ABSTRACT
Bioinformation refers to information that is derived from biological organisms or that describes biological processes and lives. Its emergence as a concept across academic disciplines and domains of practice marks transitions from body to data, biological substance to information, and archives to datasets. Linking life and information in the digital age, bioinformation has become newly entwined in social relations. Anthropological studies of biomedicine and bioethics have offered incisive accounts of how some of these transitions map onto the attribution or disavowal of personhood in medical contexts or how different epistemic communities might figure relations and belonging through these new technologies. Life and death are at the heart of contemporary debates in social theory. The proximity and interconnections between processes of living and dying, the uneven and unequal distributions of life chances, and the proliferation of precarious forms of existence in the context of social exclusion, dispossession, violence and crisis have generated considerable debate and critical reflection.
