Rethinking Value in the Bio-economy: Finance, Assetization, and the Management of Value.
TL;DR: The authors analyzes three key political economic processes: financialization, capitalization, and assetization, arguing that value is managed as part of a series of valuation practices, it is not inherent in biological materialities.
Abstract: Current debates in science and technology studies emphasize that the bio-economy—or, the articulation of capitalism and biotechnology—is built on notions of commodity production, commodification, and materiality, emphasizing that it is possible to derive value from body parts, molecular and cellular tissues, biological processes, and so on. What is missing from these perspectives, however, is consideration of the political-economic actors, knowledges, and practices involved in the creation and management of value. As part of a rethinking of value in the bio-economy, this article analyzes three key political-economic processes: financialization, capitalization, and assetization. In doing so, it argues that value is managed as part of a series of valuation practices, it is not inherent in biological materialities.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the rapid rise of the X-as-a-service business model across nearly all sectors of the economy is creating rentier relations by another name.
Abstract: Digital platforms are a nearly ubiquitous form of intermediary and infrastructure in society. By positioning platforms in the geographical political economy/ ecology literature, this paper provides a critical analysis of platforms as a dominant form of rentier in contemporary capitalism. In doing so, I extend this work on rent theory beyond applications to land and nature so that it also includes platforms and data. I argue that the rapid rise of the “X-as-a-service” business model across nearly all sectors of the economy is creating rentier relations by another name. This model is premised on the platform latching onto and inserting itself into the production, circulation, or consumption process, thus creating opportunities to capture value. To better understand the operations and implications of platforms, I outline three key mechanisms: data extraction, digital enclosure, and capital convergence.
124 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe a technoscientific capitalism characterized by the reconfiguration of a range of "things" (e.g., infrastructure, data, knowledge, bodies) as assets or capitalized property.
Abstract: Contemporary, technoscientific capitalism is characterized by the (re)configuration of a range of “things” (e.g., infrastructure, data, knowledge, bodies) as assets or capitalized property. Accumul...
111 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that "assetisation" has been a central axis through which both neoliberalisation and financialisation have encroached in the post-Fordist era.
Abstract: In this paper we argue that “assetisation” has been a central axis through which both neoliberalisation and financialisation have encroached in the post‐Fordist era. We focus on the mobilisation of land as a financial asset in northwest England's former industrial heartlands, offering an account of how property developer the Peel Group came to dominate the land and port infrastructure of the region through aggressive debt‐led expansion and, in particular, a hostile takeover of the Manchester Ship Canal for its land‐bank. In doing so, we illustrate how the capture of resources, especially land, by private corporations has shaped both substance and process of neoliberalisation from the ground up. By focusing on transformative struggles over land we contribute to research agendas attempting to understand the systemically dispossessive nature of assetisation, its relationship to fictitious capital formation, and the way such neoliberalising transformations are produced through grounded and situated socio‐spatial struggles.
96 citations
TL;DR: A spate of recent scandals concerning personal digital data illustrates the extent to which innovation and finance are thoroughly entangled with one another as mentioned in this paper, and the innovation-finance nexus is an exam...
Abstract: A spate of recent scandals concerning personal digital data illustrates the extent to which innovation and finance are thoroughly entangled with one another. The innovation-finance nexus is an exam...
67 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a special issue aims to further understand and explain the funding, financing and governing of urban infrastructure in the context of contemporary financialisation, focusing on the role of local communities.
Abstract: This Special Issue aims to further understanding and explanation of the funding, financing and governing of urban infrastructure amidst its engagements with contemporary financialisation. Drawing u...
56 citations
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TL;DR: The role of accounting in the Structuring of Economic Behaviours: Peter Miller (The London School of Economics and Political Science) and Peter Miller et al. as discussed by the authors, on the role of Accounting in the structural role of economic behavior, have discussed the contribution of social sciences to the construction of markets.
