Virtual Special Issue

Sociological Perspectives on Genetics, Genomics and ‘Post-Genomics’
Editorial by Richard Tutton and Nina Hallowell

We have become accustomed to sociologists and others speaking about the social significance of research on the human genome. Yet, it is only since the early 1990s that authors writing for Sociology of Health and Illness have addressed what they see as the many questions that arise from advances in genetics for patients, medical professionals, publics and politics. Arguably, sociological interest in genetics coincided with the development of the Human Genome Project, which, it was claimed, would transform our understanding of health and the practice of medicine. In 1999, Peter Conrad and Jonathan Gabe edited a special issue of this journal, Sociological Perspectives on the New Genetics, and began by observing that the ‘sociological study of genetics is still in its infancy’ (Conrad and Gabe 1999: 510). In the ten years since they wrote these words, many sociological studies of the impact of genetics/genomics upon our lives have been undertaken and we thought it was an opportune moment to take stock of what medical sociologists and those with cognate interests have contributed to the social scientific understandings of human genetics research, services and technologies. The virtual special issue format provides us with chance to reflect upon the research that has been published in SHI over the last decade and a half.

Read the full editorial

List of articles appearing in the Virtual Special Issue

Brown, P., Zavestoski, S.M., McCormick, S., Mandelbaum, J. and Luebke, T. (2001) Print media coverage of environmental causation of breast cancer, Sociology of Health and Illness, 23, 6, 747-775.

Busby, H. (2006) Biobanks, bioethics and concepts of donated blood in the UK, Sociology of Health and Illness, 28, 6, 850-865.

Conrad, P. (1999) A mirage of genes, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 2, 228-241.

Conrad, P. and Gabe, J. (1999) Sociological perspectives on the new genetics: an overview, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 505-516.

Cox, S.M. and McKellin, W. (1999) 'There's this thing in our family': predictive testing and the construction of risk for Huntington Disease, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 622-646.

Cunningham-Burley, S. and Kerr A. (1999) Defining the 'social': towards an understanding of scientific and medical discourses on the social aspects of the new human genetics, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 647-668.

Davison, C., Macintyre, S. and Davey Smith, G. (1994) The potential social impact of predictive genetic testing for susceptibility to common chronic diseases: a review and proposed research agenda, Sociology of Health and Illness, 16, 3, 340-371.

Ettorre, E. (1999) Experts as 'storytellers' in reproductive genetics: exploring key issues, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 539-559.

Hallowell, N. (1999) Doing the right thing: genetic risk and responsibility, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 597-621.

Hedgecoe, A. (2003) Expansion and uncertainty: cystic fibrosis, classification and genetics, Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 1, 50-70.

Henderson, L. and Kitzinger, J. (1999) The human drama of genetics: 'hard' and 'soft' media representations of inherited breast cancer, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 560-578.

Hoeyer, K. (2006) The power of ethics: a case study from Sweden on the social life of moral concerns in policy processes, Sociology of Health and Illness, 28, 6, 785-801.

Kenen, R., Ardern-Jones, A. and Eeles, R. (2003) Family stories and the use of heuristics: women from suspected hereditary breast and ovarian cancer (HBOC) families, Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 7, 838-865.

Kerr, A. (2005) Understanding genetic disease in a socio-historical context: a case study of cystic fibrosis, Sociology of Health and Illness, 27, 7, 873-896.

Lehtinen, E. (2005) Information, understanding and the benign order of everyday life in genetic counselling, Sociology of Health and Illness, 27, 5, 575-601.

Lowton, K. and Gabe, J. (2003) Life on a slippery slope: perceptions of health in adults with cystic fibrosis, Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 4, 289-319.

Parsons, E. and Atkinson, P. (1992) Lay constructions of genetic risk, Sociology of Health and Illness, 14, 4, 437-455.

Petersen, A. (2005) Securing our genetic health: engendering trust in UK Biobank, Sociology of Health and Illness, 27, 2, 271-292.

Pilnick, A. (2002) ‘There are no rights and wrongs in these situations’: identifying interactional difficulties in genetic counselling, Sociology of Health and Illness, 24, 1, 66-88.

Prior, L. (2001) Rationing through risk assessment in clinical genetics: all categories have wheels, Sociology of Health and Illness, 23, 5, 570-593.

Richards, M.P.M. (1993) The new genetics - some issues for social-scientists, Sociology of Health and Illness, 15, 5, 567-586.

Smart, A. (2003) Reporting the dawn of the post-genomic era: who wants to live forever? Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 1, 24-49.

Stockdale, A. (1999) Waiting for the cure: mapping the social relations of human gene therapy research, Sociology of Health and Illness, 21, 5, 579-596.

Weiner, K. and Martin P. (2008) A genetic future for coronary heart disease? Sociology of Health and Illness, 30, 3, 380-395.

Williams, C., Kitzinger, J. and Henderson, L. (2003) Envisaging the embryo in stem cell research: rhetorical strategies and media reporting of the ethical debates, Sociology of Health and Illness, 25, 7, 793-814.