Policy Implications of Neuroscientific Studies: Towards an Interdisciplinary Collaborative Turn

Abstract

The sustained growth of the neuroscientific field at a global level in the last two decades was accompanied by expectations regarding the contributions that this knowledge could make to the development of public policies. A part of this field was oriented to the study of the effects of adverse socioeconomic conditions on brain development from early childhood, giving rise to studies of neuroscience and poverty. The advances produced in this particular area have sparked debates among professionals from different disciplines regarding the political implications of the evidence that is produced and the way in which it is already being used in different political narratives. In 2019, at the Cultural Center of Science of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, an interdisciplinary event entitled "Political uses of neuroscientific evidence on poverty" was held. A meeting of reflection and debate”. There, the prominent sociologist Nikolas Rose made a presentation focused on the review and historicization of certain key notions and their biopolitical effects. In his presentation, he left open many questions about the role that neuroscience could play in poverty policies and invited the development of collaborative relationships between social scientists and neuroscientists. The pages that follow and that precede the transcription of his oral presentation seek, first of all, to frame and contextualize the discussions opened by Nikolas Rose considering his previous works. Secondly, to articulate his presentation with the specific problems that the notion of "collaborative turn" poses, considering the possibility of interdisciplinary approach to the debates and tensions that the relationship between neuroscience and politics opens up.