Life as Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Focusing on the period between the 1970s and the present, Life as Surplus is a pointed and important study of the relationship between politics, economics, science, and cultural values in the United States today. Melinda Cooper demonstrates that the history of biotechnology cannot be understood without taking into account the simultaneous rise of neoliberalism as a political force and an economic policy. From the development of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s to the second Bush administration's policies on stem cell research, Cooper connects the utopian polemic of free-market capitalism with growing internal contradictions of the commercialized life sciences.
The biotech revolution relocated economic production at the genetic, microbial, and cellular level. Taking as her point of departure the assumption that life has been drawn into the circuits of value creation, Cooper underscores the relations between scientific, economic, political, and social practices. In penetrating analyses of Reagan-era science policy, the militarization of the life sciences, HIV politics, pharmaceutical imperialism, tissue engineering, stem cell science, and the pro-life movement, the author examines the speculative impulses that have animated the growth of the bioeconomy.
At the very core of the new post-industrial economy is the transformation of biological life into surplus value. Life as Surplus offers a clear assessment of both the transformative, therapeutic dimensions of the contemporary life sciences and the violence, obligation, and debt servitude crystallizing around the emerging bioeconomy.
Related to Life as Surplus
Related ebooks
Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Social Ecology of Capital Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remaking Scarcity: From Capitalist Inefficiency to Economic Democracy Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Biotechnology and Culture: Bodies, Anxieties, Ethics Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInhuman Power: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Capitalism Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Disasters and Social Reproduction: Crisis Response between the State and Community Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Spirit of Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Postcapitalist Futures: Political Economy Beyond Crisis and Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMarxism and the Philosophy of Science: A Critical History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cybernetic Brain: Sketches of Another Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hope Against Hope: Writings on Ecological Crisis Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5State of Insecurity: Government of the Precarious Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Augmented Exploitation: Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Work Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCapital Is Dead: Is This Something Worse? Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Technonatures: Environments, Technologies, Spaces, and Places in the Twenty-first Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSolidarity without Borders: Gramscian Perspectives on Migration and Civil Society Alliances Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOn Microfascism: Gender, Death, and War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Beginning of History: Value Struggles and Global Capital Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDegrowth in Movement(s): Exploring Pathways for Transformation Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPlatform Socialism: How to Reclaim our Digital Future from Big Tech Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Productive Body Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Economy of Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWomen and Work: Feminism, Labour, and Social Reproduction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Anarchist Turn Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Future Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5At Last, The Future!: The End of the Age of Capital and the Quest for a New Global Paradigm. Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe World We are Fighting For Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Science & Mathematics For You
Becoming Cliterate: Why Orgasm Equality Matters--And How to Get It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Activate Your Brain: How Understanding Your Brain Can Improve Your Work - and Your Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5No-Drama Discipline: the bestselling parenting guide to nurturing your child's developing mind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Big Book of Hacks: 264 Amazing DIY Tech Projects Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fantastic Fungi: How Mushrooms Can Heal, Shift Consciousness, and Save the Planet Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Memory Craft: Improve Your Memory with the Most Powerful Methods in History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago: The Authorized Abridgement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nikola Tesla: Imagination and the Man That Invented the 20th Century Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Systems Thinker: Essential Thinking Skills For Solving Problems, Managing Chaos, Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Free Will Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Outsmart Your Brain: Why Learning is Hard and How You Can Make It Easy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers Can Teach Us About Success Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/52084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5109 East Palace: Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Psychology of Totalitarianism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bad Science: Quacks, Hacks, and Big Pharma Flacks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invisible Rainbow: A History of Electricity and Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Science of Monsters: The Origins of the Creatures We Love to Fear Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Misinformation Age: How False Beliefs Spread Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Suicidal: Why We Kill Ourselves Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oppenheimer: The Tragic Intellect Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Life as Surplus
3 ratings0 reviews