Biocapitalism can be described literally as capitalism of the living, or materials that are biological. What really intrigues many scholars is the way that biocapitalism is defined and the aspects to the definition. The term is broken down to two definite words, bio and capital. In class we had discussed that the term bio affiliates with the living and life itself where capital is referenced as value, profit and materiality. In Stefan Helmreich article "Species of Biocapital" he references Pierre Bourdieu in the theory of the four species of captial: Economics, Cultural, Social, and symbolic. (p.463) Between the four species they interact and intertwine in creating a dependency to create the whole, capitalism.
Helmreich's article inquires, "What is biocapital? Scholarship in the social and cultural study of biology has suggested that in the age of biotechnology, when the substances and promises of biological materials, particularly stem cells and genomes, are increasingly inserted into projects of product-making and profit-seeking, we are witnessing the rise of a novel kind of capital: biocapital." (pp.463-464) The foundation of creating embryos in the lab and the concept of genes have inspired many experts to explore the possibilities of future analysis. Cultivating life and the theory of creating new and better things have created the commodity of science fiction. The 'hope and hype' that Helmreich references Sunder Rajan (465) has been created to raise investment capital. "Value in the market sense and value in the ethical sense co-constitute one another in biocapital."(465) Helmreich has also referenced Marx, Edward Yoxen, and Foucoult about capitalizing life. 'Life as a productive force: capitalizing upon research in molecular biology' (464) Every discovery and new technology has planted a seed into the minds of the investors creating an imagination for new technology creating faith to researchers and their visions of what may become in the future.
The economics of supply and demand requires the mass population to desire the supply in order for the product to be in demand. In the case of biocapital, Helmreich refers to molecular demand of stem cells and the genomes that the experts apply to their research. The 'supply' that scientists conjure may be of the "speculative enterprise" (465) The major comparisons to Sunder Rajan and Nikolas Rose is the takes on the bio and capital sides of things. Rajan delving more on the capital, "Sunder Rajan takes on board the notion that in the days of genomics, 'biology increasingly becomes an information sciences', a framing that leads him to ask 'where value resides as biology becomes an information science' ". (465)
Nikolas Rose approaches to the more bio side of biocapital. Helmriech interprets Rose's thesis as "Strongly inflected by Foucault as well as Foucault interpreter Paul Rabinow, Rose's thesis is that contemporary biopolitics operates at the level of the molecular and from that seat organizes new landscapes of risk and genres of ethical subjectification." (466) Subjectivity as we discussed in class, incorporates the different subject positions that we are entitled. It is how we identify ourselves and thus creates a formula on how we are supposed to act. Biocapital gives new discoveries and new subjectivities for experts to identify people and for us to identify ourselves.
In last weeks article World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men. by Rebecca Lemov she goes into what makes us human and what differentiates us from animals. How does human behavior be quantified? Lemov explains her paper through the workings of Leob and Watson. Leob and Watson's experiments are measured by responses from their subjects. Their experiments have been ground breaking but limited by their scholarships from corporations and policy makers.
Biocapitalism has been created through the new disciplines of biotechnology and bioeconomy. These terms are still relatively confusing to how and when I should apply these sciences since the science is resting in the grey area. Helmreich and past readings go into these categorizations and has left me assured that the scientific world is also confused.
Works cited:
Helmreich, Stefan. Species of Biocapital. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008.
Lemov, Rebecca. World as Laboratory: Experiments with Mice, Mazes, and Men. New York, NY. Hill and Wang.
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