New Genetics, New Social Formations The genomic era requires more than just a technical understanding of gene structure and function. New technological options cannot survive without being entrenched in networks of producers, users and various services. New genetic technologies cut across a range of public domains and private lifeworlds, often appearing to gen- erate an institutional void in response to the complex challenges they pose. Chap- ters in this volume discuss a variety of these novel manifestations across both health and agriculture, including: gene banks intellectual property rights committees of inquiry non-governmental organisations (NGOs) national research laboratories These are explored in such diverse locations as Amazonia, China, Finland, Israel, the UK and the USA. This volume reflects the rapidly changing scientific, clinical and social environment within which new social formations are being constructed and reconstructed. It brings together a range of empirical and theoretical insights that serve to help better understand complex, and often contentious, innovative processes in the new genetic technologies. Peter Glasner is Professorial Fellow in the Economic and Social Research Council’s Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics at Cardiff University. He is Co-editor of the journals New Genetics and Society and 21st Century Society.He has a longstanding research interest in genetics, innovation and science policy. He is an Academician of the Academy of Learned Societies in the Social Sciences. Paul Atkinson is Distinguished Research Professor in Sociology at Cardiff University, where he is Associate Director of the ESRC Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics. He has published extensively on the sociology of medical knowledge and qualitative research methods. He is Co-editor of the journal Qualitative Research. He is an Academician of the Academy of the Social Sciences. Helen Greenslade is Editorial Assistant for CESAGen’s Genetics and Society Book Series. She graduated from Cardiff University with a degree in Italian and Spanish, and holds an MA in European–Latin American Relations from the University of Bradford. Genetics and Society Series editors: Paul Atkinson, Associate Director of CESAGen, Cardiff University; Ruth Chadwick, Director of CESAGen, Cardiff University; Peter Glasner, Professorial Research Fellow for CESAGen, Cardiff University; Brian Wynne, member of the management team at CESAGen, Lancaster University. The books in this series, all based on original research, explore the social, economic and ethical consequences of the new genetic sciences. The series is based in the ESRC’s Centre for Economic and Social Aspects of Genomics, the largest UK investment in social-science research on the implications of these innovations. With a mix of research monographs, edited collections, textbooks and a major new handbook, the series will be a major contribu- tion to the social analysis of new agricultural and biomedical technologies. Forthcoming in the series: Governing the Transatlantic Conflict over Agricultural Biotechnology (2006) Contending coalitions, trade liberalisation and standard setting Joseph Murphy and Les Levidow 978–0–415–37328–9 New Genetics, New Social Formations (2007) Peter Glasner, Paul Atkinson and Helen Greenslade 978–0–415–39323–2 New Genetics, New Identities (2007) Paul Atkinson, Peter Glasner and Helen Greenslade 978–0–415–39407–9 The GM Debate (2007) Risk, politics and public engagement Tom Horlick-Jones, John Walls, Gene Rowe, Nick Pidgeon, Wouter Poortinga, Graham Murdock Tim O’Riordan 978–0–415–39322–5 Local Cells, Global Science (2007) Embryonic stem cell research in India Aditya Bharadwaj and Peter Glasner 978–0–415–39609–7 Growth Cultures (2007) Life sciences and economic development Philip Cooke 978–0–415–39223–5 New Genetics, New Social Formations Edited by Peter Glasner, Paul Atkinson and Helen Greenslade I~ ~~o~;~;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Rougledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright # 2007 Peter Glasner and Paul Atkinson, editorial content and selection; individual chapters, their contributors Typeset in Sabon by Taylor & Francis Books The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 13: 978–0–415–39323–2 (hbk) Contents List of illustrations vii Contributors viii Acknowledgements xiii 1 Introduction: new genetics, new social formations 1 PETER GLASNER AND PAUL ATKINSON 2 British public attitudes to agricultural biotechnology and the 2003 GM Nation? public debate: distrust, ambivalence and risk 10 NICK PIDGEON AND WOUTER POORTINGA 3 The UK stem cell bank: creating safe stem cell lines and public support? 