New Trends in the Organisation of Emotional Life as a Key Context for Human Enhancement Technologies

The massification of ‘human enhancement’ technologies, occurring in the context of rapid social, cultural, institutional, and economic change, entails a rapid change in the contemporary human living environment, which carries both risks and opportunities. The existing literature on human enhancement focuses primarily on the ethical challenges of this change because its most visible effects are ethical conflicts and collisions, which manifest themselves in high-intensity emotional and affective social processes. Ethics, in turn, is also undergoing change, primarily in the form of its ‘naturalisation’ and ‘cognitivisation’ tendencies as a result of a series of cognitive turns in the behavioural sciences. Thus, both ‘human enhancement’ as a subject of ethical evaluation and the ‘optics’ of this evaluation are subject to change.

From a sociological perspective, the most important thing happens between these two points: specific cultural and social processes in which emotions play a leading role.

In turn, the main global trend of modernity in terms of these processes is the spread of a new emotional mode of living that prioritises emotions and forms of control over them, and the emotional styles associated with them. This mode is manifested in the proliferation of trends such as therapeutic discourse, self-help culture, and self-care practices and techniques. The culture of emotional sensitivity, which has changed the meaning of landscapes of many Western countries, is currently actively developing in Russia.

In this study, we focus on exploring the effects of human enhancement through the prism of the spread of new trends in the organisation of emotional life. Technologies that can enhance people and help them respond to the key challenges of the era are not unconditional benefits: on the contrary, their implementation often entails serious problems and risks. Turning them into opportunities requires sound scientific knowledge of how these technologies are embedded in the contexts of social life, the key among which are cultural and emotional structures of perception. A new emotional sensitivity is one of the key conditions for embedding human enhancement technologies in modern life.

Finding empirical solutions to the tasks will require studying both the above trends and the key cases related to them. As such, we have chosen the problems of biotechnology implementation in the example of COVID-19 vaccination, the contours of the spread of healthy lifestyles as self-care techniques, and the phenomenon of health coaching as a technology of life organisation. Regarding the theoretical side, this will require the construction of a model of the emotion (cathectic) dimension of culture. The methodological arsenal of the research will include a wide range of methods: quantitative analysis of survey data, qualitative analysis of interviews (including expert interviews) and focus groups, as well as text-mining techniques.

Empirical Research

Definition of Human Enhancement

Conceptualising and operationalising the concept of ‘human enhancement’. Exploring how ‘human enhancement’ is defined, what theories explore the concept, and what might be proposed as a working definition (representation).

Working Group

Dmitry Kurakin

Academic Supervisor

Sergey Shevchenko

Consultant

New Forms of Health Care

To study the phenomenon and features of health-coaching institutionalisation in the modern Russian field. To study and characterise the contours of global trends in the organisation of emotional life in Russia, namely the development of health coaching and healthy lifestyle in the sociological coordinate system. To study the influence of new emotional styles on the scenarios of adaptation to global changes and shocks of modernity (including the contours of the spread of healthy lifestyle; practices of self-care (eg, health consultations) and techniques of life organisation).

Working Group

Ilya Peresedov

Elena Berdysheva

Consultant

Modern Emotional Modes

To examine the specific features of the modern emotional mode through a range of methods of textual data mining and social media analysis. To trace the proliferation of therapeutic discourse, the culture of emotional sensitivity, and the culture of self-help in the sociological coordinate system.

Working Group

Svetlana Zhuchkova

Centre of Sociology of Higher Education: Research Fellow

Olga Logunova

School of Integrated Communications: Associate Professor

Daria Tereshina

Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology: Research Fellow

Anastasia Lukina

Centre for Cultural Sociology: Research Fellow

Inna F. Deviatko

Consultant

Olga A. Simonova

Consultant

Attitudes to COVID Vaccination

To study the practices and attitudes of contemporary Russian youth regarding COVID-vaccination through the prism of individual and environmental factors (the role of socioeconomic status and social environment). To study the role of collective perceptions of coronavirus in the decision to vaccinate as a problem of legitimisation of human enhancement biotechnologies.

