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THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF THE
POLITICAL ECONOMY OF SCIENCE
The political economy of research and innovation (R&I) is one of the central issues of the early
twenty-first century. ‘Science’ and ‘innovation’ are increasingly tasked with driving and
reshaping a troubled global economy while also tackling multiple, overlapping global challenges,
such as climate change or food security, global pandemics or energy security. But responding to
these demands is made more complicated because R&I themselves are changing. Today, new
global patterns of R&I are transforming the very structures, institutions and processes of science
and innovation, and with it their claims about desirable futures. Our understanding of R&I
needs to change accordingly.
Responding to this new urgency and uncertainty, this handbook presents a pioneering
selection of the growing body of literature that has emerged in recent years at the intersection
of science and technology studies and political economy. The central task for this research has
been to expose important but consequential misconceptions about the political economy of
R&I and to build more insightful approaches. This volume therefore explores the complex
interrelations between R&I (both in general and in specific fields) and political economies
across a number of key dimensions from health to environment, and universities to the military.
The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Science offers a unique collection of texts
across a range of issues in this burgeoning and important field from a global selection of top
scholars. The handbook is essential reading for students interested in the political economy of
science, technology and innovation. It also presents succinct and insightful summaries of the
state of the art for more advanced scholars.
Typeset in Bembo
by Saxon Graphics Ltd, Derby
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
List of contributors xiii
PART I
From the ‘economics of science’ to the ‘political economy of research
and innovation’ 19
v
Contents
PART II
Institutions of science and science funding 117
PART III
Fields of science 211
vi
Contents
PART IV
Governing science and governing through science 303
PART V
(Political economic) geographies of science 365
vii
Contents
Index451
viii
FIGURES
ix
TABLES
xi
CONTRIBUTORS
Eric Best is a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Applied Demography and Survey
Research in the School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. He
is a co-author of The Student Loan Mess: How Good Intentions Created a Trillion-Dollar Problem, a
book about the history and relationship between generations of student loan policies in the
United States.
Kean Birch is an associate professor in the Business and Society program and member of the
Science and Technology Studies Graduate Program at York University, Canada. His recent
books include: We Have Never Been Neoliberal (2015); The Handbook of Neoliberalism (2016,
Routledge, co-edited with Simon Springer and Julie MacLeavy); Innovation, Regional
Development and the Life Sciences: Beyond Clusters (2016, Routledge); and Business and Society: A
Critical Introduction (forthcoming, co-authored with Mark Peacock, Richard Wellen, Caroline
Shenaz Hossein, Sonya Scott, and Alberto Salazar). He is currently working on a book called A
Research Agenda for Neoliberalism.
Alessandro Delfanti is assistant professor of Culture and New Media at the University of
Toronto, where he holds a joint appointment at the Institute of Communication, Culture,
Information and Technology, and at the Faculty of Information (iSchool). He is the author of
Biohackers: The Politics of Open Science (2013). His work on open science, hacking, and digital
participation has been published by journals such as Media, Culture & Society, Social Studies of
Science, Journal of Science Communication, and New Genetics and Society.
Pierre Delvenne holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences. He is currently research associate
at the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) and the associate director of the SPIRAL Research
Centre at the University of Liège, Belgium, where he coordinates the research unit in science,
technology, and society.
David Edgerton was educated at St John’s College, Oxford and Imperial College London.
After teaching the economics of science and technology and the history of science and technology
at the University of Manchester, he became the founding director of the Centre for the History
of Science, Technology and Medicine at Imperial College London, and Hans Rausing Professor
xiii
Contributors
of History of Science and Technology. In 2013, he led the move of the Centre for the History
of Science, Technology and Medicine to the Department of History at King’s College London.
He has published, among other works, Warfare State: Britain 1920–1970 (2005) and The Shock of
the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 (2006).
Manuela Fernández Pinto is an assistant professor in the Department of Philosophy and the
Center of Applied Ethics at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia. She is also an
affiliated researcher in the Academy of Finland Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the
Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. After receiving her PhD in History and Philosophy
of Science from the University of Notre Dame (2014), she obtained a postdoctoral fellowship
at the University of Helsinki to examine the interdisciplinary relation between economics and
social epistemology, particularly the use of economic models for addressing philosophical
questions on the social organization of science. Her current research, also related to the social
organization of science, examines the epistemic and ethical consequences of the recent move
toward commercially driven scientific research. Other research interests include social
epistemology, the history and philosophy of economics and feminist philosophy.
Rebecca Harrison is a doctoral student in Science and Technology Studies. Her work
considers how agricultural biotechnologists are deliberate, ethical actors navigating both a
complex political economy and increasing public concern about genetic engineering. Harrison
earned a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Cornell University. She began her training as
a graduate student in STS at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and has since returned to Cornell
for her PhD. She has professional experience in agriculture, science and technology policy, and
science communication.
Maki Hatanaka is associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Sam Houston State
University. Her research focuses on food governance, in particular issues related to standards,
certification, and accreditation. Her recent projects examine ways to promote democratic food
governance and enhance justice and sustainability in food and agriculture. Her work has been
published in numerous journals and edited books, including Science, Food Policy, Agriculture and
Human Values, World Development, Journal of Rural Studies, Sociologia Ruralis, The Local
Environment: The International Journal of Justice and Sustainability, and Sustainability.
David J. Hess is professor of Sociology, associate director of the Vanderbilt Institute for
Energy and Environment, Director of the Program in Environmental and Sustainability Studies,
and James Thornton Fant Chair in Sustainability Studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the
recipient of various prizes and awards in science and technology studies, including the Robert
Merton Prize and the Diana Forsythe Prize. He currently works on the politics of sustainability
transitions and on social movements, science, and technology. His most recent book is Undone
Science: Social Movements, Mobilized Publics, and Industrial Transitions.
Matt Hopkins, Ken Jacobson, Mustafa Erdem Sakinç, and Öner Tulum are researchers
at theAIRnet. Jacobson is also theAIRnet communications director. Sakinç has just completed
a PhD in Economics at the University of Bordeaux. Tulum is a PhD student at the University
of Ljubljana.
Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Director of
the Program on Science, Technology and Society at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy
xiv
Contributors
School of Government. Her research centers on the engagements of science and technology
with law, politics and policy in modern democratic societies, with a particular focus on the role
of science in cultures of public reason. Her books include The Fifth Branch (1990), Science at the
Bar (1995), Designs on Nature (2005), and The Ethics of Invention (2016).
Jason Konefal is an associate professor of sociology at Sam Houston State University. His research
examines private forms of governance in agriculture, particularly with regards to sustainability, and
the financialization of agriculture. His research has been widely published, including in the
journals Agriculture and Human Values, Journal of Rural Studies, and Organization and the Environment.
