biography

STUART BLUME was born in England, and educated at the University of Oxford. After a D.Phil in chemistry he moved into the fields of science policy and the sociology of science, working at the University of Sussex, the OECD in Paris, and in various British government departments. Between 1975 and 1977 he worked in the Cabinet Office (London) and from 1977 to 1980 as Research Secretary of the (government) committee on Social Inequalities in Health (the 'Black Committee'). That led to what has since been his principal research interest: in the development and introduction of new health care technologies. Starting at the London School of Economics, he continued that work after moving to a Chair of Science Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam, in 1982. The focus of this historical and sociological research has gradually shifted, from diagnostic imaging technologies, to cochlear implants, and (from 1997) to vaccines. Current research focuses on (1) the history and dynamics oftheglobal vaccine system and (2) the development and uses of techologies for and by people with disabilities. In 2000 he established the Innovia Foundation on Medicine Technology and Society as a virtual research institute concerned with user perspectives on new health care technologies.

In 2007 Stuart Blume became Emeritus Professor. In 2009 he was appointed as expert advisor on bioethics to the World Federation of the Deaf, and from 2009- 2012 he was 'Professor 2' at the Centre for Development and Environment at the University of Oslo (Norway).  In 2013-2014 he is spending part of his time as 'Prometeo' fellow at the University of Cuenca, Ecuador, and in September 2013 he is Visiting Professor at the Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Orebro University.

Publications include

Insight and Industry: The Dynamics of Technological Change in Medicine (Cambridge Mass. MIT Press, 1992)

(with Pascale Lehoux) "Technology assessment and the sociopolitics of health technologies" Journal of Health Policy Politics and Law 25 2000 1083-1118

(ed, with Virginia Berridge) Poor Health. Social Inequality before and after the Black Report (London, Frank Cass, 2002)

(with Dale Rose) "Citizens as users of technology: an exploratory study of vaccines and vaccination" in N.J. Oudshoorn and T Pinch(eds) How Users Matter: The Co-construction of Users and Technologies (Cambridge, MIT Press 2004)

"Lock in, the state, and vaccine development: lessons from the history of the polio vaccines" Research Policy (2005)

(ed, with Addlakha, Devlieger,Nagase and Winance) Disability and Society: a Reader   (Delhi, Orient BlackSwan, 2009)

The Artificial Ear: Cochlear Implants and the Culture of Deafness New Brunswick, NJ, Rutgers University Press, January 2010)

(with S. Roalkvam, D. McNeill et al) Protecting the World's Children: Immunisation Policies and Practices  (Oxford University Press, June 2013)

"Medical innovations: their diffusion, adoption, and critical interrogation" Sociology Compass 7/9 (2013) 726-737