‘Biosocial futures: from interaction to entanglement in the postgenomic age’, 4S and EASST, Barcelona, August 2016
We invite your submission to the track ‘Biosocial futures: from interaction to entanglement in the postgenomic age’
at the Joint conference of the Society for Social Studies of Science
(4S) and European Association for the Study of Science and Technology
(EASST). The meeting is in Barcelona, August 31 - September 3, 2016.
Panel title: Biosocial futures: from interaction to entanglement in the postgenomic age
Co-organizers: Aryn Martin (York University), Maurizio Meloni (University of Sheffield), Megan Warin (University of Adelaide)
This
track seeks to bring together diverse empirical and theoretical
streams/lines/approaches that defy the biology/society dichotomy. While
networks, hybrids, and entanglements have long been features of STS
analysis, the relevance of the social to biology and vice versa are
increasingly marks of 21st century life-sciences.
Epigenetics, neurological plasticity, microbiomics, extended
inheritance, and multi/trans-generational trauma bring an increased
appreciation of “the social” to the practices of biomedicine. In biology
these changes are gathered under the notion of postgenomics, by which an unprecedented temporalization, spatialization, permeability to material surroundings, and plasticity of genomic functioning is expressed. Meanwhile,
in STS, sociology, cultural anthropology, and feminist studies, we’ve
seen a wave of calls for increased engagement with biological
materiality. We believe that a turn is occurring and feel the urgency to
explore collectively its meaning and social implications. We invite
papers that chart the specificities of this biosocial domain in
different disciplinary contexts. These papers might think with fertile
concepts already in play (the biosocial, the biocultural, new
materialism, new vitality etc) or propose new ones. In keeping with the
meeting’s theme, we hope that some contributions will imagine futures
where this tired dichotomy is laid to rest not just in the vanguard of
academy, but in public life as well. At the same time we don’t want
simply to celebrate the new biosocial: we suggest to critically reflect
on its social and political translations, how this will or will not
contribute to the remaking of key modern notions like race, class, and
gender.
If
you want to participate in this open track then you will need to select
it when you submit your abstract to the 4S/EASST Conference.
Instructions for submission of your abstract are available at http://www.sts2016bcn.org/.