Pablo Kreimer is a sociologist and PhD at Science, Technology & Society (STS Center, Paris).
He is a principal researcher at CONICET (Argentinian National Research Council) and Director
of the Science, Technology & Society Center, Maimonides University, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Chris Langley has worked for more than thirty years in practical and research aspects of
science policy and governance and the communication of science, technology and medicine.
He has contributed to book chapters and peer-reviewed journals on military science and
technology. He is a graduate of University College London and received a doctorate from the
University of Cambridge. He was Director of the Media Resource Service in London and
presently runs ScienceSources, an independent consultancy which facilitates public accountability
in and access to, science, technology and medicine. Chris was principal researcher for Scientists
for Global Responsibility, where he wrote and co-authored Soldiers in the laboratory: Military
involvement in science and technology – and some alternatives; Scientists or soldiers? Career choice, ethics
and the military; More soldiers in the laboratory: The militarisation of science and technology; and Behind
closed doors. He also critiqued nuclear research for the Nuclear Information Service.
Rebecca Lave is an associate professor in Geography at Indiana University. Her research takes a
critical physical geography approach, combining political economy, STS, and fluvial
geomorphology to focus on the construction of scientific expertise, the privatization of science,
and market-based environmental management. She is the author of Fields and Streams: Stream
Restoration, Neoliberalism, and the Future of Environmental Science (2012) and has published in journals
xv
Contributors
ranging from Science to Social Studies of Science. She is a co-editor of the Handbook of Political
Economy of Science and three forthcoming collections: the Handbook of Critical Physical Geography
and a pair of volumes devoted to the work of Doreen Massey, all expected in 2017. She is also a
series editor for the ‘Critical Environments: Nature, Science and Politics’ book series at University
of California Press, and for the ‘Economic Transformations’ book series at Agenda Publishing.
Allison Loconto is a research fellow at the National Institute for Agricultural Research
(INRA), based in the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Science, Innovation and Society (LISIS).
She is currently a visiting scientist on Standards and Institutions for Sustainable Agriculture at
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Dr Loconto holds a PhD
in Sociology from Michigan State University and an MA in International Affairs and
Development from American University in Washington, DC. She is currently the president of
the Research Committee on the Sociology of Agriculture and Food (RC40) of the International
Sociological Association (ISA). Dr Loconto’s fields of research include governance by standards,
innovations in certification systems, regulatory intermediaries, social innovation and governance
of transitions to sustainable agriculture. Her most recent book entitled Innovative markets for
sustainable agriculture: How innovations in market institutions encourage sustainable agriculture in
developing countries is published by FAO.
Larry Lohmann works with The Corner House, an advocacy and research organization based
in the UK (www.thecornerhouse.org.uk). He spent the 1980s teaching and working in
environmental movements in Thailand, is a founding member of the Durban Group for Climate
Justice, and chairs the advisory board of the World Rainforest Movement. He has contributed
to scholarly journals in sociology, politics, development, science studies, law, social policy,
environment, accounting and Asian studies, as well as to many popular publications. His books
include Energy, Work and Finance (with Nicholas Hildyard) (2014); Mercados de Carbono: La
Neoliberalizacion del Clima (2012) and Pulping the South: Industrial Tree Plantations and the Global
Paper Economy (with Ricardo Carrere) (1996).
Philip Mirowski is Carl Koch Chair of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science,
and Fellow of the Reilly Center, University of Notre Dame. He is author of, among others,
Machine Dreams (2002), The Effortless Economy of Science? (2004), More Heat than Light (1989),
Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste (2013), and ScienceMart: Privatizing American Science (2011).
He is editor of Agreement on Demand (2006) and The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the
Neoliberal Thought Collective (2009), among other works. His next book, with co-author Edward
Nik-Khah, will be The Knowledge we have Lost in Information: A History of the Economics of
Information, which will be accompanied by a video lecture series from INET.
xvi
Contributors
Gwen Ottinger is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and the Center for
Science, Technology, and Society at Drexel University. Her research focuses on the politics of
science, technology, and expertise in environmental justice issues, and her current project
examines the history of citizen science and do-it-yourself monitoring in community-based
environmental activism. Ottinger is a recipient of a CAREER grant from the National Science
Foundation and the author of Refining Expertise: How Responsible Engineers Subvert Environmental
Justice Challenges, which was awarded the 2015 Rachel Carson Prize by the Society for Social
Studies of Science.
Ugo Pagano is professor of Economics and the director of the PhD program in Economics of
the University of Siena. He also teaches at the Central European University, Budapest. He got his
PhD at the University of Cambridge where he was university lecturer and a fellow of Pembroke
College. He is the author of the monograph Work and Welfare in Economic Theory and of numerous
articles focusing on law and economics, the economics of organization, bio-economics, nationalism
and globalization, intellectual property rights and the current economic crisis.
Stuart Parkinson is executive director of Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR), a UK-
based organisation of about 750 natural scientists, social scientists, engineers and others
concerned about the use and misuse of science, design and technology. Parkinson has degrees
in physics, engineering and environmental science. He has worked in academia and industry
and for campaign groups, including a period as an expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change. He has been SGR’s Director since 2003, co-ordinating research and
advocacy work on range of issues, including military and corporate influence on science and
technology. He is lead author of Offensive Insecurity: The Role of Science and Technology in UK
Security Strategies, and has written widely on these issues for both lay and specialist audiences.
Interreg programs) and has published in leading journals. He has recently authored Ontological
Politics in a Disposable World: The New Mastery of Nature (2015) and co-edited Neoliberalism and
Technoscience: Critical Assessments (2012).
Claude Peloquin has taught geography at Macalester College and at the University of Arizona.
His work examines the place and role of nature–society entanglements in the political
geographies of development, science, and colonialism.
Laura Rabinow (MS, Science and Technology Studies, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) is a
doctoral student in Science and Technology Studies Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute. She has previously worked in agricultural microfinance and was a 2015–16 graduate
fellow at the New York State Senate. Her current research looks at the ways knowledge production,
epistemic authority and governance are contested in the context of water contamination.
Costanza Rampini received her PhD from the Environmental Studies Department at the
University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on the interlinked issues of
hydropower development, floods, climate change impacts and sustainable development in the
Brahmaputra river basin. Her objective is to understand how the combined impacts of climate
change and dam building efforts on water resources will transform the riparian landscapes of
Northeast India and the livelihoods of local riparian communities.
