10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17102
application/pdf
2038-3460
17102
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en
Federico Neresini
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Helga Nowotny and Giuseppe Testa, Naked Genes: Reinventing the Human in the Molecular Age, The MIT Press, 2011
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
4
Book Reviews
2013-07-12
2023-06-02
2013-07-12
2023-07-17
205-207
TS
Federico Neresini
2013/07/12
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17102
205
University of Padova
2038-3460
1
en
207
Helga Nowotny and Giuseppe Testa, Naked Genes: Reinventing the Human in the Molecular Age, The MIT Press, 2011
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17102/16038
4
Book Review                                                              205
South American country. In particular, it has been noted how the State
and the public institutions have taken very different roles, depending on
the different historical periods. This discontinuous evolutionary trajectory
seems to have led to what the authors identify as the main unresolved
problems in the country: the continuing phenomenon in wide areas of the
nation of low degrees of integration between public services and private
structures, which tends to exclude a large part of the population of Ar-
gentina from access to health services.
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Helga Nowotny and Giuseppe Testa
Naked Genes: Reinventing the Human in the Molecular Age
Cambridge, MA, The MIT Press, 2011, pp. 152
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Federico Neresini, University of Padova
    This book – originally published in German in 2009 – is a good book
for many reasons, but one of them prevails over all the others: it was writ-
ten really together by two different authors, a crucial aspect for assessing
the quality of the book, not so much in terms of style as in terms of con-
tent. There are obviously many other books written by two authors, but
this one is a real novelty as the authors belong to two different fields of
study, which are often, and wrongly, contrasting. It is also true that books
co-written by authors coming from two different disciplinary fields are
not so uncommon; however, those in which the two authors do not simp-
ly apply their own individual knowledge or offer the reader a mere juxta-
position of their points of view, and instead create a text that is the genu-
ine result of amalgamation and harmonization free from compromise,
that is a real rarity. And such is the case of this book.
    Helga Nowotny, in fact, is one of the best examples of what happens
when Science and Technology Studies (STS) take science seriously;
Giuseppe Testa, on the other hand, belongs to the much smaller group of
scientists that take STS seriously, considering them worthy of attention
without superficially dismissing them with the accusation of being relativ-
ist and without unreasonably snubbing them as enemies of science. As
Latour noted, to claim that STS scholars are against science would be the
same as calling “biologists anti-life, astronomers anti-stars, immunologists
anti-antibodies” (1999, 2).
    STS being taken seriously by a scientist produces, among other things,
a balancing effect that we are not used to, since STS are becoming an
“object” of study the same way that science is an “object” of study for
206                                                           Tecnoscienza - 4(1)

STS. This is perhaps the only possibility to realize in a balanced manner
the same principle of symmetry once introduced by Bloor: the sociology
of scientific knowledge would be reflexive and “its patterns of explana-
tion would have to be applicable to sociology itself” (1976, 7). This prin-
ciple was often abandoned, as it appeared inconsistent and therefore in-
applicable, causing STS to fall into an endless relativistic spiral. This spi-
ral was interrupted, however, when a scientist and an STS scholar made
the field of research of the other their own “object” of study, reaching a
synthesis that surpasses them both. For this reason, Naked Genes may not
entirely convince neither scientists nor STS scholars, but the book opens
up the possibility for a genuine middle ground, precisely because it leaves
both sides not completely satisfied.
     So what is this book about?
     The central theme of the book is biomedical innovation, and focuses
on recording the coexistence of transition and continuity, with a strong
emphasis on the latter to support the view – not always explicitly declared
by the authors - that wishes to counterbalance the excessive emphasis
usually given to transition when describing and discussing biomedical in-
novation. Some passages are enlightening in this regard, for example
when it is stated that “the synthetic design of life orients itself toward the
social design of society” (p. 83), or when it is pointed out that “the scien-
tific superorganism that is composed of worldwide consortium, networks,
companies, and universities with their private and public modes of fi-
nancing, management, and governance has become astonishingly similar
to the object of investigation – genetic organization” (p. 104).
     The continuous cross-reference between transition and continuity in
the process of innovation is persistently expressed in two dimensions: the
temporal dimension (before/after), and the synchronic dimension
(part/whole).
     Biomedical innovation is, therefore, the guiding principle used by
Nowotny and Testa to develop seven themes:
     (a) the most important feature of molecular life sciences is that “they
make things visible that could not previously be seen”(p. 1 ); (b) the “ge-
neticization” of achievement; (c) the relationship between identity, prop-
erty and affiliation; (d) the social integration of new forms of life analysed
in the context of discussions on innovation, risks and values; (e) the con-
tribution to the stabilization of social order through the standardization
processes that accompany the introduction of both material and social
technology; (f) the relationship between standards created by scientific
research and moral standards.
     The seventh theme - “the conviction that we stand before an epochal
breakthrough with revolutionary possibilities is nothing new. It accompa-
nies every technological vision” (p. 103) – represents, lastly, the applica-
tion of the central theme to the common belief that regards innovation as
an epochal transition.
     The overall argument of the book is developed by combining and ex-
Book Review                                                                207
panding on the standardization processes from various points of view,
processes that are an integral part of innovation and, as is well-known, a
crucial element of STS.
    It is also worth mentioning the special attention given to social tech-
nologies of standardization, such as law, governance and bioethics, espe-
cially when the authors argue that their success in stabilizing social order
“is based mostly on a relatively successful standardization. It distances
itself from pinning common goals and instead creates procedures that
permit advances on many different paths” (p. 82).
    This reflection offered by Nowotny and Testa is full of meaningful
passages like those cited above and many other interesting ideas that
make it a dense and stimulating reading, even for non-specialized audi-
ences. Another merit not to be underestimated.

References
Bloor, D. (1976) Knowledge and Social Imagery, London and Chicago, The Uni-
   versity of Chicago Press.
Latour, B. (1999) Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, Cambridge, MA, Har-
   vard University Press.
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Cécile Méadel
Quantifier le public. Histoire des mesures d’audience de la radio et de la
television [Quantify the public. History of audience measures of ra-
dio and television]
Paris, Economica, 2010, pp. 283
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Paola Pallavicini, University of Torino
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    The French scholar Cécile Mèadel presents in this volume a first in-
terpretative synthesis of over twenty years research work on the history of
audience measurement in the French broadcasting system. Precious for
many aspects, this study represents in some way the missing link between
media studies and socio-technical studies, and a very useful key for media
researchers to access the field of techno-science.
    Méadel defines the audience measurement in the broadcasting field as
a typical example of performative device (“object techniques per-
formatif”). While this may appear as a normal statement in the young
field of socio-technical studies, such is not in the field of media and
communication studies, which founded their own theoretical apparatus
