The Web of Science
Social Dynamics of Biomedical Research
By Michel Dubois

July 2009, 224pp, 234 x 156mm
Hardback, £60.00, ISBN 978-1-905622-21-4

GEMAS Studies in Social Analysis
Series Editors:
Mohamed Cherkaoui, Peter Hamilton & Bryan S. Turner

Contemporary biomedical research is as great an issue for concern in the scientific community as it is for the rest of society. It poses key questions not merely for science and medicine, but through its economic, legal, ethical, and even philosophical ramifications.

In this new book on the sociology of stem cell and prion disease research, Michel Dubois explores the dynamics of biomedical science through a study of the networks through which scientific collaboration in this domain has developed. One of his aims is to offer an alternative to the overly simplistic view of scientific transformation popularly associated with the idea of 'technoscience'. His study develops an innovative theory directed towards the renewal of the sociology of science, that defines the main principles of a sociological approach based on scientific action and its often unintended consequences.

Michel Dubois is a Research Fellow at GEMAS/CNRS in Paris