Spaces and networks of genetic knowledge making: the 'geneticisation' of heart disease.
The 'geneticisation' of health, medicine and the body is extending from single-gene to multi-factorial conditions such as heart disease. Adopting 'Actor Network Theory', the paper argues that the making of genetic knowledge occurs in spaces and networks where contested knowledges necessarily produce a geneticisation that is neither certain nor complete. Drawing on empirical research in a coronary care unit in Glasgow, Scotland, the paper sets out the network of consultants, rehabilitation nurses and people with heart disease and others who collectively, through contestation and the marshalling of knowledges by prominent social actors, produce an understanding of the role of genes in heart disease.
Hall
Edward
E
School of Social Sciences, Media and Communication, Queen Margaret University College, Clerwood Terrace, Edinburgh EH12 8TS, UK. ehall@qmuc.ac.uk
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003325:Coronary Care Units; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005843:Geography; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital; D010348:Patient Care Team; D019145:Rehabilitation Nursing; D012606:Scotland