69
3
elude competition from other companies in those countries. A patent holder may
choose to sell licenses that require payment for use of the genetic material in production, such as of a particular medicine. Patent rights are valid in limited periods
of time, and usually about 20 years.
In GRAIN’s Seedling magazine, Janet Bell (1997) wrote that the Bioconvention’s
goal of equitable sharing of benefits gained from biological diversity is ‘a difficult
goal if the bioprospector can slash intellectual property rights over whatever he/she
finds’ (Bell 1997: 2).
The Indian activist Vandana Shiva has for many years been a leading opponent
of bioprospecting and its associated patenting (1997, 2007). She has characterized
the introduction of intellectual property rights to forms of life as a means to legitimate biopiracy, and she contends that patents ‘protect this piracy of the wealth of
non-western peoples as a right of Western powers’ (Shiva 1997: 5).
The British geographer Noel Castree shares our description of the polarized
debate on bioprospecting as the production of two rival discourses (Castree 2003).
Some academic contributors to the biopiracy discourse have described the economic activity of bioprospecting as a form of neoliberalism, because businesses
play a prominent role, markets for genetic materials are established, and patenting
being a form of privatization (see for instance Brush 1999; Martinez- Alier 1996).
Castree criticizes such contributors for not being constructive in their critiques in
terms of not proposing alternative courses of action.
Discursive Narratives
In each of the two discourses on bioprospecting, narratives play a significant role.
Before presenting examples, we will explain what this implies theoretically. We
define a narrative as a story that has a storyline and with the involvement of one or
more actors in a gallery of actors. We are also interested in the narrative producers,
and these are actors who contribute to the creation, reproduction and modifications of narratives.
Some narratives are pure fiction, as in novels, fairy tales and films (such as
Medicine Man and Avatar). Other narratives contain claims about reality. The
sociologist Anna Johansson points out that to narrate is a universal human activity, and that narratives can be regarded as a basic form of culture (Johansson
2005).
The focus on the storyline (or plot) of a narrative may be traced back to the
Greek philosopher Aristotle of the fourth century BC. He defined a narrative as a
story with a beginning, a middle and an end (Aristotle 1996). The storyline is not
just a sequence of events, but it also contains claims of causal relationships (Elliott
2005; Johansson 2005).
The actor gallery of a narrative may sometimes have similarities with classical fiction characters, such as heroes, villains and victims (Svarstad 2000; Elliott
2005).
A discursive narrative is a story about a specific case of an issue, where the case
is interpreted through the perspectives of a discourse. While drawn from a discourse, a discursive narrative also contributes to the production of the discourse.
3.3 · The Biopiracy Discourse
3
elude competition from other companies in those countries. A patent holder may
choose to sell licenses that require payment for use of the genetic material in production, such as of a particular medicine. Patent rights are valid in limited periods
of time, and usually about 20 years.
In GRAIN’s Seedling magazine, Janet Bell (1997) wrote that the Bioconvention’s
goal of equitable sharing of benefits gained from biological diversity is ‘a difficult
goal if the bioprospector can slash intellectual property rights over whatever he/she
finds’ (Bell 1997: 2).
The Indian activist Vandana Shiva has for many years been a leading opponent
of bioprospecting and its associated patenting (1997, 2007). She has characterized
the introduction of intellectual property rights to forms of life as a means to legitimate biopiracy, and she contends that patents ‘protect this piracy of the wealth of
non-western peoples as a right of Western powers’ (Shiva 1997: 5).
The British geographer Noel Castree shares our description of the polarized
debate on bioprospecting as the production of two rival discourses (Castree 2003).
Some academic contributors to the biopiracy discourse have described the economic activity of bioprospecting as a form of neoliberalism, because businesses
play a prominent role, markets for genetic materials are established, and patenting
being a form of privatization (see for instance Brush 1999; Martinez- Alier 1996).
Castree criticizes such contributors for not being constructive in their critiques in
terms of not proposing alternative courses of action.
Discursive Narratives
In each of the two discourses on bioprospecting, narratives play a significant role.
Before presenting examples, we will explain what this implies theoretically. We
define a narrative as a story that has a storyline and with the involvement of one or
more actors in a gallery of actors. We are also interested in the narrative producers,
and these are actors who contribute to the creation, reproduction and modifications of narratives.
Some narratives are pure fiction, as in novels, fairy tales and films (such as
Medicine Man and Avatar). Other narratives contain claims about reality. The
sociologist Anna Johansson points out that to narrate is a universal human activity, and that narratives can be regarded as a basic form of culture (Johansson
2005).
The focus on the storyline (or plot) of a narrative may be traced back to the
Greek philosopher Aristotle of the fourth century BC. He defined a narrative as a
story with a beginning, a middle and an end (Aristotle 1996). The storyline is not
just a sequence of events, but it also contains claims of causal relationships (Elliott
2005; Johansson 2005).
The actor gallery of a narrative may sometimes have similarities with classical fiction characters, such as heroes, villains and victims (Svarstad 2000; Elliott
2005).
A discursive narrative is a story about a specific case of an issue, where the case
is interpreted through the perspectives of a discourse. While drawn from a discourse, a discursive narrative also contributes to the production of the discourse.
3.3 · The Biopiracy Discourse