Beltrame, Lorenzo | Italy

Lorenzo Beltrame holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Research from University of Trento, Italy. From 2007 to 2008 he worked as research fellow at the University of Trento within the framework of the Science and Technology in Society Programme (STSTN). From 2009 to 2011 he was post-doc fellow at the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane (Florence, Italy). His research focuses lie on public perceptions of science and technology, research policy studies, and public discourse and mass media coverage of biotechnology issues, in particular on public debate on stem cell research.

Project at IAS-STS: The political economy of tissues: The case of the umbilical cord blood banking in Italy in a comparative perspective

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) has progressively been transformed from a waste product of childbirth to valuable therapeutic material in the treatment of blood diseases. From the beginning of 1990s public as well as private UCB banks were set up in several western countries triggering an ongoing debate on the way to regulate UCB biobanking. The two different forms of biobanking connote two different ideals of social solidarity and obligation linked to contrasting modes of considering UCB as a good (private good vs. public common). Therefore, UCB biobanks are also socio-political technologies defining the form of social relations in what is called a “bio-economy”.

The aim of this research project is to study the constitution and regulation of UCB biobanks, combining an in depth analysis of the Italian case with a comparative perspective aimed at confronting the Italian situation with that of other western countries. Firstly, the research explores the process of institutionalization and regulation of UCB biobanking in Italy, analyzing the key actors involved, their political strategies and (scientific and ethical) discourses deployed to influencing publics and policy-makers. Secondly, it analyzes debates on UCB biobanking and policy-making processes in a comparative perspective, in order to explore how the institutionalization and regulation of UCB biobanking vary among different political and cultural contexts.

Selected Publications

Beltrame, L. (2012), Embedding society in cells: Science, Ethics, and Politics in the Italian Public Debate on Stem Cell Research, in R.G. Mazzolini and H.-J. Rheinberger (eds.), Differing Routes to Stem Cell Research: Germany and Italy, Berlin: Ducker & Humblot/Bologna: Il Mulino, pp. 191-223

Beltrame, L., Bucchi, M. and Mattè, B. (2010), Climate Change as a Rhetorical Resource and Masterframe: An Analysis of the Newspaper Il Corriere della Sera" in K. Shimizu (ed), The Public Understanding of Science and Technology for Environmental Sustainability, Hiroshima: Hiroshima University Press, p. 46-59

Beltrame, L., Bucchi, M., Consultazione del pubblico e diritti partecipativi”, In S. Rodotà and M. Tallacchini (eds) Trattato di Biodiritto. Ambiti e fonti del biodiritto, Milano: Giuffrè. pp. 889-913.

Beltrame, L., Giovanetti, S. (2009), When the Oocyte Becomes an Embryo. The Social Life of an Ambiguous Scientific Image in Italian Newspapers (1996-2007), Nuncius. Journal of the History of Science, 2, 2009, pp. 489-506

Beltrame, L. (2007), Realtà e retorica del brain drain in Italia. Stime statistiche, definizioni pubbliche e interventi politici, Monographic issue of Quaderni del dipartimento di sociologia e ricerca sociale, no. 35, Università di Trento (http://www.unitn.it/files/quad35.pdf)