Valuography: Studying the making of values

Many profound concerns in the life sciences are linked with the enactment, ordering, and displacement of a broad range of values. This chapter proposes a number of analytical and methodological means to deal with these concerns. The chapter proposes the word valuography to indicate a programme of empirically oriented research into the enacting, ordering, and displacing of values. The valuographic research programme embraces the idea that values do not exist as transcendental entities, impinging themselves upon our actions. Drawing on the chapters of this volume, this chapter outlines a number of approaches for examining values as precarious outcomes of practices. It also grapples with three main areas of concern: these relate to how stakes are made; the intertwining of values and the epistemic; and the relationships between economic and other values. The chapter states these are providing direction to the development of a critique of values, given the weakness that comes from a purely pragmatic stance.

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Dussauge, Isabelle, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, and Francis Lee. 2015. "Valuography: Studying the making of values." In Value Practices in the Life Sciences and Medicine, edited by Isabelle Dussauge, Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, and Francis Lee, 267-285. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199689583.003.0014