Molecular imaginaries of aging and age intervention: A discursive analysis of popular science and technology coverage of developments in the field of anti-aging science, medicine, and technology

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dc.contributor.advisorElliott, Charlene
dc.contributor.authorEllison, Kirsten L.
dc.contributor.committeememberSchneider, Barbara
dc.contributor.committeememberMarshall, Barbara L.
dc.contributor.committeememberMcCoy, Liza
dc.contributor.committeememberSawchuk, Kim
dc.date2019-06
dc.date.accessioned2019-03-12T15:43:05Z
dc.date.available2019-03-12T15:43:05Z
dc.date.issued2019-03-08
dc.description.abstractAs technologies of visualization and intervention advance in the fields of science and medicine, aging has become increasingly visible in popular coverage of anti-aging research as a site of molecular intervention. Focusing on coverage of developments in the field of anti-aging science and technology in a selection of popular science and technology magazines published between 2010 and 2015, this study addresses how a “molecular vision of life” (Rose, 2007) is popularized for mass consumption, looking specifically at the use of image and metaphor. Both, I argue, are significant in how we relate to our own bodies and the changes that come with living in a body over time. Through image, the aging bodies of molecular intervention are visualized along a continuum of openness, ranging from transparency to complete absence, as sites of action, evidentiary displays, and spatialized narratives of metamorphosis. Many of these images are furthermore visualized through a collapse of scale, enacting a corporeal sensibility that moves between scales of vision. Through metaphor, bodies are taken up as either serviceable mechanical casings or sites of inner turmoil. In these metaphorical mappings, the abstract world of molecules is rendered sensible through familiar narratives of intervention: cars that need servicing, clocks that need rewinding, computers that need upgrading, systems that need (re-)organizing, walls that need fixing, houses that need cleaning, and enemies that need neutralizing. By highlighting the multidimensional and multimodal means through which aging and age intervention are rendered visible and sensible at the molecular scale, this study contributes to scholarship concerning molecularization, representations of aging, and the popularization of science and aims to carve out a critical space from which we can create, resist, incorporate, or redefine the kinds of futures, bodies and selves that enliven our imaginations.en_US
dc.identifier.citationEllison, K. L. (2019). Molecular imaginaries of aging and age intervention: A discursive analysis of popular science and technology coverage of developments in the field of anti-aging science, medicine, and technology (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36280
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/110057
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisher.facultyArtsen_US
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.en_US
dc.subjectanti-agingen_US
dc.subjectmolecularizationen_US
dc.subjectdiscourse analysisen_US
dc.subjectvisual analysisen_US
dc.subjectmetaphoren_US
dc.subjectpopularization of scienceen_US
dc.subjectbiopoliticsen_US
dc.subjectcritical gerontologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationJournalismen_US
dc.subject.classificationMass Communicationsen_US
dc.subject.classificationGerontologyen_US
dc.subject.classificationBiology--Cellen_US
dc.subject.classificationGeneticsen_US
dc.subject.classificationBiology--Molecularen_US
dc.subject.classificationNeuroscienceen_US
dc.titleMolecular imaginaries of aging and age intervention: A discursive analysis of popular science and technology coverage of developments in the field of anti-aging science, medicine, and technologyen_US
dc.typedoctoral thesisen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineCommunication and Media Studiesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgaryen_US
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
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