Enacting biosocial complexity: Stress, epigenetic biomarkers and the tools of postgenomics

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State: Public
Version: Final published version
License: CC BY 4.0
Serval ID
serval:BIB_5F8B1ED370C6
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Enacting biosocial complexity: Stress, epigenetic biomarkers and the tools of postgenomics
Journal
Social Studies of Science
Author(s)
Luca Chiapperino
ISSN
0306-3127
Publication state
In Press
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Editor
Luca Chiapperino
Language
english
Abstract
This article analyses attempts to enact complexity in postgenomic experimentations using the case of epigenetic research on biomarkers of psychosocial stress. Enacting complexity in this research means dissecting multiple so-called biosocial processes of health differentiation in the face of stressful experiences. To characterize enactments of biosocial complexity, the article develops the concepts of complexity work and complexification. The former emphasizes the social, technical, and material work that goes into the production of mixed biological and social representations of stress in epigenetics. The latter underlines how complexity can be assembled differently across distinct configurations of experimental work. Specifically, complexification can be defined as producing, stabilizing, and normalizing novel experimental systems that are supposed to improve techno-scientific enactments of complexity. In the case of epigenetics, complexification entails a reconfiguration of postgenomic experimental systems in ways that some actors deem ‘better’ at enacting health as a biosocial process. This study of complexity work and complexification shows that biosocial complexity is hardly a univocal enterprise in epigenetics. Consequently, the article calls for abandoning analysis of these research practices using clear-cut dichotomies of reductionism vs. holism, as well as simplicity vs. complexity. More broadly, the article suggests the relevance of a sociology of complexification for STS approaches to complexity in scientific practices. Complementing the existing focus on complexity as instrumental rhetoric in contemporary sciences, complexification directs analytical attention to the pragmatic opportunities that alternative (biosocial) complexities offer to collective, societal, and political thinking about science in society.
Pubmed
Web of science
Open Access
Yes
Funding(s)
Swiss National Science Foundation / Careers / 185822
Create date
12/01/2024 16:21
Last modification date
27/01/2024 8:36
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