ECOLOGY OF EVERYDAY LIFE
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for or against the round of Geneva trade talks surrounding the WTO. At this
event, Karnataka farmers established an international research center in order
to help develop community seed banks and to protect the intellectual rights of
their communities.11 It is vital to uncover the rich moments of resistance such
as these that are scattered across the globe. We need to continually shed light
on movements of social contestation that bubble up amidst even the most
oppressive conditions. In this way, our critique is informed not only by
urgency, but by vital inspiration.
Further, we may critique the sphere of the State surrounding patenting.
Here, we examine novel articulations between the State and the social sphere,
exploring how state institutions including the National Institute of Health and
the Department of Energy fund social institutions such as corporations and
universities to collect, taxonomize, and warehouse genetic information through
such projects as the Human Genome Project (a three billion dollar program
that is currently 'mapping’ the entire human genome).12
Finally, we may pose a series of critical questions relating to the political
sphere concerning the lack of popular awareness and participation in
determining public policy surrounding life patenting. Here, we critique the lack
of scientific literacy among citizens, the lack of public forums for popular
education, discussion, and debate about current scientific practices. Here, it is
crucial to draw out the general crisis surrounding non-democracy from the
particular crisis of biological patenting.
In the critical moment, we may explore the historical context of
life-patenting by examining the radical history of resistance movements related
to the topic more generally. We might begin by looking at the historical
relationship between public and private institutions of science, medicine,
education, and capital, examining the theme of colonization and privatization.
Particularly, we would examine the historical context surrounding intellectual
property rights, looking at the roles institutions have played in developing such
practices over the century. We would also analyze the broader history of
colonialism,
capitalism, and patriarchy that frames such issues as seed
cultivation and ownership in Third World situations. We would look at the
legacy of the nation-state in the colonial and neo-colonial eras, examining the
breakdown of local indigenous self determination of social and ecological
policy.
In turn, we would explore the history of resistance to life-patenting. We
would explore movements throughout the Third World that have continued to
resist capitalist enclosure since the first phase of colonialism. In order to reveal
this radical history, we would need to uncover the historical continuities
between resistance to
current life patenting practices and to
previous
expressions of colonial enclosure. In this spirit, we would generalize upon the