Big Data and the Collective Turn in Biomedicine How Should We Analyze Post-genomic Practices?

Abstract: We presently witness a profound transformation of the configu-ration of biomedical practices, as characterized by an increasingly collective dimension, and by a growing reliance on disruptive technologies that gener-ate large amounts of data. We also witness a proliferation of biomedical da-tabases, often freely accessible on the Web, which can be easily analyzed thanks to network analysis software. In this position paper we discuss how science and technology studies (S&TS) may cope with these developments. In particular, we examine a number of shortcomings of the notion of networks, namely those concerning: (a) the relation between agency and structural analysis; (b) the distinction between network clusters and collectives; (c) the (ac)counting strategies that fuel the networking approach; and (d) the privi-leged status ascribed to textual documents. This will lead us to reframe the question of the relations between S&TS and biomedical scientists, as big data offer an interesting opportunity for developing new modes of cooperation between the social and the life sciences, while avoiding the dichotomies – be-tween the social and the cognitive, or between texts and practices – that S&TS has successfully managed to discard