Abstract
Synthetic biology is a field that can be and often is described as “emerging”. The field-in-emergence is creating futures, problems and new objects that remain elusive. By turning an ethnographic gaze on the nascent stages of a new research field, we can pose interesting questions about the formation of local configurations and their relations to wider policies and actions in ways that the analysis of established fields would struggle to illuminate. In this paper we explore how a new field such as synthetic biology is actively ‘placed’, tracing the development of the field in the UK and in France. The concept of ‘placing’ allows us to interrogate the local configurations of an emerging field and tie these into non-local manoeuvres. The concept permits us to comprehend and link entities that are commonly differentiated as “local” (universities, research teams), “national” (funding, policy-streams, public debates, platforms), and “non-local” (international competitions, international conferences and publications). Placing a science means that the practices and discourses of the science co-emerge with its modes of organisation and geographies and with its histories and futures.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Both authors have been following the field circa 6 years. Initially we established relations with a single research group in the UK that was leading a new synbio Network. This gave us access to a wide range of meetings and contact with other research groups. As members of the Network we were able to gather data through observations and have access to the research groups’ progress ‘as it happened’. Informal and formal interviews were conducted, in labs as people worked; during national and international meetings and documents produced by this and other groups were analysed as they emerged. New kinds of research relations have been built in France since 2012 that extend our data collection to public participation activities. In the UK, relations have extended to co-writing of funding proposals and co-supervision of research students. For a similar long-term approach to nanoscience, see Vinck, Chap. 5.
- 2.
- 3.
Students are given a kit with standard biological parts (chunks of DNA) in order to work in teams at their universities, over one summer, to build biological systems, operate them in a living cell and later present their work at MIT.
- 4.
The competition has grown enormously over the years to the effect that, nowadays, regional finals are held throughout the world, prior to the main “jamboree” (http://igem.org).
- 5.
The fieldwork presented here was conducted by SMH with one of the seven funded Networks in the period 2008–2011.
References
Balmer, A., and P. Martin. 2008. Synthetic biology: Social and ethical challenges. An independent review commissioned by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Swindon: BBSRC.
Bensaude Vincent, B. 2009. Synthetic biology as a replica of synthetic chemistry? Uses and misuses of history. Biological Theory 4(4): 314–318.
Birkard, D., and F. Képès. 2008. Succès de la première équipe française lors de la compétition iGEM de biologie synthétique. Médecine/Sciences 24: 541–544.
Brown, N., and M. Michael. 2003. A sociology of expectations: Retrospecting prospects and prospecting retrospects. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management 15(1): 3–18.
Bulpin, K., and S. Molyneux-Hodgson. 2013. The disciplining of scientific communities. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews 38(2): 91–105.
Callon, M., and J. Law. 2004. Introduction: Absence-presence, circulation, and encountering in complex space. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 22(1): 3–11.
Calvert, J., and P. Martin. 2009. The role of social scientists in synthetic biology. EMBO Reports 10: 201–204.
Campos, L. 2009. That was the synthetic biology that was. In Synthetic biology: The technoscience and its societal consequences, ed. M. Schmidt, 5–21. London: Springer.
Groupe de travail “Biologie de synthèse”. 2011. Biologie de synthèse: développements, potentialités et défis. Paris: Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche.
Haseloff, J., and J. Ajioka. 2009. Synthetic biology: History, challenges and prospects. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 6: S389–S391.
Hellsten, I., and B. Nerlich. 2011. Synthetic biology: Building the language of a new science brick by metaphorical brick. New Genetics and Society 30(4): 375–397.
Hetherington, K. 2004. Second-handedness: Consumption, disposal and absent presence. Environment and Planning D 22(1): 157–173.
Hine, C. 2007. Multi-sited ethnography as a middle range methodology for contemporary STS. Science, Technology & Human Values 32(6): 652–671.
IFRIS. 2011. Biologie de synthèse: conditions d’un dialogue avec la société. Report for the Science and Society section of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, November 2011.
Jensen, C.B. 2010. Ontologies for developing things: Making health care futures through technology. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Keller, E.F. 2009. What does synthetic biology have to do with biology? BioSocieties 4(2): 291–302.
Képès, F. 2012. Biologie de synthèse: la science de toutes les ruptures. Biotech Finances 539: 6–7.
