This book illustrates and explains the consequences of neoliberal reform on rural economies. Based on an ethnographic case study of coastal fisheries in Iceland, it poses the following questions: How are rural fishers navigating liberal capitalism? And how are new markets, property-rights and digital technologies transforming rural economies? By drawing on an extensive body of literature on economic sociology and science and technology studies, the book offers a novel understanding of the role of market-based reform for rural development.
An exploration of the economization of the ocean through the small modifications that enable great transformations of nature. The ocean is the site of an ongoing transformation that is aimed at creating new economic opportunities and prosperity. In Nature-Made Economy, Kristin Asdal and Tone Huse explore how the ocean has been harnessed to become a space of capital investment and innovation, and how living nature is wrested into the economy even as nature, in turn, resists, adapts to, or changes the economy. The authors’ innovative methodological and conceptual approaches examine the economy by focusing on surprising and numerous “little tools”—such as maps and policy documents, quality patrols, and dietary requirements for the enhancement of species’ biological propensities—that value, direct, reorder, accomplish, and sometimes fail to serve our ends, but also add up to great change. Throughout Nature-Made Economy, Asdal and Huse follow one species, the Atlantic cod, and explore how it is subjected to different versions of economization. Taking this species as a point of departure, they then provide novel analyses of the innovation economy, the architecture of markets, the settling of prices, and more, revealing how the ocean is rendered a space of intense economic exploitation. Through their analysis, the authors develop a distinct theoretical approach and conceptual vocabulary for studying nature–economy relations. Nature-Made Economy is a significant contribution to the broad field of STS and social studies of markets, as well as to studies of the Anthropocene, the environment, and human–animal relations.
This book explores the idea of ownership in the realm of plant breeding, revealing how plants have been legally and physically transformed into property. It highlights the controversial aspects in the process of turning seeds, plants and genes into property and how this endangers the viability of the seed industry.
"The spread of competition into all areas of society is one of the master trends of modern society. Yet, social scientists have played a surprisingly modest role in the analysis of its implications as the discussion of competition has largely been confined to the narrow context of economic markets. This book opens up competition for the study of social scientists. The central message of the book is that competition seems ubiquitous but it should not be taken for granted or be naturalized as an inevitable aspect of human existence. Its emergence, maintenance, and change are based on institutions and organizational efforts, and a central challenge for social science is to learn more about these processes and their outcomes. With the use of a novel definition of competition, more fundamental questions can be addressed than merely whether or not competition works. How is competition constructed--and by whom? Which institutional and organizational foundations need to be considered? Which behaviours result from competition? What are its consequences? Can competition be removed? And, how do these factors vary with the object of competition--be it money, attention, status, or other scarce and desired objects? The chapters in the book investigate these and more questions in studies of competition among and within schools, universities, multinational corporations, auditors, waste-disposal firms, and fashion designers and users. The chapters are written by scholars from several social science fields: management, organization studies, sociology, anthropology, and education"--Publisher's website.
This book aims to develop a global perspective on the management issues facing coastal resorts. It does so bydrawing on examples from a range of economies and environments written by key experts. The majormanagement themes highlighted include the processes of restructuring, attempts to develop sustainableagendas and environmental issues of developing resorts in sensitive areas.
