Mauro Turrini (ed.), Biocapitale. Vita e corpi nell’era del controllo biologico, Ombre Corte, 2011
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Manuela Perrotta
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Tecnoscienza – Italian Journal of Science & Technology Studies
Mauro Turrini (ed.), Biocapital. Life and bodies in the age of biological control, Ombre Corte, 2011
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2011-12-29
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2011-12-29
2023-07-06
129-132
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Manuela Perrotta
2011/12/29
10.6092/issn.2038-3460/16867
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Mauro Turrini (ed.), Biocapital. Life and bodies in the age of biological control, Ombre Corte, 2011
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                                                             TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)             129




of the telephone: the author                  Consequences, The MIT Press, Cam-
describes, indeed, how subscribers            bridge (MA).
                                           Latour, B. (1992), Aramis ou l’amour des
imposed many ways of use that                 techniques, La Découverte, Paris.
forced changes in telephonic admini-       Pinch, T. & Bijker, W. E. (1984), The social
stration. An interesting example is           construction of facts and artefacts: Or how
the social practice called “parasi-           the sociology of science and the sociology of
                                              technology might benefit each other, in
tism”: for a long time Italian tele-          “Social Studies of Science”, 14(3), pp.
phones were managed with flat rates           419–424.
and subscribers often borrowed their       Richeri, G. (2006), The media amidst the
telephones, sometimes in exchange             enterprises, the public and the State.
for money and sometimes for free.             “Studies in Communication Sciences”
                                              6(2), pp. 131–143.
This social practice forced major
changes in rate’s policies.
    Balbi’s research is very interesting
because it shows a telecommuni-
cation system, which nowadays is                                ***
considered as a taken- for-granted
infrastructure, in its early phase of
diffusion. He in fact highlights some
steps in the process of stabilization of               Mauro Turrini (ed)
the telephone, emphasizing the
                                            Biocapitale. Vita e corpi nell’era
heterogeneous pushes and pressures
                                                del controllo biologico
that contribute to the co-construc-
tion of the medium and demonstrate,         (Biocapital. Life and bodies in the age of
with a series of examples, how often                     biological control)
“creating an infrastructure is as much           2011, Ombre Corte, 175 pp.
social, political, and economic work
as it is theoretical” (Bowker, Star,
1999: 109). Moreover, the study here                     Manuela Perrotta
presented underlines a recent redis-
                                              (Norwegian University of Science and
covery of the origins of telecommu-
                                                         Technology)
nication systems as a new and pro-
mising area of research in media and
telecommunication, and it can be an
interesting reading also for those who        As Mauro Turrini notices in his
are involved in studies on New             introduction to this edited volume,
Media.                                     the concept of biocapitalism has been
                                           imported only recently in the Italian
                                           debate and it has been received in its
References                                 broadest sense. According to Codel-
                                           uppi (2008, p. 2), for instance, “the
Bowker, G.C. Star, S.L. (1999), Sorting    biocapital is the most advanced
   Things Out: Classification and Its      evolution of the capitalist economic
130   BOOK REVIEWS




      model: a form characterized by its        debate, deals with the genomic
      growing intertwining with human           capital. Exploring the relation
      beings’ lives”. Previously, capitalism    between biotechnology and market
      was mainly concerned with pro-            forces, the essay introduces a
      cessing raw materials and machinery,      theoretically sophisticated notion of
      while nowadays the biocapital             biocapitalism, which shows how life
      includes the body of workers in their     sciences have come to be significant
      entirety. Therefore, in this sense,       producers of both economic and
      biocapitalism affects all the biolo-      epistemic value in the last decades.
      gical, mental, emotional and rela-        Following the connections among
      tional components of individuals.         scientists, entrepreneurs, venture
          The volume, on the contrary, has      capitalists, and policymakers, the
      the merit of bringing to the Italian      author shows how genomics allows a
      audience a more sophisticated and         glimpse into contemporary capitalism
      articulated discussion on the relation    – far away from the traditional
      between biotechnology, economics,         concepts of land, labor and capital.
      politics, culture and society. In this    Examining the practices and goals of
      area “biocapital” refers to the           research, the financing mechanisms,
      capacities of certain things (such as     the relevant government regulations,
      organs and tissues) to produce            and the hype and marketing
      surplus value (Waldby and Mitchell,       surrounding promising new tech-
      2006).                                    nologies, Rajan analyses the role and
          In the last years, several scholars   value of information, redefining
      in the field of STS have explored the     genomics as a very special kind of
      contemporary join of capitalism and       information science.
      biotechnology. In this literature a           This path leads to an embedded
      variety of terms have been forwarded      understanding of market logics,
      to name how ‘life’ has become             which are not taken for granted but
      enmeshed in market dynamics, and          emergent from an intertwined
      no term has become as prominent as        network of elements. The contes-
      biocapital (for a classification see      tation of what is a “sound market
      Helmreich, 2008).                         logic” is over the very definition of
          With the aim of drawing a map of      what constitutes a market logic:
      the studies that have developed a         “market logic goes much beyond a
      reflection on biocapital, Turrini         quantitative generation of maximal
      restricts the area of interest only to    surplus value – it needs to generate
      clinical applications, and chooses        other forms of symbolic capital,
      four articles that represent four         which in the case of biotechnology
      milestones in the international deba-     already exists in the rhetorical and
      te.                                       real construction sector of the
          The first chapter by Kaushik          industry as being in the business of
      Sunder Rajan, one of the main             Food, Health and Hope” (p. 68).
      international contributors to this            The essay by Robert Mitchell and
                                                         TECNOSCIENZA – 2 (2)       131




