Agricultural biotechnology
How do social movement organizations find entry points into highly technical arenas of public policy—such as the regulation of agricultural biotechnology—in order to advance critical perspectives? I conducted ethnographic field research in Mexico and Canada and analyzed legal, policy, and scientific documents relating to the question of how to govern “transgene flow” in those countries, as well as in the United States. Transgene flow refers to the situation in which genetically engineered plants reproduce with a wild or domesticated population, passing on engineered traits.
Key idea: Scientization of politics
A unique contribution of this study was to flip the assumption that the “politicization” of science was threatening good governance. I discovered that for citizens of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the obstacle to democratic policy making was not that science had become too “politicized,” but rather the opposite—politics had become too “scientized.” Negatively impacted farmers were formally blocked from sharing their concerns (such as loss of seed saving rights and distrust in multinational corporations) with decision makers because they did not fit into the official categories that were deemed scientifically relevant. In response, farmers and environmental activists worked together to organize an array of actions, from citizen science to a class action lawsuit, to create spaces for broader discussion of public concerns. By closely analyzing four different episodes of confrontation, I discovered that the scientization of politics was marginalizing critical voices about the biotechnology industry in subtle but consequential ways.
Kinchy, Abby J. 2012. Seeds, Science, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Kinchy, Abby J. (2010) “Anti-Genetic Engineering Activism and Scientized Politics in the Case of ‘Contaminated’ Mexican Maize.” Agriculture & Human Values 27: 505-517.
Additional Selected Publications
Harrison, Rebecca, Abby Kinchy, and Laura Rabinow (2017) “GE Food: A Changing Political Economy,” in Handbook of Political Economy of Science. New York: Routledge.
Kinchy, Abby J. (2010) “Epistemic Boomerang: Expert Policy Advice as Leverage in the Campaign against Transgenic Maize in Mexico,” Mobilization 15(2): 179-198.
Kinchy, Abby J. and Daniel Lee Kleinman (2008) “Against Free Markets, Against Science? Regulating the Socio-economic Effects of Biotechnology,” Rural Sociology 73(2): 147-179.
Key idea: Scientization of politics
A unique contribution of this study was to flip the assumption that the “politicization” of science was threatening good governance. I discovered that for citizens of Canada, Mexico, and the United States, the obstacle to democratic policy making was not that science had become too “politicized,” but rather the opposite—politics had become too “scientized.” Negatively impacted farmers were formally blocked from sharing their concerns (such as loss of seed saving rights and distrust in multinational corporations) with decision makers because they did not fit into the official categories that were deemed scientifically relevant. In response, farmers and environmental activists worked together to organize an array of actions, from citizen science to a class action lawsuit, to create spaces for broader discussion of public concerns. By closely analyzing four different episodes of confrontation, I discovered that the scientization of politics was marginalizing critical voices about the biotechnology industry in subtle but consequential ways.
Kinchy, Abby J. 2012. Seeds, Science, and Struggle: The Global Politics of Transgenic Crops. Cambridge: The MIT Press.
Kinchy, Abby J. (2010) “Anti-Genetic Engineering Activism and Scientized Politics in the Case of ‘Contaminated’ Mexican Maize.” Agriculture & Human Values 27: 505-517.
Additional Selected Publications
Harrison, Rebecca, Abby Kinchy, and Laura Rabinow (2017) “GE Food: A Changing Political Economy,” in Handbook of Political Economy of Science. New York: Routledge.
Kinchy, Abby J. (2010) “Epistemic Boomerang: Expert Policy Advice as Leverage in the Campaign against Transgenic Maize in Mexico,” Mobilization 15(2): 179-198.
Kinchy, Abby J. and Daniel Lee Kleinman (2008) “Against Free Markets, Against Science? Regulating the Socio-economic Effects of Biotechnology,” Rural Sociology 73(2): 147-179.
