HPSCGA59. Political Economy of Science Course Syllabus

Transcription

1 HPSCGA59 Political Economy of Science Course Syllabus session Dr Tiago Mata Course Information Knowledge and money are bound together. Science and research are integral to the production of value and wealth in contemporary capitalism. The purpose of this module is to unpack this relationship drawing from literatures in economic history, political sociology, the economics of R&D and business administration. We will examine how transformations in the political economy such as the rise of the corporation, the building up of national government bureaucracies, the spread of markets, and most recently financiarisation and globalization have transformed the funding of research, and how science is administered and commodified. The meetings will comprise of a short lecture follow by class discussions on a weekly set of readings. Basic course information Course website: Moodle Web site: Assessment: See moodle. One 5,000 word essay Timetable: Tuesdays 15:00-17:00, South Quad Pop Up Learning Hub 103 Prerequisites: Required texts: Course tutor(s): Contact: Web: None Readings listed below Dr. Tiago Mata t.mata@ucl.ac.uk Office location: 22 Gordon Square, Room 3.3

2 Schedule UCL Week Topic Date Activity Introducing Political Economy (and Marx on Jan technology) 21 Waves of innovation and capitalist epochs 17 Jan See reading list below/decide on essay topic 22 Technology and growthmanship 24 Jan See reading list below 23 The academic-military industrial complex 31 Jan See reading list below/ submit one paragraph progress report (not graded) 24 Entrepreneurial Universities 7 Feb See reading list below 25 Reading week 26 Intellectual property 21 Feb See reading list below/ submit on page progress report on essay (not graded) 27 Neoliberal medicine 28 Feb See reading list below 28 New economy and venture capitalism 7 Mar See reading list below 29 Cryptocurrencies and (anti-)capitalism 14 Mar See reading list below/ deadline for essay submission 30 London, city of science: review of essays and class debate 21 Mar See reading list below Assessments Summary Description Deadline Word limit Deadline for Tutors to provide Feedback Essay on London and the political economy of science 16 March, 6pm 5,000 As advised in class

3 Assignments The module is assessed by one piece of coursework submitted on 16th of March (Thursday), by 6 pm, via the Turnitin function of the module s moodle page. The assignment is an individually written essay on the intermingling of science and economy in London, exploring one of the topics below. In 5,000 words (or alternatively, 3,500 words and a poster) the essay must address either how science is transforming London s economy and government (A, B, C) or how economic/financial concerns shape the management of scientific research (D and E). A. The birth of a new industry, Fintech: London is one of its prime locations for the new high tech financial trading industry, what are its origins and infrastructures in the City? (tips: look for industry reports, firm advertisements, regulator judgments, social studies of finance ) B. The urban location of tech hubs: Google has placed its UK headquarters at Kings Cross, and other tech companies have moved into metropolises like London, what lies behind this strategy? (tips: look for literature around creative cities, possible tax credits and other deals with state and municipality) C. The design of information infrastructure: why does the broadband network look like it does? (tips: look at consumer and business advocate literature, government and the commercial suppliers reports) D. The calculus of campus expansion: to what extent is the explosive expansion in University infrastructure shaped by research needs or by real estate calculations? (tips: look for UCL, KCL, LSE strategic documents, select a few of their big developments and interview one or two actors) E. Smart city and open data: through its datastore, London publishes over 600 databases and encourages creation of apps to visualize the city s social and economic well-being, what is the value and use of this information? (tips: look into sociological analysis of dashboards, examine the literature contained in the datastore and posted by its partners) The essays should be written with a clearly stated thesis in the introduction and conclusion. The essay must have a clear internal structure that identifies secondary literature (drawn from the course and advised by the module s lecturer) and at the heart of the essay should be a systematic review of actor s statements and documents. Referencing should be rigorous (see STS student handbook). The essays will be the subjects of a debate at the last meeting of the module. A coursework extension of up to one week may be approved by a Programme Director (or equivalent), Departmental Tutor or Chair of a Programme Board of Examiners. (Requests for

