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Outputs (53)

Furthering Ontological Pluralism, Maybe: The Strange Case of the Microbial Recordings (2023)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2023). Furthering Ontological Pluralism, Maybe: The Strange Case of the Microbial Recordings. Science, Technology, & Human Values, https://doi.org/10.1177/01622439231190897

This paper describes the trials and tribulations of drawing on Latour’s work on ontological pluralism (An Inquiry into the Mode of Existence) to make sense of a series of recordings collected by participants in a sensorial urban walk focused on bacte... Read More about Furthering Ontological Pluralism, Maybe: The Strange Case of the Microbial Recordings.

Engaging publics in imagining the future of engineered living materials (2023)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., Marshall, J., & Staykova, M. (2023). Engaging publics in imagining the future of engineered living materials. Matter, 6(8), 2467-2470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matt.2023.05.002

Engineered living materials (ELMs) are technologies that respond to environmental cues and are able to remodel, self-organize, and self-heal. We conducted two workshops with a wide range of stakeholders and identified key themes in open discussion. O... Read More about Engaging publics in imagining the future of engineered living materials.

A genealogy of the scalable subject: Measuring health in the Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement (1950–60) (2022)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2023). A genealogy of the scalable subject: Measuring health in the Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement (1950–60). History of the Human Sciences, 36(2), 128-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/09526951221113438

Increased use of scales in data-driven consumer digital platforms and the management of organisations has led to greater interest in understanding social and psychological measurement expertise and techniques as historically constituted ‘technologies... Read More about A genealogy of the scalable subject: Measuring health in the Cornell Study of Occupational Retirement (1950–60).

Infrastructuring experience: what matters in patient-reported outcome data measurement? (2021)
Journal Article
Langstrup, H., & Moreira, T. (2022). Infrastructuring experience: what matters in patient-reported outcome data measurement?. BioSocieties, 17(3), 369-390. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41292-020-00221-5

Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) data are being widely mobilised as a means to implement clinical and governance decision-making systems based on measurement of "what matters to patients". Little is known, however, of how these—datified and calculative... Read More about Infrastructuring experience: what matters in patient-reported outcome data measurement?.

Translating cell biology of ageing? On the importance of choreographing knowledge (2020)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2021). Translating cell biology of ageing? On the importance of choreographing knowledge. New Genetics and Society, 40(3), 267-283. https://doi.org/10.1080/14636778.2020.1825932

This paper describes and explores how translational research models, embedded in institutions and standards, interact with the epistemic and material practices of cell biologists of ageing, a field re-energized by emergent technoscientific promises t... Read More about Translating cell biology of ageing? On the importance of choreographing knowledge.

From quantified to qualculated age: the health pragmatics of biological age measurement (2020)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., Hansen, A. A., & Lassen, A. J. (2020). From quantified to qualculated age: the health pragmatics of biological age measurement. Sociology of Health & Illness, 42(6), 1344-1358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.13109

There is growing interest, within the social sciences, in understanding self‐quantification and how it affects health practices in contemporary society. There is, however, less research on how ageing and health measurement relate, even though this re... Read More about From quantified to qualculated age: the health pragmatics of biological age measurement.

The use of access thresholds to widen participation at Scottish universities (2020)
Journal Article
Boliver, V., Gorard, S., Powell, M., & Moreira, T. (2020). The use of access thresholds to widen participation at Scottish universities. Scottish Affairs, 29(1), 82-97. https://doi.org/10.3366/scot.2020.0307

The Scottish Government has set ambitious targets for widening access to full-time undergraduate degree programmes. Meeting these targets will be a real challenge, not least because young people from socioeconomically disadvantaged contexts continue... Read More about The use of access thresholds to widen participation at Scottish universities.

Anticipatory measure: Alex Comfort, experimental gerontology and the measurement of senescence (2019)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2019). Anticipatory measure: Alex Comfort, experimental gerontology and the measurement of senescence. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 77, Article 101179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2019.101179

Ageing is routinely measured by counting the number of years lived since the birth of an individual but at least since at least the 1930s, the validity, precision and sensitivity of chronological age as a measure has been criticised across the biolog... Read More about Anticipatory measure: Alex Comfort, experimental gerontology and the measurement of senescence.

Metrics in Global Health: Situated differences in the valuation of human life (2019)
Journal Article
Maldonado, O., & Moreira, T. (2019). Metrics in Global Health: Situated differences in the valuation of human life. Historical social research. Supplement (Köln), 44(2), 202-224. https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.44.2019.2.202-224

This paper explores the role of knowledge, standards, and metrics in global health. Our point of departure is the observation that the emergence of ‘global health’ as a domain of research, policy, and practice in the last three decades or so has coin... Read More about Metrics in Global Health: Situated differences in the valuation of human life.

