Doctoral Dissertation Research: Pharmaceutical Bioprospecting for Genetic Resources in Postapartheid South Africa

研究人员调查了知识产权法如何构建遗传资源所有权的概念，以及这些法律如何影响在国家和跨国一级谈判监管治理的地方方法。该项目以一项法院裁决为例，该裁决授予一家德国制药公司独家使用一种南非植物的专利权，这种植物是生产特定药物的一个基本要素。它考察了各种利益相关者如何运用特定的实践和知识形式，以有利地改变当前的情况，以适应或挑战现有的知识产权法律。该项目处于文化人类学、经济地理学、社会法律研究以及科学和技术研究等多个领域的交叉点，为开辟知识产权和治理研究的新的理论和方法途径提供了机会。

The researcher investigates how intellectual property laws construct notions of ownership of genetic resources and how these laws impact the local approach to negotiating regulatory governance occurring at the national and transnational level. The project uses the example of a court decision awarding patents to a German pharmaceutical company for the exclusive use of a South African plant, which is an essential element in the production of specific drugs. It examines how various stakeholders wield specific practices and forms of knowledge in order to favorably transform current circumstances to fit or contest existing intellectual property laws. This project, which lies at the intersection of multiple fields -- cultural anthropology; economic geography; socio-legal studies; and, science and technology studies -- offers the opportunity for opening up new theoretical and methodological avenues of research on intellectual property and governance.