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The Venetian Forks: Hopes, Fears and Bodies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2006

Arthur W. Frank
Arthur W. Frank
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4 E-mail: frank@ucalgary.ca
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Abstract

A cautionary tale of technological innovation in eleventh-century Venice leads to reflection on human desire for and fear of such change. The story also shows that while individuals make choices about whether to adopt or reject technologies, their choices are social, not personal, in their effects. The vocation of social science is to help people see past both their hopes and fears of biotechnologies; in this way social science can at least deflect the advance of biotechnologies.

Keywords

BioethicsBiotechnologyEliasFiguration
Type
Articles
Information
BioSocieties , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 37 - 40
Copyright
London School of Economics and Political Science

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