"Recent scholarship in science, technology, and society has emphasized the neoliberal character of science today. This article draws on the history of US science and technology (S&T) policy to argue against thinking of recent changes in science as fundamentally neoliberal, and for thinking of them instead as reflecting a process of ‘‘economization.’’ The policies that changed the organization of science in the United States included some that intervened in markets and others that expanded their reach, and were promoted by some groups who were skeptical of free markets and others who embraced them. In both cases, however, new policies reflected (1) growing political concern with ‘‘the economy’’ and related abstractions (e.g., growth, productivity, balance of trade) and (2) a new understanding of S&T as inputs into a larger economic system that government could manipulate through policy. Understanding trends in US S&T policy as resulting from economization, not just neoliberalism, has implications for thinking about the present and likely future of science and S&T policy."
Keywords: S&T policy, neoliberalism, economics, economization, rationalization
Elizabeth Popp Berman, "2014. Berman. "Not Just Neoliberalism: Economization in US Science and Technology Policy"", contributed by Maggie Woodruff, STS Infrastructures, Platform for Experimental Collaborative Ethnography, last modified 4 June 2018, accessed 21 December 2024. https://stsinfrastructures.org/content/2014-berman-not-just-neoliberalism-economization-us-science-and-technology-policy
Critical Commentary
This 2014 article by Elizabeth Popp Berman challenges the idea that US science and technology policy is solely neoliberal by suggesting that a process of economization is occurring.