“I have become a microscope for my own body”: local biologies and the embodiment of biomedical knowledge

Abstract

This paper explores the way those commonly described as “lay persons”, “the public” or “patients” appropriate biomedical and biological knowledge and make it part of their repertoires of experience, including embodied experience, as well as the specific apparatuses or dispositifs associated with health promotion or education. The paper draws on an extenexperimental
initiative in health promotion in Brazil. This initiative raises intriguing challenges to current approaches to what counts as knowledge and how it is associated with the empowerment of citizens in relation to health.