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Clinical applications of biomedical research rely on specialist knowledge provided by professionals who straddle research and therapy, and possess both medical and scientific expertise. To date, this professional group remains under-explored in sociology. Our article presents a case study of clinician-scientists working in stem cell research for heart repair in the UK and Germany who are engaged in double-blind randomised clinical trials using patients' own stem cells. The analysis draws on sociological and medical literature, interviews and ethnographic fieldwork to analyse the experiences and self-rationalisations of a small number of clinician-scientists and the ways in which these professionals portray, explain and justify their role in the wider clinical research environment. We examine our participants' views on the clinical trials they conduct, the challenges they encounter and the ways through which they negotiate a complex disciplinary terrain, and argue that the recent clinical implementation of stem cell research brings clinician-scientists to the fore and provides a renewed platform for their professional legitimisation. The article helps increase our understanding of how randomised clinical trials are involved in consolidating the individual status of actors and the collective standing of clinician-scientists as leaders of change in translational medicine.

PurposeNot enough is known about the challenges faced by women professionals who possess the credentials, skills and knowledge that would allow them to be considered, alongside their male counterparts, for top‐rank positions. While, statistically, figures show an increase in women's representation in the Science, Engineering and Technology domain, academic research is yet to explore in greater depth both the reasons for women's continuing under‐representation at senior levels and their work experiences. This paper sets out to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe paper examines the concept of the glass cliff, which seeks to explain what happens to women as they advance to senior positions. The analysis is based on qualitative research on women managers in the SET domain in the UK. Using career mapping and in‐depth ethnographic interviews, it discusses two case studies of senior women based at a leading multinational IT company with a range of supportive diversity schemes.FindingsThe investigation illustrates some of the opportunities offered, barriers raised and ways in which those interviewed sought to overcome them.Practical implicationsWhile specific in its focus, the study demonstrates the importance of understanding how women make sense of their careers and use organisational initiatives. The article also highlights the need to inspect the effectiveness of such programmes in particular work‐settings in order to identify best practices, and to draw effective equal opportunities policies.Originality/valueThe article presents further evidence to support the idea that women's representation at top‐ranking levels is fraught with difficulties and calls for fine‐tuning of both policy design and implementation and academic research.

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Macro-analyses on the regulation of new biomedical objects tend to focus on discursive structures and legislative categories in science policy debates at national and cross-national levels, but overlook how actors engage in regulatory practices on an everyday basis. Based on data from ethnographic fieldwork in British and German clinics, and 32 interviews with medical staff, this article provides an insight into the regulation of adult stem cell research and its clinical implementation. The argument illustrates the enactment of regulation at different stages and highlights the accompanying interpretative strategies employed by the medical personnel involved in the management of clinical trials using patients' own (autologous) stem cells to regenerate damaged cardiac tissue. We argue that the implementation of regulation is a practical accomplishment in both national contexts. The complexities present in this process are instanced by the gradual crystallisation of practices within the organisation of clinical trials. This crystallisation is dependent on exchanges between members of medical teams and external agencies, and is set within a strategic ordering of regulatory measures that are mobilised to legitimise clinical research and reinforce professional interests.

Despite a sustained preoccupation with crime scene investigation in policing and instructional literatures, government reviews and media accounts, the crime scene examiner has received scant sociological attention. Focusing on scientific support personnel in an English police force, this article analyses how embedded actors who routinely facilitate the provision of crime scene examination reflect on their role and position in the investigative process. The analysis draws on data collected in a small number of semi-structured interviews with stakeholders at different levels of seniority, in order to map an understanding of the inter and intra-professional interactions, exchanges, dependencies and negotiations employed by those working at the coalface of investigative practice. Hoping to illuminate some of the sense-making practices behind the enactment of forensic activities, the discussion examines the articulation of professional identities and the conclusion reflects more broadly on the processes of professionalisation and discourses of professionalism that accompany standardised forensic accomplishments.

This article explores the perspectives of Mass Observation (MO) correspondents on crime investigation and application of forensic technologies in police work. Using the Panel's replies to two distinct, independently commissioned Directives (the 2006 Spring Directive, Part 1 ‘Genes, Genetics and Cloning’ and the 2011 Autumn/Winter Directive, Part 1, ‘Crime and Investigation’), the article examines the meanings and place correspondents give to genetics and forensic science in everyday life and in relation to crime and investigation, surveillance and law and order. The analysis surveys MO correspondents’ understandings of the relationship between forensic technologies and policing and identifies the ways in which correspondents interpret, engage with and discuss their writing tasks. It is argued that MO data offer significant insights into how individuals select and appropriate information on different topics and incorporate this knowledge into distinct worldviews. These accounts constitute a rich, yet under-explored resource for (1) documenting the range of resources that inform the ‘forensic imaginary’ on which correspondents draw in explaining their fascination with or disinterest in criminal investigation and (2) conceptualising the ways in which distinct publics reflect on representations of crime. While the analysis highlights the benefits and limitations of a Mass Observation approach to documenting collective views on the role of forensic technologies in crime investigation, the conclusion reflects more broadly on both the contribution such an approach could make to the literature on public understandings of science and the uses and potential of MO data for social science researchers.