The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Science

487 Pages·2017·7.265 MB·English

by  David Tyfield (editor), Rebecca Lave (editor), Samuel Randalls (editor), Charles Thorpe (editor)

THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCIENCE
The political economy of research and innovation (R&I) is one of the central issues of the early
twenty-first century. ‘Science’ and ‘innovation’ are increasingly tasked with driving and
reshaping a troubled global economy while also tackling multiple, overlapping global challenges,
such as climate change or food security, global pandemics or energy security. But responding to
these demands is made more complicated because R&I themselves are changing. Today, new
global patterns of R&I are transforming the very structures, institutions and processes of science
and innovation, and with it their claims about desirable futures. Our understanding of R&I
needs to change accordingly.
Responding to this new urgency and uncertainty, this handbook presents a pioneering
selection of the growing body of literature that has emerged in recent years at the intersection
of science and technology studies and political economy. The central task for this research has
been to expose important but consequential misconceptions about the political economy of
R&I and to build more insightful approaches. This volume therefore explores the complex
interrelations between R&I (both in general and in specific fields) and political economies
across a number of key dimensions from health to environment, and universities to the military.
The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Science offers a unique collection of texts
across a range of issues in this burgeoning and important field from a global selection of top
scholars. The handbook is essential reading for students interested in the political economy of
science, technology and innovation. It also presents succinct and insightful summaries of the
state of the art for more advanced scholars.
David Tyfield is a Reader in Environmental Innovation and Sociology at the Lancaster
Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK, and Research Professor at the Chinese
Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry (GIGCAS).
Rebecca Lave is an Associate Professor in Geography at Indiana University, USA.
Samuel Randalls is a Lecturer in Geography at University College London, UK.
Charles Thorpe is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and a member of
the Science Studies Program at the University of California, San Diego, USA.

THE ROUTLEDGE
HANDBOOK
OF THE POLITICAL
ECONOMY OF SCIENCE
Edited by David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave,
Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe
First published 2017
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2017 selection and editorial matter, David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave,
Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles
Thorpe to be identified as the authors of the editorial material, and of the
authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Tyfield, David, editor.
Title: The Routledge handbook of the political economy of science / edited
by David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2017. |
Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016050527| ISBN 9781138922983 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315685397 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Science--Economic aspects.
Classification: LCC Q175.5 .R684 2017 | DDC 303.48/3--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016050527
ISBN: 978-1-138-92298-3 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-68539-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
List of contributors xiii
Introduction: beyond crisis in the knowledge economy 1
David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe
PART I
From the ‘economics of science’ to the ‘political economy of research
and innovation’ 19
1 The political economy of science: prospects and retrospects 21
David Edgerton
2 The “marketplace of ideas” and the centrality of science to
neoliberalism 32
Edward Nik-Khah
3 The political economy of the Manhattan Project 43
Charles Thorpe
4 The knowledge economy, the crash and the depression 57
Ugo Pagano and Maria Alessandra Rossi
5 Science and engineering in digital capitalism 70
Dan Schiller and ShinJoung Yeo
v
Contents
6 US Pharma’s business model: why it is broken, and how it can be fixed 83
William Lazonick, Matt Hopkins, Ken Jacobson, Mustafa Erdem Sakinç and
Öner Tulum
7 Research & innovation (and) after neoliberalism: the case of
Chinese smart e-mobility 101
David Tyfield
PART II
Institutions of science and science funding 117
8 Controlled flows of pharmaceutical knowledge 119
Sergio Sismondo
9 Open access panacea: scarcity, abundance, and enclosure in the
new economy of academic knowledge production 132
Chris Muellerleile
10 The political economy of higher education and student debt 144
Eric Best and Daniel Rich
11 Changes in Chinese higher education in the era of globalization 156
Hongguan Xu and Tian Ye
12 Financing technoscience: finance, assetization and rentiership 169
Kean Birch
13 The ethical government of science and innovation 182
Luigi Pellizzoni
14 The political economy of military science 194
Chris Langley and Stuart Parkinson
PART III
Fields of science 211
15 Genetically engineered food for a hungry world:
a changing political economy 213
Rebecca Harrison, Abby Kinchy, and Laura Rabinow
16 Biodiversity offsetting 224
Rebecca Lave and Morgan Robertson
vi
Contents
17 Distributed biotechnology 237
Alessandro Delfanti
18 Translational medicine: science, risk and an emergent political
economy of biomedical innovation 249
Mark Robinson
19 Are climate models global public goods? 263
Leigh Johnson and Costanza Rampini
20 Renewable energy research and development: a political
economy perspective 275
David J. Hess and Rachel G. McKane
21 Synthetic biology: a political economy of molecular futures 289
Jairus Rossi
PART IV
Governing science and governing through science 303
22 Toward a political economy of neoliberal climate science 305
Larry Lohmann
23 Commercializing environmental data 317
Samuel Randalls
24 Science and standards 329
Elizabeth Ransom, Maki Hatanaka, Jason Konefal and Allison Loconto
25 Agnotology and the new politicization of science and scientization
of politics 341
Manuela Fernández Pinto
26 Reconstructing or reproducing? Scientific authority and models of
change in two traditions of citizen science 351
Gwen Ottinger
PART V
(Political economic) geographies of science 365
27 The transformation of Chinese science 367
Richard P. Suttmeier
vii
Contents
28 Postcolonial technoscience and development aid:
insights from the political economy of locust control expertise 378
Claude Péloquin
29 World-system analysis 2.0: globalized science in centers and peripheries 390
Pierre Delvenne and Pablo Kreimer
30 From science as “development assistance” to “global philanthropy” 405
Hebe Vessuri
31 Traveling imaginaries: the “practice turn” in innovation policy
and the global circulation of innovation models 416
Sebastian Pfotenhauer and Sheila Jasanoff
32 What is science critique? Lessig, Latour 429
Phil Mirowski
Index 451
viii
FIGURES
4.1 Global patents and global investments 63
6.1 Gilead sciences (GILD: NASDAQ) stock price (monthly adjusted close),
January 1992–July 2016 90
7.1 Complex socio-technical power/knowledge systems 102
7.2 The system dynamics of neoliberalism 104
7.3 Liberty, security and innovation 106
7.4 System dynamism in Chinese e-mobility innovation 109
11.1 The planning system for Chinese higher education recruitment 159
12.1 Global biotech industry: market capitalization 174
12.2 Global biotech industry: financial investment 174
18.1 The website for the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at
Tufts University in the US 251
29.1 Percent of world publications, 2010–12 393
29.2 World distribution of nanoscience research, 2010–12 400
32.1 Some research practices that may help increase the proportion of
true research findings 436
32.2 Latour’s Comtean schema of social differentiation 439
ix