Elizabeth Shove: "Indoor Environments and Social Justice: A Conversation"
May 13, 2009
Professor Shove (Lancaster University) joined the Science and Justice Working Group to discuss how standards and expectations for 'indoor environments' have been established, and how they might be managed in the future. As Professor Shove notes, the energy used in keeping buildings warm and cool around the world is huge. One reason for this is that people have come to expect standard conditions all year round. Historically, this is a very new development. Professor Shove will discuss the possibility of changing these expectations, and whether/what quite different social and technical conventions could or might have to take hold. For example,. the Japanese government have introduced the idea of wearing lighter clothing in the summer and are setting thermostats to 28 degrees C. More generally this topic raised wider issues about the body and environment; sweat, nature, culture, and infrastructures.
Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren: "Ethics & Exposure in the Time of Extinctions"
April 1, 2009
Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren visited us from Sydney, Australia to talk about the possibility of what they call an "ecological humanities" in a time of extinctions. Deborah Bird Rose and Thom van Dooren are shapers of the Ecological Humanities group, which defines itself this way: "The ecological humanities bring together ways of knowing and interacting with the world from the sciences and the humanities, as well as from indigenous and other 'non-western' worldviews, nourishing the connectivities and possibilities that these dialogues produce for people and the more-than-human environment." Rose and van Dooren are working on a research project that brings the humanities and ecology into dialogue around the current mass anthropogenic extinction event. This project aims to invigorate new understandings of ourselves as the species that is both responsible for, and mutually implicated in, so much suffering and death. In this colloquium Rose and van Dooren discussed two aspects of their work, focusing on the ethics of witness in multispecies communities and exposure to our own entangled accountability.
Cori Hayden: "The Limitations of 'Benefit Sharing': A Conversation"
February 25, 2009
Cori Hayden (UC Berkeley, Anthropology) presented her research about the challenges of adopting social justice interpretations of intellectual property law. Hayden posed the question: What are the implications of configuring a justice language of access around the terms of intellectual property itself? In her research about pharmaceutical generics in Latin America, Hayden demonstrates that when social justice movements in health care and biotechnology adopt a model of wide public 'access' to intellectual property they run the risk of reinforcing the model of private property in ways that they did not intend. In particular, framing the debate about intellectual property as a fight between 'oppressive intellectual property' and 'liberatory generics' cements a dichotomy between proper and improper copies that may obstruct more useful ways of thinking about public access to the benefits of biomedicine. Instead of looking for the perfect language to describe intellectual property in biomedicine, Hayden encouraged us to think about the types of accountability that we might desire in a more just framework of social justice and access to technology. By focusing on accountability regimes we are able to raise questions about what unexpected effects of introducing generics might arise, as opposed to enthusiastically supporting generics because they are 'liberatory.' Hayden suggested that this way of thinking about generics could be extended to other forms of biotechnology.
Warren Sack: "Software Design and Social Justice: A Conversation"
February 11, 2009
Warren Sack (Associate Professor of Film and Digital Media) joined SJWG to talk about issues of software design and justice. In particular, he took up questions about how software gets evaluated, and considered ways in which "good" software might also be socially good.
Dee Hibbert-Jones: "Art, the Death Penalty and Questions of Representation: A Conversation"
January 28, 2009
In this session, Dee Hibbert-Jones (Art Department) discussed questions about representation and ethics raised by her and fellow artist Nomi Talisman's effort to describe the experiences of the families and children of prisoners on death row (the results of their effort come together in the artwork, Impact (http://deehibbert-jones.ucsc.edu/Impact_01.html). At issue in the discussion were questions about the relations between the arts and knowledge production about public problems.
Rene Almeling and Jenny Reardon: "Altruism and Its Limits: A Conversation"
January 14, 2009
Contemporary life sciences and the biotechnology markets require unprecedented amounts of human biological materials. Whether these materials are collected for biobanks for research, sperm and egg banks for reproduction, or personal genetic testing, increasingly human beings are being solicited for their DNA, eggs, sperm, organs, spit, and other bodily tissues. How should this extraction of human biological materials be understood? Since the publication of Richard Titmuss' The Gift Relationship in 1971, dominant policy and research communities have viewed "altruistic" acts of giving of bodily materials as morally preferable. However, can "altruism" continue to be used as a moral compass in the growing number of contexts in which bodily materials are collected? What might altruism mean in these different contexts? What other frames are available for understanding acts of collecting biological materials? How might ideas and practices of collecting samples from human beings change if collections of human tissues were thought through in relation to collection of tissues from other species? Rene Almeling (Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Scholar, UC Berkeley/UC San Francisco) started the discussion of these questions with a presentation of data from her interviews with egg and sperm donors about how framing donation as a gift or a job shaped their experiences of bodily commodification. Jenny Reardon (Sociology, UC Santa Cruz) followed with some observations from her research on the roles and meanings of altruism in the construction of national biobanks.
