Large-scale Research and the Goal of Health: Doable Problem Construction in ‘New’ Nutrition Science

Abstract

Contemporary science can be characterized by large-scale multi-sited interdisciplinary co-operation. This kind of co-operation is thought necessary for solving complex scientific problems and, by doing so, to reach the social and normative goals of science, for instance, the promotion of public health. In this paper, we present an analysis of a large-scale multi-sited scientific practice questioning the latter assumption. Do the strategies to solve scientific problems indeed contribute to the normative goals of large-scale science? To be able to analyse problem solving in multi-sited scientific practice, first we introduce the concept of doability, and we amend this notion to make it suited for multi-sited research practices. Second, we will demonstrate the fruitfulness of this conceptual frame by presenting an analysis of the field of nutrigenomics, in which large-scale research is organized to contribute to ‘health for all’. Third and finally, we will show that the strategies to make research problems in the large-scale multi-sited research practice of nutrigenomics doable do not necessarily contribute to a public health aim. In fact, making the study of nutrigenomic problems doable implies that the goal of health has to be fragmented into many distinct norms for health.