The normal and the pathological are terms used for structures, activities, individual or collective situations proper to living beings and especially to man. The relation of a fact and a norm is its positive or negative value. Can the assessment of behaviours be reduced to noting a necessity? Is a living being's disease a fact similar to universal attraction? The author maintains that diseases are not merely predetermined effects, but are revealing of a normative regulation proper to living beings and (...) man. (shrink)

»Vergesst Foucault!« – so lautete die provokante Aufforderung Jean Baudrillards Ende der 1970er Jahre. Ein Vierteljahrhundert später ist die sozialwissenschaftliche Auseinandersetzung mit dem Werk des französischen Historikers und Philosophen intensiver denn je. Zwei Konzepte haben in den vergangenen Jahren die Rezeption in besonderer Weise geprägt: Gouvernementalität und Biopolitik. Der Band erkundet die gegenwartsdiagnostische Reichweite und die soziologische Relevanz der beiden Konzepte. Er zeichnet ihre Entstehungskontexte und Bedeutungsdimensionen nach und diskutiert Perspektiven und Probleme der aktuellen Rezeption. Das Ergebnis ist eine theoretische (...) Weiterentwicklung der Machtanalytik, die sie auf empirische Forschungsfragen bezieht und ihr gesellschaftskritisches Potenzial aufzeigt. (shrink)

The technical standard in physics is demostrated as dependent on the different social and mental states of national communities. Their interests are incoporated in their research as well as in their technical equipment. In the case of high energy physics the construction of huge accelerators should maintain the level of financial, organizational and technical standards experienced during the war; but in the meantime the image of high energy physics should represent international cooperation, pure research without the stigma of destruction.

During the late 1940s and 1950s, radioisotopes became important resources for biological and medical research. This article explores the strategies used by French researchers to get access to this material, either from the local Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) or from suppliers in the United States or United Kingdom. It focuses on two aspects of this process: the transatlantic circulation of both isotopes and associated instrumentation; the regulation of use and access by the administrative bodies governing research in France. Analyzing the (...) investigations conducted within laboratories associated either with the atomic energy agency or with the local National Institute of Health (INH), the paper discusses the part played by the new tools in the postwar transformation of biomedical research. It contrasts the INH successful development of biological studies and metabolic tracing with the mixed results of CEA in advancing cancer radiotherapy, thus highlighting locally defined "normal paths" to radiobiology. (shrink)