Innovations in biomedical research have the potential to transform the healthcare diagnostics. Human genomics research is another approach which provides new tools and techniques by which life... Show More

Innovations in biomedical research have the potential to transform the healthcare diagnostics. Human genomics research is another approach which provides new tools and techniques by which life science researchers hope will help in predicting susceptibility towards common diseases. In this backdrop, this paper attempts to explore at the intersection of health, technology and society by attempting to understand as how human genomics approach can help the life scientists to unravel the disease susceptibility in case of human genetic disorders. Actor-Network Theory has been deployed as a theoretical framework as it gives some agency to non-human actors along with human actors. It has been argued in this paper that non-human ‘actants' play a decisive role in case of human genomics research. Rise of human genomics has been traced since the term ‘genomics' was first coined to the present day's promise and hope generated by the advances in human genomics. Some misconceptions and clarifications regarding ANT have also been discussed in this paper.

Th? paper aims to explore the current state of a particular instance of patient activism in Bulgaria through tracing the sociotechnical network architecture of the assisted reproductive... Show More

Th? paper aims to explore the current state of a particular instance of patient activism in Bulgaria through tracing the sociotechnical network architecture of the assisted reproductive technologies. It argues that in the local context this is the patient activism, which could be assessed as successful or, in ANT's terms, it has forged heterogeneous alliances, able to sustain themselves, proliferate and enroll new protagonists. Based on interviews with patients and activists, on media representations, and online discussions, this research tries to trace the local heterogeneous arrays of protagonists and show how ARTs network successfully stabilizes and gains power.

The objective of this paper is to formulate new approach to entrepreneurship and its result that is challenged by appearance of novel spheres of entrepreneurial activity related to social... Show More

The objective of this paper is to formulate new approach to entrepreneurship and its result that is challenged by appearance of novel spheres of entrepreneurial activity related to social innovations, social networks, solution for corporate management and people`s wellbeing, production of gadget for precarious wants. These items inspire the study of axiological bases of value created by entrepreneurs. This purpose suggests addressing and revisiting the notions of entrepreneurial action and value. Their complete conceptualization applying to nascent new economy is unlikely to be possible. With this in mind, we focused on searching for metaphors that can cast light on the specifics of newly-emerging phenomena related to entrepreneurial action and value created by it. Using the theory of metaphor, we find that entrepreneurial action is of metaphorical nature itself. In the article, the creation of value is described by means of the transferal of enterprising constituents of entrepreneur's identity onto produced things. We specify these constituents as referred to the different periods of entrepreneurial history. The identification of the constituents was based on the theory of pillars and carriers of institutions by W. R. Scott. The metaphors of appropriateness, utility and wellbeing were proposed for the different periods of the development of value. The metaphor of rhetoric was defined as a root metaphor for all moduses of entrepreneurial action considered as a process of convincing on the value of things produced. Special metaphors for entrepreneurial action for each period of value development were also proposed. The metaphor of performative rhetoric was considered as shedding light on dominant modus of entrepreneurial action and modus of value under conditions of knowledge society.

Applying the notion of identity, the article analyses the role of real time observation of professional and amateur astronomers in the context of ongoing digitalization of research. Unveiling the... Show More

Applying the notion of identity, the article analyses the role of real time observation of professional and amateur astronomers in the context of ongoing digitalization of research. Unveiling the importance of materiality and immediate relationships with instruments, we took a critical stance to the established research approaches to this subject, in particular the ethnography of profession and the actor-network theory (ANT). Bearing on of Julian Orr studies of professional culture and our own ANT notion of ‘heterogeneous coupling', an attempt was made to introduce a new language for analysing the two knowledge communities, based on the sociology of taste and attachment of Antoine Hennion and sociology of regimes of worth of Luck Boltanski, which allows to grasp both similarities and differences in the astronomers' identities.