Samuel Randalls is a lecturer in Geography at University College London. His research primarily
focuses on the relationship between commerce, environment and science, particularly in the
context of weather and climate. Publications explore topics such as weather futures trading,
histories of climate change economics, the politics of resilience, and underwater logging. In the
last few years, he has co-edited a Routledge set on Future Climate Change and a special issue of
Geoforum on ‘The Politics of Expectations’ and has published in journals such as Dialogues in
Human Geography, Osiris, and Social Studies of Science. He is currently researching Victorian weather
insurance, particularly insurance companies’ practices in pricing weather and climate risks.
United States and sub-Saharan Africa. Her published research is oriented towards both
academic and policy audiences including, most recently, a co-edited book Rural America in a
Globalizing World: Problems and Prospects for the 2010s. Ransom received her PhD in Sociology
from Michigan State University.
Mark Robinson is an assistant professor at the Center for Health Policy and Ethics at Creighton
University School of Medicine. His current interests include the social study of science and
technology-based innovations in health, with a view towards their ethical and social implications
and dimensions. Robinson’s work is especially attentive to the roles of global finance, psycho-
pharmaceuticalization and technological transformation in the shaping of agendas and outcomes
in health. Robinson’s current project explores the global emergence and expansion of
Translational Science and Medicine and its impact upon biomedical innovation. Robinson’s
work has received recognition from Princeton University’s Center for Health and Wellbeing,
the Wenner-Gren Foundation, and Italy’s Gianinno Bassetti Foundation.
Jairus Rossi is a research scientist for the Community and Economic Development Initiative
of Kentucky in the University of Kentucky’s College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.
He is broadly interested in understanding how diverse environmental, economic, and social
technologies shape the production of landscapes. His dissertation research examined how
scientists and citizen scientists use genetic technologies and concepts to restore ecosystems. His
current research centres on delineating the political economies involved in the development of
direct-to-consumer alternative food networks. His research generally draws from political
ecology, science and technology studies, and cultural landscape geography. He received his
PhD in Geography at the University of Kentucky in 2013.
the Santa Fe Institute of Technology, the University of Paris X and the Florence School of
Regulation. She carried out research and reports for OECD, the Italian Telecommunications
NRA (AGCOM), the Italian Ministry of Finance and the Independent Regulatory Group
(IRG). She has written numerous essays on national and international journals. Maria Alessandra
holds a PhD in Law and Economics from the University of Siena.
Dan Schiller is Professor Emeritus of Library & Information Science and of Communication
at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a historian of information and
communications in the context of the five hundred-year development of the capitalist political
economy. Earlier in his career, he was a professor at UCSD, UCLA and Temple Universities.
He is the author of several books, including, most recently, Digital Depression: Information
Technology and Economic Crisis (2014), and he is now completing archival research for a long-
standing project on the history of US telecommunications. With ShinJoung Yeo, Schiller
administers the Information Observatory website (www.informationobservatory.info).
Charles Thorpe is associate professor in Sociology, and a member of the Science Studies
Program, at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Oppenheimer: The
Tragic Intellect (2006), a sociological biography of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, and
Necroculture (2016), a study of the culture of alienation in late capitalism. He has published in
Anarchist Studies, The British Journal of Sociology, Modern Intellectual History, Science as Culture,
Science Fiction Studies, Social Studies of Science, Sociological Theory, and Theory, Culture, and Society.
Innovation, Theory, Culture & Society, and Minerva. He is author of The Economics of Science
(Routledge, 2012, in two volumes).
Tian Ye is an MPhil candidate at the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University.
She has personal experience of changes in Chinese higher education as a female student from a
rural area. Her research interests include destination image, tourist experience, intimate
relationships, and gender issues and she has published in international journals on these issues.
ShinJoung Yeo is a lecturer at Loughborough University London in the Institute for Media
and Creative Industries. Her current research focuses on the political economy of the search
engine industry encompassing labour, geopolitics of information, and material infrastructures.
She is currently working on a book based on her dissertation Behind the Search Box: The Political
Economy of a Global Internet Industry.
xxi
INTRODUCTION
Beyond crisis in the knowledge economy
In July 2016, an article in the Wall Street Journal declared “Election 2016 is propelled by the
American economy’s failed promises” (Hilsenrath and Davis, 2016; see also Beams, 2016). The
article effectively acknowledges that the political economic orthodoxy of the day – for which
the Journal has long been a primary proponent – is in tatters and that anger at economic
dislocation is creating seismic shifts in Americans’ political outlook. Among the failed promises
that the article lists is that of technology in the ‘knowledge economy’, namely that “Technology
would lead to rising incomes and broadly shared prosperity.” The reality is that “Productivity
and output growth have slowed and technology has been polarizing the workforce.”
Technological unemployment, a notion treated as heretical, if not absurd, in the 1990s, is
now increasingly taken seriously as a key factor holding down job creation, wages, living
standards, and economic growth. The article further notes that in the past “those with bachelors’
degrees in science seemed safe from automation-prompted layoffs—their knowledge was tough
for computers to duplicate.” But this is no longer the case, with a whole swathe of middle-class
employment now being downgraded or eliminated: “Between 2000 and 2012… the hollowing-
out of work spread to professions including librarians and engineers.” These trends have
contributed to the widening of income inequality. In the UK, the surprise vote for ‘Brexit’,
with the UK quitting the EU, has been explained in similar terms of mass political and economic
disenfranchisement and anger (Harris, 2016; Elliott, 2016).
It is salutary to contrast the reality of today’s low growth, low productivity, and low
employment economy with the rhetoric of the ‘knowledge economy’ not so very long ago.
This was supposed to be a ‘new economy’ for which the old rules of boom and bust did not
apply. The new economy would almost overcome economics itself, escaping materiality, since
scarcity could be banished in the realm of information (Kelly, 1997; see also Thorpe, 2016,
105–6). Buying and selling knowledge meant “living on thin air” as British knowledge economy
pundit Charles Leadbeater (1999) declared. The ethereal knowledge economy would be more
ecologically sensitive, less demanding of resources. High-tech was also green. It also would
allow for a change in the character of work itself, liberating us from the routinized, standardized
world of Fordist mass production and mass consumption (cf. Clark, Foster and York, 2009;
York and Rosa, 2003).
This also translated into new bold high-technology promises about research and innovation
(R&I). Genetic engineering would solve world hunger, with a reduced ecological footprint,
1
David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe
and/or cure persistent diseases, while also thereby developing whole new industries for
profitable investment and rewarding, knowledge-intensive work. New digital and information
communication technologies would revolutionize our capacity to understand and skilfully
manage complex problems, such as those of the environment, while also unlocking
unprecedented innovation and generation of new knowledge through a new fluid, global
interconnectivity. And this would seed further breakthroughs in science and technology,
unleashing undreamt-of progress in the human mastery of matter (e.g. nanotechnology), living
systems (e.g. biotechnology) and consciousness (e.g. artificial intelligence) (cf. Birch, et al.,
2010; Cooper, 2008; Thorpe, 2013; Tyfield, 2012a: 43–62; Walker, 2016).
