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My research and teaching interests consider the social, political
and economic context of technological development, innovation and
regulation. Empirically, I focus on issues surrounding the
adoption of agricultural biotechnology in Southern Africa, the
United States, and the European Union. This includes both
the technology itself as well as the international, regional and
local context of adoption. My empirical research informs
more theoretical questions regarding privatization and enclosure,
the nature of value, theories of property, property rights and
ownership, the role of the state, the nature of risk and
regulation in public policy, and the role of social movements and
local resistance in the governance of science and technology.
My research interests center on four key areas:
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Environmental Politics and Policy. Specifically
issues of agricultural technologies and development,
biodiversity access and benefit sharing, seed patenting and
the impact of intellectual property rights on hunger and rural
development.
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Political Economy of Science. Issues
relating to the social, political and economic implications of
new technologies, the social construction of risk, and the
nature of regulation and regulatory policy.
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International Political
Economy/International Relations. Debates over governance structures in science and
technology policy and trade. Theoretical background in
critical political economy.
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Comparative Politics. Questions
relating to land and agrarian reform, rural development, and
alternative development paradigms.
Regional focus on Southern Africa.
Books
Agricultural
Biotechnology Reconsidered: Western Narratives and African
Alternatives. (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005).
Review of Agricultural Biotechnology Reconsidered by
Toyin Falola. Journal of African and Asian Studies, Vol.
42, No. 351 (2007).
Peer-Reviewed Publications:
“Sowing the Seeds of Progress: The Agricultural
Biotechnology Debate in Africa.” History Compass.
Forthcoming. [Abstract]
“Risking Regulation, Regulating Risk:
Lessons from the Trans-Atlantic Biotech Dispute.”
Review of Policy Research Vol. 24, No. 4 (September,
2007): 407-424. [Abstract]
“Contesting
Privatization: NGOs and Farmers’ Rights in the African Model Law.”
Global Environmental Politics.
Vol. 7, No. 1 (February, 2007). [Abstract]
“Biodiversity,
Ownership, and Indigenous Knowledge: Exploring Legal Frameworks
for Community, Farmers and Intellectual Property Rights in Africa.”
Ecological Economics.
Vol. 53, No. 4 (June, 2005): 493-506. [Abstract]
[Full
Essay]
“Feeding
the Famine? American Food Aid and the GMO Debate in Southern
Africa.” Food Policy. 29 (6) (December,
2004): 593-608. [Abstract]
[Full
Essay]
“Contested
Ownership: TRIPs, CBD and Implications for African Biodiversity.”
Perspectives on Global Development and Technology. Vol. 1
No. 3-4 (December 2002), pp. 294-321. [Abstract]
[Full
Essay]
“Seeds
of Hope, Seeds of Despair: Towards a Political Economy of the Seed
Industry in Southern Africa.”
Third World Quarterly.
Vol. 22, No. 4 (Fall, 2001), pp. 657-673. [Abstract]
[Full
Essay]
Non-Peer Reviewed Publications
“Local
Governance in Post-Apartheid South Africa.” (Review
Essay). African Studies. (March, 2007).
“From
Impasse to Renaissance? Review of Historical Materialism's
Symposium on Marxism and African Realities.”
ACAS
Bulletin. (August 2005). [Full
Essay]
“Biodiversity Conservation and Protection of
Indigenous Knowledge: Analyzing the Emergence of a Legal Framework
for Access to Biodiversity, Benefit Sharing and Intellectual
Property in Africa.”
Center for Philosophy of Law, Université
catholique de Louvain. Working Paper. 2003. [Full
Essay]
“Update on the OAU Model Legislation.”
Report prepared for the Africa-Europe Faith and Justice Network.
(March 2003).
“Sustainability Impact Assessment: Policy
Paper.” Trade,
Societies and Sustainable Development (SUSTRA) Network Working
Paper. (Co-authored
with Tom Dedeurwaerdere). 2003.
[Full
Essay]
“Biotechnology and Rural Development: Promise
and Peril for Southern Africa.”
Rural and Community
Development Working Group, Centre for Research on Latin America
and the Caribbean, York University. Working Paper. 2002. [Full
Essay]
“The International Political Economy of
Agricultural Biotechnology: The Case of Zimbabwe.”
Ph.D.
Dissertation. Department of Political Science, York University.
Last update 3 January 2008 by Noah
Zerbe
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