Synopses & Reviews
"Much more than a book about animal welfare, it explores how the scientific questions and answers would be different if biology operated from a paradigm of respect for the objects of study. Thirteen contributions are arranged in four distinct sections; individual topics vary extensively but each is first-rate." --Choice
"Ruth Hubbard and Lynda Birke have asked an important question: how would the practices of biology change if organisms were considered subjects with agency? They have gathered an array of excellent scholars and a broad spectrum of perspectives.... this is a fresh and important question." --Londa Schiebinger
Essays explore how the practice of biology could change if scientists treated the organisms they use in their experiments respectfully: what it means to raise animals or plants as experimental resources; what guides decisions about which animals to breed for experimental purposes.
Review
In many ways an exploration of human-other boundaries, Reinventing Biology explores the paradox of animals being similar enough to humans to serve as models but different enough to justify using and killing them. Much more than a book about animal welfare, it explores how the scientific questions and answers would be different if biology operated from a paradigm of respect for the objects of study. Thirteen contributions are arranged in four distinct sections; individual topics vary extensively but each is first-rate. The consequences of the distancing of objectivity are explored in the first section. The biographical accounts in the second section provide a refreshing contrast to much scientific writing and encourage readers to explore their own relationships to other organisms. The practice of biology is reviewed with authors asking what is really learned from some research, and is the knowledge worth the pain and suffering. The last section explores how boundaries between humans and others are being breached. A welcome addition to the literature critiquing science and an excellent resource for courses on the conceptual framework of science or objectivity in science. All levels.G. E. Stratton, Rhodes College, 1996mar CHOICE. Indiana University Press Indiana University Press Indiana University Press
About the Author
LYNDA BIRKE a biologist at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Warwick, is the author of Women, Feminism and Biology: The Feminist Challenge and Feminism, Animals and Science: The Naming of the Shrew. RUTH HUBBARD is Professor Emerita of Biology at Harvard University. Her most recent books are The Politics of Women's Biology, Exploding the Gene Myth (co-authored with Elijah Wald) and Profitable Promises: Essays on Women, Science and Health.
Table of Contents
Introduction--Lynda Birke and Ruth Hubbard
Part I: Exploitation of the "Other"
Introduction--Lynda Birke and Ruth Hubbard
1. Learning From the New Priesthood and the Shrieking Sisterhood: Debating the Life Sciences in Victorian England--Hilary Rose
2. "The Rat Couldn't Speak, But We Can:" Inhumanity in Occupational Health Research--Karen Messing and Donna Mergler
3. Democratizing Biology--Vandana Shiva
Part II: Personal Accounts
Introduction--Lynda Birke and Ruth Hubbard
4. On Keeping a Respectful Distance--Lynda Birke
5. The Logos of Life--Ruth Hubbard
6. More Than the Sum of Our Parts--Betty J. Wall
Part III: Theorizing and Practice of Biology
Introduction--Ruth Hubbard and Lynda Birke
7. Nature Is the Human Heart Made Tangible--Anne Fausto-Sterling
8. The Liberation of the Female Rodent--Marianne van den Wijngaard
9. They Are Only Animals--Lesley J. Rogers
10. Revolutionary Theory: Reinventing Our Origin Myths--Judith C. Masters
Part IV: Border Crossings: Human/Animal, Live/Inanimate
Introduction--Ruth Hubbard and Lynda Birke
11. Carnal Boundaries: The Commingling of Flesh in Theory and Practice--Stuart A. Newman
12. The Nazi Treatment of Animals and People--Arnold Arluke and Boria Sax
13. Working Across the Human-Other Divide--Emily martin
Envoi--Ruth Hubbard and Lynda Birke
About the Authors