Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

The Politics of Emergence: Public-Private Partnerships and the Conflictive Timescapes of Apomixis Technology Development

Hodges, Matt (2012) The Politics of Emergence: Public-Private Partnerships and the Conflictive Timescapes of Apomixis Technology Development. BioSocieties, 7 (1). pp. 23-49. ISSN 1745-8552. (doi:10.1057/biosoc.2011.30) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:28702)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://www.palgrave-journals.com/biosoc/journal/v7...

Abstract

How are ‘conflicts in time’ in technoscientific practices effectively theorised from a social scientific perspective? What are the ramifications for critique of the complex relations between ‘public’ and ‘private’ sectors in the global bioeconomy? This article furnishes a case study drawn from frontier research in agricultural biotechnology development, as this field is confronted with the challenges of global food security and climate change. ‘Apomixis’, the capacity of certain plants to ‘self-clone’, would arguably comprise a revolutionary tool for agriculture. Public–private partnerships (PPPs) are a leading template for innovation, yet their hybrid character poses special challenges to stakeholders for the resource-poor. Through historical anthropological study of a PPP incorporating key players from the public sector and seed industry, I analyse the conflictive temporal politics of project planning and management, co-innovation, and frontier research; their impacts on technology development; and highlight implications for production of public goods. The article illustrates how such conflicts are illuminated by a temporal analysis informed by the anthropology of time, science and technology studies, and the philosophy of Deleuze. It presents a theoretical model for wider critique of how significant research and development trajectories go undeveloped or are impeded, which it terms ‘sideshadows’.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1057/biosoc.2011.30
Subjects: G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Human and Social Sciences > School of Anthropology and Conservation
Depositing User: Matthew Hodges
Date Deposited: 13 Feb 2012 12:15 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:07 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/28702 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.