37 LOES KATER 4 Public biotechnology inquiries: from rationality to reflexivity 49 TEE ROGERS-HAYDEN AND MAVIS JONES 5 The precautionary principle on trial: the construction and transformation of the precautionary principle in the UK court context 69 CHIE UJITA, LIZ SHARP AND PETER HOPKINSON 6 The social construction of the biotech industry 94 KEAN BIRCH 7 Biopiracy and the bioeconomy 114 PAUL OLDHAM 8 Identifying John Moore: narratives of persona in patent law relating to inventions of human origin 138 HYO YOON KANG vi Contents 9 Sampling policies of isolates of historical interest: the social and historical formation of research populations in the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China 155 MARGARET SLEEBOOM-FAULKNER 10 The making of scientific knowledge in the anthropological perspective: case studies from the French scientific community 168 ANGELA PROCOLI 11 Genomics and the transformation of knowledge: the bioinformatics challenge 187 HENRIK BRUUN 12 Science, media and society: the framing of bioethical debates around embryonic stem cell research between 2000 and 2005 204 JENNY KITZINGER, CLARE WILLIAMS AND LESLEY HENDERSON 13 ‘Natural forces’: the regulation and discourse of genomics and advanced medical technologies in Israel 231 BARBARA PRAINSACK 14 Survival of the gene? 21st-century visions from genomics, proteomics and the new biology 253 RUTH MCNALLY AND PETER GLASNER Index 279 Illustrations Figures 2.1 Main elements of GM Nation? 16 10.1 ‘Ball (atoms) and stick (bonds)’ image of the clean silicon surface 172 10.2 Cleaning and modifying semiconductor surfaces 172 10.3 The chemical reaction between an organic molecule and an inorganic substrate 174 10.4 Scheme of the elaboration of genetic information and its diffusion 176 10.5 Cooperation and conflicts within and beyond the department of genetics in INRA 181 Tables 2.1 Characteristics of the 2003 UEA/MORI GM survey sample 19 2.2 Specific risks and benefits of GM food and crops 22 2.3 Trust in stakeholders: responses to the question ‘To what extent do you trust the following organisations and people to tell the truth about GM food?’ 23 2.4 Evaluation of government 25 2.5 Ambivalence, need for information and independent regulation 27 2.6 GM Nation? evaluation statements 31 5.1 Summary of two sets of discourses and their main advocates from the court context 72 5.2 Actions and statements by the key actors 85 5.3 The filtering processes in the Mold case 89 12.1 TV news sources, showing number of bulletins featuring people in these categories supportive of or opposed to embryonic stem cell research 209 12.2 Newspaper sources, showing number of articles containing quotes from people in these categories supportive of or opposed to embryonic stem cell research 210 14.1 Framework of Francis Collins et al.’s vision for the future of genomics research 261 Contributors Kean Birch is a research fellow in the Centre for Public Policy for Regions (CPPR) at the University of Glasgow, and a doctoral student in the Department of Planning at Oxford Brookes University. He has a back- ground in sociology and technology studies, and more recent interests in bioethics, economic geography and economic sociology. Currently his research, including his thesis, focuses on the biotechnology industry, although he has a more general interest in issues around the develop- ment of less-favoured regions in Europe, and the expansion of the social economy in the UK. Henrik Bruun, Docent, PhD, is a Senior Researcher at the Helsinki Insti- tute of Science and Technology Studies (HIST). His research focuses on knowledge networking in science and innovation. Recent projects include a study of distributed problem-solving in a Finnish engineering project, an assessment of the Academy of Finland’s practices for sup- porting interdisciplinary research, and a comparative case study of knowledge networking in biotechnology companies. Henrik is the Chief Editor of Science Studies, an interdisciplinary journal for science and technology studies. Lesley Henderson is Lecturer in Sociology and Communications in the School of Social Sciences and Law at Brunel University, West London. Prior to this she was Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Glasgow and a member of the Glasgow Media Group. She has published several articles and papers on the content, transmission and reception of media messages mainly concern- ing science, health and social problems (for example genetics, breast cancer, the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine, mental health). She is currently developing research on young people, citizenship and televi- sion news for a large study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and continuing her work in the area of international media and mental distress with the Swedish Association for Mental Health. She regularly acts as consultant to non-academic organisations such as Contributors ix Department of Health, and is involved with developing challenging representations of science in media (PAWS).