Just as the political turmoil of 2016 lays bare the broken shells of those economic promises,
so too we find the promises regarding R&I equally battered. Indeed, the greater political and
economic importance of R&I has clearly proven a double-edged sword. For instance, consider
the case of genetically modified agriculture. Expectations for genetic engineering of plants have
been frequently founded on ideals of public benefits, whether in terms of agricultural crop
disease resistance, ability to withstand environmental changes or economic development
prospects for local communities. Yet agricultural engineering has also offered one of the most
consistent arenas for contestation over the past three decades, whether about the potential for
increased corporate power or fears of ‘playing God’ (Delborne, 2008; Delborne and Kinchy,
2008; Kinchy, 2012; Kleinman, 2003; Kloppenburg, 1988).
In recent years, therefore, ag-biotech has been forced to outline its public-spiritedness to
ward off persistent and powerful critique. As Harrison et al. (this volume) show, however,
contemporary political economic policies and practices towards R&I restrict the possibilities of
change, thereby, in turn, entrenching opposition. Water-efficient maize and the American
chestnut are differently constituted in political-economic terms. But while both offer some
pushback on commercialization imperatives, they both also re-instantiate the norms of the
contemporary political economy of science through forms of regulation, economic ideals,
intellectual property frameworks and profitability – even if dressed up in humanitarian terms.
It seems, therefore, that if the ardent pursuit of the ‘knowledge economy’ has produced
anything in recent decades, it is not the world that was promised but the ascendancy of the
political economy of science – or more appropriately, the political economy of R&I – into a
key issue of contestation for contemporary society, and amongst the public at large, not just the
relatively small groups directly employed in these fields.
knowledge always leads to economic growth and societal benefit. In short, more knowledge is
always better. Let us call these joint presumptions the ‘knowledge economy credo’.
The unquestioned presumption that the goal at hand is to maximize the production of
straightforward, unproblematic knowledge (research, innovation and education) is highly
consequential in the actual political economy of R&I today, since it underpins policies and
practices. Mainstream economics of science adopts this goal as both achievable and self-evidently
good, and proceeds to focus on how best to maximize (quantitatively) this output, ‘knowledge’.
The actual interaction of knowledge production and an expressly political economy, however,
quickly dissolves this neat picture. The example of agbiotech above demonstrates the necessity
of the political legitimation of new forms of knowledge and technology in a contested public
sphere and political economy, and therefore the mutual co-constitution or co-construction of
knowledge, economy, culture, and politics.
While both knowledge and political economy have been the object of significant bodies of
insightful work, they are not generally conceptualized together. In recent decades, Science &
Technology Studies (STS) has thoroughly transformed the empirical study of knowledge
production by taking science not as an obvious and unproblematic production of empirical
truth, but as a complex social and cultural practice requiring sociological/anthropological study.
STS thus brings together a broad range of approaches from the social sciences and humanities.
But political economy is conspicuous by its relative absence. This is, in part, because of the
field’s dominant micro-scale focus on the particularities of scientific practice, in particular
(academic) labs and field sites. It is also due to its foundation in heated debates about constructivist,
anti-realist philosophy of science that elicited a deep-seated empiricist disposition towards anti-
structural, including non-Marxist, approaches, approaches that have unquestionably proven
extremely illuminating and conceptually productive. Yet the vast majority of STS work, but by
no means all of it, shows little interest in, and sometimes even scant toleration of, issues of
political economy (Tyfield, 2012b, 8–51; Lynch and Fuhrman, 1991, 1992; Winner, 1993;
Klein and Kleinman, 2002; Mirowski, this volume).
For its part, mainstream economics of R&I shows little interest in issues of knowledge
production as irreducibly cultural-political processes (Tyfield, 2012a, 13–25), while knowledge
production is not generally a primary concern from political economy approaches. PERI, as
pursued in this volume, therefore, seeks to draw on and continue the attention that STS scholars
have given to the culturally constructed aspects of science and technology, but also to show
how science is a force of production, embedded in the broader economic, political, and social
institutions and relations of modern capitalism (cf. Bernal, 1939; Rose and Rose eds, 1976;
Levidow and Young, 1981).
From this perspective, the ‘knowledge economy’ must not be understood as entirely novel
and distinct from the production and distribution of material (and immaterial) goods. Instead,
the marketization of scientific and technical knowledge must be understood within the overall
framework of industrial capitalism, while the novelties of political economies increasingly
dominated by production of knowledge(s) must also be attended to. This is the mode of
understanding that has taken shape over the last 10–15 years under the rubric of PERI.
The growing PERI literature has repeatedly shown, in abstract and in concrete, how
exploring the dynamic interrelations between ‘knowledge’ and an irreducibly political
‘economy’ necessarily problematizes both pillars of the knowledge economy credo, viz. the
common-sense definition of knowledge and the axiomatic presumption that economic
prosperity and socio-environmental well-being necessarily follow from the increase in
knowledge and technology. Instead, ‘knowledge’ is revealed to be a key arena and instrument
of political contestation. Meanwhile, the ‘economy’ conditioning and conditioned by this
3
David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe
… in neoliberal times
The need for this both dynamically historical and structural political-economic perspective is
particularly acute given the period within which PERI has arisen and which it has immediately
sought to analyse, namely the broadly neoliberal era of the past few decades. PERI work has
often involved a profound engagement with analysis of the nature and trajectory of neoliberalism
itself alongside the specific issue of the transformation of knowledge production that has
happened in tandem (Birch and Mykhnenko, 2010; Lave et al., 2010, Tyfield, 2012c; Mirowski,
2011 and 2014).
While often unfortunately reduced to a politically progressive swear word, incorporating a
contradictory multitude of positions and presumptions, ‘neoliberalism’ remains a useful – and,
we would argue, essential – term for contemporary PERI work insofar as it is given a sufficiently
substantive and rigorous definition (see e.g. Springer et al., 2016). For our purposes, following
the discussion above about systems of power/knowledge-mediated relations, we take
neoliberalism as an example or regime of such a system that has, contingently, dominated the
evolution of global capitalism since the late 1970s/early 1980s (e.g. Harvey, 2005; Peck and
Tickell, 2002). This regime has several key characteristics, all of which are best conceptualized
as iterative processes and political projects that have proven, to date, extremely productive (in
terms of creative destruction) and resilient regarding their own self-propagation. This has
included: a model and political dogma of global economic liberalization and domestic
privatization, unleashing and/or introducing markets to replace state provision and protection;
the financialization of the economy in terms of growing economic and political heft of the
financial sector, debt and new financial products; growing corporate power, on a global scale;
and the takeover and use of state power to drive forward and clear obstacles to privatisation,
marketisation, and financialization.
