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In recent years, new areas of biology, especially epigenetics and neuroscience, have enthralled the public imagination. They have been used as powerful arguments for developing social policy in a particular direction, from early intervention in the lives of disadvantaged children to seeking 'biomarkers' as identifiers of criminality.
This timely book, written by leading commentators, critically examines the capabilities and limitations of these biotechnologies, exploring their implications for policy and practice.
The book will enable social scientists, policy makers, practitioners and interested general readers to understand how the new biologies of epigenetics and neuroscience have increasingly influenced the fields of family policy, mental health, child development and criminal justice.
The book will facilitate much needed debate about what makes a good society and how best to build one. It also draws attention to the ways that the uncertainties of the original science are lost in their translation into the everyday world of practice and policy.
David Wastell began his career as a cognitive neuroscientist at Durham University before moving to the Medical School at Manchester, where his interests in technology led him to specialize in Information Systems. He is now Emeritus Professor of Information Systems at Nottingham University.
Sue White is Professor of Social Work at the University of Sheffield. She is a registered social worker with an academic background in sociology and has spent the last two decades researching how professionals use knowledge in their everyday reasoning.
Neuro-bio-social policy;
PART I: GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE THOUGHT STYLES;
Biology and the drive for social improvement;
Understanding how brain science is created and interpreted;
Blaming the Brain;
PART II: FIXING REAL PEOPLE;
The Cat is Out of the Bag - From early intervention to child protection;
Perfecting People: The Inexorable Rise of Prevention Science;
Epigenetics - from rat mum to my mum?;
Human Epigenetics Prematurely Born(e)?;
Are We Broken? Fixing People (or Society) in the 21st Century.