Periodic Reporting for period 3 - CRYOSOCIETIES (Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2022-04-01 do 2023-09-30
The research project “Suspended Life: Exploring Cryopreservation Practices in Contemporary Societies” (CRYOSOCIETIES) explores the social and cultural dimensions of the collection, storage and usage of human and non-human organic material by technologies of cooling and freezing, also known as cryotechnologies. CRYOSOCIETIES especially examines the implications of cryopreservation for temporalities and the concept of life. The project employs a range of qualitative research methodologies to investigate distinctive empirical fields and sites of cryobanking in different European countries.
CRYOSOCIETIES consists of four subprojects. The three empirical subprojects study (1) the storage of cord blood to prepare for possible regenerative therapies in the future in Germany, focusing on the speculative value and the promissory dimensions of cryopreserved umbilical cord blood; (2) the freezing of oocytes to extend fertility and rearrange reproductive futures in Spain, investigating the reasoning behind women’s decisions to store their eggs as well as the role oocyte cryopreservation plays within the clinics studied and the broader reproductive sector; (3) the cryopreservation of endangered or extinct species with the prospect of halting extinction by securing a frozen “backup” and “to bring them back to life” employing reproductive and genetic technologies, focusing on two British initiatives, the Frozen Ark charity and the CryoArks biobank. The fourth, theoretical subproject examines the implications of a new form of life that cryopreservation practices bring into existence: “suspended life”, which makes it possible to keep vital processes in a liminal state in which biological substances are neither fully alive nor ultimately dead.
CRYOSOCIETIES pursues two central objectives. First, advancing the academic debate on cryopreservation through providing empirical knowledge about the ways in which “suspended life” is assembled, mobilised and negotiated in different fields and materials of cryobanking. Secondly, fostering public engagement with and within the field of cryopreservation and cryobanking. With the increasing importance of the life sciences, biological material has become a matter of growing concern, raising issues of privacy, data protection and possible misuse, but also the prospect of patenting and commercialisation. The project therefore tackles a series of pressing questions of scientific and social relevance.
CRYOSOCIETIES consists of four subprojects. The three empirical subprojects study (1) the storage of cord blood to prepare for possible regenerative therapies in the future in Germany, focusing on the speculative value and the promissory dimensions of cryopreserved umbilical cord blood; (2) the freezing of oocytes to extend fertility and rearrange reproductive futures in Spain, investigating the reasoning behind women’s decisions to store their eggs as well as the role oocyte cryopreservation plays within the clinics studied and the broader reproductive sector; (3) the cryopreservation of endangered or extinct species with the prospect of halting extinction by securing a frozen “backup” and “to bring them back to life” employing reproductive and genetic technologies, focusing on two British initiatives, the Frozen Ark charity and the CryoArks biobank. The fourth, theoretical subproject examines the implications of a new form of life that cryopreservation practices bring into existence: “suspended life”, which makes it possible to keep vital processes in a liminal state in which biological substances are neither fully alive nor ultimately dead.
CRYOSOCIETIES pursues two central objectives. First, advancing the academic debate on cryopreservation through providing empirical knowledge about the ways in which “suspended life” is assembled, mobilised and negotiated in different fields and materials of cryobanking. Secondly, fostering public engagement with and within the field of cryopreservation and cryobanking. With the increasing importance of the life sciences, biological material has become a matter of growing concern, raising issues of privacy, data protection and possible misuse, but also the prospect of patenting and commercialisation. The project therefore tackles a series of pressing questions of scientific and social relevance.
Since the beginning of the project, team members have participated in several conferences to present and discuss preliminary findings (as can be seen on the dissemination section of the report). Of particular importance was the organisation of a panel at the EASST/4S 2020 Annual Meeting, the most important STS conference; this led to the first Special Issue proposed by the team. Several other formats of knowledge dissemination such as invited talks/presentations in various lecture series, media coverage, and seminars have taken place. We have also fostered transdisciplinary collaboration with medical professionals and artists working in the field of cryopreservation.
Our multi-sited ethnographic work in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 has enabled us to investigate different fields of cryotechnological development. The interview material and the observations in the realm of cord blood banking, assisted reproduction technologies and biodiversity conservation are currently being analysed and compared. Based on the data and in close exchange with the conceptual and theoretical work undertaken in SP 4, our research output will significantly enhance the academic debate on the social and cultural dimensions of cryopreservation.
Our multi-sited ethnographic work in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 has enabled us to investigate different fields of cryotechnological development. The interview material and the observations in the realm of cord blood banking, assisted reproduction technologies and biodiversity conservation are currently being analysed and compared. Based on the data and in close exchange with the conceptual and theoretical work undertaken in SP 4, our research output will significantly enhance the academic debate on the social and cultural dimensions of cryopreservation.
During the second half of the project we will continue to engage with the public in transdisciplinary and participatory workshops and public talks, as we have done throughout the first two and a half years. Furthermore, we will continue to disseminate our results via media collaboration and collaboration with relevant NGOs or interested groups from civil society.
The results of our project include a profound empirical analysis of the social and cultural repercussions of cryotechnologies in Europe that will allow us to build an innovative theoretical approach directed at understanding “suspended life” in a comprehensive and complex manner. The rich empirical material collected so far in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 lays the groundwork for a convincing conceptual register for analysing the modalities and implications of cryopreservation in contemporary societies. The findings generated on the empirical cases (SP 1, 2 and 3) will be used to engage with and extend the concept of biopolitics coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, in order to focus on how cryopreservation practices seek to modulate and control processes of life (SP 4).
The results of our project include a profound empirical analysis of the social and cultural repercussions of cryotechnologies in Europe that will allow us to build an innovative theoretical approach directed at understanding “suspended life” in a comprehensive and complex manner. The rich empirical material collected so far in subprojects (SPs) 1–3 lays the groundwork for a convincing conceptual register for analysing the modalities and implications of cryopreservation in contemporary societies. The findings generated on the empirical cases (SP 1, 2 and 3) will be used to engage with and extend the concept of biopolitics coined by French philosopher Michel Foucault, in order to focus on how cryopreservation practices seek to modulate and control processes of life (SP 4).