The Coronavirus as Nature-Culture: Talking about Agency
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In: Nature and Culture, Vol. 17, No. 2, 06.2022, p. 119 - 143.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Coronavirus as Nature-Culture
T2 - Talking about Agency
AU - Schnabel, Annette
AU - Ülpenich, Bettina
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - We analyze how the coronavirus is fabricated at the interface between science and the public in order to be addressable by political strategies. By means of a content analysis of Christian Drosten's podcasts, we follow (1) how SARS-CoV-2 is constructed in order to be understood by non-scientists, (2) how the specialist becomes a public expert, and (3) how this co-fabrication takes place. This provides insight into the “fabrication” of meaning and of how uncertainty is transformed into knowledge during times of major risk through focusing on the perception of the virus itself. Out of a perspective of speech act theory-informed assemblage thinking, the analysis emphasizes the role of the known-unknown and of the temporality of developments in formatting both virus and expert.
AB - We analyze how the coronavirus is fabricated at the interface between science and the public in order to be addressable by political strategies. By means of a content analysis of Christian Drosten's podcasts, we follow (1) how SARS-CoV-2 is constructed in order to be understood by non-scientists, (2) how the specialist becomes a public expert, and (3) how this co-fabrication takes place. This provides insight into the “fabrication” of meaning and of how uncertainty is transformed into knowledge during times of major risk through focusing on the perception of the virus itself. Out of a perspective of speech act theory-informed assemblage thinking, the analysis emphasizes the role of the known-unknown and of the temporality of developments in formatting both virus and expert.
KW - Educational science
KW - experts
KW - fabrication
KW - pandemic
KW - qualitative research
KW - sociology of science
UR - https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/nature-and-culture/17/2/nature-and-culture.17.issue-2.xml
U2 - 10.3167/nc.2022.170201
DO - 10.3167/nc.2022.170201
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 17
SP - 119
EP - 143
JO - Nature and Culture
JF - Nature and Culture
SN - 1558-6073
IS - 2
ER -