Karl Marx described capital as "dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour." But what happens when capital itself is alive? Biotechnological and scientific advancements have enabled the commodification and exploitation of living organisms and tissue at a scale barely imaginable in Marx's time, opening new global markets for the circulation of "biocapital." What is biocapital, and how might it transform our understandings of labor, value, property, and even life itself? Drawing on a variety of course material -- including critical theory, ethnography, literature, and films -- the seminar seeks to answer these questions by exploring the historical, socio-cultural, and political-economic dimensions of biocapital and the technoscientific processes employed to extract value from living things. |