Overview
- Brings together a multitude of scholars to create a truly interdisciplinary conversation between biology and society
- Argues that the historic divide between the biological and the social sciences is no longer valid
- Provides a balanced account of the debate by actively avoiding both uncritical celebrations of contemporary biological insights and blind scepticism about their potentials
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About this book
This comprehensive handbook synthesizes the often-fractured relationship between the study of biology and the study of society. Bringing together a compelling array of interdisciplinary contributions, the authors demonstrate how nuanced attention to both the biological and social sciences opens up novel perspectives upon some of the most significant sociological, anthropological, philosophical and biological questions of our era.
The six sections cover topics ranging from genomics and epigenetics, to neuroscience and psychology to social epidemiology and medicine. The authors collaboratively present state-of-the-art research and perspectives in some of the most intriguing areas of what can be called biosocial and biocultural approaches, demonstrating how quickly we are moving beyond the acrimonious debates that characterized the border between biology and society for most of the twentieth century.
This landmark volume will be an extremely valuable resource for scholars and practitioners in all areas of the social and biological sciences.
The chapter 'Ten Theses on the Subject of Biology and Politics: Conceptual, Methodological, and Biopolitical Considerations' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.
Versions of the chapters 'The Transcendence of the Social', 'Scrutinizing the Epigenetics Revolution', 'Species of Biocapital, 2008, and Speciating Biocapital, 2017' and 'Experimental Entanglements: Social Science and Neuroscience Beyond Interdisciplinarity' are available open access via third parties. For further information please see license information in the chapters or on link.springer.com.
The six sections cover topics ranging from genomics and epigenetics, to neuroscience and psychology to social epidemiology and medicine. The authors collaboratively present state-of-the-art research and perspectives in some of the most intriguing areas of what can be called biosocial and biocultural approaches, demonstrating how quickly we are moving beyond the acrimonious debates that characterized the border between biology and society for most of the twentieth century.
This landmark volume will be an extremely valuable resource for scholars and practitioners in all areas of the social and biological sciences.
The chapter 'Ten Theses on the Subject of Biology and Politics: Conceptual, Methodological, and Biopolitical Considerations' is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license via link.springer.com.
Versions of the chapters 'The Transcendence of the Social', 'Scrutinizing the Epigenetics Revolution', 'Species of Biocapital, 2008, and Speciating Biocapital, 2017' and 'Experimental Entanglements: Social Science and Neuroscience Beyond Interdisciplinarity' are available open access via third parties. For further information please see license information in the chapters or on link.springer.com.
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Keywords
- biology and society
- Lamarckisms
- Scientific Sociology
- the nature-nurture debate
- epigenetics
- Social & Behavioral Epigenetics
- Plasticity
- Molecular Multicultures
- social justice in education
- Candomblé Trance
- the maternal capital model
- health in the life course
- postgenomic bodies
- The Postgenomic Politics of Race
- Environmental Epigenetics
- biopolitcs
Table of contents (38 chapters)
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Front Matter
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History of the Biology/Society Relationship
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Front Matter
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Genomics, Postgenomics, Epigenetics and Society
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Front Matter
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Neuroscience: Brain, Culture and Social Relations
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Front Matter
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Reviews
“This handbook attempts to bridge the traditional gap between social sciences and biological sciences, serving as a comprehensive overview that incorporates both. … This handbook is highly recommended for academic libraries.” (American Reference Books Annual ARBA, June, 2018) “A veritable tour de force, the thirty-seven chapters of a Handbook of Biology and Society delineate an epistemic space for our times among the life sciences and the social sciences. Biological matter is fully social in both form and content and, reciprocally, sociality is enabled and modulated through and through by biology in its many configurations. All traces of dichotomous 20th century debates about biology and society are transcended in the five sections of the handbook that commence with history and culminate in ‘contested sites’ including those of race, gender, and class. No longer can humans be represented as independent of their environments; recognition of the reactive genome has made this evident at the molecular level. These outstanding essays go further, and mesh lived experience with molecular activity, thus fleshing out the mobility of biology and society.” (Margaret Lock PhD, author of The Alzheimer’ Conundrum)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Maurizio Meloni is a social theorist and a STS scholar at the University of Sheffield, UK. He is the author of Political Biology, the upcoming A Postgenomic Body and co-editor of Biosocial Matters.
John Cromby is a psychologist at the University of Leicester, UK. He is a co-author of Psychology, Mental Health and Distress and author of Feeling Bodies: Embodying Psychology.
Des Fitzgerald is a sociologist and STS scholar at Cardiff University, UK. He is author of Tracing Autism: Uncertainty, Ambiguity and the Affective Labor of Neuroscience and co-author of Rethinking Interdisciplinarity Across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences.
Stephanie Lloyd is a medical anthropologist at the Université Laval, Canada. Her research examines the production of molecular models that attempt to link early experiences to specific behaviours and traits,with a particular focus on epigenetics and neurosciences.
John Cromby is a psychologist at the University of Leicester, UK. He is a co-author of Psychology, Mental Health and Distress and author of Feeling Bodies: Embodying Psychology.
Des Fitzgerald is a sociologist and STS scholar at Cardiff University, UK. He is author of Tracing Autism: Uncertainty, Ambiguity and the Affective Labor of Neuroscience and co-author of Rethinking Interdisciplinarity Across the Social Sciences and Neurosciences.
Stephanie Lloyd is a medical anthropologist at the Université Laval, Canada. Her research examines the production of molecular models that attempt to link early experiences to specific behaviours and traits,with a particular focus on epigenetics and neurosciences.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Palgrave Handbook of Biology and Society
Editors: Maurizio Meloni, John Cromby, Des Fitzgerald, Stephanie Lloyd
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52879-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan London
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-137-52878-0Published: 05 March 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-1-349-70801-7Published: 13 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-1-137-52879-7Published: 27 October 2017
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 941
Number of Illustrations: 18 b/w illustrations, 4 illustrations in colour
Topics: Science and Technology Studies, Social Theory, Human Genetics, Neurosciences, Epidemiology