Thus, neoliberalism is a dynamic project that has evolved through different phases and in
different ways in different places (Ong, 2006; Peck and Tickell, 2002) and draws on multiple
sources of intellectual inspiration (Mirowski and Plehwe, 2009; Peck, 2010; Stedman Jones,
2014). But it is unified by a radical commitment to the ‘market’ as panacea and supreme
decision-maker. Indeed, a clear finding from seminal PERI work in the history of economics
is the deeply epistemic nature of neoliberalism (Mirowski and Plehwe, 2009; Nik-Khah, this
4
Introduction
volume), with significant implications for its interaction with and dependence upon a specifically
neoliberal(ized) model of R&I (Tyfield, 2016).
As Mirowski (2009) has shown, the political radicalism – and extraordinary strategic efficacy
– of neoliberalism lies in large part in its synthetic rethinking of the ‘market’ and ‘knowledge’.
For this political project, the fundamental – and, indeed, fundamentalist – truth is that the
market always ‘knows best’, and certainly knows better than any limited individual or collective
intelligence (see Nik-Khah, this volume). Neoliberalism, therefore, promotes the maximization
of the production (and consumption) of knowledge, but where this is understood to mean the
maximized subjection of human social life to markets, as the ultimate and superhuman decision-
maker (Mirowski, 2009; Peck, 2010; Brown, 2015). Where optimal government of society
hinges on optimal decisions about the trajectory of societal development, for neoliberals it is the
market that can best achieve this. Developing in parallel with and through the much-hyped
emergence of the ‘knowledge economy’, therefore, neoliberalism has sponsored the knowledge
economy credo and given it a particular political form as a highly dynamic, destructively
creative and evangelical political patron.
This strong epistemic aspect of neoliberalism has significant repercussions for science.
Neoliberals present science as best organized as a literal ‘marketplace of ideas’, for example in
the increasing subjection of academic, ‘public good’ research and higher education to market
forces. This reorganization of knowledge production assumes a pivotal role in the broader
neoliberal project, as the talisman and/or cornerstone of the larger edifice of an optimal (since
market-organized) society. As such, the strategic strength of neoliberalism has rested to a great
extent upon its relatively unchallenged popular appeal. For it is founded in an argument about
optimal socio-political order based in the optimal organization of the production of knowledge.
However, the definition of ‘knowledge’ that neoliberalism actually deploys is a radical and oft-
overlooked departure.1 Indeed, neoliberalism’s ambiguous use of the knowledge economy credo
– as seemingly anodyne common sense that conceals the profound radicalism of its interpretation,
in a ‘double truth’ regime (Mirowski, 2012) – is an essential aspect both of the resilience and
slipperiness of neoliberalism itself to date, and of how the knowledge economy credo has become
so deeply entrenched, empowered and thence (self-)destructive in recent years.
So one key contribution to date of a PERI approach is to illuminate the mutually supporting,
but also destructive (see below), relations between the neoliberal project and the knowledge
economy credo, and the specific and problematic assumptions on which both rest. As such,
insights that assist the rejection of the latter are also de facto political interventions against the
former. Indeed, the existing mainstream discourse of the ‘economics of science’ must itself be
understood as both the product of and, reciprocally, a key element in the construction of
neoliberalism’s profound changes in the institutions of science and its role in society (Mirowski,
2009). The continuing dominance of this political economic orthodoxy is thus not just an
epistemic obstacle to a more productive analysis, but itself a key causal aspect of any comprehensive
explanation of the current crises of (the political economy of) science and of the persistent misfiring
of policy regarding research and innovation. PERI is thus directly tackling all of these issues.
In these circumstances, the political economy of ‘science’ also emerges as a key issue and lens
for two major reasons. On the one hand, the dominant political economic regime of the day is
highly epistemic in its abstract legitimation and this translates into its intense concrete
dependence on forms of knowledge production and their transformation through marketization.
As a result, an interest in neoliberalism implies a focus on R&I. For instance, recent work has
explored how the pharmaceutical industry has instantiated the model of a neoliberal R&I as
envisaged by key neoliberal intellectuals (Nik-Khah, 2014). On the other, the multiple
problematic effects of the current regime of knowledge production are often what initially
5
David Tyfield, Rebecca Lave, Samuel Randalls and Charles Thorpe
stimulate critical and engaged scholarship in STS, driving such research towards an interest in
neoliberalism and political economy more broadly. Notably, concerns about contemporary
environmental or social issues, and the production and contestation of knowledge claims
regarding these, have propelled many scholars to research how neoliberal organizations construct
their cases and shape broader public understanding (Thorpe and Gregory, 2010; Thorpe, 2010;
Welsh and Wynne, 2013; Marris, 2015).
Whether born out of enquiry seeking to understand these problematic effects of the specific
regime of neoliberalism or neoliberalism’s manifestation in R&I, however, PERI offers one
further, and crucial, contribution that is not limited to, and promises to lead beyond, this
particular context. This is as a key source of ongoing insight (abstract and concrete) to dislodge
the publicly sedimented misunderstanding about ‘knowledge’ – as in the knowledge economy
credo – as well as, thereby, a stimulus for and moment in the practical and strategic engagement
in an alternative knowledge politics. In short, the primary purpose of the political economy of
R&I, as a growing body of work, is arguably to repudiate these misleading presumptions and
replace them with something that promises to mediate the emergence of better socio-technical
– and political economic – futures.
As the selection of PERI work in this Handbook demonstrates, however, these better
futures are desperately needed today, while the globalizing ‘knowledge’ societies and
economies being built on the neoliberal-sponsored knowledge economy credo are causing
ever-deeper social, political and environmental problems. In the rest of this Introduction,
rather than summarize the content of all the subsequent chapters – an impossible task and one
better served by the chapter abstracts in any case – we draw on some of their insights to discuss
four ways in which these profound challenges to the neoliberal knowledge economy are in
evidence. These are:
Dogma 1: Science (R&I) contributes substantially to economic growth, and that funding of
R&I is best legitimated in such terms; hence
Dogma 2: R&I may be best explained and arranged in terms of a ‘marketplace of ideas’; hence
Dogma 3: Domination by corporate and speculative entrepreneurial investment ensures a
unique dynamism and productivity in R&I, presumptively to the maximized
benefit of all (especially as consumers and investors); and
Dogma 4: Such R&I can be expected, given time and investment, to resolve (or at least
optimally to tackle) all social challenges with which it is tasked.
