Mediation in the development of a treatment for COVID-19: fishing for actants
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5216/sec.v24.65870Abstract
This article aims to analyze sociologically the actions of science
in search of treatment for COVID-19. To this end, this work relied both on knowledge and field reports prepared by a scientist directly involved in the research of a treatment, and on an analysis of mediations from the sociology of associations, a theoretical prism proposed by the sociologist,
anthropologist and philosopher Bruno Latour. The efforts made by science to seek treatments for the new coronavirus were taken, in this text, from a specific case: the research work being developed by the Molecular Immunology Laboratory (MIL) of Rockefeller University. From the description of the case, we were able to relate the scientists’ action with Bruno Latour’s concepts, such as the mediation that involves the artifices used to identify, capture and replicate the specific B cells that are capable of fighting the virus, the action of the non-humans needed for this, such as the use of a protein bait to “fish” the B cells, and the networking of these elements [RES] necessary for the development of the treatment. Thus we demonstrated not only how the Latourian literature has remained current in describing scientific work, providing tools that help us understand the heterogeneous dynamics of this activity, but also
how the continuity of our permanence depends on the creative articulation
or mediation of the discontinuities and actors that surround us.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2021 Sociedade e Cultura
![Creative Commons License](http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain the copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication, the work being simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which allows the sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and of the initial publication in this journal;
- Authors are authorized to enter into additional contracts separately, for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in this journal (eg, publishing in an institutional repository or as a book chapter), with acknowledgment of authorship and of the initial publication in this journal;
- Authors are allowed and encouraged to post and distribute their work online (eg, in institutional repositories or on their personal page) at any point before or during the editorial process, as this can bring productive change as well as increases the impact and the citation of the published work (see O Efeito do Acesso Livre).