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The visual politics of animals in bioscience – earmice in the public sphere
Author(s) -
Brown Nik
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
xenotransplantation
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.052
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1399-3089
pISSN - 0908-665X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-3089.2006.00352_2.x
Subject(s) - politics , publics , focus group , public sphere , sociology , public awareness of science , focus (optics) , social science , environmental ethics , political science , anthropology , law , science communication , pedagogy , philosophy , physics , optics , science education
This paper reports on a UK social science and anthropological study into the debates surrounding xenotransplantation (XT), involving interviews and focus group discussions across a number of different stakeholders (scientists, regulators and publics – including patient groups and other lay participants). In these discussions, one image in particular – that of ‘earmouse’– surfaced repeatedly in consideration of XT and allied areas of bioscience. Whilst the image itself has little technically in common with XT or transgenic biotechnologies, it has nevertheless become ineradicably connected with them. This paper seeks to make sense of earmouse as an iconic reference through which people articulate their differing and highly contested views on bioscience.