Life As Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era [Paperback]

Melinda Cooper (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 029598791X | ISBN-13: 978-0295987910 | Publication Date: April 2008 | Edition: First Edition

Focusing on the period between the 1970s and the present, "Life as Surplus" is a pointed and important study of the relationship between politics, economics, science, and cultural values in the United States today. Melinda Cooper demonstrates that the history of biotechnology cannot be understood without taking into account the simultaneous rise of neo-liberalism as a political force and an economic policy. From the development of recombinant DNA technology in the 1970s to the second Bush administration's policies on stem cell research, Cooper connects the utopian polemic of free-market capitalism with growing internal contradictions of the commercialized life sciences.The biotech revolution relocated economic production at the genetic, microbial, and cellular level. Taking as her point of departure the assumption that life has been drawn into the circuits of value creation, Cooper underscores the relations between scientific, economic, political, and social practices. In penetrating analyses of Reagan-era science policy, the militarization of the life sciences, HIV politics, pharmaceutical imperialism, tissue engineering, stem cell science, and the pro-life movement, the author examines the speculative impulses that have animated the growth of the bio-economy. At the very core of the new post-industrial economy is the transformation of biological life into surplus value."Life as Surplus" offers a clear assessment of both the transformative, therapeutic dimensions of the contemporary life sciences and the violence, obligation, and debt servitude crystallizing around the emerging bio-economy. Melinda Cooper is a research fellow with the Centre for Biomedicine and Society, Kings College London.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A book of topical timeliness and conceptual and political importance. Cooper reads two terms-biopolitics and neoliberalism-in exciting, exceptional ways, and provides an astute account of contemporary American political culture." Kaushik Sunder Rajan, author of Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life [Duke University Press] ...it fills a knowledge gap in fields too many radicals usually ignore: biotechnology, tissue-engineering, stem cell research and AIDS...we would recommend this book to all radicals. - Mute Magazine, 21st October 2008

From the Publisher

"A book of topical timeliness and conceptual and political importance. Cooper reads two terms-biopolitics and neoliberalism-in exciting, exceptional ways, and provides an astute account of contemporary American political culture." - Kaushik Sunder Rajan, author of Biocapital: The Constitution of Postgenomic Life

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Washington Pr; First Edition edition (April 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 029598791X
• ISBN-13: 978-0295987910
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 7 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,402 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended, October 24, 2008

By 

Jake O'Connor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Life As Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (Paperback)

Insightful, innovative, highly readable, though at times dense. Cooper provides a novel analysis of the encounter between neoliberal innovation economies, biotechnology and the religious right. The strength of the book lies in its theoretical rigour and historical detail. It also advances some provocative ideas about the nature of neoliberal economics, namely that its long-term success is fed by its own regulation/deregulation dynamics.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prescient, smart & vital, August 14, 2011

By 

C. Berrigan "cberrigan" (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Life As Surplus: Biotechnology and Capitalism in the Neoliberal Era (Paperback)

A prescient & insightful contribution not only to Science & Technology Studies, but to broader dialogues about biopolitics, markets, capitalism and environmentalism. I find myself recommending this book to many people whose interests and scholarship cross a wide spectrum. I can't wait for her next book.