Platformization of COVID and the Rise of Biosocial Surveillance

The emergence of participatory medicine and patient-generated medical research and knowledge is gaining more traction, especially with the current global health crisis. Digital platform organizations bring together diverse market actors for partnership for the creation and distribution of aggregate medical data and find cures for diseases, hence challenging the conventional medical knowledge production and disease control. In this paper, I articulate how such platformization of patient/citizen-led medical research and disease control is organized and sustained through Foucauldian notion of biopower and Rabinow’s concept of biosociality to then draw attention to what I call biosocial surveillance, which is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s risk society. Indeed, global exacerbation of the Covid-19 pandemic pushes us to rethink the conventional slow-moving medical discovery and surveillance processes driven by dominant macro-institutions, and how the patient-citizen increasingly becomes an active partner of the surveillance of this pandemic together with macro institutions. I conclude with the limits and risks of biosocial surveillance through diverse platforms while acknowledging their efforts for a more democratized and accessible patient care and citizen-led medical research

Constitution of the market through social media: Dialogical co-production of medicine in a virtual health community organization

This research explores new systems of marketing, and new roles and relationships of organizations and consumers developing in healthcare as a result of transformations occurring in technology, consumer/marketer value systems, forms of discourse and institutional roles. Inspired by observations from a Medicine 2.0 community organization, which turn social networking into a business phenomenon – PatientsLikeMe (PLM) – I explore how such systems develop and function and the institutionalizations that reconstitute roles and maintain relationships among actors in these systems through netnographic research. That is, (1) why and how patients in PLM participate in the social co-production of medical knowledge and experience, and (2) how the ‘community’ organizes roles and relations, and institutionalize ‘sharing’ in healthcare where privacy dominates relations. Findings articulate a dialogical approach to organizing roles and relations with the dilution of provisioning in this co-mediated market system, which reflects collaborative, connective and communal relations built on dialogues among diverse healthcare actors. From a theoretical vantage point, Foucauldian notions of biopower and govern-mentality are reconsidered in order to articulate why and how such a system may be attracting healthcare actors and maintain their interest and sharing in this community

License to Heal: Understanding a Healthcare Platform Organization as a Multi-Level Surveillant Assemblage

Platform organizations bring renewed attention to power disparities and risks in the rise of surveillance capitalism. However; such critical accounts provide a partial understanding of the complexity of surveillance phenomena in such shifting socio-technical and digital environments.The findings from a netnographic investigation of a healthcare platform organization, PatientsLikeMe, unravel how platforms become the locus where multi-level flows of surveillance converge, thereby constituting what we identify as a surveillant assemblage. We develop a comprehensive approach for understanding how platforms constitute a dynamic crossroads of micro-, meso- and macro-surveillance phenomena within and beyond the online communities they create.This study highlights this surveillant assemblage\u27s emerging practices and potentially empowering outcomes that enable multi-stakeholder involvement in big data and knowledge generation in healthcare. Broader implications of multi-level surveillance in and through platforms are discussed

Food prosumption technologies : A symbiotic lens for a degrowth transition

Prosumption is gaining momentum among the critical accounts of sustainable consumption that have thus far enriched the marketing discourse. Attention to prosumption is increasing whilst the degrowth movement is emerging to tackle the contradictions inherent in growth-driven, technology-fueled, and capitalist modes of sustainable production and consumption. In response to dominant critical voices that portray technology as counter to degrowth living, we propose an alternative symbiotic lens with which to reconsider the relations between technology, prosumption, and degrowth living, and assess how a degrowth transition in the context of food can be carried out at the intersection of human–nature–technology. We contribute to the critical debates on prosumption in marketing by analyzing the potentials and limits of technology-enabled food prosumption for a degrowth transition through the degrowth principles of conviviality and appropriateness. Finally, we consider the sociopolitical challenges involved in mobilizing such technologies to achieve symbiosis and propose a future research agenda.©2023 Sage Publications. The article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses. Users may also download and save a local copy of an article accessed in an institutional repository for the user's personal reference.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Symbolic and Experiential Consumption of Body in Virtual Worlds

International audienceThis study examines the symbolic meanings of the body concept in a virtual world called Second Life (SL). Using audio-visual approach to netnography, we investigate the ways in which consumers are involved in SL, the meanings attached to their avatars, the process of (re)constructing their avatars, and the experiences lived through their avatars. In light of our findings, we draw attention to the conceptualization of body as experience, which brings the enhancement in the perception of body as a means of self-presentation to experiencing the body for the sake of the body. Furthermore, we introduce the concept of symembodiment as a means of articulating the presence of body in SL and reemphasizing the non-resolvable embodiment/disembodiment paradox of the body in the virtual world.<br/

Re-imagining the utopian : Transformation into a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages

International audienceThis research elucidates the transformative nature of sustainable lifestyles in ecovillages as ostensibly utopian spaces. Using archival data from several ecovillages, in-depth interviews with ecovillage residents, and participatory observations made at the EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), New York, and Imeceevi, Turkey, the article explains the processes by which utopian ideals are re-imagined and re-configured based on the social configuration of the sustainable lifestyle. The findings suggest that consumers organize alternative life modes in their quest to explore and internalize environmentally sustainable lifestyles in multi-faceted ideological fields. The study documents the transformation of ecovillages from intentional to incidentally utopian communities where residents equally prioritize and contest relational sustainability. Drawing on these findings, the article also presents public policy implications on new educational programs and sharing economy.<br/

Social class dynamics in AFC

International audienc

Social class dynamics in AFC

International audienc

Two Peas in a Pod? Exploring the Market Orientation, Innovation, and Dynamism of Mexico and Turkey\u27s Entrepreneurial Culture

For businesses where resources are scarce and the environment is volatile in political, economic and cultural terms, such as the current case of Mexico and Turkey businesses might suggest, the pursue of business practices that adopt a market orientation (MO) is critical to maintain market share and survive. We address whether MO and innovation and dynamism levels, relevant constructs in such volatile business environments, differ among small businesses in Mexico and Turkey. The analysis was conducted from an ownership (manager vs. owner) and gender (male vs. female) approach. Findings suggest that gender differences were not significant with respect to MO, innovation, and dynamism in Turkey. Neither there were gender differences with respect to MO in Mexico. However, women in Mexico showed a higher orientation for innovation and dynamism. Owner and manager differences towards MO, innovation, and dynamism were not found significant in both regions denoting the importance that these concepts attain regardless of being an owner and manager. Entrepreneurial forces remain focused on exhibiting a marketing concept that leads to remain as a source of income, employment, and growt