O laboratório em rede: fabricando transgênicos, construindo a sociedade

Abstract

Genetic Modified Organisms (GMOs) are still a big issue in the country. In this article, we analyze laboratory practices that take place in the making of a GMO. We focus on three, a laboratory of plant genetics and two laboratories of biotechnology. They are all located in Rio Grande do Sul and are described and analyzed throughout the articulation between their physical surroundings and functionality. This type of articulation allows the sociologist to apprehend the passages in between the making of GMOs and society. We have conducted ethnographic observations and some interviews, through which is possible to describe how the laboratory carries the transgenic all over society. In the end, laboratories make the social a procedure. We analyze how this modus operandi attaches itself to the emergence of controversies surrounding this issue determining science's reach in the social realm.

Keywords

• transgenic crops
• laboratory ethnography
• procedures
• controversies