Paper short abstract:

I argue here that postgenomic plasticity is neither a modernistic form of instrumental control of the body nor a postmodernist celebration of potentialities. It is instead closer to alter-modernistic views that disrupt clear boundaries between openness and determination, individual and community.

Paper long abstract:

This paper sets the stage for a genealogy of postgenomic plasticity. It starts with current transformative views of epigenetics and microbiomics to offer a more pluralistic history in which the ethical problem of how to live with a permeable body - that is plasticity as a form of life - is pervasive in traditions predating and coexisting with modern biomedicine (particularly humoralism in its several ramifications). To challenge universalizing narratives, I draw on genealogical method to illuminate the unequal distribution of plasticity across gender and ethnic groups. Finally, after analysing postgenomics as a different thought style to genomics, I outline some of its implications for notions of plasticity. I argue that postgenomic plasticity is neither a modernistic plasticity of instrumental control of the body nor a postmodernist celebration of endless potentialities. It is instead closer to an alter-modernistic view that disrupts clear boundaries between openness and determination, individual and community (REF: Meloni, in press).