Stem cell researchers labor in unpredictable circumstances, beset by uncertainties allied to the study of cellular signaling behaviors. STS research, based primarily on the work of Star, has demonstrated that medical scientists often approach these vicissitudes using a type of phronesis that aims to better qualify the causes of experimental ambiguities, while also identifying optimistic reference points to help guide future research. Knowledge of this type of phronesis is extended by this article, which examines the composition of the three most (...) popular citations allied to the regenerative cellular biology/human-induced pluripotent stem cells literature. When analyzed, these papers afford evidence that the adducement of positive signals begins with sorting and categorizing. This article finds that, when representing the outcomes of this cataloging for peer-review consumption, the authors concerned predicated their observations in a perspicacious rhetoric, which serves to reinforce positive-leaning ascriptions by couching them in images of virtue, fortitude, and due diligence. The research findings presented herewith suggest that adducements of this kind may be anchored in a representational practice that could be described as “modal splicing.” This article contributes to the STS literature by observing connections between modal splicing, perspicacious representation, and knowledge affirmations in hiPSC contexts. (shrink)

Welcome to the first launch issue of Subjectivity, previously the International Journal of Critical Psychology. Subjectivity is an international, transdisciplinary journal that will explore the social, cultural, historical and material processes, dynamics and structures of human experience. As topic, problem and resource, notions of subjectivity are relevant to many disciplines, including cultural studies, sociology, social theory, science and technology studies, geography, anthropology, gender and feminist studies and psychology. The journal will bring together scholars from across the social sciences and the (...) humanities in a collaborative project to identify the processes by which subjectivities are produced, explore subjectivity as a locus of social change, and examine how emerging subjectivities remake our social worlds. Our aim, then, is a re-prioritization of subjectivity as a primary category of social, cultural, psychological, historical and political analysis. (shrink)

The new prominence given to science for economic growth and industry comes with an increased policy focus on the promotion of commodification and commercialization of academic science. This paper posits that this increased interest in commodification is a new steering mechanism for governing science. This is achieved by first outlining what is meant by the commodification of scientific knowledge through reviewing a selection of literatures on the concept of commodification. The paper concludes with a discussion of how commodification functions as (...) a means for governing science. (shrink)