10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17178
application/pdf
2038-3460
17178
1
en
Kate Bulpin
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett, Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology, The University of Chicago Press, 2012
Text.Serial.Journal
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/
5
Book Reviews
2014-07-14
2023-06-13
2014-07-14
2023-07-24
210-213
TS
Kate Bulpin
2014/07/14
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/17178
210
University of Sheffield
2038-3460
1
en
213
Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett, Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology, The University of Chicago Press, 2012
https://tecnoscienza.unibo.it/article/download/17178/16080
5
210                                                                   Tecnoscienza 5 (1)

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von Schomberg, R. (2010) Introduction , in von Schomberg, R. and Davies, S.
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       ing Public Policy, European Commission, Brussels, pp. 5-12.
Rip, A., Misa, T.J. and Schot, J. (eds.) (1995) Managing technology in society. The
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Tallacchini, M. (2010) I saperi specialistici tra science advice e soft law: technology
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       “Minerva”, 47 (3), pp. 281-306.



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Paul Rabinow and Gaymon Bennett
Designing Human Practices: An Experiment with Synthetic Biology
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012, pp. 200

Andrew S. Balmer University of Manchester
Kate Bulpin University of Sheffield

    Rabinow and Bennett’s book addresses their experiments in what they
term the design of human practices, which they conducted whilst work-
ing within the Synthetic Biology Engineering Research Centre (SynBERC)
in the USA. Their work sits alongside a number of other projects interna-
tionally that have sought to develop new forms of collaboration between
the natural, engineering and social sciences in the context of synthetic bi-
ology. They outline the phases through which their experiments in col-
laboration proceeded, describing their conceptual and methodological
approach and reflecting on the various factors that eventually contributed
to what appears to have been a rather acrimonious end to the collabora-
tion and parting of ways.
    The book has so far proven controversial in some communities, par-
ticularly perhaps within the synthetic biology community itself. Some in
this field have characterised it as an intractable and intentionally abstruse
description of the events that took place at SynBERC whereas others have
labelled it an undignified airing of dirty laundry. For our part, being ad-
mirers of conceptual developments in human practices so far, we find
ourselves wishing the book could update itself as its own reception un-
folded, further detailing the ways in which the struggle to develop new
Book Reviews                                                              211
forms of collaboration continues today. But alas not.
    Before describing some of the book’s merits let us first make two
comments on why it has been branded obscurantist by some. It is a book
that poses a number of challenges for the reader. First, it is misleadingly
slim, suggesting if not a light then at least a swift read. Not so. Certainly,
the text is broken down into short sections and sensibly organised ac-
cording to the various transitions in experimentation and subsequent re-
orientations through which human practices at SynBERC developed.
However, it is a conceptually rich and often complex work, so that peri-
odically the reader must juggle not only a detailed knowledge of this par-
ticular case but also a number of rather difficult and multifaceted terms,
drawn from various canonical thinkers, and here uniquely deployed
alongside and reflected through each other. Second, and relatedly, to ac-
cess the significant theoretical and methodological riches that this book
has to offer, it is necessary for the reader to be familiar/well-versed with
the works that precede, contextualise and inform it, in addition to the
numerous working papers produced during the lifespan of the SynBERC
collaboration. So the volume perhaps assumes too much of those readers
who might approach chiefly out of interest in the development and impli-
cations of synthetic biology. Indeed this is, if anything, a book that laughs
in the face of ‘implications’, scorns the language of ‘downstream engage-
ment’ and simply will not tolerate anything that looks even vaguely like
‘consequences’. Whilst it is clear that the authors have sought to make
this a lighter read than some of their working papers and have tried to
explicate the conceptual framework in as transparent a fashion as possi-
ble, they still struggle to chart a navigable course between their own un-
derstanding and that of a multidisciplinary and sometimes uncharitable
audience. Moreover, as has already been lamented (quite rightly) by crit-
ics from STS dispositions, Rabinow and Bennett ignore much of the work
that has been conducted in STS on the issues with which they deal, and
are perhaps themselves guilty of an uncharitable reading of the literature.
A more hospitable relationship with the STS tradition and contemporary
developments might have helped to open a dialogue with a broader audi-
ence. Putting that issue aside, however, their findings and analysis re-
mains of interest to those of us who are engaged in the study of scientific
innovation and particularly those interested in collaboration.
    So now on to some of the virtues. Presenting their research as a series
of experiments is a fair description of what Rabinow and Bennett’s work
comprised since it undoubtedly involved many of the rhythms and prac-
tices that we take to be constitutive of experimental work. Moreover,
against the backdrop of the struggles at SynBERC and the still fragile re-
lations being established between humanities and science scholars in syn-
thetic biology, the choice to present the work as experimental has to be
understood as a political statement and as one response to the ongoing
problematization of these relations. The question of what exactly collabo-
ration might be, what it might do and what we might learn from it very
212                                                           Tecnoscienza 5 (1)