6
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"Excellent," Herndon said.
Oversk remarked, "You saw the Secretary of State, I suppose. Not
Krellig himself."
"Naturally. Would Krellig let someone like me into his presence?"
Herndon's ears rose at the mention of his enemy's name. He said,
"What's this about the Seigneur?"
"A little deal," Benjin chortled. "I've been doing some very delicate
negotiating while you were away. And I signed the contract today."
"What contract?" Herndon demanded.
"We have a royal patron now, it seems. The Seigneur Krellig has
gone into the starstone business himself. Not in competition with us,
though. He's bought a controlling interest in us."
Herndon felt as if his vital organs had been transmuted to lead. In a
congealed voice he said, "And what are the terms of this
agreement?"
"Simple. Krellig realized the starstone trade, though illegal, was
unstoppable. Rather than alter the legislation and legalize the trade,
which would be morally undesirable and which would also tend to
lower the price of the gems, he asked the Lord Moaris to place him
in contact with some group of smugglers who would work for the
Crown. Moaris, naturally, suggested his brother. Oversk preferred to
let me handle the negotiations, and for the past month I've been
meeting secretly with Krellig's Secretary of State to work out a deal."
"The terms of which are?"
"Krellig guarantees us immunity from prosecution, and at the same
time promises to crack down heavily on our competition. He pledges
us a starstone monopoly, in other words, and so we'll be able to
lower our price to Brennt and jack up the selling price to whatever
the traffic will bear. In return for this we turn over eight per cent of our
gross profits to the Seigneur, and agree to supply him with six
starstones annually, at cost, for the Seigneur to use as gifts to his
enemies. Naturally we also transfer our fealties from the combine to
the Seigneur himself. He holds our controls to assure loyal service."
Herndon sat as if stunned. His hands felt chilled; coldness rippled
through his body. Loyalty to Krellig? His enemy, the person he had
sworn to destroy?
The conflict seared through his mind and body. How could he fulfill
his earlier vow, now that this diametrically opposed one was in
effect? Transfer of fealty was a common thing. By the terms of
Benjin's agreement, Herndon now was a sworn vassal of the
Seigneur.
If he killed Krellig, that would violate his bond. If he served the
Seigneur in all faith, he would break trust with himself and leave
home and parents unavenged. It was an impossible dilemma. He
quivered with the strain of resolving it.
"The spacerogue doesn't look happy about the deal," Oversk
commented. "Or are you sick, Herndon?"
"I'm all right," Herndon said stonily. "It's the cold outside, that's all.
Chills a man."
Fealty to Krellig! Behind his back they had sold themselves and him
to the man he hated most. Herndon's ethical code was based
entirely on the concept of loyalty and unswerving obedience, of the
sacred nature of an oath. But now he found himself bound to two
mutually exclusive oaths. He was caught between them, racked and
drawn apart; the only escape from the torment was death.
He stood up. "Excuse me," he said. "I have an appointment
elsewhere in the city. You can reach me at my usual address if you
need me for anything."
It took him the better part of a day to get to see the Chief Steward of
Moaris Keep and explain to him that he had been unavoidably
detained in the far worlds, and that he fully intended to re-enter the
Moaris' service and perform his duties loyally and faithfully. After
quite some wrangling he was reinstated as one of the Second
Stewards, and given functions to carry out in the daily life of the
sprawling residence that was Moaris Keep.
Several days passed before he caught as much as a glimpse of the
Lady Moaris. That did not surprise him; the Keep covered fifteen
acres of Borlaam City, and Lord and Lady occupied private quarters
on the uppermost level, the rest of the huge place being devoted to
libraries, ballrooms, art galleries, and other housings, for the Moaris
treasures, all of these rooms requiring a daily cleaning by the
household staff.
He saw her finally as he was passing through the fifth-level hallway
in search of the ramp that would take him to his next task,
cataloguing the paintings of the sixth-level gallery. He heard a rustle
of crinoline first, and then she proceeded down the hall, flanked on
each side by copper-colored Toppidan giants and in front and back
by glistening-gowned ladies-in-waiting.
The Lady Moaris herself wore sheer garments that limned the
shapely lines of her body. Her face was sad; it seemed to Herndon,
as he saw her from afar, that she was under some considerable
strain.
He stepped to one side to let the procession go past; but she saw
him, and glanced quickly to the side at which he stood. Her eyes
widened in surprise as she recognized him. He did not dare a smile.
He waited until she had moved on, but inwardly he gloated. It was
not difficult to read the expression in her eyes.
Later that day, a blind Agozlid servant came up to him and silently
handed him a sealed note. Herndon pocketed it, waiting until he was
alone in a corridor that was safe from the Lord Moaris' spy-rays. He
knew it was safe; the spy-ray in that corridor had been defective, and
he himself had removed it that morning, meaning to replace it later in
the day.
He broke the seal. The note said simply: I have waited a month for
you. Come to me tonight; M. is to spend the night at the Seigneur's
palace. Karla will admit you.
The photonically-sensitized ink faded from sight in a moment; the
paper was blank. He thrust it in a disposal hatch, smiling.
He quietly made his way toward the eleventh-level chamber of the
Lady Moaris when the Keep had darkened for the night. Her lady-in-
waiting Karla was on duty, the bronze-haired one who had served as
go-between aboard the Lord Nathiir. Now she wore night robes of
translucent silk; a test of his fidelity, no doubt. Herndon carefully kept
his eyes from her body and said, "I am expected."
"Yes. Come with me."
It seemed to him that the look in her eyes was a strange one: desire,
jealousy, hatred perhaps? But she turned and led him within, down
corridors lit only with a faint nightglow. She nudged an opener; a
door before him flickered and was momentarily nullified. He stepped
through and it returned to the solid state behind him.
The Lady Moaris was waiting.
She wore only the filmiest of gowns, and the longing was evident in
her eyes. Herndon said, "Is this safe?"
"It is. Moaris is away at Krellig's." Her lip curled in a bitter scowl. "He
spends half his nights there, toying with the Seigneur's cast-off
women. The room is sealed against spy-rays. There's no way he can
find out you've been here."
"And the girl—Karla? You trust her?"
"As much as I can trust anyone." Her arms sought his shoulders. "My
rogue," she murmured. "Why did you leave us at Molleccogg?"
"Business of my own, milady."
"I missed you. Molleccogg was a bore without you."
Herndon smiled gravely. "Believe me, I didn't leave you because I
chose to. But I had sworn to carry out duty elsewhere."
She pulled him urgently to her. Herndon felt pity for this lonely
noblewoman, first in rank among the ladies of the court, condemned
to seek lovers among the stewards and grooms.
