Bridging Craft and Innovation: Surgical Instrument Manufacturing Between the Global South and North

Şahinol M., Başkavak C. G.

50th Annual Meeting of the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): Reverberations, Washington, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 3 - 06 Eylül 2025, (Yayınlanmadı)

  • Yayın Türü: Bildiri / Yayınlanmadı
  • Basıldığı Şehir: Washington
  • Basıldığı Ülke: Amerika Birleşik Devletleri
  • Acıbadem Mehmet Ali Aydınlar Üniversitesi Adresli: Evet

Özet

BRIDGING CRAFT AND INNOVATION: SURGICAL INSTRUMENT MANUFACTURING BETWEEN THE GLOBAL SOUTH AND NORTH

Manufacturing practices of medical instruments are shaped by transnational networks of knowledge, labor, and technology that link regions across the Global South and North. While industrial automation increasingly dominates medical manufacturing, craft-based expertise remains essential for precision surgical tools. This paper examines the interconnected manufacturing clusters of Tuttlingen (Germany), Sialkot (Pakistan), and Samsun (Türkiye), exploring how knowledge, labor, and materials circulate across these sites and contribute to the evolving landscape of medical instrument production.

By situating manufacturing practices of surgical instruments within an oceanic framework, this study challenges rigid territorial lenses that separate "Asian," or "Middle Eastern" studies. Instead, it highlights the dynamic movement of expertise, trade, and technology across the Indian Ocean and beyond. The concept of echoes and extensions provides a perspective to analyze how historical craft traditions resonate across time (echo) and adapt to changing global production networks (extend). Türkiye’s position between the Global South and North offers a compelling case to investigate how globalized medical manufacturing shapes and is shaped by regional innovation cultures, value chains, and geopolitical contexts.

By bringing manufacturing practices of medical instruments in globally different situated innovation clusters into a transregional frame, this contribution expands STS discussions on medical technologies beyond national or continental categories. It critically engages with decolonial and transnational STS perspectives, emphasizing the need to rethink established narratives of innovation, expertise, and technological development in the global medical technology landscape.