The issue of Human, Medicine and Society encompasses a broad and interdisciplinary spectrum of topics. Ongoing innovations in medicine, science and technology have led to various possibilities and restructuring orders. These innovations are concerned with social and cultural aspects of illness and health, medicine, health care organizations and health policies. Hence, new practices of self-care combined with prevention and health promotion are becoming increasingly relevant. The historical constitution and effectiveness of the interrelation of medicine, science and technology is also important in this context as its transformation processes affect our present and future on various levels.

On the individual level, new forms of human-machine constellations have emerged as a result of the evolvement of bionic body parts for instance. On a social level, these changes cause modifications such as doctor-patient relationships, for example, and create new occupations or socio-technical environments influenced by the intertwining of society with technology. Along these lines, new forms of institutionalization, discrimination and also legal matters with regard to health and society occur. As medical drugs, devices and technologies are applied for non-therapeutic purposes, ‘human enhancement’ is a highly controversial discussion topic fostering new understandings of a ‘healthy society’. Likewise, medical innovations raise questions about the impact of these developments in shaping socio-technical, cultural, ethical, legal and political aspects of living in an ‘enhancement society’.

These issues and questions are further discussed and elaborated on in a series of interdisciplinary lectures at the Orient-Institut Istanbul with lecturers from art, science and technology from Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Turkey.

The lectures will be held in English or Turkish based on the title of the lecture.

The detailed program can be found here.