This panel will bring a critical reflection on self-management of chronic disease from a variety of theoretical, methodological and epistemological lenses. Both empowerment and autonomy as medical concepts and chronic disease as form of living will be theoretically and empirically addressed.

Argument

In past decades, chronic diseases have become a salient social, political and healthcare issue. Empowerment, autonomy and self-management have been defined as medical priorities for the Therapeutic Education (TE) of people living with chronic disease. Mobilising heterogeneous knowledge, including lay and medical notions and skills, and interacting with a large variety of healthcare professionals and other supporting actors (relatives, friends, patients, etc.) characterise the way people living with chronic disease cope with their condition.

This panel aims at bringing a critical reflection on this crucial topic of research from a socio-anthropological perspective including a variety of theoretical, methodological and epistemological lenses. It also aims at discussing the possible contribution of ethnographic and qualitative approaches to chronic disease management when confronted to mainstream medical discourses and practices on TE, empowerment, autonomy and self-management. This panel will raise questions about chronic disease as a form of living with particular symbolic and material practices and resources. Do different types of chronic diseases need different approaches, analyses and appraisals from Social Sciences (e.g. Medical Anthropology, Science and Technology Studies, Sociology of Health and Illness)? How knowledge about self-management is produced and circulates through the broad health and social networks in which people living with chronic disease are embedded? What kind of knowledge is at stake? Which are the symbolic and material resources they mobilise and how do they use them? This panel intends to put together original empirical or theoretical contributions tackling these questions (although it is not limited to them).

Conditions and Rules

http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2016/cfp.shtml

Deadline

The call for papers is now open and closes at midnight GMT on February 15th, 2016. 

Proposing a paper

 All proposals must be made via the online form, not by email. Proposals must be made to a specific panel. There is a 'propose a paper' link beneath the long abstract of each panel page.

Paper proposals must consist of:

•  a paper title
•  the name/s and email address/es of author/s
•  a short abstract of fewer than 300 characters
•  a long abstract of fewer than 250 words

To propose a paper, please follow this link: http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4082

The EASA Biennial Conference"Anthropological legacies and human futures" will be held at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy on the 20-23 July 2016

Convenors

Convenor: Giada Danesi (University of Lausanne) giada.danesi@unil.ch 
Co-Convenor: Ayo Wahlberg (Copenhagen University) ayo.wahlberg@anthro.ku.dk 
Discussant: Vincent Pidoux (University of Lausanne) vincent.pidoux@unil.ch