Working Group

Peter Meylakhs

International Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy: Senior Research Fellow

Ekaterina Aleksandrova

International Centre for Health Economics, Management and Policy: Senior Research Fellow

Anastasia Kapuza

International Laboratory for Evaluation of Practices and Innovations in Education: Research Fellow

Thematic Reviews

This review report will explore the complex and non-obvious mechanisms of how human enhancement technologies can help human beings cope with the challenges of the era. The report will also make it possible to predict potential barriers to the spread of human enhancement technologies. Overcoming challenges and facilitating human enhancement requires understanding the risks to be avoided, as well as the nature and mechanisms of philosophical, ethical, and sociological constructs that allow for a practical and normative assessment of the effects of human enhancement technologies on people's lives.

The ‘ecosystematic approach’ conceptual framework views the human living environment as a more-or-less stable ecosystem of heterogeneous mutually conditioning factors in balance. However, changes associated with human enhancement generate new risks, dictating a ‘reassembly’ of this balance. It is necessary to delve into the current research context before engaging in discussions about the empirical and practical possibilities of human enhancement, and assessing its potential for the development of autonomous action. The summary report explores the main effects of the reassembly of the living environment ecosystem associated with human enhancement, identifying and discussing the risks and opportunities that this reassembly generates. The changes associated with human enhancement are examined from three perspectives: philosophical-ethical, cultural-sociological and socio-economic.

A Philosophical Perspective

‘Human Enhancement’ as a Concept and a Problem: An Overview of the Research Field, Genesis and Development of the Problem

This review involves problematising ‘human enhancement’ from two perspectives: as a research problem and a concept embedded in current philosophical and sociological contexts.

More

The Cognitive Turn in Contemporary Ethical Research

Two lines are currently emerging in ethical research carried out within the framework of the neurocognitive turn: naturalisation of ethics and ethical support for emerging neurotechnologies. In the former case, the achievements of neurocognitive sciences and technologies serve as research tools; in the latter, they serve as objects of study.

New Communities and Affective-Expressive Imperatives Leading to Ethical Conflicts: A Review of Research and the State of Things

A Cultural and Sociological Perspective

New Ways of Organising Emotional Life: Therapeutic Narrative and Self-Help Culture: A Review of Research Approaches and Global Trends

This review focuses on analysing the psychotherapeutic turn in emotion culture in Anglo-American societies that occurred in the second third of the 20th century. The study of emotional modes and their changes proves to be important in understanding perceptions of human enhancement technologies, as well as the course of ethical conflicts over these technologies.

Anti-vaccination as a Problem of Legitimation of Human Enhancement Biotechnologies: A Review of Research and Global Trends

Negative attitudes towards vaccination, motivated by doubts about its efficacy and safety, as well as religious considerations, have existed since the first use of this medical method in the late 18th century. It is recognised by public health experts that vaccination is the most effective and cost-effective type of medical intervention. Nevertheless, the anti-vaccination movement not only remains active, but has become a prominent social phenomenon. This is largely due to the development of social media, which has allowed members of the movement to organise into communities and spread their ideas. They become a public health problem when their views begin to influence the broader population, resulting in reduced vaccination coverage.

A Socio-economic Perspective

The Impact of Human Enhancement Technologies on Life Satisfaction and Well-Being

The purpose of this review is to take a comprehensive and interdisciplinary look at the relationship between human enhancement technologies, well-being and human life satisfaction and to systematise the theoretical approaches and empirical research available in the field.

Techno-poverty in the Context of Human Enhancement: Risks, Opportunities and Approaches

The central question of our review is how does the emergence of human enhancement technologies change the concept of poverty? Does the composition of the poor change as these technologies evolve—and if so, how? The focus of the review will be on human enhancement technologies

Review of Existing Approaches to the Empirical Study of Technology Perception (Acceptance and Rejection)

This review includes a discussion of two approaches to measuring technology acceptance by human enhancement (technology acceptance model, innovation and diffusion theory), a list of indicators used to empirically measure technology acceptance, a discussion of common empirical research designs, and examples of empirical studies of technology acceptance in different domains.