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On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture
Jakešová, Markéta ; Ritter, Martin (advisor) ; Morin, Marie-Eve (referee) ; Weidtmann, Niels (referee)
On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture Markéta Jakešová Abstract: On Changing and Differing Types of Bodies and Their Relationships to Their Souls or/and Minds in Western Culture is a collection of loosely connected chapters that answer the question of how to make Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology more inclusive. The first chapter, devoted to Jean-Luc Nancy, serves as an introduction to the topic of alternative embodiments and the question of the soul in the body. In the following chapters, Merleau-Ponty is confronted with selected authors associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT). First, the comparison with Bruno Latour shows that the integrity of all beings and entities, including the most privileged humans, is not to be taken for granted. The pathologies in the Phenomenology of Perception and Annemarie Mol's depiction (enactment) of atherosclerosis are then used as an analogy for the inferior status of women in our society, while the fourth chapter shows the empowerment that can grow out of it through an interpretation of Elfriede Jelinek's novel The Piano Teacher. The last two chapters focus on unconventional modes of intersubjectivity and kinships as ways of being in the world. The confrontation with Eduardo Viveiros de Castro...
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Mapping of controversy on the amount of brown coal in Doly Nástup Tušimice
Pecka, Vojtěch ; Balon, Jan (advisor) ; Čada, Karel (referee)
Abstract The research utilizes 'actor-network' theory to analyze debates in the media on the socio-technical controversy on the topic of the amount of coal in the Nástup Tušimice mines. Theoretical part describes its own place in the sociological tradition and theoretical presuppositions of actor-network theory. My conclusion is that, the controversy is being developed alongside several lines, which remain relatively autonomous. Empirical part of this study analyzes dynamics of the conflict and the strategies employed by both sides in the argument over seemingly unequivocal fact. The conclusion focuses on questionable areas of ANT; especially on it's application in research of conflicts in public space which is different from its use in sociology of science where ANT originated. Problematic point seems to be utilization of management of transparency, which is employed by the alliance of companies to sustain their version of reality. Emphasis of ANT on observable aspects of controversies seems to be obstacle for fruitful use of ANT, because it probably misses the crucial areas where the controversies are being developed.
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Becoming a doctor from the viewpoint of anthropologist
Rebendová, Eva ; Halbich, Marek (advisor) ; Hrešanová, Ema (referee)
This paper is about a process of a nascency of new doctors, and how it is possible to approach this topic from the viewpoint of social anthropologist. As a starting point, I use actor-network theory, which is one of the social science paradigms focusing on materiality. I consider it (on the basis of work by Bruno Latour and other scholars, who are dealing with this field), to be a remarkable actor in matters connected with human action, and thus an appropriate subject for an anthropological inquiry. Since the topic concerns medicine in the Czech Republic nowadays, I contribute to the knowledge of medical anthropology, which does not have such a strong academic base here as in the Anglo-Saxon world. Special attention is dedicated to a detailed description of activities leading to the formation of the text of this thesis. Reflexivity, on which I put emphasis, shall serve as the foundation of the context of genesis of an anthropological knowledge and also to describe the ethical concerns of the research. The main methods are observation and semi-structured in-depth interviews with twelve informants, who were medicine students or medicine faculty graduates.
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Discipline without rules? Ethnography of Dialogical Acting with the Inner Partner
Šlédrová, Jasňa ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Spalová, Barbora (referee)
The subject of this diploma thesis is Dialogical acting with the inner partner, which understands itself as psychosomatic introspective and self-developing discipline founded by Ivan Vyskočil. I approach dialogical acting through three conceptualizations of objects - as networks, fluid objects and fire objects. With these I explore different ways in which dialogical acting holds its shape as a discipline. I focus on the creation and continuous re-enactment of dialogical acting and its ambiguous relation to its founder Ivan Vyskočil. I analyze the stability and fluidity of rules that shape and define boundaries of the discipline and describe dialogical acting as a set of relations of changing entities and realities that are present and absent, and as passages that are enacted by the rearrangements of multiple specificities. I try to capture tensions that constitute the discipline. Dialogical acting aims at being an open discipline without rules. As rules re-emerge and tend to stabilize, the discipline develops strategies in the process of transferring knowledge that seek to destabilize the rules. Findings and conclusions of this thesis are based on participative observation of dialogical acting in the courses that take place on The Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, on...
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The Role of Non-human Actors in the Construction of Scientific Fact in Bruno Latour's Conception
Patáková, Markéta ; Horák, Vít (advisor) ; Hlaváček, Karel (referee)
The main topic of this thesis is the construction of a scientific fact as a special case of construction of reality. Bruno Latour is connected to this in several perspectives through which will this thesis capture his position. It describes his concept of science, originating from his laboratory studies, and its later embedding under the actor-network theory. In both cases, the emphasis lays on withdrawal from explanation through complex invisible forces, used by contemporary sociology. Latour refuses to explain a scientific fact through reference to outside world and society. According to him, attention should shift to the local and empirically approachable level. On this level there are collectives of human and non-human actors, who act together. Latour's conception of the construction of a scientific fact is put to test by the critique from sociology of knowledge. The strong program of sociology of knowledge understands the scientific fact as a joint product of reality and society. Non-humans (principally laboratory technology) play a key role in this dispute. Sociology of knowledge does not include them in their analysis, because they are not taken as social actors. Technology is on the other hand a core element in the construction of scientific fact in Latour's conception. Readers of this thesis will...
