Books in the Cambridge Studies in Society and the Life Sciences series

Celia Roberts develops new tools to analyse multiple ways in which hormones have come to matter to us in contemporary society. She addresses one of the most important questions facing feminism today: how is biological sex conceived? This book combines feminist theories of the body with science and technology studies.

The Human Genome Diversity Project was an important and controversial programme of research arising from debates surrounding the mapping of the human genome. This book is based on an ethnography of laboratory practice and explores issues around standardization, naturalisation and diversity.

This book explores how new techniques in genetic testing have changed the relationship between ethics and medicine. Drawing on research with families affected by Huntington's Disease, the author highlights the disparity between actually living with the results of genetic testing and the public debates around genetic testing and medicine.

Applies a social science perspective to exploring issues arising in clinical practice as a result of drug development linked to genetic testing. These include the social context within which new drugs are trialled, attitudes of the clinicians asked to administer them, expectations of clinicians and patients and associated ethical issues.

Lakoff presents an arresting case-study highlighting the social and political implications of a new 'pharmaceutical' way of thinking about and acting upon human behaviour and human thought. Drawing from a comprehensive ethnography of psychiatric practice in Argentina, this will appeal beyond psychiatry and the life sciences.