GDAE Book

Politics of Intellectual Property:
Contestation Over the Ownership, Use, and
Control of Knowledge and Information

Edited by Sebastian Haunss, University of Konstanz, Germany and Kenneth C. Shadlen, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK

Contributors: L. Bretthauer, S. Francis, S. Haunss, R.J. Herring, M. Kandlikar, L. Kohlmorgen, G. Krikorian, H.V.J. Moir, I. Schneider, K.C. Shadlen, S. Thambisetty

Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009

Order from Edward Elgar Publishing
On-line discount $99.00 (Paper)

This book offers empirical analyses of conflicts over the ownership, control, and use of knowledge and information in developed and developing countries.

Sebastian Haunss and Kenneth C. Shadlen, along with a collection of eminent contributors, focus on how business organizations, farmers, social movements, legal communities, state officials, transnational enterprises, and international organizations shape IP policies in areas such as health, information-communication technologies, indigenous knowledge, genetic resources, and many others. The innovative and original chapters examine conflicts over the rules governing various dimensions of IP, including patents, copyrights, traditional knowledge, and biosafety regulations.

Written from a political perspective, this book is a must-read for political scientists, sociologists and anthropologists who study IP and conflicts over property. It is also an essential read for stakeholders in institutions, NGOs and industry interested in knowledge governance and IP politics.

Advance praise for Politics of Intellectual Property:

"We know much more about the global politics of intellectual property than we do about national political contests over the ownership of knowledge. Haunss and Shadlen have identified this gap in the literature and have done a fine job of bringing together a set of essays that helps to fill this gap in our understanding of the multi-layered nature of intellectual property politics."
--Peter Drahos, Australian National University

"This thought-provoking volume provides invaluable new insights and is a major contribution to the debate on the politics of intellectual property rights"
--Duncan Matthews, Queen Mary, University of London, UK

For more on GDAE’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/globalization.html

For more on the Sustainable Industrial Development Project:
http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/policy_research/trade_lib_pollution.html

The Global Development and Environment Institute’s Globalization and Sustainable Development Program examines the economic, social and environmental impacts of economic integration in developing countries, with a particular emphasis on the WTO and NAFTA's lessons for trade and development policy. The goal of the program is to identify policies and international agreements that foster sustainable development.