Shooting Genes,Distributing Credit: Narrating the Development of the Biolistic Gene Gun |
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Authors: | Nicole Nelson |
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Affiliation: | 1. Social Studies of Medicine , McGill University , Montreal , Canada nicole.nelson@gmail.com |
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Abstract: | Using oral histories with scientists, technology transfer managers and other collaborators who were involved with the development of the biolistic gene gun, I investigate how actors narrate their experiences of technology transfer. The individuals who worked on the gene gun draw on two different interpretive repertoires for describing the innovation process: a ‘localized’ repertoire that highlights defined moments and the conceptual contributions of a few individuals; and a ‘distributed’ repertoire that emphasizes longer time frames, the process of technical implementation and the importance of a network of collaborators. Each of these repertoires identifies a different assemblage of actors as deserving of credit and reward for the development of the gene gun. Examining how scientists employ these modes of describing the innovation process offers a way of thinking about how university inventors negotiate tensions around novel features of academic capitalism, such as personal profit arising from the commercialization of university technologies. |
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Keywords: | Technology transfer entrepreneurial university biotechnology discourse studies oral history |
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