Linda Layne: "Feminist Technology: A Neglected Strategy for Social Change"
November 20, 2008
Linda Layne, Hale Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, and Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Science and Technology Studies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, presented a talk entitled "Feminist Technologies: A Neglected Strategy for Change." This talk was co-sponsored by the Department of Feminist Studies and the Science & Justice Working Group. Layne used the lens of anthropology to explain why women are ill-prepared for miscarriage, stillbirth, or early infant death and why the feminist movement has not fully embraced this women's health issue. Her most recent book Feminist Technology with Sharra Vostral and Kate Boyer will be released soon by University of Illinois Press.
Jacob Metcalf & Sarah Richardson: "Ethical and evidential standards in genomics claims about brain size, race, and IQ"
October 15, 2008
This joint seminar between the Science & Justice Working Group and Genecats offered a bioethics perspective on the recent controversy over the relationship between variants of so-called "microcephaly" genes and intelligence. In a pair of Science articles in 2005, University of Chicago Howard Hughes researcher Bruce T. Lahn claimed that allele variants for genes mediating intelligence have undergone recent positive selection and that these variants show the highest incidence in European and Asian populations and lowest in sub-Saharan Africans. These claims received considerable coverage in the popular media, and Lahn subsequently collaborated with the notorious race researcher J. Philippe Rushton to test whether these genes might account for putative racial differences in intelligence. Lahn and the University of Chicago also filed a patent on the genes for a proposed genetic test for IQ. Metcalf and Richardson profiled the methodological and ethical questions raised by this research and assessed the research community's response to Lahn's claims. The authors urged a rich and reflexive conversation within the scientific community about the standards necessary to make connections between specific genes and human population variation in intelligence. The lively discussion throughout the presentation focused on the nature and acceptability of scientific speculation and the different attitudes regarding responsibilities for speculation in the "Discussion" section of scientific articles.
Sara Shostak: Environmental Justice/Genomic Justice?
May 7, 2008
In this session, we discussed with Professor Sara Shostak (Brandeis University) the place of genomics in formulating an environmental justice agenda. Professor Shostak is a science studies and public health scholar who for the last decade has been following the emergence of gene-environment studies.
When Science Meets Justice(s): A Reading and Conversation with Donna Haraway and Karen Barad
April 30, 2008
Science and Justice Working Group members and UCSC faculty Donna Haraway and Karen Barad both published new books this year: When Species Meet (Minnesota) and Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Duke). In this session, we explored what new directions, new questions, and new analytics their books offer to those of us concerned with the broader project of science and justice. Professors Barad and Haraway joined us for the discussion.
Energy Worlds: Considering Creative Approaches to Energy Consumption/Production
April 29, 2008
Dr. John Shinn is a chemical engineer who sits on the board of directors for Engineers without Borders and is also a senior staff advisor for global issues at Chevron. His round table discussion focused on pragmatic and creative approaches to energy production/consumption in an era of climate change. Shinn has focused over 30 years of professional activity in energy-related research, development, and policy on the creation of approaches that deliver the needed energy supply to support human development in an environmentally- and socially-beneficial manner. Recently, he's been especially interested in exploring potential roles for (and conflicts among) international, national, and local regulatory apparatuses in contrast to (or in collaboration with) market incentives.
Body Worlds Field Trip & Conversation
January 23, 2008
SJWG sponsored a group trip to the Body Worlds exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Science and Technology. Body Worlds is a controversial exhibit of human and animals bodies that have been preserved by a method called 'plastination.' Following the exhibit, SJWG members met with members of Santa Clara University's Center for Science, Technology, and Society. Discussions about the exhibit centered on the history of Body Worlds, it's problematic procedures for getting consent from donors, and the gendered representation of the human bodies.
Jake Metcalf & Martha Kenney: Ethics in Experimentation
November 15, 2007
SJWG members Jake Metcalf and Martha Kenney presented a run-through of their upcoming panel at the 2007 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S). Metcalf's paper concerned a rethinking of bioethics policies around oocyte procurement procedures for stem cell research. Kenney's paper concerned the ethics of self-experimentation and its role in the history of biomedical science.
