Rodney Loeppky - Böcker

This book deals with the rapid changes in contemporary molecular biology, particularly genome sciences, and the manner in which they can be understood through the lens of political economy. Specifically, the work investigates the case of the United States-led Genome Project (HGP), in order to show that even large-scale basic science is closely bound up in the progression of capitalist social relations. The work has, in part, been motivated by the lack of rigorous analysis of the HGP. Most the existing literature tends to present either a chronological review of events surrounding the HGP or describe it thematically. In contrast, this book contributes to a needed discussion concerning the 'why and how' of the HGP emergence. It elucidates the features within capitalist social relations which have simultaneously enable the HGP and ensure its amenability to systemic demands. The work's most compelling elements are both historical and analytical. Historically, it places the HGP within the context of wider political, economic and social issues. Related to this, it puts forward an analytical, explanatory understanding of the project's emergence, making it a valuable tool for both political economists, science & society theorists, and even bioethicists.

This book deals with the rapid changes in contemporary molecular biology, particularly genome sciences, and the manner in which they can be understood through the lens of political economy. Specifically, the work investigates the case of the United States-led Genome Project (HGP), in order to show that even large-scale basic science is closely bound up in the progression of capitalist social relations. The work has, in part, been motivated by the lack of rigorous analysis of the HGP. Most the existing literature tends to present either a chronological review of events surrounding the HGP or describe it thematically. In contrast, this book contributes to a needed discussion concerning the 'why and how' of the HGP emergence. It elucidates the features within capitalist social relations which have simultaneously enable the HGP and ensure its amenability to systemic demands. The work's most compelling elements are both historical and analytical. Historically, it places the HGP within the context of wider political, economic and social issues. Related to this, it puts forward an analytical, explanatory understanding of the project's emergence, making it a valuable tool for both political economists, science & society theorists, and even bioethicists.

"Accumulation and Constraint examines the dynamic world of advanced industrial health, exploring it as a means to better understand the internal differences in biomedical development (pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical devices) and health care reform, delivery and restructuring. Rodney Loeppky suggests that it is because of intensified industrial competitive pressure that health production has grown so robustly across the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Loeppky also argues that there are important national, systemic differences, particularly in health care delivery, that place limits on the quest for economic gain through biomedical innovation. Using a political economy framework, Loeppky emphasizes the transitions to capitalism of industrial states - particularly the United States, Canada and Germany - as a critical point of development that shaped their contemporary handling of biomedical production and health."

This work argues that a component part of US neoliberalism involves adaptive accumulation, a process in which capital seeks to enlarge public programs, as a means to reroute public revenues into private revenue streams. Along the way, corporations project quasi-public aspirations as a central part of their commercial mission, as the state carves out new – or expands old – areas of accumulative growth for corporate America.