A Tale of Two Genome Institutes: Qualitative Networks, Charismatic Voice, and R&D strategies: Juxtaposing GIS Biopolis and BGI
Name
--A Tale of 2 Genome Inst.pdf
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662.85 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d340a218da1ec8af3d776a84223b694d
Author(s)
Fischer, Michael M. J.
Date Issued
March 2017
Journal
forthcoming in Science, Technology and Society
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
Fischer, Michael M.J. "A Tale of Two Genome Institutes: Qualitative Networks, Charismatic Voice, and R&D strategies -- Juxtaposing GIS Biopolis and BGI (forthcoming in Science, Technology and Society (Sage))
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
The journalistic stereotypes -- of BGI, the world’s largest sequencing center, as a Chinese state venture, and of Singapore’s GIS as a neoliberal platform -- are inverted. Methodologically, by looking at qualitative networks, charismatic leaders, and research strategies, this essay proposes a finer grained, meso-level, ethnographic analysis that allows for multi-scalar tracking, and juxtaposition as a generator of comparative insights. It deploys a social hieroglyphic analysis of the leaders of BGI, and an updated account of the post-2010 “industrial re-alignment” of GIS, to highlight the role of cross-national networks in the construction of what are usually seen as national science projects, as well as the roles of mixed state and market strategies, and mixed clinical, basic science, biotech, and big pharma protocols and platforms of the contemporary life sciences. It pays particular attention to the small worlds of the scientific republic and the charismatic voice of leaders forging new institutional arrangements.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Anthropology Program
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Program in Science, Technology and Society
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