Jonathan Moreno: Ethics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research
October 29, 2007
Professor Jonathan Moreno, is a prominent bioethicist and professor of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia. In this seminar co-sponsored by SJWG, Moreno provided an introduction to the science of embryonic stem cells, followed by a discussion of the ethical and policy issues. Key ethical issues included the sources of human embryonic stem cells, egg donation, and chimeras. Moreno co-chaired the National Academies of Science 2005 Guidelines on Stem Cell Research and shared insights and history from this policy.
Catherine Waldby: "The Biopolitics of Reproduction: Post-Fordist Biotechnology and Women's Clinical Labor"
October 3, 2007
Professor Catherine Waldby is International Research Fellow at the University of Sydney, and collaborating partner of the Global Biopolitics Research Group (www.globalbiopolitics.org). She researches and publishes in social studies of biomedicine and the life sciences. SJWG co-sponsored the talk she gave at the Center for Cultural Studies on assisted reproductive technology and the centrality of reproductive tissue (embryos, oöcytes, cord blood) to the regenerative medicine industries. A central contention of her presentation was that while nation states have lost traction over female reproductive biology and are less and less able to mobilize it for nation-building, it is increasingly available for private investment and capitalization in the bioeconomy. Focusing on global markets for women's oöcytes (unfertilized eggs), Waldby explored the consequences of framing women's contribution to the biotechnology industries as labor, in historical continuity with earlier colonial forms of female bodily labor, and cognate to other forms of feminized global production.
Troy Duster: Criminal Justice/Genomic Justice?
April 23, 2007
Professor Troy Duster is a sociologist specially in race and biotechnology at NYU and UC Berkeley. In March 2007, the U.K. government proposed entering into DNA databases those youths deemed "at risk" for being criminals. Duster's seminar and the following discussion with the SJWG focused on a series of questions about the use of genetics in the criminal justice system. How can/should "we" respond to such proposals? DNA databases have been celebrated for exonerating those unjustly charged with crimes, and for increasing the effectiveness of the criminal "justice" system, but at what cost? Are DNA databases creating new classes of persons (e.g., proto-criminals)? How do they intersect with/alter issues of race, class and gender, issues that already strongly shape the criminal "justice system"? What are the justice issues raised by these forensic databases, and how do they relate to questions about prisons and justice? Do we know? What do we yet need to know to answer this question? What can be done to address these justice issues, to the extent that we now know what they are? See Flyer
Symposia and Conferences
See Addendum for appended full reports on these events.
Energy Worlds
» A Panel Discussion on Climate Change and our 21st Century Energy Needs
April 15, 2009
The Simularium (Engineering-2, Room 180)
Featuring:
ALI SHAKOURI: Electrical Engineer / UCSC; Thermiotic Energy Conversion Center JOHN SHINN: Chemical Engineer & Policy Specialist / Engineers without Borders; Chevron
JOE JORDAN: Activist & Educator / Ecology Action of Santa Cruz; formerly NASA; the SETI Institute
DAVID BLUME: Best-selling Author & Activist / International Institute for Ecological Agriculture
ROBERT BAERTSCH: Engineer / NASA Ames; Biomolecular Science & Engineering, UCSC
ANDREW SZASZ (MODERATOR): Environmental Sociologist / UCSC JOIN US:
In this conversation about energy and climate change matters of social, economic, and environmental justice took center stage. Speakers emphasized technological and policy interventions that respond to climate change and the energy crisis, noting the possibilities and limitations of specific technologies. They identified and experimented with ways of speaking across different areas of expertise and political orientations as we work to address key public issues in science and technology. Sponsored by: The Science and Justice Working Group, the Department of Sociology, the Department of Environmental Studies, the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS), and College Eight.
Technoscience and Social Change
» A Panel Discussion
May 27, 2009
Engineering 2, 599
Featuring:
Caroline Bassett (University of Sussex, Media and Film)
Warren Sacks (Film and Digital Media, UCSC)
Fred Turner (Stanford, Communications)
Kate O'Riordan moderator (Center for Cultural Studies, UCSC, and Media and Film, Sussex)
Technoscience can interact with social change in unexpected ways. On the one hand, new forms of technoscience often reshape social and political landscapes. On the other hand, they can further entrench those same landscapes, making them more resistant to change and social justice agendas. Much attention has been paid to this dynamic in information and communication technologies, but less so with biotechnologies and genomics. For this panel discussion, panel participants joined members of the Science and Justice Working Group to explore the relationship between ICTs and social and political change, and thought comparatively about the case of genomics.
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