Turning (More) Things into Assets: Techno-economic TRANSformations

Session Submission Type: Open Panel

Abstract

What is an asset? How is something made into an asset? How is the boundary of an asset defined? What is the role of technoscience in this transformation? Assets can include things like intellectual property, land and natural resources, personality, emissions, infrastructure, etc. More and more STS scholars (and others) are puzzling over the specific techno-economic transformations entailed in the creation of an asset (e.g. Birch 2017a, 2017b; Birch & Tyfield 2013; Cooper & Waldby 2014; Muniesa 2014; Lezaun & Montgomery 2015; Doganova and Karnoe 2015; Doganova and Muniesa 2015; Martin 2015; Chiapello 2015; Boltanski & Esquerre 2016; Gardner & Webster 2017; Hogarth 2017; Muniesa et al. 2017; Vezyridis & Timmons 2017; Birch & Muniesa submission). Such work has stimulated an important debate on the importance of the asset form and assetization process in understanding an array of emerging phenomena in contemporary, technoscientific capitalism. They raise questions about the techno-economic implications of socio-technical platforms (e.g. Uber, Airbnb), digital business models (e.g. Google, Facebook), innovation financing and their financial logics (e.g. Silicon Valley ‘unicorns’), emerging accumulation strategies based on forms of ‘rentiership’ rather than entrepreneurship, and so on. The aim of this panel is to contribute to this ongoing research agenda by (1) inviting further case studies of assetization and (2) focusing on the specific techno-economic transformations involved in the turning of things into assets. It has a further aim to consider the implications of the asset form and assetization process for our the future of contemporary, technoscientific capitalism.

Sub Unit

• Papers for Open Panels / Turning (More) Things into Assets: Techno-economic TRANSformations

Individual Presentations

• AngelList: Mass-Producing the Habitus to Assetize - Jacob Hellman

• What’s Your Business Plan: The Technology Statement and Commodification in the Technology Incubators in Beijing - ShihMing Wu

• Asset Form, Asset Boundary, and Assetization in Technoscientific Capitalism - Kean Birch, York University

• Better than Gold: Art in Storage Spaces - Christoph Rausch, Maastricht University

• Disassembling Coal: Finance Capital, Environmental Law, and the Right to Information in South India - Mukul Kumar

• Property as Socio-Technical Infrastructure - Oviya Govindan

Session Organizer

• Kean Birch, York University