Algebras and plots in risk calculation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22380/2539472X.1214Keywords:
Anthropology of health, medical anthropology, epidemiology, risk studies, public healthAbstract
Using Borges’ metaphor of “algebra and fire” we describe and discuss THE ways in which epidemiologists and public health officials, on the one hand, and anthropologists and sociologists, on the other, construct in cold blood the notion of health and life risks. Additionally, the complexity of risk wefts (tramas) constructed by people who pursue, while in action, their own interests at the cost of others’ risks are described using detailed examples, as well as the algebras applied to their own situation by those who take risks and suffer the consequences of those decisions. All these considerations are made from a technical and methodological point of view that centers on deriving expert designs for studying risks.
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