Bio-objects' political capacity: A research agenda

Abstract

This article explores the merits of foregrounding the dichotomy of politicization vs de-politicization for our understanding of bio-objects in order to study their production,circulation, and governance in European societies.By asking how bio-objects are configured in science, policy, public,and media discourses and practices,we focus on the role ofsocio-technical configurations in generating political relations. The bio-object thereby serves as an entry point to approach and conceptualize"the political"in an innovative way.Drawing from our previous work, which uses the concepts of de-politicization and (re-)politicization, this paper puts forward a research agenda for studying the political relations generated by specific socio-technical configurations of bio-objects.