Science and neoliberal globalization: a political sociological approach

The political ideology of neoliberalism is widely recognized as having influenced the organization of national and global economies and public policies since the 1970s. In this article, we examine the relationship between the neoliberal variant of globalization and science. To do so, we develop a framework for sociology of science that emphasizes closer ties among political sociology, the sociology of social movements, and economic and organizational sociology and that draws attention to patterns of increasing and uneven industrial influence amid several countervailing processes. Specifically, we explore three fundamental changes since the 1970s: the advent of the knowledge economy and the increasing interchange between academic and industrial research and development signified by academic capitalism and asymmetric convergence; the increasing prominence of science-based regulation of technology in global trade liberalization, marked by the heightened role of international organizations and the convergence of scientism and neoliberalism; and the epistemic modernization of the relationship between scientists and publics, represented by the proliferation of new institutions of deliberation, participation, activism, enterprise, and social movement mobilization. Theor Soc (2011) 40:505–532 DOI 10.1007/s11186-011-9147-3 K. Moore (*) Department of Sociology, Loyola University-Chicago, 1032 W. Sheridan Rd., Chicago, IL 60660, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. L. Kleinman Department of Community and Environmental Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA e-mail: [email protected] D. Hess Department of Sociology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA e-mail: [email protected] S. Frickel Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA e-mail: [email protected]