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ANT-Security Interface and the Current Information Crisis
Downs, Alexander ; Vostal, Filip (advisor) ; Špelda, Petr (referee)
We live in a world driven by fast technologies. The same technologies that make information more accessible have created a dilemma by which the same conduits have also enabled access to mass amounts of counter-factual information. It is the assertion of this thesis project that counter- factual information poses a growing risk to the security and stability in liberal democratic societies and warrants a proportional response. The body of work which follows will explore what I have characterized as an information crisis. The information crisis, so presented, is a multi-faceted issue. It's constituent causes and outcomes concern both scholars of security studies and sociology. To address breadth of scope and immediacy of the crisis, the conceptual framework purposed in this project offers an interface between actor-network theory and security studies (ANT-security interface). Actor-network theory is a material-semiotic approach that preferences engagement with human and technological actants as an assemblage. Or, in other words, a network of relationships. The first chapter will introduce the dimensions of the information crisis, providing relevant examples of how counter-factual information embodies a human, and societal security issue. It will delineate important concepts such as misinformation, and...
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"White cane, yes. Dictaphone, yes. But everything is already in Apple." The technification of blindness in the symmetrical approach of ethnography
Haspeklová, Sára ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Zandlová, Markéta (referee)
In the thesis I ethnographically study the process of interconnecting and mutual influencing of human and non-human entities in case of the visually impaired persons and the compensation devices based on computer technology. I examine this process, which I call "the technification of blindness", in symmetrical terms. The main theoretical inspiration for the study is the interplay of technology and the health-inconvenienced body and its consequences which are based on the Actor-Network Theory and related material-semiotic tools of social-science research. My aim is to analyse processes which enable/not allow to manage everyday activities to visually impaired persons in the Czech Republic, while they are using computer technologies and their relation with wider processes of accessibility. I trace mutual influencing of human and non-human entities on a specific configuration of visually disabled body with specifically modified personal computer, and with a touch-screen smart-phone. The study shows how the specific form of portable electronic and computer-based devices, which are specially adapted to seeing users, is what excludes blind and visually impaired persons from the interaction with computer technology. Such a cooperation and visual orientation of blind persons is allowed only thanks to...
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Discipline without rules? Ethnography of Dialogical Acting with the Inner Partner
Šlédrová, Jasňa ; Stöckelová, Tereza (advisor) ; Spalová, Barbora (referee)
The subject of this diploma thesis is Dialogical acting with the inner partner, which understands itself as psychosomatic introspective and self-developing discipline founded by Ivan Vyskočil. I approach dialogical acting through three conceptualizations of objects - as networks, fluid objects and fire objects. With these I explore different ways in which dialogical acting holds its shape as a discipline. I focus on the creation and continuous re-enactment of dialogical acting and its ambiguous relation to its founder Ivan Vyskočil. I analyze the stability and fluidity of rules that shape and define boundaries of the discipline and describe dialogical acting as a set of relations of changing entities and realities that are present and absent, and as passages that are enacted by the rearrangements of multiple specificities. I try to capture tensions that constitute the discipline. Dialogical acting aims at being an open discipline without rules. As rules re-emerge and tend to stabilize, the discipline develops strategies in the process of transferring knowledge that seek to destabilize the rules. Findings and conclusions of this thesis are based on participative observation of dialogical acting in the courses that take place on The Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, on...
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Homebirth as Actor-Network
Genttnerová, Kristýna ; Grygar, Jakub (advisor) ; Šanderová, Jadwiga (referee)
Homebirth as Actor-Network: Multiple realities The topic of this medical anthropology thesis is a description of homebirth seen through the eyes of Actor-Network Theory. The focus of this work is thus not on the professional concept of homebirth as a biological process or soon-to-be-mothers experience and take on homebirth. Focus is on homebirth in itself, how it is enacted in practice. After the presentation of two points of view on medicine (disease and illness), an introduction into the basic principles and innovations of ANT (including anthropology of symmetry) and works of people, who build their ideas on it (Mol - multiplicity, De Laet - fluidity, Law), the thesis shifts its focus to the description of the whole actor- network, which enacts homebirth via interaction between the actors in practice. These practices are abstracted from the interviews with mothers, a dula and a paediatrician. The description includes people and objects, because according to ANT, they have the same amount of social agency. Homebirth is then enacted by the objects needed for homebirth - tools to make birth easier and to support its process, by people who partake, venues it takes place and the birthing positions it brings. Another part of the actor-network can be found before the homebirth happens - the hunt for information...
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