Assetization
Turning Things into Assets in Technoscientific Capitalism
Published on 14. July 2020
344 pages
978-0-262-35902-3 (ISBN)
Description
How the asset--anything that can be controlled, traded, and capitalized as a revenue stream--has become the primary basis of technoscientific capitalism.
In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines argue that the asset--meaning anything that can be controlled, traded, and capitalized as a revenue stream--has become the primary basis of technoscientific capitalism. An asset can be an object or an experience, a sum of money or a life form, a patent or a bodily function. A process of assetization prevails, imposing investment and return as the key rationale, and overtaking commodification and its speculative logic. Although assets can be bought and sold, the point is to get a durable economic rent from them rather than make a killing on the market.
In this book, scholars from a range of disciplines argue that the asset--meaning anything that can be controlled, traded, and capitalized as a revenue stream--has become the primary basis of technoscientific capitalism. An asset can be an object or an experience, a sum of money or a life form, a patent or a bodily function. A process of assetization prevails, imposing investment and return as the key rationale, and overtaking commodification and its speculative logic. Although assets can be bought and sold, the point is to get a durable economic rent from them rather than make a killing on the market.
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07/2020
MIT Press
€46.10
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Persons
Kean Birch is Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at York University, Toronto. Fabian Muniesa is Senior Researcher at the Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), a research center of Mines ParisTec.
Content
1 Introduction: Assetization and Technoscientific Capitalism
I Turning Knowledge into Assets
2 Patents as Assets: Intellectual Property Rights as Market Subjects and Objects
3 Datassets: Assetizing and Marketizing Personal Data
4 A Crisis for Cures? Tracing Assetization and Value in Biomedical Innovation
II Turning Infrastructure into Assets
5 High-Speed Contradictions: Spanish Railways between Economic Criticism and Political Defense
6 Turning Sunlit Rooftops and Windy Sites into Energy Assets
III Turning Nature into Assets
7 Expropriating the Future: Turning Ore Deposits and Legitimate Expectations into Assets
8 From Commodity to Asset and Back Again: Property in the Capitalism of Varieties
9 Turning Nature into an Asset: Corporate Strategies for Rent-Seeking
IV Turning Publics into Assets
10 English Higher Education: From a Public Good to a Public Asset
11 Recidivists, Rough Sleepers, and the Unemployed as Financial Assets: Social Impact Bonds and the Creation of New Markets in Social Services
12 Conclusion: The Future of Assetization Studies
I Turning Knowledge into Assets
2 Patents as Assets: Intellectual Property Rights as Market Subjects and Objects
3 Datassets: Assetizing and Marketizing Personal Data
4 A Crisis for Cures? Tracing Assetization and Value in Biomedical Innovation
II Turning Infrastructure into Assets
5 High-Speed Contradictions: Spanish Railways between Economic Criticism and Political Defense
6 Turning Sunlit Rooftops and Windy Sites into Energy Assets
III Turning Nature into Assets
7 Expropriating the Future: Turning Ore Deposits and Legitimate Expectations into Assets
8 From Commodity to Asset and Back Again: Property in the Capitalism of Varieties
9 Turning Nature into an Asset: Corporate Strategies for Rent-Seeking
IV Turning Publics into Assets
10 English Higher Education: From a Public Good to a Public Asset
11 Recidivists, Rough Sleepers, and the Unemployed as Financial Assets: Social Impact Bonds and the Creation of New Markets in Social Services
12 Conclusion: The Future of Assetization Studies
