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    The realness of risk: Gene technology in Germany

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    Author
    Robins, R
    Date
    2002-02-01
    Source Title
    SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE
    Publisher
    SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
    University of Melbourne Author/s
    ROBINS, ROSEMARY
    Affiliation
    History And Philosophy Of Science
    Metadata
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    Document Type
    Journal Article
    Citations
    Robins, R. (2002). The realness of risk: Gene technology in Germany. SOCIAL STUDIES OF SCIENCE, 32 (1), pp.7-35. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312702032001002.
    Access Status
    This item is currently not available from this repository
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/11343/25509
    DOI
    10.1177/0306312702032001002
    Description

    C1 - Journal Articles Refereed

    Abstract
    This paper examines the material relations of risk within a dispute about the hazards of manufacturing human insulin using gene technology, and the rôle played by the referent 'real risk' in the technical performance of risk in that dispute. It draws on recent work in science and technology studies that extends actor-network theory to examine the performance of reality in scientific practice. The multiplicity of risks in the dispute, and the links made and unmade between them, are examined. I argue that in the dispute, risks were contingently linked and separated around a referent 'real risk' that emerged within the recombinant DNA debate of the late 1970s. I contrast my account of risk with realist and relativist accounts, each of which values risk as an abstract entity. In my account, risk's value is contingent upon sets of material relations that link hazards and procedures for their minimization. Risk's realness emerges as some risks are linked and others separated, working a multiple/singular relation in an ontological politics of risk.
    Keywords
    History and Philosophy of Science and Technology ; Studies in Human Society

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