Devicing future populations: Problematizing the relationship between quantity and quality of life (2019)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2019). Devicing future populations: Problematizing the relationship between quantity and quality of life. Social Studies of Science, 49(1), 118-137. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312719829841

Taking as point of departure the claim that, in late modern societies, there has been shift from a focus on producing measures of life and death towards metrics of health and disability, this paper investigates how, through what means and processes w... Read More about Devicing future populations: Problematizing the relationship between quantity and quality of life.

De-standardising ageing? Shifting regimes of age measurement (2015)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2016). De-standardising ageing? Shifting regimes of age measurement. Ageing & Society, 36(07), 1407-1433. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x15000458

Departing from the proposition that, in the sociological debate about whether there has been a shift towards a de-standardised lifecourse in advanced economies, little attention has been devoted to the infrastructural arrangements that would support... Read More about De-standardising ageing? Shifting regimes of age measurement.

Unsettling Standards: the biological age controversy (2015)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2015). Unsettling Standards: the biological age controversy. The Sociological Quarterly, 56(1), 18-39. https://doi.org/10.1111/tsq.12079

One key debate within the sociology of aging and the life course over the past decade has been focused on understanding the extent to which there has been a shift from a reliance on chronological age to segment the life course and ascertain age-speci... Read More about Unsettling Standards: the biological age controversy.

Understanding the role of patient organizations in health technology assessment. (2014)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2015). Understanding the role of patient organizations in health technology assessment. Health Expectations, 18(6), 3349-3357. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.12325

Background The involvement of patient representatives in health technology assessment is increasingly seen by policy makers and researchers as key for the deployment of patient-centred health care, but there is uncertainty and a lack of theoretical u... Read More about Understanding the role of patient organizations in health technology assessment..

Unmaking old age: Political and cognitive formats of active ageing (2014)
Journal Article
Lassen, A., & Moreira, T. (2014). Unmaking old age: Political and cognitive formats of active ageing. Journal of Aging Studies, 30, 33-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2014.03.004

Active ageing is a policy tool that dominates the way the ageing society has been constituted during the last decades. The authors argue that active ageing is an attempt at unmaking the concept of old age, by engaging in the plasticity of ageing in v... Read More about Unmaking old age: Political and cognitive formats of active ageing.

Assembling Dementia Care: Patient organisations and social research (2014)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., O'Donovan, O., & Howlett, E. (2014). Assembling Dementia Care: Patient organisations and social research. BioSocieties, 9(2), 173-193. https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2014.6

In this article, we take the concept of evidence-based activism as a point of departure to understand how Alzheimer’s disease (AD) associations have mobilised knowledge to re-articulate their role in the public sphere. We are specifically interested... Read More about Assembling Dementia Care: Patient organisations and social research.

Evidence-based activism: Patients' organisations, users' and activist's groups in knowledge (2014)
Journal Article
Rabeharisoa, V., Moreira, T., & Akrich, M. (2014). Evidence-based activism: Patients' organisations, users' and activist's groups in knowledge. BioSocieties, 9(2), 111-128. https://doi.org/10.1057/biosoc.2014.2

This article proposes the notion of ‘evidence-based activism’ to capture patients’ and health activists’ groups’ focus on knowledge production and knowledge mobilisation in the governance of health issues. It introduces empirical data and analysis on... Read More about Evidence-based activism: Patients' organisations, users' and activist's groups in knowledge.

Tracking Transformations in Health Movement Organisations: Alzheimer's Disease Organisations and their Changing ‘Cause Regimes’ (2013)
Journal Article
O'Donovan, O., Moreira, T., & Howlett, E. (2013). Tracking Transformations in Health Movement Organisations: Alzheimer's Disease Organisations and their Changing ‘Cause Regimes’. Social Movement Studies, 12(3), 316-334. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2013.777330

In this paper, we aim to contribute to the elaboration of a framework for the systematic periodisation of health social movement organisations (HSMOs). Drawing on historical and contemporaneous data on two organisations that identify as Alzheimer's d... Read More about Tracking Transformations in Health Movement Organisations: Alzheimer's Disease Organisations and their Changing ‘Cause Regimes’.

Questions of Life and Death: A Genealogy (2012)
Book Chapter
Moreira, T., & Palladino, P. (2012). Questions of Life and Death: A Genealogy. In B. S. Turner (Ed.), Routledge Handbook of Body Studies (362-374). Routledge

Population laboratories’ or ‘laboratory populations’? Making sense of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, 1965–1987 (2011)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., & Palladino, P. (2011). Population laboratories’ or ‘laboratory populations’? Making sense of the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging, 1965–1987. Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, 42(3), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2011.05.001

Health care rationing in an age of uncertainty: a conceptual model (2011)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2011). Health care rationing in an age of uncertainty: a conceptual model. Social Science & Medicine, 72(8), 1333-1341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.02.026

Explicit health care rationing or priority-setting is the use of institutional procedures for the systematic allocation of resources within health care systems. With the establishment of priority setting systems in various countries in the past two d... Read More about Health care rationing in an age of uncertainty: a conceptual model.

