New Genetics, New Social FormationsThe genomic era requires more than just a technical understanding of gene structure and function.New technological options cannot survive without being entrenched in networks of producers, users and various services.New genetic technologies cut across a range of public domains and private lifeworlds, often appearing to generate an institutional void in response to the complex challenges they pose.Chapters in this volume discuss a variety of these novel manifestations across both health and agriculture, including: gene banks intellectual property rights committees of inquiry non-governmental organisations (NGOs) national research laboratories These are explored in such diverse locations as Amazonia, China, Finland, Israel, the UK and the USA.This volume reflects the rapidly changing scientific, clinical and social environment within which new social formations are being constructed and reconstructed.It brings together a range of empirical and theoretical insights that serve to help better understand complex, and often contentious, innovative processes in the new genetic technologies.