Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Theorizing the Bioeconomy
T2 - Biovalue, Biocapital, Bioeconomics or...What?
AU - Birch, Kean
AU - Tyfield, David
PY - 2013/5
Y1 - 2013/5
N2 - In the policy discourses of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Commission (EC), modern biotechnology and the life sciences are represented as an emerging “bioeconomy” in which the latent value underpinning biological materials and products offers the opportunity for sustainable economic growth. This articulation of modern biotechnology and economic development is an emerging scholarly field producing numerous “bio-concepts.” Over the last decade or so, there have been a number of attempts to theorize this relationship between biotechnologies and their capitalization. This article highlights some of the underlying ambiguities in these conceptualizations, especially in the fetishization of everything “bio.” We offer an alternative view of the bioeconomy by rethinking the theoretical importance of several key economic and financial processes.
AB - In the policy discourses of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and European Commission (EC), modern biotechnology and the life sciences are represented as an emerging “bioeconomy” in which the latent value underpinning biological materials and products offers the opportunity for sustainable economic growth. This articulation of modern biotechnology and economic development is an emerging scholarly field producing numerous “bio-concepts.” Over the last decade or so, there have been a number of attempts to theorize this relationship between biotechnologies and their capitalization. This article highlights some of the underlying ambiguities in these conceptualizations, especially in the fetishization of everything “bio.” We offer an alternative view of the bioeconomy by rethinking the theoretical importance of several key economic and financial processes.
KW - Bioeconomy
KW - Bio-concepts
KW - Biovalue
KW - Biocapital
KW - Bioeconomics
KW - Asset-based economy
KW - Financialization
U2 - 10.1177/0162243912442398
DO - 10.1177/0162243912442398
M3 - Journal article
VL - 38
SP - 299
EP - 327
JO - Science, Technology, and Human Values
JF - Science, Technology, and Human Values
SN - 0162-2439
IS - 3
ER -