Actor-network theory (2010)
Book Chapter
Moreira, T. (2010). Actor-network theory. In S. Priest (Ed.), Encyclopedia of science and technology communication. SAGE Publications

Prologue: Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease: Health, Ageing and Justice (2009)
Book Chapter
Moreira, T. (2010). Prologue: Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease: Health, Ageing and Justice. In T. Mathar, & Y. J. Jansen (Eds.), Health, promotion and prevention programmes in practice (29-52). transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.14361/9783839413029-002

The shift to prevention and health promotion is an example of how policy makers aim to rationalise and organise both health systems and patients' health practices. By applying a perspective from empirical science & technology studies (STS), based on... Read More about Prologue: Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease: Health, Ageing and Justice.

Ageing between gerontology and biomedicine (2009)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., & Palladino, P. (2009). Ageing between gerontology and biomedicine. BioSocieties, 4(4), 349-365. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1745855209990305

Over the past two decades, public interest in the basic biological processes underlying the phenomenon of ageing has grown considerably. New developments in biotechnology and health maintenance programmes appear to be forging new relationships betwee... Read More about Ageing between gerontology and biomedicine.

Regulatory objectivity in action: Mild cognitive impairment and the collective production of uncertainty (2009)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., May, C., & Bond, J. (2009). Regulatory objectivity in action: Mild cognitive impairment and the collective production of uncertainty. Social Studies of Science, 39(5), 665-690. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312709103481

In this paper, we investigate recent changes in the definition and approach to Alzheimer’s disease brought about by growing clinical, therapeutic and regulatory interest in the prodromal or preclinical aspects of this condition. In the last decade, t... Read More about Regulatory objectivity in action: Mild cognitive impairment and the collective production of uncertainty.

Little bottles and the promise of probiotics (2009)
Journal Article
Burges Watson, D., Moreira, T., & Murtagh, M. (2009). Little bottles and the promise of probiotics. Health: An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health, Illness and Medicine, 13(2), 219-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363459308099685

In this article we explore `regimes of hope' in contemporary bioscience as articulated in spaces of health consumption. We use the case study of probiotic little bottles, highlighting their promissory branding as consumer products, to consider how ho... Read More about Little bottles and the promise of probiotics.

Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? Outline of a new space of representation for Alzheimer's Disease (2008)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., & Bond, J. (2008). Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? Outline of a new space of representation for Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Aging Studies, 22(4), 356-365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2008.05.008

In this paper we pose the question: Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? We answer the question by looking at recent changes in the knowledge and organisational structure of dementia research, practice and policy and i... Read More about Does the prevention of brain ageing constitute anti-ageing medicine? Outline of a new space of representation for Alzheimer's Disease.

What explains variations in the clinical use of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a diagnostic category? (2008)
Journal Article
Moreira, T., Hughes, J., Kirkwood, T., May, C., McKeith, I., & Bond, J. (2008). What explains variations in the clinical use of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a diagnostic category?. International Psychogeriatrics, 20(4), 697-709. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1041610208007126

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is proposed to describe the transitional stage between normal cognitive aging and dementia. It has had significant impact in the field of dementia research, but it remains controversial whether or not it sh... Read More about What explains variations in the clinical use of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as a diagnostic category?.

Sleep, health and the dynamics of biomedicine (2006)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2006). Sleep, health and the dynamics of biomedicine. Social Science & Medicine, 63(1), 54-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.11.066

This paper examines the relationship between sleep and health from a sociological perspective. Two interrelated case studies are explored: the emergence of the category of obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome, nowadays the most commonly diagnosed sleep... Read More about Sleep, health and the dynamics of biomedicine.

Heterogeneity and Coordination of Blood Pressure in Neurosurgery (2006)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2006). Heterogeneity and Coordination of Blood Pressure in Neurosurgery. Social Studies of Science, 36(1), 69-97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312705053051

Blood pressure is one of the key measurements taken in standard clinical examinations. Its importance has long been associated with the instrumental precision offered by the sphygmomanometer, which is supposed to have replaced other, more imprecise m... Read More about Heterogeneity and Coordination of Blood Pressure in Neurosurgery.

Diversity in Clinical Guidelines: The role of repertoires of Evaluation (2005)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2005). Diversity in Clinical Guidelines: The role of repertoires of Evaluation. Social Science & Medicine, 60(9), 1975-1985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.062

Clinical practice guidelines are one of the main tools by which clinicians, policy makers and patients hope to make health care less variable, more reliable and efficient, but there is little understanding of the processes by which clinical guidance... Read More about Diversity in Clinical Guidelines: The role of repertoires of Evaluation.

Self, Agency and the Surgical Collective: detachment (2004)
Journal Article
Moreira, T. (2004). Self, Agency and the Surgical Collective: detachment. Sociology of Health & Illness, 26(1), 32-49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2004.00377.x

In this article, I describe the socio-technical organisation of surgical rehabilitation. After having gone through surgical intervention, patients are implicated within various types of medical work aimed at adjusting their bodies to post-operative s... Read More about Self, Agency and the Surgical Collective: detachment.