"Anything I have is yours," she promised him. "Ask for anything!
Anything!"
"There is one prize you might secure for me," Herndon said grimly.
"Name it. The cost doesn't matter."
"There is no cost," Herndon said. "I simply seek an invitation to the
court of the Seigneur. You can secure this through your husband.
Will you do it for me?"
"Of course," she whispered. She clung to him hungrily. "I'll speak to
Moaris—tomorrow."
CHAPTER VI
At the end of the week, Herndon visited the Avenue of Bronze and
learned from Bollar Benjin that sales of the starstones proceeded
well, that the arrangement under royal patronage was a happy one,
and that they would soon be relieved of most of their stock. It would,
therefore, be necessary for him to make another trip to Vyapore
during the next several weeks. He agreed, but requested an
advance of two months' salary.
"I don't see why not," Benjin agreed. "You're a valuable man, and we
have the money to spare."
He handed over a draft for ten thousand stellors. Herndon thanked
him gravely, promised to contact him when it was time for him to
make the journey to Vyapore and left.
That night he departed for Meld XVII, where he sought out the
surgeon who had altered his features after his flight from sacked
Zonnigog. He requested certain internal modifications. The surgeon
was reluctant, saying the operation was a risky one, very difficult,
and entailed a fifty per cent chance of total failure, but Herndon was
stubborn.
It cost him twenty-five thousand stellors, nearly all the money he
had, but he considered the investment a worthy one. He returned to
Borlaam the next day. A week had elapsed since his departure.
He presented himself at Moaris Keep, resumed his duties, and once
again spent the night with the Lady Moaris. She told him that she
had wangled a promise from her husband, and that he was soon to
be invited to court. Moaris had not questioned her motives, and she
said the invitation was a certainty.
Some days later a message was delivered to him, addressed to Barr
Herndon of Zonnigog. It was in the hand of the private secretary to
Moaris, and it said that the Lord Moaris had chosen to exert his
patronage in favor of Barr Herndon, and that Herndon would be
expected to pay his respects to the Seigneur Krellig.
The invitation from the Seigneur came later in the day, borne by a
resplendent Toppidan footman, commanding him to present himself
at the court reception the following evening, on pain of displeasing
the Seigneur. Herndon exulted. He had attained the pinnacle of
Borlaamese success, now; he was to be allowed into the presence
of the sovereign. This was the culmination of all his planning.
He dressed in the court robes that he had purchased weeks before
for just such an event—robes that had cost him more than a
thousand stellors, sumptuous with inlaid precious gems and rare
metals. He visited a tonsorial parlor and had an artificial beard
affixed, in the fashion of many courtiers who disliked growing beards
but who desired to wear them at ceremonial state functions. He was
bathed and combed, perfumed, and otherwise prepared for his debut
at court. He also made certain that the surgical modifications
performed on him by the Meldian doctor would be effective when the
time came.
The shadows of evening dropped. The moons of Borlaam rose,
dancing brightly across the sky. The evening fireworks display cast
brilliant light through the winter sky, signifying that this was the
birthmonth of Borlaam's Seigneur.
Herndon sent for the carriage he had hired. It arrived, a magnificent
four-tube model bright with gilt paint, and he left his shabby dwelling-
place. The carriage soared into the night sky; twelve minutes later, it
descended in the courtyard of the Grand Palace of Borlaam, that
monstrous heap of masonry that glowered down at the capital city
from the impregnable vantage-point of the Hill of Fire.
Floodlights illuminated the Grand Palace. Another man might have
been stirred by the imposing sight; Herndon merely felt an upwelling
of anger. Once his family had lived in a palace too: not of this size, to
be sure, for the people of Zonnigog were modest and unpretentious
in their desires. But it had been a palace all the same, until the
armies of Krellig razed it.
He dismounted from his carriage and presented his invitation to the
haughty Seigneurial guards on duty. They admitted him, after
checking to see that he carried no concealed weapons, and he was
conducted to an antechamber in which he found the Lord Moaris.
"So you're Herndon," Moaris said speculatively. He squinted and
tugged at his beard.
Herndon compelled himself to kneel. "I thank you for the honor your
Grace bestows upon me this night."
"You needn't thank me," Moaris grunted. "My wife asked for your
name to be put on my invitation list. But I suppose you know all that.
You look familiar, Herndon. Where have I seen you before?"
Presumably Moaris knew that Herndon had been employed in his
own service. But he merely said, "I once had the honor of bidding
against you for a captive proteus in the slave market, milord."
A flicker of recognition crossed Moaris' seamed face, and he smiled
coldly. "I seem to remember," he said.
A gong sounded.
"We mustn't keep the Seigneur waiting," said Moaris. "Come."
Together, they went forward to the Grand Chamber of the Seigneur
of Borlaam.
Moaris entered first, as befitted his rank, and took his place to the left
of the monarch, who sat on a raised throne decked with violet and
gold. Herndon knew protocol; he knelt immediately.
"Rise," the Seigneur commanded. His voice was a dry whisper,
feathery-sounding, barely audible and yet commanding all the same.
Herndon rose and stared levelly at Krellig.
The monarch was a tiny man, dried and fleshless; he seemed almost
to be a humpback. Two beady, terrifying eyes glittered from a
wrinkled, world-weary face. Krellig's lips were thin and bloodless, his
nose a savage slash, his chin wedge-shaped.
Herndon let his eyes rove. The hall was huge, as he had expected;
vast pillars supported the ceiling, and rows of courtiers flanked the
walls. There were women, dozens of them: the Seigneur's
mistresses, no doubt.
In the middle of the hall hung suspended something that looked to
be a giant cage, completely cloaked in thick draperies of red velvet.
Some pet of the Seigneur's probably lurked within: a vicious pet,
Herndon theorized, possibly a Villidoni gyrfalcon with honed talons.
"Welcome to the court," the Seigneur murmured. "You are the guest
of my friend Moaris, eh?"
"I am, Sire," Herndon said. In the quietness of the hall his voice
echoed cracklingly.
"Moaris is to provide us all with some amusement this evening,"
remarked the monarch. The little man chuckled in anticipatory glee.
"We are very grateful to your sponsor, the Lord Moaris, for the
pleasure he is to bring us this night."
Herndon frowned. He wondered obscurely whether he was to be the
source of amusement. He stood his ground unafraid; before the
evening had ended, he himself would be amused at the expense of
the others.
"Raise the curtain," Krellig commanded.
Instantly two Toppidan slaves emerged from the corners of the
throneroom and jerked simultaneously on heavy cords that
controlled the curtain over the cage. Slowly the thick folds of velvet
lifted, revealing, as Herndon had suspected, a cage.
