Social Studies of Nanopharmaceutical Research

Abstract

With the emergence of nanoscience and nanotechnology, science and technology studies (STS) and ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI) accounts have discussed in detail the ethical and social issues of “nano” as well as the importance of public understanding and engagement with science and technology. It is argued that “ethical considerations are the foundations of healthy progress, and must be openly participatory in their undertaking". Social studies of nanopharmacy also suggest that the way we imagine and talk about research issues and objects has a significant impact on how nanomedicines are produced as well as how health and illness is understood. Current studies of nanopharmacy underline that the prevailing idea of the “magic bullet” and the related “culture of promise” of nanopharmacy and nanomedicine mirror “the engineering values of control, precision, efficiency, and surveillance” which are dominantly framed in terms of military metaphors.