Else Vogel

Background

About Else Vogel

Since beginning my doctorate in 2012, I have developed my research at the nexus of Cultural Anthropology and Science and Technology Studies (STS), focusing on values in (human and animal) health care practices. In my work I combine philosophical reflection with empirical study of care practices. Next to advancing theories of valuation, care and biopolitics, my work informs public deliberation on complex health issues. I am the Principal Investigator of the ERC Starting Grant funded project VetValues, a comparative ethnography of veterinary care in three European countries: The Netherlands, Sweden and Italy. This research explores how values come together and are negotiated in a world caught between the growing demand for meat, pressing ecological challenges, and rising concerns for animal welfare. We focus on how veterinarians - professionals who crucially shape contemporary human-animal relationships - navigate diverse concerns and contribute to changes in the livestock sector. In my doctorate I examined care practices targeting obesity. I showed that while the dominant approach to obesity emphasizes self-control and bodily discipline, other forms of care differently negotiate diverse values, such as having a healthy body, leading a good life, financial constraints and other practicalities—work that has led to a new theoretical perspective on the ethical and practical considerations of handling a multifaceted health problem. My PhD dissertation (2016) was awarded a cum laude distinction and received the Premium Erasmianum Thesis Prize. In my postdoc at the Values group in Linkoping University, I continued to study self-care practices, focusing on Dutch rehabilitation centres targeting chronic pain and fatigue – both health conditions that are notoriously neglected in contemporary western medicine.