much remains open to question. Experimentation with the forms that col-
laborations might take, what they might aspire towards, and how they
might orient themselves to questions of knowledge, technology and ethics
is vital. Such experimentation is exactly what is at the heart of this book
and although it can be conceptually dense it is often a refreshingly practi-
cal and down-to-earth account of people trying to innovate together.
    In pursuing experimental forms of collaboration human practices
work moves away from the more Foucauldian archaeology of the present,
through which the past is interrogated in order to understand the pre-
sent’s contingency. Instead, Rabinow and others associated with the ‘an-
thropology of the contemporary’ have sought to entangle themselves with
the near future. If Foucault examined problematizations (of the self, pun-
ishment, therapy and so forth) from the past to chart the formation of the
present then Rabinow and Bennett have designed their anthropological
enquiry so as to work from within an ongoing problematization.
    Early on in their experimentation Rabinow and Bennett identified
three principles to guide the design of human practices for synthetic biol-
ogy: emergence, flourishing and remediation. Emergence is intended to
capture the ways in which human practices must be attuned to the ongo-
ing problematizations and innovations of synthetic biology from within
the collaborative enterprise, so that it is able to adapt in real-time to on-
going reconfigurations of relations, materials and practices. Flourishing is
a broad approach to ethics, so that the emphasis is not on the ethical con-
sequences of innovations but instead extends throughout the project and
into life more generally. As they say, it should range over: “physical and
spiritual well-being, courage, dignity, friendship, and justice” (p. 42).
Flourishing, in their view, should be both the mode and telos of scientific
and ethical practice. It is clear then, that for these authors the collabora-
tive enterprise is intended to help reflexively to constitute practices that
are organised through these ethical imperatives, so that what happens in a
scientific collaboration should be open to scrutiny as regards justice, dig-
nity and so forth. In attending to these kinds of ethical dimensions in all
levels of scientific work, the knowledge, technologies and styles of gov-
ernance that emerge should help to secure the foundational principles of
human practice in the world more broadly. Ultimately, the ambition for
human practices is nothing short of a significant if not complete recalibra-
tion of the way in which scientists (and social scientists) view themselves
and their work, practice research and work towards the implementation
of industrially-relevant innovations.
    Their attempts to begin such a recalibration were – perhaps predicta-
bly – thwarted. It is here that one of the book’s most engaging contribu-
tions emerges. They describe how discordancy at SynBERC was im-
portantly connected to a mismatch between the ethical equipment that
they wanted to develop in human practices and the adoption of “ethical,
legal and social implications” (or ELSI) by other actors in the research
groups (p. 85-90). That Rabinow and Bennett find the ELSI-paradigm to
Book Reviews                                                             213
be obstinate even in the face of its open refusal should be no surprise to
the readership of Tecnoscienza since it is well documented in the field.
However, the elaboration of the factors involved in ELSI’s obstinacy does
prove for interesting and illuminating reading. They argue that the indi-
vidual dispositions and affects displayed by actors at SynBERC were in-
strumental in sustaining these established modes of equipment but that
these forms of resistance were also deeply embedded in activity at all lev-
els of social organisation. In this regard they connect behaviour at the
everyday individual level (for example, stubbornness and learned inca-
pacity) to group dynamics and practices (the distribution of funding with-
in the research group) and to larger sequences of collective action (the
contestation around ontologies of standards and parts and the National
Science Foundation’s management of the funding). As such, their exper-
iments in human practices draw attention to the significance of mundane
daily micro-interactions in the continuation of more long-lasting struc-
tures of power, research organisation and scientific work and how those
structures inform everyday practice. This reciprocal, co-productive rela-
tion between the general and the specific is familiar territory for anthro-
pologists and sociologists of science. Nonetheless, it is a vitally important
lesson to be learned as we, in Europe and elsewhere, seek to transform
the relations between the natural and social sciences. As such, the book
makes for good reading if given time and a little hospitality.
    It is important to note, in concluding, that the book itself has begun to
play a role in the negotiation, upkeep and closure of collaborations. As
SynBERC has been so central to the ramification of synthetic biology the
(at least partial) failure of the human practices enterprise has had conse-
quences for those of us working to develop such collaborations else-
where. The book, and more acutely Rabinow himself, has come to stand
in for – and is sometimes used in conversation as a shorthand for – a se-
ries of anxieties that natural and engineering scientists feel as regards the
place and purpose of the human sciences in synthetic biology. The book
contains a wealth of information that is of use to those of us confronted
with negotiating relationships in light of such anxieties and will be of in-
terest to many currently engaged in the important work of experimenting
with new ways of working together.


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