Hematopolitics: Blood Donation and Contested Belonging in East Asia

血液政治：东亚的献血和归属争议

• 批准号: AH/X010600/1
• 负责人: Jieun Kim
• 金额: $ 25.71万
• 依托单位: University of Leeds
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FX010600%2F1
• 关键词: Hematopolitics; Blood; Donation; Contested; Belonging

Since the discovery of the life-saving power of blood transfusion, human blood has become an invaluable resource for treatment in modern biomedicine; however, maintaining a steady and safe supply of blood continues to be a challenge in many societies around the world. Even in wealthier countries where the blood-donation rate has been relatively high, new challenges lie ahead as populations age and new infectious diseases like COVID-19 emerge. This research questions how such issues are prompting new understandings of social identity and belonging around blood. Focusing on Japan and South Korea, where blood has strong symbolic power in relation to kinship, nationhood and pollution, I ask how national identity and social relationships are imagined and contested through blood donation. This extends the existing parameters of social analyses of blood donation, which have tended to focus on altruism and social solidarity. Instead of limiting my inquiry to individuals' motivations to donate blood or the strong bond this creates, I ask how blood donation conjures up concepts of social boundaries around implicit understandings of who should donate to whom and why. By employing a new framework - hematopolitics - I highlight the mundane processes through which these boundaries are drawn and challenged by blood donors, health professionals, patients and larger publics. In order to contextualise these social dynamics within the respective histories of blood banking in the two countries, I will examine archival materials to trace how blood donation has mobilised and changed notions of blood and blood relations since the introduction of blood-banking systems in the mid-twentieth century. In particular, I will scrutinise how blood donation has been established as a practice in citizenship amidst post-war nation-building around beliefs in pure-blooded nationhood in the two countries. I will then interrogate how these historically formed understandings are embodied and contested by people involved in blood banking today. I will visit blood-donation centres and campaigns and talk to blood donors, health professionals at blood banks and patients receiving transfusions. Furthermore, I will underline the perspectives of those who are marginalised in nationalistic imaginaries, such as various ethnic and socioeconomic minorities, to explore how new senses of belonging are emerging via exchanges of blood across social boundaries. I will then further situate these dynamics within the broader cultural politics of blood by examining discourses relating to so-called ideal blood donors, good/pure blood, bad/polluted blood and innocent patients that are circulating on social media. By tracing social dynamics around blood as it flows from blood donors to patients and situating these dynamics within the histories of blood banking and the cultural politics of blood, this research offers a revealing insight into the co-production of social order and health infrastructure. In the context of East Asia, this project will be one of the first to bring well-established work on pure-blood ideology and nationalism into conversation with the critical study of biotechnology. By promoting a biocultural understanding of blood-based nationalism, I unveil how blood donation operates as a site where citizens' relationships with nation-states are embodied and contested. More broadly, this research sheds light on the remaking of social relationships and belonging in the era of biotechnology. It has now become routine practice to take tissues from people to save lives and develop diagnostics, therapeutics and data repositories. These tissue donations are becoming the most visceral contact points between citizens amidst growing economic/political polarisation and health disparities. This research elucidates the potential for social transformation in the ways ordinary people give their body parts for the good of the health of fellow citizens and future generations.

自从发现输血的救命力量以来，人类血液已成为现代生物医学治疗的宝贵资源;然而，在世界各地的许多社会中，维持稳定和安全的血液供应仍然是一项挑战。即使在献血率相对较高的富裕国家，随着人口老龄化和新型传染病（如COVID-19）的出现，新的挑战也摆在面前。这项研究质疑这些问题如何促使人们对社会身份和归属感产生新的理解。以日本和韩国为例，血液在亲属关系、国家地位和污染方面具有强大的象征力量，我想问的是，通过献血，国家身份和社会关系是如何被想象和争夺的。这扩展了献血社会分析的现有参数，这些参数往往侧重于利他主义和社会团结。我没有将我的调查局限于个人献血的动机或由此产生的强大联系，而是问献血如何让人联想到社会边界的概念，这些概念围绕着谁应该献血给谁以及为什么献血的隐含理解。通过采用一个新的框架-血液政治学-我强调这些边界的平凡过程，通过这些过程，献血者，卫生专业人员，患者和广大公众提出了挑战。 为了将这些社会动力学置于两国血库各自的历史背景中，我将研究档案材料，以追溯自世纪中期引入血库系统以来，献血如何动员和改变血液和血液关系的观念。特别是，我将仔细研究如何献血已被确立为一种实践中的公民在战后国家建设的信念，在纯血统的国家在这两个国家。然后，我将询问这些历史上形成的理解是如何体现和今天参与血库的人提出质疑的。我将访问献血中心和献血运动，并与献血者、血库的卫生专业人员和接受输血的病人交谈。此外，我将强调那些在民族主义阵营中被边缘化的人的观点，例如各种种族和社会经济少数群体，以探索新的归属感是如何通过跨越社会界限的血液交换而出现的。然后，我将通过研究社交媒体上流传的所谓理想献血者、好/纯血、坏/污染血和无辜患者的话语，进一步在更广泛的血液文化政治中分析这些动态。通过追踪血液从献血者流向患者的社会动态，并将这些动态置于血库历史和血液文化政治中，这项研究为社会秩序和卫生基础设施的共同生产提供了一个启示性的见解。在东亚的背景下，该项目将是第一个将关于纯血统意识形态和民族主义的成熟工作与生物技术的批判性研究相结合的项目。通过促进对基于血液的民族主义的生物文化理解，我揭示了献血是如何作为一个网站，公民与民族国家的关系体现和竞争。更广泛地说，这项研究揭示了生物技术时代社会关系和归属感的重塑。现在，从人身上提取组织来拯救生命，开发诊断、治疗和数据库已经成为常规做法。在经济/政治两极分化和健康差距日益扩大的情况下，这些组织捐赠正在成为公民之间最直接的接触点。这项研究阐明了普通人为了同胞和后代的健康而捐献身体部位的方式对社会变革的潜力。