Genetic-Social Science and the Study of Human Biotechnology

Abstract

We require an ontologically flexible, meta-theoretical framework in order to study the ethical implications of genomics and the social construction of the Genome Project. It is argued in this article that a modification of Sibeon's anti-reductionist sociology, which focuses upon agency–structure, micro–macro and time–space, to include a focus upon the biological variable, psychobiography and power would be a ‘starting point’ for a sociology of genomics. The intention is to ‘build bridges’ between sociology and biology, to combine a modified anti-reductionist framework with some of the insights into the sociology–biology divide from the work of Benton, Bury, Hochschild, Layder and Newton for the purpose of conceptualizing the sociological implications of genomics. The term genetic-social science is used to describe the new framework in order to distance it from the association with sociobiology. Such a post-postmodern approach is not reductionist or essentialist. It acknowledges that genes do influence behaviour, yet ‘environment’ is still extremely important.