International Symposium at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg in Delmenhorst (Germany)

The international symposium, which was organized by Annette Leibing, Silke Schicktanz, and Alessandro Blasimme, within the framework of the BEAD project and in cooperation with the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg, took place in Delmenhorst (18 – 20 October 2022).

The symposium brought together well-known researchers from different fields such as medical anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, sociology, political sciences, or medical ethics.

In the symposium, we discussed preventive technologies in different social and disciplinary contexts. Each day had a keynote speaker: Stephen Katz spoke about “prevention by design”; Deborah Lupton on “more-than-human perspectives on prevention”, and Klaus Høyer elaborated on “prevention from a data political perspective”.  

The individual presentations – case studies of prevention technologies – allowed participants to further reflect on concerns and ethical issues and revealed the need for continuous research on high tech as well as everyday technologies in different contexts (see program). The symposium should be seen as an important step in exploring how technologies impact the life course, how aging and the end of life can be reconceptualized through them, and overall in rethinking “prevention.”

We want to thank all speakers and participants for their input and for the enriching discussions, as well as the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg for hosting and financing parts of the meeting. We further thank the funding agencies in each country that are part of the BEAD grant.

Participants:

Mattia Andreoletti (ETH Zürich)
Thomas Alkemeyer (U Oldenburg)
Alessandro Blasimme (ETH Zürich)
Marianne Boenink (Radbout U)
Klaus Høyer (U Copenhagen)
Stephen Katz (Trent U)
Cynthia Lazzaroni (McGill U)
Annette Leibing (U Montreal)
Deborah Lupton (U New South Wales)
Paula Muhr (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Melissa Park (McGill U)
Niklas Petersen (U Göttingen)
Andrea Querfurt (U Oldenburg)
Lucie Richard (U Montreal) 
Silke Schicktanz (U Göttingen)
Mark Schweda (U Oldenburg)
Shingo Segawa (U Göttingen)
Virginie Tournay (CNRS, SciPo Paris) 
Ayo Wahlberg (U Copenhagen)
Jana Wegehöft (U Göttingen)