Domesticating and democratizing science

A geography of do-it-yourself biology

Bibliographic Data

ID2391013
AuthorsMorgan Meyer (0000-0003-4006-9347, Ecole des Mines de Paris – ParisTech, France, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume18
Issue2
Pages117-134
Publication date2013-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Material Culture (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1359-1835 • E-ISSN: 1460-3586
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/1359183513483912
OpenAlexW2103226658
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited32

By turning private homes and community spaces into sites where biological experimentation can be carried out, do-it-yourself biology promises a democratization of science. This democratization is based upon material processes: efforts to increase the affordability, accessibility and mutability of scientific equipment can be observed. In particular, do-it-yourself biology relies on 'creative workarounds' around objects (to transform and combine them in novel ways) and institutions (to circumvent established university-industry business linkages). By tinkering with objects and sharing knowledge via various communicative devices - websites, blogs, wikis, forums, videos - do-it-yourself biologists aim to create a new, collective and open economy of scientific equipment and render biology more accessible to citizens. A distinct form of individuality is constituted by providing people with access, transforming them into active makers of science, making their bodies/ailments more knowable and demonstrating that one can do it oneself. Do-it-yourself biology thus offers a site for exploring the ethics, boundaries and new forms of sociability for biology

Democracy · Democratization · Engineering ethics · Political science · Sociology · Workaround · Computer Science · Engineering · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law

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