Exploring the constitution of biomedicine through the lens of science and technology studies. From local ethnographies to computational sociology and back. A dialogue with Alberto Cambrosio

The study of medicine and the health professions has long played a role in pollinating the general sociology debate and social theory at large (Rose 2007). It is broadly recognised that medicine and clinical settings allow for extensive fieldwork concerning some of the most fundamental pillars on which the «sociological imagination» rests, the most relevant of which are the legal institutionalisation of power and professional authority, trust as a condition for the reproduction of the social order and processes of social control and deviance. In this way, traditional medical sociologists have undoubtedly offered relevant conceptual frameworks to understand how agencies of social control work, how they orient the construction of the cultural authority and the moral force of so-called «expert professions». Although this body of research well explored the reciprocity between medical expertise, cultural processes and power relations, it fundamentally neglected to pay attention to the scientific and technological (i.e. material) dimension, in which the everyday work of health professionals is deeply embedded. For example, if we look at oncology (one of the most relevant domains of medical expertise in the last 50 years), it is clear that this field resides within large heterogeneous networks. Such networks encompass transnational research institutions, funding programs to support them, legislative frameworks and the factors and conditions shaping specific (bio)technologies (e.g. imaging techniques, genome sequencing technology and algorithms) and socio-technical infrastructures (e.g. information systems for the management of digital health records, online genetic databases). These networks are able to configure durable and stable relations over time and space between diverse medical practitioners, researchers and patients.