The disciplines of biology and the social sciences share common roots in history and yet have drifted so far apart that the demarcation line between them has become a contested boundary. br/ The boundary shift between the `natural' and the `social' is becoming permanent: moves in either direction are subject to ideological rhetoric. Yet there is continual exchange across the line: metaphors are moving freely between biology and the social sciences. As messengers of meaning they become agents of change, forever undermining any attempt at fixing similarities and differences. br/ emBiology as Society, Society as Biology: Metaphors/em offers a unique look at the function of metaphors in mediating between two disciplinary cultures which represent and mold our views about nature and society, and the boundary between them. br/ For professionals and students of history, philosophy and sociology of science, biology, and literary science alike. br/
