10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17394
The introduction aims to introduce the topic under investigation in this thematic section and underline connections among the three essays. Taken as a whole, the thematic section explores “ontological shiftings” in life sciences, i.e. how reproductive cells can assume different meanings, roles and values according to the situated processes in which they are embedded. The section sheds light on the co-production of reproductive cells and “moral landscapes”, showing how conventions concerning biological “properties” and “qualities” are intertwined with social norms and values about family, kinship, and gender relations. The term “sliding cells” is meant to evoke the unstable boundaries between “Nature” and “Culture” explored in this section.
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2038-3460
17394
1
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Stefano Crabu
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
assisted reproductive technologies
Sliding Cells. The Situated Making of Bio-Objects in IVF
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2018-08-06
2023-06-25
2018-08-06
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5-8
TS
Stefano Crabu
2018/08/06
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17394
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Politecnico di Milano
2038-3460
1
assisted reproductive technologies
en
8
Sliding Cells. The Situated Making of Bio-Objects in IVF
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17394/16252
9
                                                                                 Editors’ Introduction

Sliding Cells
The Situated Making of Bio-Objects in IVF

Manuela Perrotta                          Kristin Spilker*                    Stefano Crabu
         Queen Mary                                Sør-Trøndelag               Politecnico di Milano
      University of London                        University College



     Abstract: The introduction aims to introduce the topic under investigation
     in this thematic section and underline connections among the three essays.
     Taken as a whole, the thematic section explores “ontological shiftings” in life
     sciences, i.e. how reproductive cells can assume different meanings, roles and
     values according to the situated processes in which they are embedded. The
     section sheds light on the co-production of reproductive cells and “moral
     landscapes”, showing how conventions concerning biological “properties”
     and “qualities” are intertwined with social norms and values about family,
     kinship, and gender relations. The term “sliding cells” is meant to evoke the
     unstable boundaries between “Nature” and “Culture” explored in this
     section.

     Keywords: bio-objects; ontological shifting; gametes; assisted reproductive
     technologies.

     Corresponding author: Manuela Perrotta, Department of People and
     Organisations, Queen Mary University of London, 327 Mile End Road, E1
     4NS, London, UK – Email: m.perrotta@qmul.ac.uk



                                                                       In memory of Kristin Spilker


1. Introduction
    In June 2013, Tecnoscienza published a special issue on “Creating
Human Life Itself. The Emerging Meanings of Reproductive Cells among
Science, State and Religion”. The special issue, edited by one of the guest
editors of this thematic section (MP), explored the processes of bio-
objectification of reproductive cells in the Italian context. The investiga-
tion of the case of Italy intended to be an interdisciplinary enrichment of

*
    Work published posthumously.
TECNOSCIENZA
Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
9 (1) pp. 5-8- ISSN 2038-3460
www.tecnoscienza.net                                         2018
6                                                          Tecnoscienza – 9 (1)

