Constructing "Disinterested" academic science: Relational work in university-industry research collaborations

Dina Biscotti, William B. Lacy, Leland L. Glenna, Rick Welsh

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

This article analyzes how exchange participants in university-industry agricultural biotechnology research collaborations manage and create differences between the academy and industry with regard to the open dissemination and commercialization of scientific knowledge. Our focus is on the constitutive relations that define the boundary between academic and commercial science. We identify a particular "relational package" that formalizes and standardizes exchanges of money from industry for privileged access to university research discoveries. Our analysis of academic scientists' justificatory narratives about their patenting decisions challenges the oft-made assertion that academic patenting on its face should be taken as evidence of a blurred institutional boundary between academic and commercial science.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)273-308
Number of pages36
JournalPolitics and Society
Volume40
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Agricultural biotechnology
  • Institutional isomorphism
  • Relational work
  • Social construction of scientific knowledge
  • University-industry relationships

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Sociology and Political Science
  • Social Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Political Science and International Relations

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