Exploring Concepts of Population in Human Genetic Variation Studies

该项目由科学和社会计划的科学、工程和技术领域的伦理和价值观研究资助，将记录和分析人类遗传变异研究人员将“人类群体”概念付诸实施的实践。这项研究还将绘制当前指定和实施“人口”做法的各种实际和伦理影响。它将在研究人员研究人类基因变异的领先实验室进行人种学实地观察和采访。这项研究还将利用科学会议上的参与者观察，以及对主要科学文献和政府报告和指南的分析。人类遗传学研究使用了“种群”的概念，这对这些项目至关重要。然而，人口的概念往往没有明确的定义，也没有在项目之间或项目内进行标准化。此外，不可能具体说明彼此不重叠的人口概念。拟议的项目将调查种群和种群变异是如何构思和构建的。更具体地说，这项研究将考察种群概念在基本人类遗传变异研究的设计、数据收集和分析过程中的概念化和可操作性。该项目有两个主要目标：创造关于科学家如何选择和建立分类方案的新知识，以及关于不同的人口概念如何影响人类遗传变异研究项目的设计、数据收集和分析的新知识；以及创造关于科学研究的社会、伦理、政治-经济和机构层面的新知识，将人口概念纳入他们的研究。这项调查将产生期刊论文和一本书，并将有助于人类遗传变异以及生物伦理学、遗传学的社会研究、科学政策以及统计和联系方法的文献。它还将增加关于具体研究领域的文献，包括科学标准化、科学分类和分类、科学价值观的影响、知识生产的实践、科学工作组织的形式和作用，特别是科学领域的跨学科合作。这项研究的结果将在学术和政策会议上分发给研究人员，以及对与新基因技术有关的社会和伦理问题感兴趣的公众团体。它还将说明不同研究人员使用的统计程序之间的差异和相似之处，并分析研究人员如何将人口概念作为研究变量。

This project, funded by the Ethics and Values Studies in Science, Engineering and Technology component of the Science and Society Program, will document and analyze the practices through which human genetic variation researchers operationalize the concept of "a human population." The study will also map the various practical and ethical implications of current practices for designating and operationalizing "population." It will employ ethnographic field observations and interviews in leading laboratories where researchers study human genetic variation. The study will also draw on participant observation at scientific conferences and an analysis of primary scientific literature and government reports and guidelines. Human genetics research employs notions of "population" which are critical to these projects. However, notions of human populations are often not clearly defined, nor are they standardized across or within projects. Further, it is impossible to specify notions of human populations that do not overlap with one another. The proposed project will investigate how populations and population variations are conceived and constructed. More specifically, this research will examine the conceptualization and operationalization of the notion of population inthe design, data collection, and analysis processes of basic human genetic variation research studies. The project has two primary aims: to create new knowledge about how scientists choose and institute categorization schemes and about how different concepts of population influence the design, data collection, and analysis of human genetic variation research projects; and, to create new knowledge about the social, ethical, political-economic, and institutional dimensions of scientific research that incorporate concepts of population in their studies. This investigation will result in journal articles and a book, and will contribute to the literature on human genetic variation as well as on bioethics, social studies of genetics, science policy, and statistical and linkage methods. It will also add to the literature on specific fields of research including standardization in science, scientific classification and categories, the effects of values in science, the practices of knowledge production, the shape and effect of scientific work organization and especially interdisciplinary collaboration in science. The study's findings will be disseminated to researchers at academic and policy-oriented conferences as well as to public groups interested in social and ethical issues related to new genetic technologies. It will also provide a description of differences and similarities between the statistical procedures used by different researchers together with an analysis of how researchers incorporate the concept of population as a research variable.