Abstract: 1. On the Role of Accounting in the Structuring of Economic Behaviours: Peter Miller (The London School of Economics and Political Science). 2. Title not yet available: Michel Callon: (Ecole Nationale Superieure des Mines, Paris). 3. Does the State make the Market or the Market, the State? The Cosmologies of Railroad Kings in the United States and France: Frank Dobbin (Princeton University, USA). 4. The Proliferation of Social Currencies: V. Zelizer (Princeton University, USA). 5. Markets as Institutions: An Ethnographic Approach: Mitchel Abolafia (State University of New York). 6. The Contribution of Social Sciences to the Construction of Markets: The Case of Marketing: Frank Cochoy (Uiversiti de Toulouse). 7. Karl Polanyi Revisited: On the Great Transformation: Bruno Latour (Ecole des mines de Paris). 8. On the Constructions of Boundaries between the State and the Market: John Law (Keele University, UK). 9. The Politics of Industrial Policy and the Non--Market Governance Structure: The Case of Japan: Bai Gao (Duke University, USA). 10. How Economists Contribute to the Construction of Markets: The Case of the Cement Industry: Hervi Dumez and A. Jeunemaitre (Ecole Polytechnique, Paris). 11. Shifting Boundaries and Social Construction in the Early Electricity Industry 1876--1910: Mark Granovetter (Stanford University, USA). 12. Recombinant Property in Eastern European Capitalism: David Stark (Cornell University, USA). Index
1,885 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present systematic empirical evidence for the financialization of the US economy in the post-1970s period and develop two discrete measures of financialization and apply these measures to postwar US economic data in order to determine if, and to what extent, US economy is becoming financialized.
Abstract: This paper presents systematic empirical evidence for the financialization of the US economy in the post-1970s period. While numerous researchers have noted the increasing salience of finance, there have been few systematic attempts to consider what this shift means for the nature of the economy, considered broadly. In large part, this omission reflects the considerable methodological difficulties associated with using national economic data to assess the rise of finance as a macro-level phenomenon shaping patterns of accumulation in the US economy. The paper develops two discrete measures of financialization and applies these measures to postwar US economic data in order to determine if, and to what extent, the US economy is becoming financialized. The paper concludes by considering some of the implications of financialization for two areas of ongoing debate in the social sciences: (1) the question of who controls the modern corporation; and (2) the controversy surrounding the extent to which globalization has eroded the autonomy of the state.
1,803 citations
Book•
19 Nov 2006
TL;DR: The biological existence of human beings has become political in novel ways as mentioned in this paper, and the object, target and stake of this new 'vital' politics are human life itself, which has become one of the most important sites for ethical judgements and techniques.
Abstract: The biological existence of human beings has become political in novel ways. The object, target and stake of this new 'vital' politics are human life itself. The contemporary state does not 'nationalize' the corporeality of its subjects into a body politic on which it works en masse, in relation to the body politics of other states competing in similar terms. Biopolitics addresses human existence at the molecular level: it is waged about molecules, amongst molecules, and where the molecules themselves are at stake. Human beings in contemporary Western culture are increasingly coming to understand themselves in somatic terms – corporeality has become of the most important sites for ethical judgements and techniques. Biopolitics was inextricably bound up with the rise of the life sciences, the human sciences, clinical medicine. It has given birth to techniques, technologies, experts and apparatuses for the care and administration of the life of each and all, from town planning to health services.
1,652 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that studying business models as models is rewarding in that it enables us to see how they embody multiple and mediating roles, and illustrate their ideas with reference to practices in real world and to academic analyses, especially in this Long Range Planning Special Issue on Business Models.
1,171 citations
TL;DR: A precise definition of science must precede the answer to the question of whether economics can be considered a science as discussed by the authors, and this definition must be followed by the definition of economics as a science.
Abstract: A precise definition of science must precede the answer to the question of whether economics can be considered a science. Observable phenomena, general propositions and, based on them, predictions,...
917 citations