An Ethnographic Study of Social Justice Issues in Community Synthetic Biology Labs

University Of California-Davis, Davis CA

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary This project explores public spaces for science that are outside of traditional scientific lab spaces, such as home based and community lab spaces, where amateur scientists gather together to learn and to create. It focuses on public lab spaces that engage in the new field of synthetic biology, which brings engineering principles to the sciences of genetics and recombinant DNA technologies. The investigator will conduct interviews in two community labs, Genspace in New York City and LA Biohackers in Los Angeles. The aim of the study is to understand how diversity and democracy are operative in synthetic biology community lab spaces, and to determine how these values are interpreted through the practice and knowledge frameworks of synthetic biology. The results of this research will have the potential to impact policy debates and decisions about science ethics and public participation. They will help inform future projects that aim to create more democratic sciences both within and beyond the specific field of synthetic biology. Specifically, the PI will use the project and the results generated from it to engage students researchers, faculty and community members in producing socially relevant knowledge about community-based science. Technical Summary The goal of this project is to understand the ethical and epistemological values that underlie the investments of synthetic biologists in community and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects. Synthetic biology is a still nascent field; it is only about a decade old. During this time, it has been the subject of much research and public attention. This attention has focused on concerns about biosafety or questions of whether it is ethical for scientists to synthetically create new life forms. Science studies scholars have begun to work on understanding this emergent technology, its ways of producing knowledge, its return to reductionism and its overlap with DIY communities. However, an analysis of the role of social justice principles in the field has been largely absent. By asking questions about how to make these spaces accessible, by considering who is traditionally kept out of science and by what means, this project would substantially expand the range of scholarship on synthetic biology in providing the first analysis of the field from the standpoint of democratic values. It has the potential to impact the development of these community lab spaces and the principles underlying their development. More broadly, it will add to the fields of ethics, governance studies, science and technology studies, and to the science itself.