Chapter 1. The Fictions of Autonomous Invention: Accumulation by Dispossession, Commodification and Life Patents in Canada

  1. Becky Mansfield
  1. Scott Prudham

Published Online: 25 MAR 2009

DOI: 10.1002/9781444306750.ch1

Book Title

Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations

Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations

Additional Information

How to Cite

Prudham, S. (2009) The Fictions of Autonomous Invention: Accumulation by Dispossession, Commodification and Life Patents in Canada, in Privatization: Property and the Remaking of Nature-Society Relations (ed B. Mansfield), Blackwell Publishing Ltd., Oxford, UK. doi: 10.1002/9781444306750.ch1

Publication History

  1. Published Online: 25 MAR 2009
  2. Published Print: 28 MAR 2008

Book Series:

  1. Antipode

ISBN Information

Print ISBN: 9781405175500

Online ISBN: 9781444306750

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Keywords:

  • fictions of autonomous invention - commodification and life patents in Canada;
  • Canadian Patent Act and Supreme Court of Canada decision;
  • capital - its role in circulation in biophysical nature and new property rights;
  • accumulation by dispossession and commodification of nature – two landmark Canadian Supreme Court decisions;
  • exclusive rights over discrete biological processes and entities;
  • nature, neoliberalism, and political economy of biotechnology;
  • patent rights to life;
  • global biotechnology strategy;
  • exclusive right to license oncomouse for use in research - “academic capitalism”;
  • opposition to life patents

Summary

This chapter contains sections titled:

  • Introduction

  • The Cases in Brief

  • Stretching and Deepening: Accumulation by Dispossession and the Commodification of Nature

  • Nature, Neoliberalism, and the Political Economy of Biotechnology

  • Inventing “Things”

  • Conclusion

  • Acknowledgements

  • Endnotes

  • References

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