Overview
This book examines how pacemakers and defibrillators participate in transforming life and death in high-tech societies. In both popular and medical accounts, these internal devices are often portrayed as almost magical technologies. Once implanted in bodies, they do not require any ‘user’ agency. In this unique and timely book, Nelly Oudshoorn argues that any discourse or policy assuming a passive role for people living with these implants silences the fact that keeping cyborg bodies alive involves their active engagement. Pacemakers and defibrillators not only act as potentially life-saving technologies, but simultaneously transform the fragility of bodies by introducing new vulnerabilities. Oudshoorn offers a fascinating examination of what it takes to become a resilient cyborg, and in the process develops a valuable new sociology of creating ‘resilient’ cyborgs.
Full Product Details
Author: Nelly Oudshoorn
Publisher: Springer Verlag, Singapore
Imprint: Springer Verlag, Singapore
Edition: 1st ed. 2020
Weight: 0.486kg
ISBN: 9789811525315
ISBN 10: 9811525315
Pages: 350
Publication Date: 03 April 2021
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Manufactured on demand
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Reviews
“Resilient Cyborgs is an exquisitely observed account of an important topic, and deserves a wide readership. In feminist science and technology studies and related fields, we have much to learn from the wired heart cyborgs living among us.” (Anne Pollock, Catalyst, catalystjournal.org, April, 2021) “I found Resilient Cyborgs to be an excellent discussion of the shared work required in order to live (and die) with a pacemaker or defibrillator. Oudshoorn is particularly successful in placing patient experience and expertise front and centre, without ever under-( or over-) stating the role of medics, technicians, friends and family, society and politics. As a young, female wired heart cyborg myself … encountered many new-to-me aspects of life with a cardiac device.” (Laura Donald, Sociology of Health & Illness, April 8, 2021) “This book can act as a thought-provoking work for different scholars in getting closer to a complex theme. … Oudshoorn’s analysis on a more solid basis. The intersectional approach may provide an important heuristic for grasping the multiple differences on building resilience.” (Veronica Moretti, TECNOSCIENZA, Vol. 11 (2), 2020)
Resilient Cyborgs is an exquisitely observed account of an important topic, and deserves a wide readership. In feminist science and technology studies and related fields, we have much to learn from the wired heart cyborgs living among us. (Anne Pollock, Catalyst, catalystjournal.org, April, 2021) I found Resilient Cyborgs to be an excellent discussion of the shared work required in order to live (and die) with a pacemaker or defibrillator. Oudshoorn is particularly successful in placing patient experience and expertise front and centre, without ever under-( or over-) stating the role of medics, technicians, friends and family, society and politics. As a young, female wired heart cyborg myself ... encountered many new-to-me aspects of life with a cardiac device. (Laura Donald, Sociology of Health & Illness, April 8, 2021) This book can act as a thought-provoking work for different scholars in getting closer to a complex theme. ... Oudshoorn's analysis on a more solid basis. The intersectional approach may provide an important heuristic for grasping the multiple differences on building resilience. (Veronica Moretti, TECNOSCIENZA, Vol. 11 (2), 2020)
This book can act as a thought-provoking work for different scholars in getting closer to a complex theme. ... Oudshoorn's analysis on a more solid basis. The intersectional approach may provide an important heuristic for grasping the multiple differences on building resilience. (Veronica Moretti, TECNOSCIENZA, Vol. 11 (2), 2020)
Author Information
Nelly Oudshoorn is Professor Emerita of Technology Dynamics and Healthcare at the University of Twente, the Netherlands. She is the author of several award winning books on the development and use of new technologies in healthcare.
