Wet Knees and Cuckoo Holes: On the Materiality of Knowledge in the Dutch Dairy Sector

This abstract has open access
Abstract Summary
In this paper I use an example from my ethnographic fieldwork on the the Dutch dairy sector to challenge some troubling claims made by those attempting to historicize contemporary capitalism. Or, to put it another way, what can livestock agriculture tell us about post-Fordist forms of capitalism that increasingly rely on information, data, affect, etc., to reproduce themselves and produce value? In Cognitive Capitalism, the French economist, Yann Moulier-Boutang writes that knowledge rather than labor power is increasingly becoming the source of value within global capitalism. I do not take issue with this diagnosis, however, I would like to problematize the assumption that “knowledge-goods” and “information goods” have what Moulier-Boutang calls an “immaterial nature” (2004). In General Intellects, Mackenzie Wark, an Australian cultural critic, reminds us to “hang on to the materiality of information-based sciences and technologies” (2017). In my research I bring the materiality of the body (both human and non-human) into an analysis of knowledge based value extraction in an increasingly digitized dairy sector. Specifically, I examine the “caring labor” (Hardt 1999) of bodily and/or haptic practices taught to veterinarians, feed advisors, and other agricultural professionals by a Dutch dairy consultant. These practices cultivate knowledge and information about animal wellbeing and health in order to increase efficiency, milk production, and farm income and profit. Thus, we see profit, knowledge, information, and bodies (both human and cattle) entangled within the agricultural production process.
Abstract ID :
HSS754
Submission Type
Abstract Topics
Chronological Classification :
21st century
Self-Designated Keywords :
Dairy Science, Knowledge, Multispecies Entanglement, Caring Labor, Capitalism

Abstracts With Same Type

Abstract ID
Abstract Title
Abstract Topic
Submission Type
Primary Author
HSS575
Aspects of Scientific Practice/Organization
Organized Session
Prof. Anna Graber
HSS355
Technology
Organized Session
Francesco Cassata
HSS587
Medicine and Health
Organized Session
Chantal Marazia
HSS872
Thematic Approaches to the Study of Science
Organized Session
Dr. Alison Kraft
HSS5847
Biology
Organized Session
Dr. Dominik Huenniger
HSS512
Aspects of Scientific Practice/Organization
Organized Session
Alrun Schmidtke
86 visits