4 extensions of more than one week must be forwarded to the Faculty EC Panel. Other members of teaching staff, including Module Tutors, are not permitted to grant an extension (see regulation Aims & objectives Aims: The aim of this course is to introduce students to literatures on the political economy of science. Students should complete the course with a repertoire of concepts and modes of analysis that allow them to examine the ways in which science is marshaled for the creation of economic value. They should be able to demonstrate how many of the discourses underlying the governance of research are underpinned by economic models and idealizations. Objectives: By the end of this module students should be able to: Use key concepts from political economy Analyze the intermingling of scientific research, economy and politics Describe the evolution of the relationship between scientific research and corporate capitalism Demonstrate effective researching and critical reading skills Be able to conduct a critical analysis and report such analyses persuasively and coherently Create relevant and critical bibliographies for research projects on the subject Present their work effectively in oral and written formats Reading list The following readings are organized by week. With the exception of the first meeting, students must come to class prepared to discuss the readings. Session 1. Introducing political economy, 10 January Political economy is a contested term claimed by economists, sociologists and political scientists. In our first week we review these alternative conceptions to arrive at a definition that enables us to follow the work of science in contemporary capitalism. This definition must acknowledge that science is a driver in the production of economic value, and that science becomes rooted to practices of commercial and financial valuation. The approach of the course is historical sociology, but in this first week and to introduce our subject we will delve in

5 intellectual history showing how one of the great figures of classical political economy, Karl Marx, held science and technology as key to understanding the teleology of capitalism. Groenewegen, P. (2008) Political Economy in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. London: Palgrave. Marx, Karl. Economic Manuscripts of , excerpts. Robinson, I. (2001) Area and International Studies: Political Economy in International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp Session 2. Waves of innovation, 17 January In the interwar period, the Austrian economist and statesman Joseph Schumpeter sketched a powerful explanation for the convulsive character of capitalism. He noted that the boom and bust of economic activity, also known as the business cycle, was bound to the birth and maturity of classes of technologies. Schumpeter further held that for science and technology to function as pacemakers of economic activity a crucial actor was needed, the entrepreneur. Schumpeter invented the entrepreneur as a visionary risk taker that was able to translate the insights of science into economic opportunity and super profits. Freeman, Christopher and Louçã, Francisco (2001) As Time Goes By: From Industrial Revolutions to the Information Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, Session 3. Growthmanship, 24 January In the wake of the mass destruction of the second world war and the threat of socialist revolution, western polities reworked a new social contract. Their promise of expanding welfare provision and moderate income distribution rested on assumptions of continued economic growth. The expansion of gross domestic product (a metric that came into existence postwar) through grains in productivity became the fundamental aim of policy. The key contributor to productivity growth, so explained the economists, was not labour, nor capital, it was technology. Thus the state took increasing responsibility in incentivizing innovation. We review what regime of technological management emerged from this post-1945 social settlement. Godin, Benoit (2009) National Innovation System: The System Approach in Historical Perspective Science, Technology, & Human Values, 34(4), Hulten, Charles R. (2001) Total Factor Productivity. A Short Biography in New Developments in Productivity Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, (you can skip the math, find online at: Mazzucato, Mariana (2011) The Enterpreneurial State. London: Demos, chapters 5 (find online at: Session 4. The academic-military-industrial complex, 31 January In 1961 in his farewell speech as President of the United States, the former general, former President of Columbia University, Dwight Eisenhower, warned of a partnership between the

6 military and industry gaining unwarranted influence upon the American government. The relationship between science and war is an old one, and in Cold War America that relationship was institutionalized through industry. We examine how by promising relative autonomy and abundant resources the military industry came to set the research priorities of many American universities. Leslie, Stuart W. (1993) The Cold War and American science: the military-industrial-academic complex at MIT and Stanford. New York: Columbia University Press, chapters 1, 2, 3. Session 5. Entrepreneurial universities, 7 February Schumpeter s entrepreneur was a capitalist, an individual, who seized an opportunity and thus created a new industry. In the past half century entrepreneurship has become a more ample concept that marks out an attitude. Individuals of all classes and collectives and institutions such as universities, can be deemed entrepreneurial if they seize opportunities to expand their commercial activity and their profit margins. Under the icon of enterpreneurship, corporate ideas have permeated the University administrations and transformed the ways they have framed research and education. As a result, a managerial culture of audit and economic valuation has taken root. Bok, Derek (2003) Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton: Princeton University Press, chapter 4. Kleinman, D. L., and S. P. Vallas (2001) Science, Capitalism, and the Rise of the Knowledge Worker : The Changing Structure of Knowledge Production in the United States. Theory and Society 30: Slaughter, Sheila and Gary Rhoades (2004) Academic Capitalism and the New Economy: markets, state and higher education. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, chapter 1. Session 6. Intellectual property, 21 February The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 triggered a transformation in how University research was valued and imagined. With the Act research institutions funded by federal funds were no longer required to relinquish intellectual property to the government. Individual scientists and universities, sometimes competitively and litigiously, could now appropriate the economic gains from knowledge funded by the public purse. The new legislative framing, together with unrelated but coincidental changes to University management, and the financiarization of western economies, made intellectual property into a crucial arbiter in decisions to allocate funds and in the career ideals of scientists. The current intellectual property regime has fused together the quest for knowledge with the quest for personal fortune. Mirowski, Philip (2011) Science Mart: Privatizing American Science. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. chapter 4. Stiglitz, Joseph (1999) Knowledge as a Global Public Good Global Public Goods: International Cooperation in the 21st Century (ed.) Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg, and Marc Stern. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

