Chapter 22 - Commercialization and Power

Summary

Chapter 22 reviews how market-based thinking has come to dominate our value system, and how the overconcentration of power may negatively influence the rate at which we can make progress. For example, as neoliberalism became embedded in modern economic theory, pro-market policies such as reduced regulation, the privatization of public services, and lower taxes became more commonplace. The growing market-based norms in science stem from the fact that this approach to economics began diffusing into other spheres of public life. The way we approached economics also became the way we approached science. Suddenly, scientific discoveries became linked with economic profit maximization and innovation policy, a by-product of neoliberalism’s grip on public affairs. The second part of the chapter highlights how there is an increasing concentration of power and resources in medicine among few actors and disease groups, reflecting on the findings from previous chapters. Chapter 22 also explores how this overconcentration of power may have negative consequences for socially-relevant research, and concludes by providing solutions to counteract this concentration.