The Politicization of Intellectual Property: IP Conflicts and Social Change

Abstract

In the last 15 years a remarkable string of contentious mobilizations has emerged, challenging the normative and institutional frameworks that regulate how knowledge is produced, appropriated, and used. In this article I argue that these conflicts are more than contingent phenomena of fluctuating protest patterns. They are rooted in the growing global economic and political importance of immaterial goods, and – on a more fundamental level – they address a set of new cleavages which originate in the social transformations of the knowledge society.

Keywords: knowledge society, intellectual property, social movements, creative commons, pirate parties, access to medicines, software patents

JEL Classification: H41, O34