Promising Potency: Bio-evangelical Networking in a Korean Stem Cell Enterprise

Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningfagfællebedømt

  • Jieun Lee

The notion of potency has been central in the shaping of the field of stem cell sciences. It not only offers a unique promissory quality to stem cells, but also an interpretive flexibility that can be exploited outside of the scientific research community. One Korea-based stem cell company actively exploits this aspect to amplify its promise of experimental stem cell therapy through an evangelical Christian network. The notion of stem cells' potency is at the crux of their discursive maneuvers that portray stem cells as a 'gift that God has prepared in our body.' In their entrepreneurial endeavor to exploit business opportunities in evangelical Christian communities, the company strategically exploits the differences between two social worlds (that of the stem cell research community and of evangelical Christians), reflecting a process of 'bio-evangelical networking'. The presumed religion/science divide, the grammar of miracles, the convention of religious witnessing, as well as faith in this-worldly blessings are actively sought and mobilized as a backdrop for the proliferation of stem cell promises in this religious niche. The notion of potency, once constructed, reformulated, and even fetishized in the scientific community's effort to consolidate public support, thereby becomes a problem for the stem cell enterprise itself.

OriginalsprogEngelsk
TidsskriftScience as Culture
Vol/bind29
Udgave nummer4
Sider (fra-til)594-616
Antal sider23
ISSN0950-5431
DOI
StatusUdgivet - 2020

ID: 269601430