Lessening the Evils, Online: Embodied molecules and the politics of hope in Parkinson’s disease

Virtual communities are an especially rich subject for social scientists studying the
dynamic and multifaceted ways that groups negotiate health-related knowledge.
What are the forces shaping the health information that virtual community members
circulate, evaluate and incorporate? This article explores health information circulating
on an international, though mainly North American, email list for people suffering
from Parkinson’s disease. The dual purpose of the list—of support and knowledge
exchange—is shaped by a particular politics of hope, which channels knowledge and
projects it into the future. This politics of hope is, at least partly, based on what I want
to call “embodied molecules”—the effectiveness of medications created by the list’s
“cyberbody.” Cyberbodies, in this article, are created through the virtual community
members’ embodied learning.

Keywords: Parkinson’s disease, pharmaceuticals, embodied molecules, politics of hope,
biolearning, Internet