Molecular Politics: Developing American and British Regulatory Policy for Genetic Engineering, 1972-1982 [Paperback]

The promise of genetic engineering in the early 1970s to profoundly reshape the living world activated a variety of social interests in its future promotion and control. With public safety, gene patents, and the future of genetic research at stake, a wide range of interest groups competed for control over this powerful new technology.

In this comparative study of the development of regulatory policy for genetic engineering in the United States and the United Kingdom, Susan Wright analyzes government responses to the struggles among corporations, scientists, universities, trade unions, and public interest groups over regulating this new field. Drawing on archival materials, government records, and interviews with industry executives, politicians, scientists, trade unionists, and others on both sides of the Atlantic,Molecular Politicsprovides a comprehensive account of a crucial set of policy decisions and explores their implications for the political economy of science.

By combining methods from political science and the history of science, Wright advances a provocative interpretation of the evolution of genetic engineering policy and makes a major contribution to science and public policy studies.

List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Exploring the Boundary between Politics and Science
1: Social Interests in Promoting and Controlling Science and Technology
1.1: Expansion of Government Support for Science, 1945 to the Late 1960s: The United States
1.2: Expansion of Government Support for Science, 1945 to the Late 1960s: The United Kingdom
1.3: Reassessing Science and Technology, 1965-1975
1.4: Deregulation and Selective Growth: 1970s and 1980s
1.5: The Shaping of American and British Science Policy
2: The Social Transformation of Recombinant DNA Technology, 1972-1982
2.1: Anticipations of Genetic Engineering, 1952-1970
2.2: The First Gene-Splicing Experiments, lc;