Risk assessment and genetic testing for breast cancer are at the vanguard of a rapidly expanding field of medicine, while the molecular genetics of breast cancer is a focus for a growing field of basic and applied scientific research. The last decade has also seen an exponential rise in health 'activism' around breast cancer. Using an ethnographic approach, Sahra Gibbon examines the relationship between these seemingly parallel developments. She draws on research in two contrasting social arenas - cancer genetic clinics and a breast cancer research charity - exploring the collective practices, networks and identities caught up in the translation of genetic knowledge from, to and between the laboratory and the wider world. She points to a powerful social form within the so called 'new ' genetics that aligns gender with the knowledge and technologies associated with breast cancer genes, whilst also showing how the circuits of connection between people and practices in different social arenas operate in complex and non-linear ways.
Author(s): Sahra Gibbon (Author)
Edition: 1
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 256
Cover......Page 1
Contents......Page 6
List of Figures......Page 7
Acknowledgements......Page 8
Preface......Page 10
Introduction......Page 12
Part I: Clinical Breast Cancer Genetics: Patients, Practitioners and Predictive Medicine......Page 30
1 The Enrolment of ‘Patients’: Visibility, Voice and Breast Cancer Activism......Page 36
2 Technologies of the Clinic: Tools, Tests and Explanatory Strategies......Page 59
3 Constructing Patienthood: The ‘Care’ of Predictive Medicine and Female Nurturance......Page 81
4 Diviners and Pastoral Keepers: Working in Clinical Breast Cancer Genetics......Page 107
Part II: A Breast Cancer Research Charity: Science, Activism and the Quest for Knowledge......Page 132
5 The Alchemy of Loss and Hope: Fundraising as Memorialisation......Page 136
6 Between Geno-hype and the Post-Genomic: The Management of Science and Ethics......Page 156
7 Scientists and the Making of Genomics as Monuments for the Living......Page 179
Conclusion......Page 200
Notes......Page 209
Bibliography......Page 214
C......Page 226
G......Page 228
K......Page 229
P......Page 230
S......Page 231
Z......Page 232
