Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common chronic motor disability in childhood. 1,2 Studies report that muscle contractures, limiting joint range of motion (ROM), are a common secondary condition in children with CP. 1,3 Contractures may contribute to reduce functional capacity 4 and limit overall motor skills considerably, 5 causing limitations to activity and participation restrictions. 2 To reduce the shortening of the gastrocnemius muscle, children with ankle contractures are often treated with physiotherapy and/or orthoses. 6 Other prevention and treatment include initiatives such as the use of intrathecal bachlofen pump and botulinum neurotoxin injections to reduce

Purpose -Through an analysis of a demonstration video presenting a new national e-health portal, this paper aims to explore the assumptions and limitations of the concept of "script" and suggests a different approach to analysing the moral order of technology design. Design/methodology/approach -The paper reviews the work of authors who have written about scripts and scripting, and thereafter analyses a demonstration video with a particular user script. Based on the analysis of the video coupled with material from interviews, observation and analysis of other representations, the paper examines the transformative potential of the portal presentation for reconfiguring relationships between citizens, health care systems, and information and communication technology (ICT). The analysis is guided by Haraway's notion of diffraction. Findings -The analysis demonstrates the particular way in which the user is scripted in an e-health demo, as a manager of his own health and, consequently, as a good citizen. This is a kind of script that does not directly groom its user, as implied in the notion of script, but rather figures up a probable future user in order to create and manage strategic partnerships that may secure the future of the technology and organisation behind it.Research limitations/implications -The paper extends the script metaphor beyond a limited designer-technology-user configuration and argues that scripts in the paraphernalia of technologies also can and should be "de-scribed" in understanding the making of the technology and the distributed networks of actors involved. Originality/value -The paper is a contribution to the discussion on inscriptions in technology and the politics of technology design. Its originality lies in the combined use of notions of script and making things public. Empirically it contributes to the discussion of transformed patient identities following in the wake of implementation and use of ICT in the health care sector.

There is a growing recognition of the importance of virtual worlds as environments and media that carry the potential for social and cultural innovation by making possible new forms of social relationships based on communication among avatars. The articles in this special issue exemplify some aspects of this potential but also point out some of the many questions and unsolved problems that follow with innovation and the continuous development of virtual worlds. The two key concepts of virtual worlds and innovation are both widely used concepts that refer to emergent and rapidly changing phenomena without sharp contours or clearly defined boundaries. In the context of this special issue, we treat both virtual worlds and innovation as emergent phenomena in flux.Some of the features of virtual worlds, however, may also be seen as stable. According to Bell (2008) and Schroeder (2008, virtual worlds depend on stable, persistent digital infrastructures. Moreover, the online presence of gamers and residents is referred to by digital symbols and signs -be they avatars, space ships or green dots -and the technological platforms are accessible 24/7 over longer periods of time. They appear to be stable technologies and platforms, almost permanent. How is it, then, that we see them as emergent phenomena in flux?Our focus in this special issue of Convergence is on social and cultural innovation in and with virtual worlds which means that the technological innovation of the digital platforms and of the technology in itself are not our primary interest of reflection and analysis. Social and cultural innovation are phenomena of a fluid nature, subject to continuous change: the way we see and understand ourselves and each other, the way we experience exciting and extraordinary events or seek inspiration by thought-provoking art installations, the way we build virtual communities of high ideals or take the opportunity to live out behaviours otherwise not acceptable in our everyday life, these are all examples of human relationships with distinctive features that hold the potential for creative and innovative responses to new environments.

Translational research (TR) is subject to increasing attention and demand in research and health policy in the Nordic countries as well as internationally. While clinician-scientists are often positioned as key actors in both policy and academic debates on TR, less is known about the clinician-scientists’ everyday work—their practices and commitments at the interface of academia and clinical health care. Drawing on the framework of arena analysis, developed in situational analysis, this article presents an empirical exploration of the everyday practices of clinician-scientists by extending research into a Danish hospital setting. The findings shed light on hospital-based translational research as constituted by clinician-scientists’ practical integration of and transactions across many different work practice arenas. This paper depicts these arenas and the complex of commitments and capabilities involved. The analysis converges with existing Science and Technology Studies approaches to translational research as mutually reconfiguring clinical and scientific practices. In addition, it adds to this debate by providing an empirical work practice account of hospital-based TR and by suggesting a conceptual reframing of translational research as transactional research.

Biomedical literature and policy are highly concerned with encouraging and improving the clinical application and clinical benefit of new scientific knowledge. Debates, theorizing, and policy initiatives aiming to close the “bench-to-bedside gap” have led to the development of “Translational Research” (TR), an emerging set of research-related discourses and practices within biomedicine. Studies in social science and the humanities have explored and challenged the assumptions underpinning specific TR models and policy initiatives, as well as the socio-material transformations involved. However, only few studies have explored TR as a productive ongoing process of meaning-making taking place as part of the everyday practices of the actual researchers located at the very nexus of science and clinic. This article therefore asks the question of how the discourse and promise of translation is embedded and performed within the practices and perspective of the specific actors involved. The findings are based on material from ethnographic fieldwork among translational researchers situated in a Danish hospital research setting. The analysis draws on the analytical notion of performativity in order to approach statements and models of TR in the light of their performative dimension. This analytical approach thus helps to highlight how the characterizations of TR also contain prescriptions for how the world must change for these characterizations to become true. The analysis provides insights into four different characterizations of TR and reflects on the associated practices where performative success is achieved in practice. With the presentation of these four characterizations, this paper illustrates different uses of the term TR among the actual actors engaged in research-clinic activities and contributes insight into the complex processes of conceptual and material reorganization that form part of the emergence of TR in biomedicine.