents est perçue comme une " maladie de la civilisation ", liée à la modernisation. Ses causes immédiates seraient l'urbanisation et la transformation de la famille en famille nucléaire. Les remèdes proposés sont pour la plupart fondés sur le retour à la morale traditionnelle japonaise. Quant au traitement des enfants qui refusent l'école, il a pour but de les amener à se conformer aux exigences du milieu scolaire.Flawed Jewels and National Dis/Order Narratives on Adolescent Dissent in JapanContemporary Japan is the scene of various forms of adolescent dissent, one of which is school refusai (especially for middle-school children). Various discourses have been developed in order to explain this revolt, and, through them ways of explaining and treating the problem have been defined. In general, in Japan, adolescent dissent is seen as a " disease of civilization ", that is of the civilization that has developed with modernization. The immediate causes of revolt are said to be urbanization and the nuclearization of the family. Among the solutions proposed to the problem, the most important is the return to a more traditional form of Japanese morals. Treatment for school refusers is based on the necessity to bring them to conform to the rules of the Japanese school system

Planning, implementation and effectiveness in Indigenous health reform

The Planning, Implementation and Effectiveness in Indigenous Health Reform (PIE) project, funded by the Lowitja Institute and the Australian Research Council, carried out by the University of Melbourne, arose from concerns by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that despite the importance of participation and investment in collaborative governance, little research focused on capturing current practice and identifying best practice is being done. The advent of the National Indigenous Reform Agreement (NIRA) and the Indigenous Health National Partnership Agreements (IHNPAs) has led to further development/application of collaborative approaches to governance through committees and forums at national, State and regional levels. The activities associated with these committees and forums are referred to throughout this report as collaborative governance. This report focuses on building the evidence base around best practice based on case studies of collaborative governance in relation to the NIRA. A policy brief highlighting the policy recommendations of this report is also available

‘The opportunity to have their say’? Identifying mechanisms of community engagement in local alcohol decision-making

Background Engaging the community in decisions-making is recognised as important for improving public health, and is recommended in global alcohol strategies, and in national policies on controlling alcohol availability. Yet there is little understanding of how to engage communities to influence decision-making to help reduce alcohol-related harms. We sought to identify and understand mechanisms of community engagement in decision-making concerning the local alcohol environment in England. Methods We conducted case studies in three local government areas in England in 2018, purposively selected for examples of community engagement in decisions affecting the local alcohol environment. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with residents, workers, local politicians and local government practitioners, and analysed documents linked to engagement and alcohol decision-making. Results Four rationales for engaging the community in decision-making affecting the alcohol environment were identified: i) as part of statutory decision-making processes; ii) to develop new policies; iii) as representation on committees; and iv) occurring through relationship building. Many of the examples related to alcohol licensing processes, but also local economy and community safety decision-making. The impact of community inputs on decisions was often not clear, but there were a few instances of engagement influencing the process and outcome of decision-making relating to the alcohol environment. Conclusions While influencing statutory licensing decision-making is challenging, community experiences of alcohol-related harms can be valuable ‘evidence’ to support new licensing policies. Informal relationship-building between communities and local government is also beneficial for sharing information about alcohol-related harms and to facilitate future engagement. However, care must be taken to balance the different interests among diverse community actors relating to the local alcohol environment, and extra support is needed for those with least capacity to engage but who face more burden of alcohol-related harms, to avoid compounding existing inequalities

Maternal and child nutrition in rural Chhattisgarh: the role of health beliefs and practices

Commonwealth Scholarship Commission; Foundation for Urban and Regional Studies; Parkes Foundatio

Regulatory objectivity in action: Mild cognitive impairment and the collective production of uncertainty

In this paper, we investigate recent changes in the definition and approach to Alzheimer’s disease brought about by growing clinical, therapeutic and regulatory interest in the prodromal or preclinical aspects of this condition. In the last decade, there has been an increased interest in the biomolecular and epidemiological characterization of pre-clinical dementia. It is argued that early diagnosis of dementia, and particularly of Alzheimer‘s disease, will facilitate the prevention of dementing processes and lower the prevalence of the condition in the general population. The search for a diagnostic category or biomarker that would serve this purpose is an ongoing but problematic endeavour for research and clinical communities in this area. In this paper, we explore how clinical and research actors, in collaboration with regulatory institutions and pharmaceutical companies, come to frame these domains as uncertainties and how they re-deploy uncertainty in the ‘collective production’ of new diagnostic conventions and bioclinical standards. While drawing as background on ethnographic, documentary and interview data, the paper proposes an in-depth, contextual analysis of the proceedings of an international meeting organized by the Peripheral and Central Nervous System Drug Advisory Committee of the US Food and Drug Administration to discuss whether or not a particular diagnostic convention — mild cognitive impairment — exists and how best it ought to be studied. Based on this analysis we argue that the deployment of uncertainty is reflexively implicated in bioclinical collectives’ search for rules and conventions, and furthermore that the collective production of uncertainty is central to the ‘knowledge machinery’ of regulatory objectivity

Making muslim babies: Ivf and gamete donation in sunni versus shi’a islam

Medical anthropological research on science, biotechnology, and religion has focused on the “local moral worlds” of men and women as they make difficult decisions regarding their health and the beginnings and endings of human life. This paper focuses on the local moral worlds of infertile Muslims as they attempt to make, in the religiously correct fashion, Muslim babies at in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics in Egypt and Lebanon. As early as 1980, authoritative fatwas issued from Egypt’s famed Al-Azhar University suggested that IVF and similar technologies are permissible as long as they do not involve any form of third-party donation (of sperm, eggs, embryos, or uteruses). Since the late 1990s, however, divergences in opinion over third-party gamete donation have occurred between Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims, with Iran’s leading ayatollah permitting gamete donation under certain conditions. This Iranian fatwa has had profound implications for the country of Lebanon, where a Shi’ite majority also seeks IVF services. Based on three periods of ethnographic research in Egyptian and Lebanese IVF clinics, this paper explores official and unofficial religious discourses surrounding the practice of IVF and third-party donation in the Muslim world, as well as the gender implications of gamete donation for Muslim marriages