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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 0-9

Obesity in 2020: Three Scenarios on Techno-socio-ethical Co-evolution

Author: Tsjalling Swierstra and Jozef Keulartz
Organisation: Maastricht University
Publish Date: 2014
Country: Global
Sector: Health
Method: Scenarios
Theme: Food
Type: Other publication
Language: English
Tags: Obesity, Adult obesity, Health, Genomics, Corporate responsibility, Diet drugs

Sketches three scenarios for the ways genomics can be expected to influence and re-shape this constellation. Our methodological point of departure is provided by the so-called co-evolution thesis, which holds that technological development and social development mutually shape each other. More particularly, we want to focus on the moral consequences of genomics. That is: we will try to anticipate the ways existing moral (and political) discourses might change as a consequence of this particular form of techno-scientific progress. Of course, these scenarios rest on speculation. But scenarios have aptly been described as a form of controlled speculation. This ‘control’ comes from a diagnosis of the resources, restrictions and patterns that can be detected in the here and now. The present constitutes the bed that determines the flow of the river. What we try to do is anticipate how the river’s flow will change this bed in the future. Co-evolution entails that existing moralities, in a broad sense, encompassing discourse, practices and material objects – as we sketched them in the second chapter – will influence how genomics will affect the ways we deal with obesity. And vice versa, that these moralities themselves are bound to change under the influence of genomics.
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