Collective Biologies

Healing Social Ills through Sexual Health Research in Mexico

Emily A. Wentzell

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781478014881, 9781478013945
• eBook ISBN: 9781478022176
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Mexican History
• Index: Social Sciences

In Collective Biologies, Emily A. Wentzell uses sexual health research participation as a case study for investigating the use of individual health behaviors to aid groups facing crisis and change. Wentzell analyzes couples' experiences of a longitudinal study of HPV occurrence in men in Cuernavaca, Mexico. She observes how their experiences reflected Mexican cultural understandings of group belonging through categories like family and race. For instance, partners drew on collective rather than individualistic understandings of biology to hope that men's performance of "modern" masculinities, marriage, and healthcare via HPV research would aid groups ranging from church congregations to the Mexican populace. Thus, Wentzell challenges the common regulatory view of medical research participation as an individual pursuit. Instead, she demonstrates that medical research is a daily life arena that people might use for fixing embodied societal problems. By identifying forms of group interconnectedness as "collective biologies," Wentzell investigates how people can use their own actions to enhance collective health and well-being in ways that neoliberal emphasis on individuality obscures.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents
• Preface: Collective Biologies in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond
• Acknowledgments
• 1. Sexual Health Research, Relationships, and Social Change in Cuernavaca
• 2. Performing Modern Masculinities in Medical Research
• 3. HPV and Couples Biology
• 4. Cultivating Companionate Families
• 5. Creating a “Culture of Prevention”
• 6. Evangelicals Participating as Piety
• 7. From “Human Subjects” to “Collective Biologies”
• Appendix: The Study Design
• References
• Index