The multifaceted struggle for power in the bioeconomy: Introduction to the special issue

This special issue explores cases from Latin American countries, studied in comparison to global trends in the arenas of public participation, scientific knowledge production, regulation and governance. The authors demonstrate the complexity of these cases, both in terms of regional differences and the different spaces of public, policy, and scientific knowledge production into which such innovations are inserted. The articles are based on rich empirical data collected in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. Authors show that the top-down circulation of policy narratives on biotechnology is challenged, complemented and even partly undermined by local bottom-up dynamics. Conversely, articles also focus on those grassroots dynamics and the ways they are influenced and conditioned by macro-sociological and political-economic factors. Lastly, a great deal of attention is paid to the ways states and national actors actively contribute to their own insertion in globalized markets where bioengineered living resources are increasingly tasked with solving the most pressing economic and social issues. We believe that this collection of works challenges scholars, intellectuals, policy-makers and relevant stakeholders to open up their views of biotechnology as a dynamic construct that interacts with local situations in a variety of ways.