Identity Politics and the New Genetics
Re/Creating Categories of Difference and Belonging
Richard Rottenburg editor Katharina Schramm editor David Skinner editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Berghahn Books
Published:1st Nov '14
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
Racial and ethnic categories have appeared in recent scientific work in novel ways and in relation to a variety of disciplines: medicine, forensics, population genetics and also developments in popular genealogy. Once again, biology is foregrounded in the discussion of human identity. Of particular importance is the preoccupation with origins and personal discovery and the increasing use of racial and ethnic categories in social policy. This new genetic knowledge, expressed in technology and practice, has the potential to disrupt how race and ethnicity are debated, managed and lived. As such, this volume investigates the ways in which existing social categories are both maintained and transformed at the intersection of the natural (sciences) and the cultural (politics). The contributors include medical researchers, anthropologists, historians of science and sociologists of race relations; together, they explore the new and challenging landscape where biology becomes the stuff of identity.
“This wide-ranging, international collection considers many of the practical, ethical and political questions raised by the proliferation of genetic research and testing around the world…Almost all of the chapters deal in a sophisticated way with questions about how ideas of identity, race, and kinship are being shaped by their interaction with genetic technologies and the way those technologies are being interpreted.” · Contemporary Sociology. A Journal of Reviews
“Overall, the book successfully highlights the complex and often contradictory nature of the relationship between politics and science…[It]offers an original contribution to debates on identity, race and genetics…The overall strength of the collection (as the editors argue) lies in its use of a range of rich and illuminating case studies from locations across the globe.” · Ethnic and Racial Studies
“This is an important and extremely timely collection that will inform ongoing and evolving discussions within the social sciences and beyond about the changing relationship between identity and genomics. It captures and contributes to an emerging moment in social science engagement with genomics and issues of identity and the politics of difference.” · Sahra Gibbon, University College London
ISBN: 9781782386827
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 313g
230 pages