Doctoral Dissertation Research: Engineering the Hog - Cultures of Industrialization within the American "Factory" Farm

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation project funded by the Science, Technology & Society Program is a study of workplace cultures within the American "factory" farm. It asks how 20th century factory models are being unsettled by the ongoing experiment to translate them onto the production of an unusual object: the genetics of the industrial hog. This project expands scholarly knowledge in three domains: 1) the role of the applied biosciences in relation to finance capitalism; 2) how a de-industrializing American economy entails shifts in the logics underlying primary production; 3) the cultural processes inherent to translating forms of social organization across domains (i.e. turning farms into factories). The research is based on 20 months of archival work, surveys, interviews and participant-observation across key nodes of the hog industry: universities, industry journals, conferences, expositions, and corporate agribusinesses in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Intellectual Merit: Much work within Science and Technology Studies focuses on the relation between the laboratory and society, or how the diffusion of academic scientific knowledge entails new social collectivities. By contrast, this research provides a case study of applied science. It analyzes how the genomic sciences are opening spaces for industrial development within the United States, the stakes and motivations behind a scientific practice designed to transform rural society, and the emergence of mass-production operations modeled on the speculative principles and cultural logic of venture capitalism. Broader Impacts: Results are published in peer-reviewed journals and a book for scholarly audiences. Another book is to be written about corporate agriculture for a broader public audience. Findings are presented to ommunities, government agencies, and other constituencies outside academia. The project also is one of the first studies of organization and innovation within agribusiness. As such, the study may contain data for use in legislation on migration, food policy, and scientific funding.