There was a girl in the cage.
She hung suspended by her wrists from a bar mounted at the roof of
the cage. She was naked; the bar revolved, turning her like an
animal trussed to a spit. Herndon froze, not daring to move, staring
in sudden astonishment at the slim bare body dangling there.
It was a body he knew well.
The girl in the cage was the Lady Moaris.
Seigneur Krellig smiled benignly; he murmured in a gentle voice,
"Moaris, the show is yours and the audience awaits. Don't keep us
waiting."
Moaris slowly moved toward the center of the ballroom floor. The
marble under his feet was brightly polished and reflected him; his
boots thundered as he walked.
He turned, facing Krellig, and said in a calm, controlled tone, "Ladies
and gentlemen of the Seigneur's court, I beg leave to transact a little
of my domestic business before your eyes. The lady in the cage, as
most of you, I believe, are aware, is my wife."
A ripple of hastily-hushed comment was emitted by the men and
women of the court. Moaris gestured and a spotlight flashed upward,
illuminating the woman in the cage.
Herndon saw that her wrists were cruelly pinioned and that the blue
veins stood out in sharp relief against her pale arms. She swung in a
small circle as the bar above her turned in its endless rotation.
Beads of sweat trickled down her back and down her stomach, and
the harsh sobbing intake of her breath was audible in the silence.
Moaris said casually, "My wife has been unfaithful to me. A trusted
servant informed me of this not long ago: she has cheated me
several times with no less a personage than an obscure member of
our household, a groom or a lackey or some other person. When I
questioned her, she did not deny this accusation. The Seigneur"—
Moaris bowed in a throneward direction—"has granted me
permission to chastise her here, to provide me with greater
satisfaction and you with a moment of amusement."
Herndon did not move. He watched as Moaris drew from his sash a
glittering little heat-gun. Calmly the nobleman adjusted the aperture
to minimum. He gestured; a side of the cage slid upward, giving him
free target.
He lifted the heat-gun.
Flick!
A bright tongue of flame licked out—and the girl in the cage uttered a
little moan as a pencil-thin line was seared across her flanks.
Flick!
Again the beam played across her body. Flick! Again. Lines of pain
were traced across her breasts, her throat, her knees, her back. She
revolved helplessly as Moaris amused himself, carving line after line
along her body with the heat-ray. It was only with an effort that
Herndon held still. The members of the court chuckled as the Lady
Moaris writhed and danced in an effort to escape the inexorable lash
of the beam.
Moaris was an expert. He sketched patterns on her body, always
taking care that the heat never penetrated below the upper surface
of the flesh. It was a form of torture that might endure for hours, until
the blood bubbled in her veins and she died.
Herndon realized the Seigneur was peering at him. "Do you find this
courtly amusement to your taste, Herndon?" Krellig asked.
"Not quite, Sire." A hum of surprise rose that such a newcomer to the
court should dare to contradict the Seigneur. "I would prefer a
quicker death for the lady."
"And rob us of our sport?" Krellig asked.
"I would indeed do that," said Herndon. Suddenly he thrust open his
jewelled cloak; the Seigneur cowered back as if he expected a
weapon to come forth, but Herndon merely touched a plate in his
chest, activating the device that the Meldian had implanted in his
body. The neuronic mesh functioned in reverse; gathering a charge
of deadly force, it sent the bolt surging along Herndon's hand. A
bright arc of fire leaped from Herndon's pointing finger and
surrounded the girl in the cage.
"Barr!" she screamed, breaking her silence at last, and died.
Again Herndon discharged the neuronic force, and Moaris, his hands
singed, dropped his heat-gun.
"Allow me to introduce myself," Herndon said, as Krellig stared
white-faced at him and the nobles of the court huddled together in
fright. "I am Barr Herndon, son of the First Earl of Zonnigog.
Somewhat over a year ago a courtier's jest roused you to lay waste
to your fief of Zonnigog and put my family to the sword. I have not
forgotten that day."
"Seize him!" Krellig shrieked.
"Anyone who touches me will be blasted with the fire," Herndon said.
"Any weapon directed at me will recoil upon its owner. Hold your
peace and let me finish.
"I am also Barr Herndon, Second Steward to Lord Moaris, and the
lover of the woman who died before you. It must comfort you,
Moaris, to know that the man who cuckolded you was no mere
groom, but a noble of Zonnigog.
"I am also," Herndon went on, in the dead silence, "Barr Herndon the
spacerogue, driven to take up a mercenary's trade by the destruction
of my household. In that capacity I became a smuggler of starstones,
and"—he bowed—"through an ironic twist, found myself owing a
debt of fealty to none other than you, Seigneur.
"I hereby revoke that oath of fealty, Krellig—and for the crime of
breaking an oath to my monarch, I sentence myself to death. But
also, Krellig, I order a sentence of death upon your head for the
wanton attack upon my homeland. And you, Moaris—for your cruel
and barbaric treatment of this woman whom you never loved, you
must die too.
"And all of you—you onlookers and sycophants, you courtiers and
parasites, you too must die. And you, the court clowns, the dancing
bears and captive life-forms of far worlds, I will kill you too, as once I
killed a slave proteus—not out of hatred, but simply to spare you
from further torment."
He paused. The hall was terribly silent; then someone to the right of
the throne shouted, "He's crazy! Let's get out of here!"
He dashed for the great doors, which had been closed. Herndon let
him get within ten feet of safety, then blasted him down with a
discharge of life-force. The mechanism within his body recharged
itself, drawing its power from the hatred within him and discharging
through his fingertips.
Herndon smiled at Lord Moaris, pale now. He said, "I'll be more
generous to you than you to your Lady. A quick death for you."
He hurled a bolt of force at the nobleman. Moaris recoiled, but there
was no hiding possible; he stood bathed in light for a moment, and
then the charred husk dropped to the ground.
A second bolt raked the crowd of courtiers. A third Herndon aimed at
the throne; the costly hangings of the throne-area caught first, and
Krellig half-rose before the bolt of force caught him and hurled him
back dead.
Herndon stood alone in the middle of the floor. His quest was at its
end; he had achieved his vengeance. All but the last: on himself, for
having broken the oath he had involuntarily sworn to the Seigneur.
Life held no further meaning for him. It was odious to consider
returning to a spacerogue's career, and only death offered absolution
from his oaths.
He directed a blazing beam of force at one of the great pillars that
supported the throneroom's ceiling. It blackened, then buckled. He
blasted apart another of the pillars, and the third.
The roof groaned; the tons of masonry were suddenly without
support, after hundreds of years. Herndon waited, and smiled in
triumph as the ceiling hurtled down at him.
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