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Last broadcast on Mon, 20 Apr 2009, 00:15 on BBC Radio 4 (see all broadcasts).
Synopsis
Laurie Taylor explores the latest research into how society works.
There is a revolution happening in security and the human body is at the centre of new ways of monitoring and controlling the way we live. From fingerprinting to retinal scans. Laurie Taylor explores the way that the history of biometrics has changed the relationship between the citizen and the state. What are the new measures that are due to be introduced? How are new technological developments likely to change the way we live? Laurie talks to anthropologist Mark Maguire about changes which mean that the body becomes our passport and asks whether the so-called 'securitization of identity' will change the way we think of ourselves.
Plus, is it possible for a social scientist to always remain uninvolved in the world he is studying? When does it become impossible to keep your mouth shut? Laurie talks to two medical sociologists, Charles Bosk and Clare Williams, about the ethical questions they have had to face.
Dr Mark Maguire
Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
The Birth of Biometric Security Anthropology Today
April 2009 – volume 25 – issue 2
Department of Anthropology, National University of Ireland, Maynooth
Professor Charles Bosk
Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
What Would You Do?: Juggling Bioethics and Ethnography
Publisher: Chicago University Press
ISBN-10: 0226066762
ISBN-13: 978-0226066769
Professor Clare Williams
Director of the Centre for Biomedicine & Society (CBAS) Professor of Social Science of Biomedicine in the School of Social Science & Public Policy at King’s College, London
Broadcasts
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Wed 15 Apr 200916:00
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Mon 20 Apr 200900:15

