Sustainability 2010, 2(9), 2898-2918; doi:10.3390/su2092898
Author
1
School of Applied Social Sciences, University of Strathclyde, 50 Richmond Street, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK
2
Development Policy and Practice, Open University, Chambers Building, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 6 August 2010 / Revised: 2 September 2010 / Accepted: 7 September 2010 / Published: 13 September 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Political Economy and Sustainability)
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Abstract
As an EU policy agenda, the “knowledge-based bio-economy” (KBBE) emphasizes bio-technoscience as the means to reconcile environmental and economic sustainability. This frames the sustainability problem as an inefficiency to be overcome through a techno-knowledge fix. Here ecological sustainability means a benign eco-efficient productivity using resources which are renewable, reproducible and therefore sustainable. The KBBE narrative has been elaborated by European Technology Platforms in the agri-food-forestry-biofuels sectors, whose proposals shape research priorities. These inform policy agendas for the neoliberalization of both nature and knowledge, especially through intellectual property. In these ways, the KBBE can be understood as a new political-economic strategy for sustainable capital. This strategy invests great expectations for unlocking the productive potential of natural resources through a techno-knowledge fix. Although eco-efficiency is sometimes equated with biological productivity, commercial success will be dependent upon new combinations of “living” and “dead” labour. View Full-Text
Keywords: knowledge-based bio-economy; European Technology Platforms; innovation narratives; techno-knowledge fix; neoliberal nature; sustainable capital
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0).
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/2/9/2898
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