Enacting Ontologies, Failure and Time

Abstract

In Chapter 1 we made a case for understanding synthetic biology, as we put it, ‘in situ’. By this we meant that what the field is, how people try to do synthetic biology and with what consequences are importantly shaped by the situation in which it is enacted. We highlighted some sensitising themes on every day practices, promises and ontology, arguing that by understanding synthetic biology at the level of everyday practices we might be better equipped to moderate the bold promises made by the field’s core proponents, and to see more clearly how ontologies are reconfigured practically as people try to bring about change.

To read some accounts of synthetic biology, the ability to manipulate life seems restricted only by the imagination.

(Kwok, 2010)