Post-Genomic Futures & their Representations/Performances in Science &
Technology Studies
Brian Wynne & Ruth McNally
Panel at 4S, Pasadena, 21 October 2005
Abstract
For most of the 20th century, the gene occupied a privileged position in Western
culture, culminating in the Human Genome Project (HGP). Completed in 2003, the
legacy of the HGP is more than maps, sequences and data-overloads. It is credited
with leaving an imprint on the goals, methods & organisation of biological &
biomedical research. Referred to as the ‘omic’ revolution, the objective of this 21st
century research trajectory is to compile complete data sets for every type of
biomolecule, and then to model biological systems in silico by linking various omic
databases together. Moreover, omics & systems biology are often presented as
constituting a radical paradigm shift from the genetic reductionism of the past, into an
enlightened scientific era of biocomplexity. A new term – ‘post-genomics’ – has been
coined to describe biological research after the completion of the HGP. But what is
post-genomics? Does the term imply that the genome and the gene have been
transcended? And if so, what has, or might, take their place? In other words, how are
the fields of biology & biomedicine & their knowledges & social relations being
constituted beyond the HGP? And with what forms of embodied social-human
imaginations? To what extent and in what ways are these representational projects
also performative? And what might be the role(s) of STS in these scientific-social
worlds?
The aim of this panel is to stimulate discussion about the constitution of postgenomics knowledge & its social relations. This will include analysis and discussion
of how STS and other actors study, represent and perform post-genomic futures.
Speakers
Joan Fujimura1:
‘Postgenomic futures: Translations across the machine-nature border in systems
biology’
2
Brian Wynne :
‘Post-genomics celebrations of biological complexity – (re)intimations of control’
Ruth McNally3 & Peter Glasner4:
‘Beyond the Human Genome Project: Revolutions, omics & turfwars’
Professor, Department of Sociology; Director, Robert & Jean Holtz Center for
Research in Science & Technology Studies, University of Wisconsin,
Madison. fujimura@ssc.wisc.edu
2
Professor of science studies, ESRC Centre for the Economic and Social Aspects of
Genomics (CESAGen), Lancaster University. b.wynne@lancaster.ac.uk
3
Senior Research Associate, ESRC Centre for Economic & Social Aspects of
Genomics (CESAGen), Cardiff University. McNallyR@cf.ac.uk
4
Professorial Fellow, ESRC Centre for Economic & Social Aspects of Genomics
(CESAGen), Cardiff University. GlasnerP@cf.ac.uk
1