Agent of Changelessness: The Development and Commodification of Biotechnology

The use of knowledge as a mechanism of social control is briefly discussed to preface an analysis of the development of biotechnology & its impact on the meaning & place of the university in the contemporary social structure. It is shown how, beginning in the 1920s, the Rockefeller Foundation heavily funded university research programs in biotechnology, with a particular interest in its genetic engineering aspects. This commodification of scientific research expanded in the post-WWII period, & intensified with the discovery of recombinant DNA in 1973. Increased alliances between corporations in the industrial sector & university research departments proliferated, & the business-academic partnership flourished, particularly in biotechnology. The political economy of biotechnology is described, highlighting the growing demand for research unfettered by government regulations, & the development of a laissez-faire policy regarding biotechnological research at US universities. Future implications for the relationship between commercial interests & knowledge production are considered, along with implications for the autonomy & moral environment of the university. 20 References. K. Hyatt Stewart