Valuation is a central question in contemporary social science. Indeed the question of value has a range of academic projects associated with it, whether in terms of
specific questions or in terms of
emerging fora for academic publications. In
Value Practices in the Life Sciences and Medicine (Oxford University Press, 2015),
Isabelle Dussauge,
Claes-Fredrik Helgesson, and
Francis Lee bring together a range of authors to outline a new research programme. Alongside individual essays that range from the allocation of transplant organs, questions of plagiarism in science, the ownership of generically modified organisms though to desire and neuroscience, the book points to a new way to think through questions of valuation. As a result its importance moves beyond an STS audience to establish value practices as a vital framework for understanding contemporary life.