Catherine Waldby explores genetics        tive medical histories to create a re-
research in a different perspective,      search resource with significant
looking at the cases of national          commercial potential” (p. 96). Ac-
biobanks. The recent interest in          cording to the authors, the shift from
biobanks is often explained through       the civil to the economic discourse
their interpretation as an economic       clarifies the commercial logics that
‘resource’ for basic researchers and      are at the basis of the creation of na-
academic biologists as well as            tional biobanks, raising new ques-
pharmaceutical companies, diagnos-        tions about equity and participation.
tics companies, and clinical genomics         In chapter three, Sarah Franklin
companies. On the contrary, the           discusses what she terms “ethical bio-
authors emphasize their economic          capital” as a new form of cultural
aspect, focusing specifically on the      capital, using the case of Dolly the
way in which national biobanks            sheep. Franklin clarifies Dolly clon-
create biovalue. According to the         ing from a technical point of view: it
authors, the creation of biovalue         was not a clone in the colloquial
through biobanks is possible through      sense, i.e. a perfect duplicate. Dolly
the introduction of what they define      was rather the result of somatic cell
clinical labor – that is, the regula-     nuclear transfer, in which nuclear
rized, embodied work that members         DNA from one ewe cell was inserted
of the national population are            into the denucleated cell of another.
expected to perform in their role as      This mixture was then cultured into
biobank participants.                     sheep embryos to be placed into still
    The scientific rationale for the      other ewes for gestation.
creation of national biobank is the           Even though Dolly has an iconic
complexity of genetic contribution to     status – being an emblem of what is
common diseases, and of the gene-         currently achievable and what seems
environment interactions. In order to     to be possible in the future – the rel-
probe gene-environment interactions,      evance of the case lies in the cultural
researchers hope that storing such        production of what she defines ethi-
large population-based collections of     cal biocapital. This has been gener-
biosamples from hundreds of thou-         ated through the sustained govern-
sands of individuals, and relatively      mental attention to the bioethical is-
long term access to their information,    sues raised by genetics, cloning, and
will provide the statistical power nec-   stem cell research, and the British es-
essary to identify the connection be-     tablishment of detailed regulations of
tween those two components. On the        such activities generated through
basis of this premise and under a ru-     collaborative processes between citi-
bric of citizenship and public good,      zens and experts. Therefore, the
national biobanks enroll a part of na-    ethical biocapital locally produced
tional populations as economically        has allowed the UK to proceed rap-
productive participants: “subjects        idly with its government-supported
who lend their bodies and prospec-        research agendas in contrast to what
132   BOOK REVIEWS




      happened in other countries.              theorization is still tied to an Anglo-
          The last chapter by Melinda           American perspective.
      Cooper describes the connection               Hopefully, the publication of
      between the reproductive and              these essays in Italian could open the
      regenerative medicine. According to       way for a structured discussion of
      the author, currently these two fields    these issues in the national debate,
      of medicine interact through a            where the meeting between theore-
      number of different interfaces.           tical approach and local practices
      However, they have different expec-       may produce interesting and fruitful
      tations from their in vitro cells and     insights. If in general terms this
      clashing interpretations of life gene-    would be appropriate for many
      ration. Moreover, they do not even        different countries, in this case there
      share the same institutional, political   would be many reasons to study
      and economic context. All those           these issues in Italy – where
      differences produce what Cussins-         biobanking is still far from being
      Thompson (1996) has defined               established; the Italian regulations
      “ontological choreography”: the           forbid research on national embryos,
      same biological material can assume       while allowing scientists to import
      different ontological status according    foreign stem cells lines; and national
      to the sense making process in which      researchers     are       internationally
      it is embedded and can even be            recognized as pioneers in the rese-
      subject to different legal regimes        arch on the cryopreservation of eggs,
      (typically, ownership and family law).    developed as a result of the
          In this perspective, Cooper’s         prohibition to freeze embryos
      analysis of regenerative and repro-
      ductive medicine is an example of
      incorporation of ethical and moral        References
      models into research programs. As
      the author notices, in fact, the USA      Codeluppi, G. (2008) Biocapitale. Verso lo
      context is characterized by a highly         sfruttamento integrale di corpi, cervelli ed
                                                   emozioni, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
      unregulated market in scientific          Cussins, C. (1996) Ontological choreography.
      research and private services that           Agency through objectification in infertility
      often co-exists alongside the strictly       clinics, in “Social Studies of Science”
      restrictive policy of the Federal            26(3), pp. 575-610.
                                                Helmreich, S. (2008) Species of Biocapital, in
      Government.
                                                   “Science as Culture” 17( 4), pp. 463–478.
          In my understanding, what deeply      Waldby C., Mitchell R. (2006) Tissue
      binds these four essays around the           economies: blood, organs, and cell line in
      concept of biocapital is the local           late capitalism, Duke University Press,
      dimension in which state, market and         Durham.
      institutions take shape in research
      practices and clinical work. On the
      contrary, as the last two chapters
      show unequivocally, the biocapital
