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SOCIOLOGIES OF SYNTHETIC BIOLOGY PROGRAMME Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson, University of Sheffield, UK
OVERVIEW
• Sociological analysis of the development and implications
of synthetic biology began in 2007.
• An ongoing programme of work includes a wide range of
activities (summer projects, PhDs. & research projects)
• Synbio confronts social researchers with socio-technical
issues that are multi-layered and multi-disciplinary
• The need for theoretically-informed, empirical sociological
research is pressing.
SUMMARY OF FUNDED PROJECTS
Microbial Applications for Tissue Engineering (2008-2011)
A Network in Synthetic Biology (£135,000 BBSRC)
Deploying Synthetic Biology for the Water Industry (2009-
2011) (£200,000 EPSRC)
Synthesising communities in Europe (2012–15) part of the
cross-department Synthetic Biology for Human Health
programme (£250,000 University of Sheffield)
The meanings and implications of ‘translation' in Synthetic
Biology (2012–15) part of the Rethinking the social production,
locus and impact of biosciences project (£175,000 ESRC)
(De)signing Synthetic Biologists (2009-13) part of the
Engaging Young People in Science programme (£180,000
White Rose Universities Consortium & National Science
Learning Centre)
Crossing Biological Membranes-Net (2014-2019)
Developing SB and other approaches to industrial
biotechnology (£540,000 BBSRC)
THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
Existing frameworks that are used in our research include:-
• Actor Network Theory – recognising the human and non-
human in accomplishing action and generating knowledge
• Epistemic Communities – describing ways of knowing and
the scientific practices needed to achieve goals
• Co-production – taking science and state; local and global;
persons and fields, as mutually constitutive
RESEARCH APPROACH
We aim to:-
• advance sociological understanding of the development of
emerging scientific fields and their attendant implications
• impact on techno-scientific approaches to the field
• create a community of researchers – regardless of
disciplinary background – capable of engaging with future
research agendas relating science in society.
We do this by:-
• Using close collaborative relations with scientists &
engineers to understand, explain and intervene across a
range of topics
• Analysing data that includes:- ethnographic studies of
laboratories and other field sites; interviews with policy
actors, scientists and engineers; discourses of official
literature and of media; studies with various publics.
• Engaging in joint activity across disciplines e.g. co-
supervision of technical and social science doctoral
students; sociologists teaching on engineering
programmes; iGEM participation; employing scientists on
sociology projects; conference buddy scheme; joint
writing, bidding & workshops.
HIGHLIGHTS
Detailed findings are available in publications. Insights include understanding
how:-
Synthetic biology exemplifies the development of a potentially new form of
knowledge production, one that preferences the commercial aspects of field
development and which we have labelled econoscience
Stabilisation of the field is not guaranteed, even as funding and
infrastructure to support it grows
Biological complexity and (lack of) reproducibility are used to justify more
basic research and explain a lack of venture capital & translation
Barriers to innovation are performed by stakeholders in the process
Radical technical solutions to social problems cannot intervene easily within
existing sets of socio-technical relations
The mathematisation of biology has epistemological consequences
Databases act as obligatory passage points yet remain localised facilities
Community making is an interplay of movements (the orientation and
enrolment of people, stories, disciplines & policies) and of stickiness (the
objects & glues that begin to bind the various constitutive elements of
community)
Community making devices (e.g. conferences and events, journals, success
stories etc.) are central to creation of a sense of the global collective & form
a central identity around which new members can be recruited & orient
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
• Meyer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2014) Placing a new science: exploring spatial and temporal configurations of synthetic biology. In Merz & Sormani (eds.) Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook. Dortrecht: Springer
• Molyneux-Hodgson & Balmer (2014) Synthetic biology, water industry and the performance of an innovation barrier. Science and Public Policy 41 (4): 507-519
• Bulpin & Molyneux-Hodgson (2013) The disciplining of scientific communities. Interdisciplinary Science Reviews. 38(2): 91 – 105
• Balmer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2013) Bacterial Cultures: ontologies of bacteria and engineering expertise at the nexus of synthetic biology & water services. Engineering Studies 5 (1): 59-73
• Meyer & Molyneux-Hodgson (2010) ‘Communautés épistémiques’: une notion utile pour théoriser les collectifs en sciences. Terrains et Travaux 18: 141 - 154
• Molyneux-Hodgson and Meyer (2009). Tales of emergence: synthetic biology as a scientific community in the making. BioSocieties , vol. 4, no. 2/3: 129-145
CONTACT:- Dr Susan Molyneux-Hodgson (PI): s.hodgson@sheffield.ac.uk
Kate Bulpin (PhD student, Building scientists & communities): sop09kjb@sheffield.ac.uk
Rob Meckin (PhD student, Meanings of translation): r.meckin@sheffield.ac.uk
Celso Gomes (PhD student, Making biofuels and big science): c.gomes@shef.ac.uk
Andrew Balmer (collaborator, SB and water industry): a.balmer@manchester.ac.uk
Morgan Meyer (collaborator, emergence in France): morgan.meyer@agroparistech.fr
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