Selling Science: A New Professional Identity on the Border between Academic and Business Worlds

Poster/Exhibit Session
Sabrina Moretti,  Francesco Sacchetti  

The growth of the knowledge economy and the increasing interchange between industry and the academic world are a consequence of neoliberal globalization, which has led to a blurring of the boundaries between science and technology, and between public and private spheres. In this new context, researchers should not be limited to “producing new knowledge,” but should be able to attribute a “commercial value” to their findings. They must therefore try to reconfigure their role and to redefine their professional identity in order to adapt to a market-oriented context. The research introduced here is based on an ethnographic case study of an academic spin-off operating in the field of biotechnology. The goal is to analyze how researchers try to reconfigure their roles in response to conflicts and contradictions that emerge when they attempt to reconcile the logic of the market with that of pure science. While we describe the adaptation paths of researchers in this new context, we also focus on the results that show how the diffusion of the idea of “social responsibility” of scientists has played a key role in redefining their professional identity.