Jennifer Hochschild is the Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. She was Chair of Harvard’s Government Department from 2016 to 2019, and President of the American Political Science Association in 2016-2017. In addition to Genomic Politics, (co-authored) books include Do Facts Matter: Information and Misinformation in American Politics (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015), and Creating a New Racial Order: How Immigration, Multiracialism, Genomics, and the Young Can Remake Race in America (Princeton University Press, 2012). Current research addresses race/class intersectionality in four American public policy arenas, COVID conspiracies and misperceptions, and the politics and policies addressing use of genomic science in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany.
Readers who seek a taste of Genomic Politics might want to read chapter 1 (which presents the controversies around each case and the typology for understanding the controversies) and chapter 8 (which explores experts’ and the lay public’s views about who ought to make and who should not make genomics decisions, and why).Readers might next read chapter 9, which lays out several plausible futures about how the tension between risk acceptance and risk aversion, and the orthogonal tension between promoting and rejecting use of genomics in policy and personal decisions, could play out in governmental decision-making. Chapter 9 also lifts the veil over my own views.Finally, if readers really want , chapters 4 and 5 present the four stances (Enthusiasm, Skepticism, Hope, and Rejection) for each of the three genomics cases.I hope readers take away three messages. First, as I noted at the beginning of these comments, humans are just beginning to learn about and come to grips with the potentially vast impact of biological science that is yet to come in this century. Biology may shape everything from climate change to the survival of species, the criminal justice system, the nature of war, the possibility of privacy, and the capacity to enhance traits and cure diseases. Some changes will benefit all or some people; some will harm all or some people; some will benefit some and harm others.Second, governance of science and technology will be as controversial and difficult as the actual use of that science and technology. People disagree on who should govern, or even whether anyone should govern individuals’ choices about the use of technology. They also disagree (not necessarily in partisan ways) about whether policies should tilt toward promoting benefits at the cost of risks or protection from risks at the cost of losing benefits. There is no clearly correct answer to the governance question, or clear pathway to arrive at a correct answer to the governance question.Finally, genomics is fascinating. I am not a scientist, but I became enamored with the people working to promote or stop genomics innovations and with the innovations themselves. Ending with a cliché is not ideal, but in this case the old saw about “the more you know, the more you want to know more” is apt. I hope readers find these issues and actors as mesmerizing as I do.
Jennifer Hochschild Genomic Politics: How the Revolution in Genomic Science Is Shaping American Society Oxford University Press336 pages, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4 inches ISBN 9780197550731
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