Material Worlds: Intersections of Law, Science, Technology, and Society

Law interacts with society and the material world in various ways, with science and technology increasingly at the heart of these interactions. Contemporary scholarship reveals how interactions of law and science co–produce the worlds we live in, and the hidden ways in which law operates.

Material Worlds: Intersections of Law, Science, Technology, and Society highlights the growing body of research showing current directions of the engagement between Socio–legal Studies (SLS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS). The book s empirical studies help us understand how law and technology shape crucial contemporary experiences climate change, crime detection, biomedical technology, genetics, and more.

The intersection between law and materiality is a particularly fruitful meeting–point, and this study of the existing and future research across these disciplines will lead to a better understanding of both.

Introduction: Material Worlds: Intersections of Law, Science, Technology, and Society (Alex Faulkner, Bettina Lange and Christopher Lawless)

1. The Pragmatic Sanction of Materials: Notes for an Ethnography of Legal Substances (Javier Lezaun)

2. The Regulation of Nicotine in the United Kingdom: How Nicotine Gum Came to Be a Medicine, but Not a Drug (Catriona Rooke, Emilie Cloatre and Robert Dingwall)

3. The Donor–conceived Child′s Right to Personal Identity : The Public Debate on Donor Anonymity in the United Kingdom (Ilke Turkmendag)

4. A Socio–legal Analysis of an Actor–world: The Case of Carbon Trading and the Clean Development Mechanism (Emilie Cloatre and Nick Wright)

5. Nanotechnology and the Products of Inherited Regulation (Elen Stokes)

6. The Emergence of Biobanks in the Legal Landscape: Towards a New Model of Governance (Emmanuelle Rial–Sebbag and Anne Cambon–Thomsen)

7. The Legal Landscape for Advanced Therapies: Material and Institutional Implementation of European Union Rules in France and the United Kingdom (Aurélie Mahalatchimy, Emmanuelle Rial–Sebbag, Virginie Tournay and Alex Faulkner)

8. Bodies of Science and Law: Forensic DNA Profiling, Biological Bodies, and Biopower (Victor Toom)

9. The Materiality of What? (Alain Pottage)

Alex Faulkner is a sociologist of biomedicine, medical technology and healthcare. He has published extensively on innovation and regulation of new medical technologies and is currently studying the governance of adoption of innovative medical technologies in healthcare systems.