7 Session 7. Neoliberal medicine, 28 February Neoliberalism identities a movement of intellectuals that distinguished themselves from classic liberals by rejecting the belief that markets arise unaided from human nature. For these academics and policy-makers markets are superior information processors that must be designed and brought into being through state action. Because of their superior regulatory powers markets are welcomed into all spheres of social activity. In the medical and pharmaceutical sciences this intellectual program has been extraordinarily influential, and the global marketplace has come to replace, and undermine, national regulatory oversight. We examine how greater efficiency and profitability for pharmaceutical firms has been accompanied by perverse effects on the production of medical knowledge. Nik-Khah, Edward (2014) Neoliberal pharmaceutical science and the Chicago School of Economics Social Studies of Science, 44(4), Sismondo, Sergio (2009) Ghosts in the Machine: Publication Planning in the Medical Sciences Social Studies of Science, 39(2), Session 8. New economy and venture capitalism, 7 March Venture capital firms have existed since the 1940s to seek out investment opportunities of high return albeit with high risk. Since the 1970s growth in institutional investors - mutual funds, pension funds, hedge funds and lately sovereign wealth funds - has meant an expanding clientele for VC s exciting bets in start-ups. Empowered by immense wealth and the demand of high returns venture capitalists have impelled to success the corporate giants of our age. We review how VCs changed our understanding of innovation and technological progress and how they have narrowed the expectation of how long it should take for a technology to come to profitable fruition. Ferrary, M., & Granovetter, M. (2009). The role of venture capital firms in Silicon Valley s complex innovation network. Economy and Society, 38(2), Lerner, Josh; Pierrakis, Yannis; Collins, Liam and Bravo Biosca, Albert (2011) Atlantic Drift: Venture capital performance in the UK and the US. NESTA research report. Powell, Walter W. and Kaisa Snellman (2004) The Knowledge Economy Annual Review of Sociology 30, Session 9. Cryptocurrencies and (anti-)capitalism, 14 March Bitcoin was created as a disruptive technology. It was a libertarian cryptographic invention, a fully digital, truly transnational currency engineered to elude the oversight of governments. It was understood by many as a tool to construct new social relations. After only a few years something remarkable has happened. The bitcoin alt-communities have languished and enthusiasm for the technology by critics of capitalism has faded. By contrast the blockchain cryptography of bitcoin found new champions among the banking and finance industries who are deploying it to re-engineer circuits of transactions and financial products circumventing the oversight of states. The case of bitcoin seems distinct from the analyses of the previous weeks, we look at this unsettled case to ask what it can teach us about the disruptive potential of technology.

8 Gavin Wood, Aeron Buchanan (2015) Advancing Egalitarianism in Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Sundararajan, Arun. The Sharing Economy: The End of Employment and the Rise of Crowd- Based Capitalism. MIT Press, 2016, chapter 4. Tarasiewicza, Matthias and Newmanb, Andrew (2015) Cryptocurrencies as Distributed Community Experiments in Handbook of Digital Currency: Bitcoin, Innovation, Financial Instruments, and Big Data. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Useful links UCL Study Skills pages: UCL Library electronic resources: UCL Plagiarism Guidelines: UCL Guide to References, Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism: Using Moodle: