Bio-Objects
Life in the 21st Century
1st Edition
Published on 28. December 2011
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-4094-1178-9 (ISBN)
Description
Increasing knowledge of the biological is fundamentally transforming what life itself means and where its boundaries lie. New developments in the biosciences - especially through the molecularisation of life - are (re)shaping healthcare and other aspects of our society. This cutting edge volume studies contemporary bio-objects, or the categories, materialities and processes that are central to the configuring of 'life' today, as they emerge, stabilize and circulate through society. Examining a variety of bio-objects in contexts beyond the laboratory, Bio-Objects: Life in the 21st Century explores new ways of thinking about how novel bio-objects enter contemporary life, analysing the manner in which, among others, the boundaries between human and animal, organic and non-organic, and being 'alive' and the suspension of living, are questioned, destabilised and in some cases re-established. Thematically organised around questions of changing boundaries; the governance and regulation of bio-objects; and changing social, economic and political relations, this book presents rich new case studies from Europe that will be of interest to scholars of science and technology studies, social theory, sociology and law.
Reviews / Votes
Prize: Awarded the Olga Amsterdamska Award, 2012, European Association for the Study of Science and Technology. The Amsterdamska award is made for the most creative collaboration in an edited book in the broad field of science and technology studies. 'Firmly anchored in the field of science and technology studies, this collection invites us to follow bio-objects through the way they challenge the boundaries of the living and their associated social, legal and ethical issues.' Bioethique Online 'In 1923, the artist Man Ray created Object to be Destroyed, a provocation against "art" that, ironically, he never destroyed. When, in 1957, Parisian students at a Dada exhibition destroyed the piece, Ray used the insurance to make multiple copies. Compare the bio-objects inventively theorized in this book: icons of the instability of "life" but also symbols of its enduring multiplicity.' Stefan Helmreich, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA 'This engaging and wide-ranging book introducing the concept of "bio-objects" makes a substantial contribution to the social study of bioscience and biomedicine through a series of empirically rich case studies in which this term is put to productive use. Bio-Objects convincingly adds an important new term to the study of how life is being remade through technology.' Sarah Franklin, University of Cambridge, UKMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Target group
Adult education
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
531 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4094-1178-9 (9781409411789)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
06/2017
1st Edition
Routledge
€76.40
Shipment within 10-20 days
E-Book
04/2016
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download
E-Book
04/2016
Routledge
€69.99
Available for download
Persons
Niki Vermeulen is Lecturer in the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Edinburgh, UK, Sakari Tamminen is an Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Andrew Webster is Professor of the Sociology of Science & Technology and Director of the Science and Technology Studies Unit at the University of York, UK
Content
Chapter 1 IntroductionBio-Objects: Exploring the Boundaries of Life, Andrew Webster; Part 1 Changing Boundaries of Human, Nonhuman and Society; Chapter 1a Challenging Bio-objectification: Adding Noise to Transgenic Silences, Tora Holmberg, Malin Ideland; Chapter 2 Pluripotent Promises: Configurations of a Bio-object, Lena Eriksson; Chapter 3 Water '" An Exploration of the Boundaries of Bio-objects, Ragna Zeiss; Chapter 4 Bio-objectification of Clinical Research Patients: Impacts on the Stabilization of New Medical Technologies, Conor M.W. Douglas; Part 2 Governing Bio-Objects; Chapter 5 Beasting Biology: Interspecies Politics, Nik Brown; Chapter 6 Comparing Public Engagement with Bio-objects: Implementing Co-existence Regimes for GM Crops in Denmark, the UK and Germany, Janus Hansen; Chapter 7 Governing Hereditary Disease in the Age of Autonomy: Mutations, Families and Care, Aaro Tupasela; Chapter 8 At the Margins of Life: Making Fetal Life Matter in Trajectories of First Trimester Prenatal Risk Assessment (FTPRA), Nete Schwennesen; Part 3 Generative Relations; Chapter 9 The Fruit of Love: The German IVF-embryo Turning from Abject into Bio-object, Bettina Bock von WA1/4lfingen; Chapter 10 On Why States Still Matter: In vitro Fertilization Embryos between Laboratories and State Authorities in Italy, Ingrid Metzler; Chapter 11 Growing a Cell in Silico: On How the Creation of a Bio-object Transforms the Organisation of Science, Niki Vermeulen; Chapter 12 Genetic Discrimination 2.0: The Un/Differentiating Gene in Insurance, Ine Van Hoyweghen; Chapter 13 Still Life? Frozen Gametes, National Gene Banks and Re-configuration of Animality, Sakari Tamminen;