Synopses & Reviews
The public image of genetics research has undergone a remarkable transformation since the 1950s, from a suspect brand of research tainted by eugenics to a thriving, well-funded, and "popular" field of biomedicine. Still, despite enormous scientific advances in DNA technology and its ability to sustain large areas of the science industry, social, legal, and popular opinion about genetics remains highly ambivalent.
In Imagenation, historian of science Jose Van Dijck examines the role of images and imagination in popular representations fo the new genetics since the late 1950s. Taking us through a vast range of media--from general interest magazines to science fiction to public relations materials--he demonstrates how popular representations of genetics do not simply reflect the advancement of genetic technology. Instead, cultural accounts of genetics are taking on an important role in the very structure of scientific thinking, with many groups--environmentalists, feminists, entrepreneurs--influencing this process.
From news stories of DNA strings escaping from our laboratories to the ongoing debates over bioethics, from James Watson and The Double Helix to the Human Genome Project, Van Dijck Portrays the "imaginary" tools of genetics as players in a theater of representation--a multilayered contest in which special interest groups and professional organizations mobilize images in a heated debate over the meaning of genetics. Compelling and insightful, Imagenation unravels this phenomenon, revealing how ideology shapes the cultural forms through which we make sense of scientific progress.
Synopsis
The debate over race in this country has of late converged on the contentious issue of affirmative action. Although the Supreme Court once supported the concept of racial affirmative action, in recent years a majority of the Court has consistently opposed various affirmative action programs.
The Law of Affirmative Action provides a comprehensive chronicle of the evolution of the Supreme Court's involvement with the racial affirmative action issue over the last quarter century. Starting with the 1974 DeFunis v. Odegaard decision and the 1978 Bakke decision, which marked the beginnings of the Court's entanglement with affirmative action, Girardeau Spann examines every major Supreme Court affirmative action decision, showing how the controversy the Court initially left unresolved in DeFunis has persisted through the Court's 1998-99 term.
Including nearly thirty principal cases, covering equal protection, voting rights, Title VII, and education, The Law of Affirmative Action is the only work to treat the Court decisions on racial affirmative action so closely, tracing the votes of each justice who has participated in the decisions. Indispensable for students and scholars, this timely volume elucidates reasons for the 180 degree turn in opinion on an issue so central to the debate on race in America today.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-298) and index.
About the Author
Girardeau Spann is Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center. He is author of Race Against the Court: The Supreme Court and Minorities in Contemporary America (also available from NYU Press).
Table of Contents
1. Affirmative action -- 2. The early cases -- 3. The majority opinions -- 4. The voting rights cases -- 5. The law of affirmative action.