Targeting brains, producing responsibilities: the use of neuroscience within British social policy

Social Science & Medicine
Tineke Broer, Martyn Pickersgill

Abstract

Concepts and findings 'translated' from neuroscientific research are finding their way into UK health and social policy discourse. Critical scholars have begun to analyse how policies tend to 'misuse' the neurosciences and, further, how these discourses produce unwarranted and individualizing effects, rooted in middle-class values and inducing guilt and anxiety. In this article, we extend such work while simultaneously departing from the normative assumptions implied in the concept of 'misuse'. Through a documentary analysis of UK policy reports focused on the early years, adolescence and older adults, we examine how these employ neuroscientific concepts and consequently (re)define responsibility. In the documents analysed, responsibility was produced in three different but intersecting ways: through a focus on optimisation, self-governance, and vulnerability. Our work thereby adds to social scientific examinations of neuroscience in society that show how neurobiological terms and concepts can be used to construct and support a particular imaginary of citizenship and the role of the state. Neuroscience may be leveraged by policy makers in ways that (potentially) reduce the target of their intervention to the soma, but do so in ...Continue Reading

References

Dec 7, 2007·Journal of Safety Research·Anne T McCarttEmily R Haire
Jul 8, 2010·Neurotoxicity Research·Eva M MarcoGiovanni Laviola
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Jan 20, 2012·Social Science & Medicine·Suparna ChoudhuryMoritz Merten
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Jan 1, 2013·Social Science & Medicine·Cliodhna O'Connor, Helene Joffe
Mar 7, 2014·Public Understanding of Science·Martyn PickersgillSarah Cunningham-Burley
May 12, 2015·Families, Relationships and Societies : in International Journal of Research and Debate·Martyn Pickersgill

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Citations

Apr 3, 2016·The British Journal of Psychiatry : the Journal of Mental Science·Kamaldeep Bhui
Oct 5, 2017·Qualitative Health Research·Michael LawlessAmanda LeCouteur
Aug 30, 2018·Sociology of Health & Illness·Jonna Brenninkmeijer
Apr 18, 2018·Sociology of Health & Illness·Alexandra HillmanLinda Clare
Jul 4, 2021·Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry·Suparna Choudhury, William Wannyn

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