Phytotherapy in the Era of Post-Industrial Metabolism: A Biosocial Study of Foraging, Circulation, and the Use of Medicinal Plants in the Czech Republic

The project focuses on different forms of phytotherapy using the conceptual perspective of "biosocial metabolism," proposed by Stöckelová (2023), building on social science and historical studies of the circulation of materials and energies and their metabolic transformations connecting bodies beyond taxonomic categories (Landecker, 2019). The concept of "biosociality" emphasizes that it is analytically unproductive to divide metabolic processes and transformations into ontologically incommensurable categories of the "social" and the "biological." The emphasis on the biosocial character of metabolism also directs attention to how the stressors of industrialization permeate the soft tissues of organisms. The research focuses on the impact of anthropogenic changes on phytotherapeutic activities in the Czech Republic, and on how phytotherapy adapts to industrial transformations and works with both the healing and toxic potential of plants.

These processes are explored through three main areas of research: 1) Phytotherapy as situated citizen expertise; 2) The circulation of knowledge and practices between phytotherapy and conventional medicine; 3) The transformation of knowledge about medicinal plants in the post-industrial landscapes of the Czech Republic.

Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences; National Contact Centre for Gender & Science

 

Contracting authority:

Czech Academy of Sciences