Authors: Wainwright, Steven P¹; Williams, Clare²; Persaud, Shanta J³; Jones, Peter M⁴

Source: Social Theory & Health, Volume 4, Number 4, November 2006 , pp. 275-298(24)

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract:

In this paper, we discuss physiological images in the biomedical sciences. We argue that the biological body is missing from much social research on the life sciences. Social theory has tended to focus on the exterior of the cultural body, while the interior of the biological body remains unexplored. Our purpose in this paper is to explore the material nature of the biological body, by blending together insights from the fields of human physiology and medical sociology. Our paper is a multidisciplinary collaboration between two social scientists and two biomedical scientists. Within biomedicine, in an attempt to revolutionize the treatment of diabetes, numerous laboratories are currently trying to transform stem cells into insulin secreting β-cells. Such research inevitably involves the production of pictures, as this is an essential element in the rhetorical reproduction of laboratory life. We discuss some of the types of images through which biomedical scientists aim to convince their colleagues that they have created functioning β-cells from (human) embryonic stem cells. We argue that some laboratory images are more constructed than others, hence we discuss a social constructionist continuum of representations of `functioning β-cells' - from light microscopy, through immunocytochemistry (ICC), PCR, and transmission electron microscopy, to calcium microfluorimetry. We use these images in our critique of radical social constructionist/postmodern writings on science and we argue for a scientific realist view of biomedical science. We conclude with the realist claim that both biomedical scientists and social scientists are studying `the body multiple' rather than `the multiple body'.Social Theory & Health (2006) 4, 275-298. doi:10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700075

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.sth.8700075

Affiliations: 1: 1King's College London, Senior Lecturer, Division of Health and Social Care Research, University of London, 57 Waterloo Road, London, SE1 8WA, UK., Email: steven.wainwright@kcl.ac.uk 2: 2King's College London, Reader in Social Science of Biomedicine, Division of Health & Social Care Research, University of London, London, UK 3: 3King's College London, Reader in Beta Cell Biology, Beta Cell Development & Function Group, University of London, London, UK 4: 4King's College London, Professor of Endocrinology, Beta Cell Development & Function Group, University of London, London, UK

Publication date: 2006-11-01

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