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E-book
Author Sunder Rajan, Kaushik, 1974-

Title Biocapital : the constitution of postgenomic life / Kaushik Sunder Rajan
Published Durham : Duke University Press, 2006

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Description 1 online resource (xi, 343 pages)
Series e-Duke books scholarly collection.
Contents Introduction : capitalisms and biotechnologies -- Circulations -- Exchange and value : contradictions in market logic in American and Indian genome enterprises -- Life and debt : global and local political ecologies of biocapital -- Articulations -- Vision and hype : the conjuration of promissory biocapitalist futures -- Promise and fetish : genomic facts and personalized medicine, or life is a business plan -- Salvation and nation : underlying belief structures of biocapital -- Entrepreneurs and start-ups : the story of an e-learning company -- Coda : surplus and symptom
Summary Biocapital is a major theoretical contribution to science studies and political economy. Grounding his analysis in a multi-sited ethnography of genomic research and drug development marketplaces in the United States and India, Kaushik Sunder Rajan argues that contemporary biotechnologies such as genomics can only be understood in relation to the economic markets within which they emerge. Sunder Rajan conducted fieldwork in biotechnology labs and in small start-up companies in the United States (mostly in the San Francisco Bay area) and India (mainly in New Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bombay) over a five-year period spanning 1999 to 2004. He draws on his research with scientists, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and policymakers to compare drug development in the two countries, examining the practices and goals of research, the financing mechanisms, the relevant government regulations, and the hype and marketing surrounding promising new technologies. In the process, he illuminates the global flow of ideas, information, capital, and people connected to biotech initiatives. Sunder Rajan's ethnography informs his theoretically sophisticated inquiry into how the contemporary world is shaped by the marriage of biotechnology and market forces, by what he calls technoscientific capitalism
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 315-326) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
English
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Biotechnology industries.
Genomics -- Economic aspects
Pharmaceutical industry
Genomics -- economics
Genomics -- history
Biotechnology -- history
Drug Industry -- history
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Drug Industry
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Industries -- Pharmaceutical & Biotechnology.
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Industries -- General.
Biotechnology industries
Pharmaceutical industry
Kapitalismus
Marktwirtschaft
Biotechnologie
Biotechnologische Industrie
Kommerzialisierung
Bioteknikindustri.
Genomik -- ekonomiska aspekter.
Läkemedelsindustri.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780822388005
0822388006