Pickersgill Martyn, Niewöhner Jörg, Müller Ruth, Martin Paul, Cunningham-Burley Sarah
University of Edinburgh, Centre for Population Health Sciences, Old Medical School, Teviot Place, Edinburgh EH8 9AG, UK.
Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.
New Genet Soc. 2013 Dec;32(4):429-447. doi: 10.1080/14636778.2013.861739. Epub 2013 Dec 9.
Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression caused by mechanisms other than changes in the DNA itself. The field is rapidly growing and being widely promoted, attracting attention in diverse arenas. These include those of the social sciences, where some researchers have been encouraged by the resonance between imaginaries of development within epigenetics and social theory. Yet, sustained attention from science and technology studies (STS) scholars to epigenetics and the praxis it propels has been lacking. In this article, we reflexively consider some of the ways in which epigenetics is being constructed as an area of biomedical novelty and discuss the content and logics underlying the ambivalent promises being made by scientists working in this area. We then reflect on the scope, limits and future of engagements between epigenetics and the social sciences. Our discussion is situated within wider literatures on biomedicine and society, the politics of "interventionist STS," and on the problems of "caseness" within empirical social science.
表观遗传学是对由DNA本身变化以外的机制引起的基因表达变化的研究。该领域正在迅速发展并得到广泛推广，在各个领域都引起了关注。这些领域包括社会科学领域，在那里，表观遗传学中的发育想象与社会理论之间的共鸣鼓励了一些研究人员。然而，科学技术研究（STS）学者对表观遗传学及其推动的实践缺乏持续关注。在本文中，我们反思性地思考了表观遗传学被构建为生物医学新领域的一些方式，并讨论了该领域科学家所做出的矛盾承诺背后的内容和逻辑。然后，我们思考表观遗传学与社会科学之间互动的范围、局限性和未来。我们的讨论置于关于生物医学与社会、“干预主义STS”的政治以及实证社会科学中的“病例性”问题的更广泛文献之中。
