Publication: Cuerpos, virus y economías morales: la prueba del VIH
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2013
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Universidad Complutense de Madrid
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Abstract
En el artículo trato de explorar una posible conceptualización del cuerpo y de las tecnologías de subjetivación, considerándolas no como entidades diferenciadas, sino en su conformación mutua. Para ello, propongo revisar la transformación de una tecnología médica, la prueba del VIH, en una tecnología de prevención. Me interesa aproximarme a la prueba del VIH desde el punto de vista de los cuerpos que pone en escena en el seno de economías morales específicas. Para ello trabajo las narrativas de las circunstancias en las que algunos hombres, mayormente gays y seropositivos, se hicieron la prueba, desde dos perspectivas. Primero, trato de situar los cuerpos y las tecnologías en sus contextos específicos de relación y experiencia. En un segundo paso, trato de relacionar estos microprocesos con los cambios más amplios en la propia tecnología, subrayando su historicidad, y enmarcando la prueba del VIH en los cambios en la gestión política de la epidemia. Se argumenta que esta última perspectiva debe ser conceptualizada como biopolítica, puesto que lo que está en juego son los modos específicos y concretos en que la epidemia ha sido gestionada como problema político en su sentido más amplio. En definitiva, trato de mostrar cómo la redefinición de la prueba del VIH puede conllevar puestas en escena novedosas del cuerpo, pero en el proceso la tecnología es a su vez redefinida en las estrategias subjetivas imprevisibles que se ponen en marcha. El artículo mostrará al cuerpo frente al VIH como algo que se hace, de formas cambiantes a lo largo del tiempo, un hacer que es afectado y a su vez afecta a las tecnologías y las economías morales en las que se desenvuelve.
In this article I try to explore a possible conceptualization of the body and subjectification technologies, considering them not as different entities but in their mutual conformation. To do this I propose to review the transformation of a medical technology, HIV testing, into a preventive technology. I am particularly interested in addressing the HIV test from the point of view of the bodies that it enacts in specific moral economies. I work through the narrative of the circumstances in which some men, mostly gays and seropositive, took the HIV test from two perspectives: first, I try to place bodies and technologies in their specific contexts of relations and experience. In a second step, I try to link these micro-processes to wider changes in the technology itself, underlining its historicity, and framing the HIV test in the changing political management of the epidemic. I argue that this perspective should be conceptualized as biopolitical, since what is at stake here is the specific and concrete ways in which the epidemic has been managed as a political problem in its broadest sense. Thus, I try to show how a redefinition of HIV testing can lead to novel enactments of the body, but in the process the technology is in turn redefined in subjective strategies that are unforeseeable. The article will be showing the body confronting HIV as something that is done, in changing manners over time, a doing that is affected and in turn affects the technologies and moral economies in which it operates.
In this article I try to explore a possible conceptualization of the body and subjectification technologies, considering them not as different entities but in their mutual conformation. To do this I propose to review the transformation of a medical technology, HIV testing, into a preventive technology. I am particularly interested in addressing the HIV test from the point of view of the bodies that it enacts in specific moral economies. I work through the narrative of the circumstances in which some men, mostly gays and seropositive, took the HIV test from two perspectives: first, I try to place bodies and technologies in their specific contexts of relations and experience. In a second step, I try to link these micro-processes to wider changes in the technology itself, underlining its historicity, and framing the HIV test in the changing political management of the epidemic. I argue that this perspective should be conceptualized as biopolitical, since what is at stake here is the specific and concrete ways in which the epidemic has been managed as a political problem in its broadest sense. Thus, I try to show how a redefinition of HIV testing can lead to novel enactments of the body, but in the process the technology is in turn redefined in subjective strategies that are unforeseeable. The article will be showing the body confronting HIV as something that is done, in changing manners over time, a doing that is affected and in turn affects the technologies and moral economies in which it operates.