Instruments of Commerce and Knowledge: Probe Microscopy, 1980-2000 / Cyrus C. M. Mody.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mody, Cyrus C. M.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w12700.

NBER working paper series no. w12700

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Instruments of Commerce and Knowledge

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2006.

Summary:

Longstanding debates about the role of the university in national culture and the global economy have entered a new phase in the past decade in most industrialized, and several industrializing, countries. One important focus of this debate is corporate involvement in academic scientific research. Proponents of the academic capitalism say that corporate involvement makes the university leaner, more agile, better able to respond to the needs of the day. Critics say that corporate involvement leaves society without the independent, critical voices traditionally lodged in universities. I argue that a science and technology studies perspective, using case studies of research communities, can push this debate in directions envisioned by neither proponents nor critics. I use the development and commercialization of the scanning tunneling microscope and the atomic force microscope as an example of how research communities continually redraw the line between corporate and academic institutions.

Notes:

Print version record

November 2006.