the STS literature on the study of the relationship between the contempo-
rary politics of life and technoscience. Looking at material and regulatory
dimensions of life-in-itself (Clarke et al. 2010), the contributions shed
light on assemblages of substances and meanings unpacking the connec-
tions between bodily tissues, medical conceptualisations and biopolitical
issues of regulation and governmentality. The special issues examined the
Italian embryo as a prime example of how a bio-object (Vermeulen et al.
2012) is shaped and how such a conceptualization of embryos emerges
from a network of heterogeneous elements and becomes relatively stable.
    This thematic section aims to further investigate these connections,
focusing closely on the ‘ontological shiftings’ in IVF, i.e. “how multiple
translations generate a network able to crystallize biological substances
into a specific shape with a specific array of meanings, producing bio-
objects” (Perrotta 2013, 9). The three essays presented in this thematic
section explore how these ‘shiftings’ are subject to different cultural-
political, socio-economic and legal regimes. Drawing from different per-
spectives, the essays shed light on the co-production of reproductive cells
and what Svendsen and Lock (2008) define “moral landscapes”. In their
work on the construction of “spare embryos” at the IVF–stem cell inter-
face, they use the spatial metaphor of moral landscape to explore the how
professionals negotiate the biological and moral meaning of spare embry-
os in their daily work “through practical organizational relations, regula-
tory frameworks, different notions of responsibility and techno-scientific
objects” (Svendsen and Lock 2008, 95).
    Taken as a whole, the thematic section contributes to deepen the cur-
rent understanding of how local meanings of reproductive cells emerge in
the daily work of IVF labs and beyond (Parry 2006; Ehrich et al. 2008;
Almeling 2011), exploring how they emerge as stabilised bio-objects in
different contexts as well as how the networks of relations – through
which moral landscape are shaped – are co-produced. Based on research
carried out in different countries (Denmark/Germany, China and Argen-
tina), the three essays offer illuminating insights on how biological mate-
rials, such as human reproductive cells, are embedded in these processes
of co-production.
    Mohor’s and Hoyer’s analysis of quality assessments of semen in dif-
ferent contexts (male infertility, sperm donation, and in-vitro sperm) un-
packs the entanglement of quality measurements with social values and
reproductive visions, showing how both the evaluative processes and the
emerging meanings of semen itself are situated in different practices and
moral landscapes. Quality assessments of semen rely on approximations
rather than objective standardised criteria and semen quality is far from
being inherent to semen itself. The flexibility embedded in the quality as-
sessments allows professionals to use them as socio-technical tools able to
support their decision-making processes that are framed into situated so-
cial norms and assumptions about family, kinship, and gender relations.
    Drawing from a different approach, Klein’s investigation of the Chi-
Perrotta, Spilker and Crabu                                                7
nese debate on sperm donation and its evolution in recent years shed light
on the multiple shifting relationships between cultural norms, quality cri-
teria of assessment, family heritage, and deep-rooted sociocultural con-
cerns. The essay shows how a variety of factors, such as the diffusion of
social media platforms and social-networking practices, the implementa-
tion of the new ‘two-child policy’ and aggressive marketing strategies
adopted by sperm banks played an important role in changing the public
perception of sperm donation in China, thus contributing to reframing it
as a mundane practice.
    Ariza’s analysis of gametes donation in Argentina offers a novel per-
spective to the field, looking at the interplay of potentiality and risks en-
tangled in the biological substances. The essay illustrates how Argentine
conceptualisations of kinship and IVF professionals’ normative ideals
participate in the co-production of gametes as objects of risk. Based on
extensive ethnographic data, the essay explores how the fear of endoga-
my, the loss of biological variation and the risks for donors’ health simul-
taneously emerge in medical discussions and statistical measures used in
the clinics. Ariza’s work highlights how not only gametes as bio-objects
but IVF practices themselves are culturally embedded and entangled in
local networks of political, economic and moral relations.
    Overall, the three essays illustrate local trajectories of the multiple
shifting relationships and their ongoing renegotiations, generating hybrid
assemblages able to objectify biological entities as material and discursive
arrangements that act at the interface among laboratories, clinics and so-
ciety. The analyses of these emerging hybrid assemblages illustrate how
conventions concerning biological “properties” and “qualities” are inter-
twined with social norms and values about family, kinship, and gender re-
lations. Under this perspective, the possibility to be a “re-productive sub-
ject” is a matter of complex socio-technical processes of questioning the
unstable boundaries between “Nature” and “Culture”, as the term “slid-
ing cells” strongly evokes.


Acknowledgements

    In 2012, two of the guest editors, Manuela Perrotta and Kristin Spilk-
er, organised an open panel titled “Designing cells, tissues and bodies:
ontological shifting in the life sciences” at 4S/EASST Conference held in
Copenhagen. Inspired by the positive reception and fruitful discussion
emerged from the panel, Perrotta and Spilker invited the contributors to
submit abstracts for an edited collection. That project never saw the light
as Kristin passed away unexpectedly in 2014. A few years later, due to the
new energy infused by Stefano Crabu, we asked all the original contribu-
tors if they wanted to submit their essays to be published in a thematic
section dedicated to Kristin Spilker’s memory. The essays followed the
regular double-blinded peer review process and those that were finally
8                                                              Tecnoscienza – 9 (1)

accepted are part of this thematic section.
    We are grateful to all the original contributors, the authors who even-
tually submitted their manuscripts, and the anonymous peer reviewers.
We are indebted to Attila Bruni for suggesting “sliding cells” as the title
of the collection. Finally, we thank the Editorial Board of Tecnoscienza
for making this thematic section possible despite its unconventional path.


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