Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
extreme, hurtful, demotic or objectionable ones. The pragmatist response
is to say that the 'equality' is purely theoretical. In practice, only certain
ways of talking about and acting in the world exert a meaningful influence,
including those relating to 'nature' that I'm seeking to denaturalise in this
book. To understand why, we need to comprehend how power relations
and the clout of certain large institutions create inequalities in the diet of
'choices' presented to people as they consume various representations, ideas,
images, values, etc. in their daily lives. Challenging these power relations is
central to achieving a robust 'semiotic democracy' as described at the end
of
Chapter 3
. I focus on the nature and effects of social power in
Chapter 6,
but touch upon it constantly in all the other chapters to come.
ENDNOTES
1
I borrow the scare-quoted phrase from George Lakoff and Mark Johnson's celebrated
book
Metaphors we live by
(1980).
2
All the quotations from
Beyond the cut
come from Braun (2002: 36-41) and Willems-
Braun (1997: 8-10).
3
This brief analysis of
Clayoquot: on the wild side
is taken from Braun (2002: 73-86).
4
Lily Kay (1996) presents a readable and authoritative history of molecular biology's
early growth, focussing on the United States, where it enjoyed generous funding for
many decades (and still does).
5
I introduce the scare-quotes here for two reasons: first, the two versions of the human
genome were, in fact, quite divergent along many sequences; second, even if this had
not been the case, geneticists have continued to 'correct' and refine the supposedly
'final' versions of the genome map. Celera Genomics withdrew from the 'race' to map
the human genome after their draft was completed.
6
'Biologism' goes beyond the incitement of people to think of their minds and bodies
in a 'molecular genetic' way. It also includes discourses about diet, exercise, sleep, alco-
hol consumption, disease prevention, parenting and the like which, together, place
a major emphasis on the management of one's own corporeal existence and/or that
of one's children.
7
Most human cells contain two chromosomes (except for those involved in biological
reproduction). These are a union of DNA and protein, and the so-called X and Y chro-
mosomes have a somewhat different character insofar as they regulate sex differences
in human embryos.
8
Indeed, lay audiences may be surprised to learn that there is, in fact, no scientific
consensus on what something as apparently 'solid', indeed foundational, as a gene
is (see: Baetu, 2011; Falk's (2010) superb summary of the variety of understandings
extant; and Stotz
et al
.'s (2004) Representing Genes Project, which surveys' scientists'
own diverse understandings of the nature and functioning of 'genes'). What's more,
molecular biology is now often said to be in a 'post-genomic' phase. The emphasis has
shifted from describing genomes and identifying genes (or gene sequences) to exam-
ining how they function within the wider, complex biological entities they ostensibly
create. As part of this, genes themselves are understood to change somewhat during
the lifetime of an organism (the study of which is called 'epigenomics'). Post-genomic
biology's roots actually go back a long way, to Francis Crick's statement of the 'central
dogma' of molecular biology in 1958 (Crick, 1970). Crick, co-discoverer of DNA in
1953, suggested that it may be false to suppose that genomes and their constituent
genes produce one-way, linear effects on the organisms whose structure and function-
ing they contain the 'programme' for. Crick was alerting molecular biologists early
on to the high possibility of complex feedbacks and permeable boundaries between
