We’re Not Talking About Touchy Feely Social Justice: Commodifying Humanistic Social Science for the Clinic

• In Event: 262 - Section on Science, Knowledge, and Technology Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 01.

Abstract

Translational medicine has exploded onto the American scientific research scene, prioritizing research agendas that transform scientific findings into practical interventions. Focusing on knowledge traditionally compatible with biomedicine, research in this area has illuminated the tensions of interdisciplinary knowledge production across the researcher-clinician, or bench-bedside, divide. In this paper, I address how humanistic social science gets translated for clinical practice by examining the case of cultural competence. Counter to studies that describe how humanistic social science gets marginalized due to its inability to become commodified, I show how translational, interdisciplinary knowledge production encourages the commodification of humanistic social science. To that end, I draw upon insights from STS and organizational studies to propose the concept of the multidisciplinary entrepreneur to explain the process by which humanistic social science gets reconfigured as a powerful tool for profit maximization.

Author

• Lauren Olsen, University of California- San Diego