Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BodyCapital (The healthy self as body capital: Individuals, market-based societies and body politics in visual twentieth century Europe.)

Teaser

What role does modern mass media (ranging from film, amateur film, television to the internet) play in transforming our bodies into a form of capital and in processes of the economization of health and health practices in 20th century Europe?Although it is commonly accepted...

Summary

What role does modern mass media (ranging from film, amateur film, television to the internet) play in transforming our bodies into a form of capital and in processes of the economization of health and health practices in 20th century Europe?

Although it is commonly accepted that we live in a highly visual world, just how visual media affects society has not been well researched. By focusing on health-related questions BodyCapital aims to better understand how modern visual media, as well as their technical transformations and diversification, have changed our perceptions of the healthy self and our health practices to the extent that individuals have internalized the adoption of such practices. The project is working to provide important new insights for society on how transformations in the world of media (from film to TV to internet) play out at the individual level and how health challenges and cultural differences that affect body perceptions and practices persist in an age of global information and advanced health systems. BodyCapital helps to understand historically how body capital has been produced and how the body has been a marker of social difference and class-boundedness in 20th century Europe.

Linking social and cultural history of health and the body with media history and economic history, BodyCapital aims to better understand how visual media are both a condition of and conditioning individual health perceptions and practices. In a systematic socio-historical approach the project focuses on four subject entries (diet, exercise, reproduction and dependency), three countries (France, Germany, Great Britain) and three major media ages (film, TV, Internet). In a longue durée perspective BodyCapital not only analyzes health related visual media (ranging from health films to the internet revolution) within a national framework, but also considers the history of health related (audio-) visuals as a history of transfers, entanglement and plurilateral perspectives. BodyCapital aims to provide a visual entangled history of the transformation of bodily self-understanding in Europe over the 20th century.

Work performed

The ERC BodyCapital project has performed work in a wide variety of formats, in line with and beyond the initial workplan of the project, as briefly outlined here.

BodyCapital has organized several international conferences addressing academic audiences from Europe, the United States and beyond. The project has succeeded in inviting well-known experts from the field of history, history of medicine, history of science, history of film and media, film and media studies to discuss research findings and to become engaged with the project aims and further collaborations. During these events members of the research group and invited speakers gave lectures, talks and comments on relevant topics. These discursive discussions are fundamental for developing and shaping research (including its approach, methodology, theoretical framework etc.).

Besides these highly academic events BodyCapital also organized several workshops. These more informal events aimed to create the environment of a working session where readings, visual material and early results were discussed with invited experts in the field. In terms of topics these workshops embraced thematic entries and relevant media forms of the project – ranging from the history of medicine and war (Strasbourg 2016), history of capital/capitalism (Strasbourg 2017), the history of excess (Berlin 2018) to the history of television (Strasbourg 2017) and the history of the internet (Strasbourg 2018).

Furthermore, BodyCapital has addressed with students and early carrier researchers (MA and PhD students and early Postdocs). One teaching format comprised two spring schools on the history of visual media, bodies, practices and emotions (Berlin 2018) and on audiovisuals in the history of the internet (Strasbourg 2019). Through these, as well as other teaching seminars, students have become actively involved with the topics, materials and approaches of the ERC BodyCapital project.

In addition and beyond the initial workplan of the project, BodyCapital is currently organizing a series of public film screenings on thematic focuses of the project in Berlin and in Strasbourg.

BodyCapital has also contributed to the internet platform “MEDFILM” which is widely used by an international academic community and students (over 60 000 identified users in 2018). Additionally the project has created a short film called “BODY CAPITAL” to introduce and summarize the projects sources, ideas and aims in a visual form. This visual product is accessible on the research website (www.bodycapital.unistra.fr). This form of presentation, the short film has been used as a visual kick-off during the ERC BodyCapital conferences and workshops.

BodyCapital researchers have disseminated their research results at many international conferences and workshops in Europe and the USA and in a wide a range of publications.

Final results

The different work formats the BodyCapital project has undertaken (outlined above) has led to the establishment of a very fruitful and stimulating international network: the close collaborations with international academic experts has allowed the project to shape and secure high quality research results; the close collaborations with international younger scholars has provided the opportunity to teach and learn with them; the close collaboration with archivists in the relevant countries (France, Germany, United Kingdom) has allowed the project to better understand and research relevant source materials; the close collaborations with a wider non-academic audiences has made it possible to test and redefine research results.

The multifaceted network herein established will enable BodyCapital to address and answer the core questions of the project (how visual media have changed our healthy-self perceptions and our health practices and which role different market systems play) in a way that is stimulating for international experts, while provoking perspectives for the wider public.

Website & more info

More info: https://bodycapital.unistra.fr/.