Law, J. 2004. And if the global were small and non-coherent? Method, complexity, and the baroque. Environment and Planning D 22(1): 13–26.
Lentzos, F. 2009. Synthetic biology in the social context: The UK debate to date. BioSocieties 4(2): 303–315.
Livingstone, D. 2005. Text, talk and testimony: Geographical reflections on scientific habits. An afterword. The British Journal for the History of Science 38: 93–100.
Marcus, G.E. 1998. Ethnography through thick and thin. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Meyer, M. 2012. Placing and tracing absence: A material culture of the immaterial. Journal of Material Culture 17(1): 103–110.
Meyer, M. 2013. Debating synthetic biology: A necessity or a masquerade? CSI Research Blog, July 2013. http://www.csi.mines-paristech.fr/blog/en/?p=36. Accessed 15 July 2013.
Milne, R. 2012. Pharmaceutical prospects: Biopharming and the geography of technological expectations. Social Studies of Science 42(2): 290–306.
Molyneux-Hodgson, S., and M. Meyer. 2009. Tales of emergence – Synthetic biology as a scientific community in the making. BioSocieties 4(2-3): 129–145.
Morange, M. 2009. A new revolution? The place of systems biology and synthetic biology in the history of biology. EMBO Reports 10: S50–S53.
OPECST [Office parlementaire d’évaluation des choix scientifiques et technologiques]. 2012. Les enjeux de la biologie de synthèse. Paris: OPECST.
Ophir, A., and S. Shapin. 1991. The place of knowledge: A methodological survey. Science in Context 4: 3–21.
Pei, L., S. Gaisser, and M. Schmidt. 2012. Synthetic biology in the view of European public funding organisations. Public Understanding of Science 21(2): 149–162.
Powell, R.C. 2007. Geographies of science: Histories, localities, practices, futures. Progress in Human Geography 31(3): 309–329.
Powell, A., M. O’Malley, S. Müller-Wille, J. Calvert, and J. Dupré. 2007. Disciplinary baptisms: A comparison of the naming stories of genetics, molecular biology, genomics and systems biology. History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 29: 5–32.
Rabinow, P., and G. Bennett. 2009. Synthetic biology: Ethical ramifications 2009. Systems and Synthetic Biology 3(1-4): 99–108.
Robbins, P. 2009. The genesis of synthetic biology: Innovation, interdisciplinarity and the IGEM student competition. Paper presented at the American Sociological Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, 8–11 Aug 2009.
Royal Academy of Engineering. 2009. Synthetic biology: Scope, applications and implications. http://www.raeng.org.uk/societygov/policy/current_issues/synthetic_biology/default.htm. Accessed 7 June 2013.
Schyfter, P. 2011. Technological biology? Things and kinds in synthetic biology. Biology & Philosophy 27(1): 29–48.
SNRI. 2009. Stratégie Nationale de Recherche et d’Innovation: Rapport Général. Paris: French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
SNRI. 2011. Stratégie Nationale de Recherche et d’Innovation. Biologie de Synthèse: Développements, Potentialités et Défis. Paris: French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Synthetic Biology Dialogue. 2010. Report published by BBSRC, EPSRC and Sciencewise. http://bbsrc.ac.uk/society/dialogue/activities/synthetic-biology/findings-recommendations.aspx. Accessed 7 June 2013.
Willetts, D. 2013. Eight great technologies. Pamphlet produced by Policy Exchange. http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/category/item/eight-great-technologies. Accessed 7 June 2013.
Yeh, B.J., and A.L. Wendell. 2007. Synthetic biology: Lessons from the history of synthetic organic chemistry. Nature Chemical Biology 3: 521–525.
Zhang, J., C. Marris, and N. Rose. 2011. The international governance of synthetic biology: Scientific uncertainty, cross-borderness and the ‘art’ of governance. Working paper prepared for the Royal Society Science Policy Centre, May 2011.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meyer, M., Molyneux-Hodgson, S. (2016). Placing a New Science: Exploring Spatial and Temporal Configurations of Synthetic Biology. In: Merz, M., Sormani, P. (eds) The Local Configuration of New Research Fields. Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook, vol 29. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22683-5_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22683-5_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22682-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22683-5
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)