The sacred and the profane in life science work: The case of assisted reproduction laboratories

Reproductive medicine and assisted reproduction therapies have been developed over the last decades resulting in over five million babies. The handling of human reproductive materials and patients is based on the ability to combine health care work and techno-scientific expertise in both the clinic and the laboratory setting. This study of Swedish assisted reproductive technology clinics demonstrates that the active day-to-day manipulation of human reproductive materials enact both the ‘profane’, through treating the embryos as raw materials in standardized procedures enabling economies of scale, and the ‘sacred’ through enacting a separation, the potential to human life, the patients ordeals, and seriousness. The enactment of the profane and the sacred is mostly balanced but at certain points in the work procedures, their intersecting becomes particularly salient. Such points provide opportunities for the study of the sense making of professionals in organizational grey zones, during techno-scientific activities.     

Affective machines or the inner self? Drawing the boundaries of the female body in the socialist romantic imagination

This article explores two conflicting aesthetics of the female body in post-Stalinist Soviet science fiction. One represented women of the communist future as explorers of the space frontier in assemblages with machines, testing the cultural border between the female and the technological. Another appealed to the mysterious female nature as the Other of human culture, pushing forward the understanding of socialist progress as a masculine project. This article argues that both aesthetics grew within the cultural phenomenon of socialist Romanticism, which emerged in the mid-1950s as a reaction to Stalin-era quasi-Enlightenment rationality and its dominant style of socialist realism.     

Epistemic modesty,ostentatiousness and the uncertainties of epigenetics: on the knowledge machinery of (social) science

Epigenetic processes are garnering attention in the social sciences, where some scholars assert their importance for theorizing social life. I engage with such ideas here by drawing on interviews with leading bioscientists. To begin with, I underscore the (productive) uncertainties of those working in and around epigenetics; I describe these as a manifestation of ‘epistemic modesty’, and suggest that dissensus helps to propel biomedical innovation. Then, drawing on the concept of ‘alien science’, I detail some researchers’ ambivalences regarding the notion of ‘transgenerational inheritance’; their dissatisfaction with the (public) communication practices of other scientists (situated in what I term a regime of ‘epistemic ostentatiousness’); and the challenges faced when moderating societal discussion of epigenetics in ways that expand excitement whilst deflating (what researchers regard as) unrealistic expectations. The paper concludes with reflections on the knowledge machinery of the (social) sciences, and employs the study data to interrogate sociological engagements with epigenetics.     

Affective practices,care and bioscience: a study of two laboratories

Scientific knowledge‐making is not just a matter of experiments, modelling and fieldwork. It also involves affective, embodied and material practices (Wetherell, 2012) which can be understood together as ‘matters of care’ (Puig de la Bellacasa, 2011). In this paper we explore how affect spans and connects material, subjective and organizational practices, focusing in particular on the patterns of care we encountered in an observational study of two bioscience laboratories. We explore the preferred emotional subjectivities of each lab and their relation to material practice. We go on to consider flows and clots in the circulation of affect and their relation to care through an exploration of belonging and humour in the labs. We show how being a successful scientist or group of researchers involves a careful choreography of affect in relation to materials, colleagues and others to produce scientific results, subjects and workplaces. We end by considering how thinking with care troubles dominant constructions of scientific practice, successful scientific selves and collectives.     

Mindful of the Intersession Break in Family Therapy: The Time to Think Experiment

The Time to Think Experiment researches the experience of clinicians, consumers, and families of an intersession break, which has been used historically in various models of family therapy training. This qualitative pilot study explores the experiences of 21 clinicians, 19 consumers, and six family members using this break for reflection, across the domains of family and couple therapy, individual therapy, group work, and supervision in a mental health service covering the whole age range. Using a phenomenological design, the analysis included narrative, thematic, content, and comparative techniques. The paper considers the impact of privileging reflection in the therapy process, in a climate where models, work cultures, and general lifestyles may not encourage it. Using the intersession break to create space to ‘be’ in the therapy process is one way to integrate mindful and family therapy practice. The emerging themes of an intersession break to promote a richer and deeper therapy experience, and the apparent shift of responsibility for change from clinicians to consumers is discussed.     

Defending White Scientific Masculinity

While many feminist and postcolonial scholars have analyzed the post-9/11 politic in the United States, few have focused on the anthrax “attacks” that followed the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center disaster. The FBI search for the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax mailings was an important node in US national security discourse making – it culminated in the fingering of a white male government biodefense scientist and cast doubt on the role of scientific expertise in provisioning national security. This article argues that while “white scientific masculinity” was put into question, it was simultaneously shored up as a nationalist symbol of protection against bioterrorism. This article traces shifts across the three FBI-led profiles of the anthrax perpetrator, along with concomitant news media coverage: the white male “loner” nonscientist, the white male “loner” amateur scientist and finally the white male biodefense scientist. Using a cultural studies approach, this article details how at each successive investigatory stage profilers mobilized hegemonic discourses to re-instantiate the authoritative status of white scientific masculinity in US national security. This analysis offers an important dimension to feminist and postcolonial critiques of the symbolic and institutional investment in white masculinity during the War on Terror.     

Towards a sociology of risk work: A narrative review and synthesis

In this article, we define the concept of “risk work,” which aims to make visible working practices to assess or manage risk, in order to subject these practices to sociological critique. This article reviews and synthesizes existing published literature to identify components of risk work: (a) translating risk into different contexts, (b) minimizing risks in practice, and (c) caring in the context of risk. We argue that these three components of risk work raise important tensions for workers that have been inadequately explored in the literature to date. We propose that future research should additionally focus on practitioner subjectivity and identity in risk work. In addition, we argue that comparative research—across type of risk and different contexts—and methodological and theoretical diversity would enhance this emerging field of research.     

中西人文教育和科学教育的历史嬗变及启示

中西传统教育思想对人文教育和科学教育的重视程度是不同的,其形成的原因也是多方面的.文章拟从中西对人、自然和社会关系的不同认识方面,分析比较两种教育思想观念的历史成因及其偏失,以期促进科学教育和人文教育的融合,对人的全面发展有所裨益.     

论知识物化及其中的知识流

作为21世纪最为重要资源的知识,其作用发挥的的物化.因而研究企业内部知识如何物化、知识物化过程中知识沿节点链的流动以及各种知识流的相互关系,无疑具有重要的理论与现实意义.文章以轮胎的研发与生产为例,阐述了知识如何由普遍科学知识最终形成物化物的知识物化过程,揭示出知识物化过程中的三种知识流及它们之间的相互关系.     

人群组织关系中的势位法则

片面地和局部地追求个人英雄主义的单极效应,已不是当今社会发展的方向和终极目标,更好地实现具有组织关系的人群最大效应策略将自觉或不自觉地成为了亘古不变的真理,因此人群整体效应的最优化势位法则的提出有其现实紧迫性和现实导向性。本文提出了以“势”作为描述人群组织关系的基本概念及对于不同人群组织关系中的势描述准则,并形成了人群组织关系的最优化势位法则。无论是大系统还是小系统的人群组织关系,这种势位法则都可用于实现该系统整体效应的全面提升。在信息和计算技术飞速发展的将来,这种势位法则对未来社会可能有着更加重要的影响和意义。