Vol. 18/2025
National identities, biopolitics, and human diversity in contemporary European life sciences
Zur Nieden, Andrea Thekla; Ellebrecht, Nils; Plümecke, Tino [Publishing editor]
Content
Scientific article
Editorial : national identities, biopolitics, and human diversity in contemporary European life sciences
Zur Nieden, Andrea Thekla; Ellebrecht, Nils; Plümecke, Tino
Abstract:
Pages: 1-6
Scientific article
Oops!… you are doing it again : pharmacogenomics and the biologisation of ethnoracial categories on drug labels
Malinowska, Joanna Karolina
Abstract:
In this paper I explore how pharmacogenomic findings regarding the impact of genetic variability on patients’ responses to drugs translate into drug labels. Despite growing recognition that such categories fail to reflect human genetic diversity, they continue to be applied in prescribing information, reinforcing outdated notions of race in medicine. By analysing pharmacogenomic data, I demonstrate that racialised labels offer no epistemic benefits and are methodologically flawed. Moreover, their widespread use in the pharmaceutical industry not only undermines scientific accuracy but also risks perpetuating racial biases in healthcare. Finally, I argue that guidelines and standards established by various stakeholders – including research funders, pharmaceutical regulators, global databases, and standards-developing organisations – can inadvertently reproduce frameworks rooted in race (and racist) science. They should therefore be subject to critical examination and, where necessary, revision.
Pages: 7-27
Scientific article
Lost along the way? Searching for the inclusion-and-difference paradigm in pharmaceutical research and regulation in sweden
Bredström, Anna; Mulinari, Shai
Abstract:
This article examines how the U.S. ‘inclusion-and-difference paradigm’ translates to the Swedish context. According to Steven Epstein (2007), this paradigm combines health equity arguments for racialised minorities and women with a biological understanding of racial and gender differences in medicine. Drawing on interviews with experts, policymakers, and clinicians involved in international clinical trials in Sweden, we argue that critical elements of the U.S. paradigm – notably the ‘categorical alignment’ of race-and-ethnicity taxonomies between the social worlds of medicine, government bureaucracy, and political discourse – are absent in Sweden and, more generally, Europe. Consequently, there is no coherent framework for interpreting the existing ‘niche standardisation’ of certain medicines based on race and ethnicity, such as racialised treatment recommendations. In conclusion, we discuss possible future scenarios and highlight a recent collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and EU institutions. Despite the challenging context, this collaboration aims to establish a European standard for race and ethnicity data in clinical trials. However, we argue that such attempts warrant caution: with racism being so widespread in contemporary Europe, emphasising racial differences in medicine may unintentionally reinscribe harmful notions of race.
Pages: 28-38
Scientific article
Persistent ideas: race, ethnicity and migration background in German epidemiological and pharmaceutical research
Zur Nieden, Andrea Thekla
Abstract:
Latest since the end of the 1980s, the classification of people by race has become discredited in German public and life sciences, largely due to critical engagement with the legacy of fascism based on eugenics or so-called ‘racial hygiene’. Nevertheless, the knowledge production about descent-associated biological and genetic differences between human groups continues, sometimes implicitly, sometimes explicitly. Using two case studies from epidemiological and pharmaceutical research, the essay analyses how human differentiations are treated in the German context. Although other concepts like ‘migration background’ and ‘ethnic group’ dominate in Germany (compared to the US, for example), these studies show a simultaneous “absent presence” of race (M’charek et al. 2014): The international category of race is hidden within biotechnical devices like e.g. the spirometer and in seemingly more neutral terms, while belief in its biological significance persists. In addition, this research-produced knowledge is less reflected upon than in contexts like the US, where categorising people by race is common in both society and science and is a recurring subject in political debate. Finally, I speculate on the reasons for and the (bio-political) functions of this, especially in the specific post-Nazi situation in Germany.
Pages: 39-55
Scientific article
‘Tell it like it is’? Mobilising race in German drug information between common-sense and social taboo
Merz, Sibille
Abstract:
The collection and analysis of data on race have faced scepticism in European contexts, yet race-based classifications remain prevalent in life science research. In this article, I examine the translations of race from English to German within pharmaceutical regulatory documents and public drug information, crucial sites for the racialisation of clinical practice and drug consumption. I show that while race is predominantly translated as ‘ethnicity’, ‘skin colour’ (Hautfarbe) is also commonly employed. This trend underscores how regulators and scientists rely on colloquial or common-sense ideas to depict differences in drug response in the absence of standardised bureaucratic protocols or scientific consensus. Such practices not only perpetuate a phenotypical and often dichotomous conception of race but also illustrate, I argue, that the stigma surrounding discussions of race in Germany is deeply intertwined with the historical aftermath of the Holocaust, with lesser emphasis placed on histories of enslavement and colonisation and the ensuing forms of racialisation.
Pages: 56-67
Review
[Rezension von: Extended review: Ann Morning, Marcello Maneri: An ugly word: rethinking race in Italy and the United States]
Ellebrecht, Nils
Abstract:
Pages: 68-77
Scientific article
Desparate enmity. An essay
Schultz, Jakob
Abstract:
Based on Däubler’s verses “Der Feind ist unsre eigene Frage als Gestalt. Und er wird uns, wir ihn zum selben Ende hetzen”, the first part of which is occasionally quoted by Carl Schmitt, the article undertakes a deconstructive reading of Schmitt’s reflections on enmity. Contrary to the usual interpretations of Schmitt, the paper argues that the enemy confronts us with the question of our own self in the first place; that is, he does not constitute our self but rather poses a challenge to it. Thrown back on the question of one’s own self, there is a real possibility (not a necessity) of arriving at an extreme form of enmity. This ‘desperate enmity’ negates not only the reality of the enemy but reality as a whole. This deconstructive reading, inspired by Kierkegaard’s analysis of despair, allows for a plausible inclusion of Däubler’s second verse in Schmitt’s reflections on enmity, especially with regard to the threat of nuclear war, which today, in the wake of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, appears to be a real possibility.
Pages: 78-86
Review
Review: Jörn Knobloch, Christoph Sebastian Widdau: Was ist und was soll Political Correctness
Brandl, Nina Maria
Abstract:
Pages: 87-88
Review
Review: Jörn Knobloch, Christoph Sebastian Widdau: Was ist und was soll Political Correctness
Brandl, Nina Maria
Abstract:
Pages: 87-88
Review
Review: Daniel Loick: Die Überlegenheit der Unterlegenen : eine Theorie der Gegengemeinschaften
Türk, Anton
Abstract:
Pages: 94-96
Review
Review: Daniel Loick: Die Überlegenheit der Unterlegenen : eine Theorie der Gegengemeinschaften
Türk, Anton
Abstract:
Pages: 94-96