Trading the Genome: Investigating the Commodification of Bio-Information

by Bronwyn Parry

Overview

In a groundbreaking work that draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, business and law, Parry links firsthand knowledge of the operation of the bioprospecting industry to a sophisticated analysis of broader economic, regulatory, and technological transformations to reveal the complex economic and political dynamics that underpin the new global trade in bio-information.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231121743
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	09/29/2004
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Bronwyn Parry is an economic and cultural geographer who holds a senior research fellowship at King's College, University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on the creation and use of human tissue collections in the UK.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Introduction
Part 2. The Collection of Nature and the Nature of Collecting
Revealing the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting
Collecting as Simple Acquisition: Decontextualization and Exoticization
Collection as Concentration and Control
Collection as Recirculation and Regulation
New World Collectors
Part 3: Speedup: Accelerating the Social and Spatial Dynamics of Collecting
Retheorizing Life Forms: Material and Informational?
The Rise of the Information and Bio-Information Economies
Emerging Markets: The Regulation of Trade in Bio-Information
Part 4: New Collectors, New Collections
"When the world was a kinder and gentler place": Early Players and Vacation Pursuits
"An historic revival of collecting"
Impetus for the Revival: Technological Change
The Biodiversity Convention: New Protocols and New Rationales
GATT TRIPs: New Protections, New Incentives
The Practice and Process of Collecting
Part 5: The Fate of the Collections
From Reproduction to Replication
"Build it for us"
Combinations and Permutations
The Diminishing Role of in situ Collecting
The Advent of Microsourcing
Re-mining ex situ Collections
The Emerging Trade in Collected Genetic and Biochemical Materials
Hire Plants: Renters and Brokers
Transacting Bio-Information: Licensing and "Pay-per-View"
Part 6: Taming the Slippery Beast: Regulating Trade in Bio-Information
Compensatory Agreements: The Rise of a Proto-Universal Culture of Regulation?
Networks, Capillaries, and the Geography of Knowledge Systems
Compensatory Agreements: Investigating Terms and Conditions
Infrastructural Support and Technical Training
Future Benefits: Royalty Payments
Taming the Slippery Beast
Regulating the Unlicensed Copying of Bio-Information
Concentration and Control: Patenting Collected Materials
The Complexities of "Co-Inventorship"
Part 7: Back to the Future

Editorial Reviews

Parry has a clear, incisive style...making Trading the Genome a forceful, considered and thought-provoking analysis of one of the most important issues of our time.

New Scientist - Adrian Barnett

This book is a welcome addition to the literature and will be a valuable resource...Well worth the read.

Nature - Brendan Tobin

One of Parry's major contributions is to open this rather closed world to scrutiny.

Jouranl of Historical Geography - Felix Driver

Maintaining a dogged grip on some very important and heretofore-unasked empirical questions, Parry leads us into ground on which it is easy to feel that no critical eye has yet gazed.

Progress in Human Geography - Morgan M. Robertson

Trading the Genome is strongly recommended as an eye-opener to the practices of the modern pharmaceutical industry.

Naturalist

Parry takes a highly complex field and makes it easily accessible through her clear and incisive style.

Social & Legal Studies - Gerard Porter

Parry takes a highly complex field and makes it easily accessible through her clear and incisive style.

— Gerard Porter

Social & Legal Studies

Maintaining a dogged grip on some very important and heretofore-unasked empirical questions, Parry leads us into ground on which it is easy to feel that no critical eye has yet gazed.

— Morgan M. Robertson

Progress in Human Geography

One of Parry's major contributions is to open this rather closed world to scrutiny.

— Felix Driver

Jouranl of Historical Geography

This book is a welcome addition to the literature and will be a valuable resource...Well worth the read.

— Brendan Tobin

Nature

Parry has a clear, incisive style...making Trading the Genome a forceful, considered and thought-provoking analysis of one of the most important issues of our time.

— Adrian Barnett

New Scientist