Open AccessLessening the Evils, Online
Author(s) -
Annette Leibing
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
science and technology studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.675
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 2243-4690
DOI - 10.23987/sts.55240
Subject(s) - embodied cognition , negotiation , politics , subject (documents) , dual (grammatical number) , public relations , information exchange , knowledge management , internet privacy , sociology , political science , computer science , world wide web , social science , law , artificial intelligence , art , telecommunications , literature
Virtual communities are an especially rich subject for social scientists studying the dynamic and multifaceted ways that groups negotiate health-related knowledge. What are the forces shaping the health information that virtual community members circulate, evaluate and incorporate? This article explores health information circulating on an international, though mainly North American, email list for people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. The dual purpose of the list?"of support and knowledge exchange?"is shaped by a particular politics of hope, which channels knowledge and projects it into the future. This politics of hope is, at least partly, based on what I want to call “embodied molecules”?"the effectiveness of medications created by the list’s “cyberbody.” Cyberbodies, in this article, are created through the virtual community members’ embodied learning.