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Setting the agenda for social science research on the human microbiome

Author

Listed:
  • Beth Greenhough

    (University of Oxford)

  • Cressida Jervis Read

    (University of Oxford)

  • Jamie Lorimer

    (University of Oxford)

  • Javier Lezaun

    (University of Oxford)

  • Carmen McLeod

    (University of Nottingham
    Newcastle University)

  • Amber Benezra

    (Stevens Institute of Technology)

  • Sally Bloomfield

    (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  • Tim Brown

    (Queen Mary University of London)

  • Megan Clinch

    (Queen Mary University of London)

  • Fulvio D’Acquisto

    (University of Roehampton)

  • Anna Dumitriu

    (Brighton and Sussex Medical School)

  • Joshua Evans

    (University of Oxford)

  • Nicola Fawcett

    (University of Oxford)

  • Nicolas Fortané

    (INRA, Paris-Dauphine University)

  • Lindsay J. Hall

    (Quadram Institute Bioscience)

  • César E. Giraldo Herrera

    (Leibniz-Centre for Tropical Marine Research)

  • Timothy Hodgetts

    (University of Oxford)

  • Katerina Vicky-Ann Johnson

    (University of Oxford)

  • Claas Kirchhelle

    (University of Oxford)

  • Anna Krzywoszynska

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Helen Lambert

    (University of Bristol)

  • Tanya Monaghan

    (University of Nottingham)

  • Alex Nading

    (Brown University)

  • Brigitte Nerlich

    (University of Nottingham)

  • Andrew C. Singer

    (UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology)

  • Erika Szymanski

    (Colorado State University)

  • Jane Wills

    (University of Exeter)

Abstract

The human microbiome is an important emergent area of cross, multi and transdisciplinary study. The complexity of this topic leads to conflicting narratives and regulatory challenges. It raises questions about the benefits of its commercialisation and drives debates about alternative models for engaging with its publics, patients and other potential beneficiaries. The social sciences and the humanities have begun to explore the microbiome as an object of empirical study and as an opportunity for theoretical innovation. They can play an important role in facilitating the development of research that is socially relevant, that incorporates cultural norms and expectations around microbes and that investigates how social and biological lives intersect. This is a propitious moment to establish lines of collaboration in the study of the microbiome that incorporate the concerns and capabilities of the social sciences and the humanities together with those of the natural sciences and relevant stakeholders outside academia. This paper presents an agenda for the engagement of the social sciences with microbiome research and its implications for public policy and social change. Our methods were informed by existing multidisciplinary science-policy agenda-setting exercises. We recruited 36 academics and stakeholders and asked them to produce a list of important questions about the microbiome that were in need of further social science research. We refined this initial list into an agenda of 32 questions and organised them into eight themes that both complement and extend existing research trajectories. This agenda was further developed through a structured workshop where 21 of our participants refined the agenda and reflected on the challenges and the limitations of the exercise itself. The agenda identifies the need for research that addresses the implications of the human microbiome for human health, public health, public and private sector research and notions of self and identity. It also suggests new lines of research sensitive to the complexity and heterogeneity of human–microbiome relations, and how these intersect with questions of environmental governance, social and spatial inequality and public engagement with science.

Suggested Citation

  • Beth Greenhough & Cressida Jervis Read & Jamie Lorimer & Javier Lezaun & Carmen McLeod & Amber Benezra & Sally Bloomfield & Tim Brown & Megan Clinch & Fulvio D’Acquisto & Anna Dumitriu & Joshua Evans , 2020. "Setting the agenda for social science research on the human microbiome," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:6:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-0388-5
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-0388-5
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebekah R. Brown & Ana Deletic & Tony H. F. Wong, 2015. "Interdisciplinarity: How to catalyse collaboration," Nature, Nature, vol. 525(7569), pages 315-317, September.
    2. Beth Greenhough & Andrew Dwyer & Richard Grenyer & Timothy Hodgetts & Carmen McLeod & Jamie Lorimer, 2018. "Unsettling antibiosis: how might interdisciplinary researchers generate a feeling for the microbiome and to what effect?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 4(1), pages 1-12, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carol Morris & Minna Kaljonen & Kadri Aavik & Bálint Balázs & Matthew Cole & Ben Coles & Sophia Efstathiou & Tracey Fallon & Mike Foden & Eva Haifa Giraud & Mike Goodman & Eleanor Hadley Kershaw & Ric, 2021. "Priorities for social science and humanities research on the challenges of moving beyond animal-based food systems," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Bradshaw, Aaron, 2023. "The invisible city: The unglamorous biogeographies of urban microbial ecologies," SocArXiv drcuw, Center for Open Science.
    3. Abigail Nieves Delgado & Jan Baedke, 2021. "Does the human microbiome tell us something about race?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-12, December.

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