Subjects of Speculation: Emergent Life Sciences and Market Logics in the United States and India

Abstract

This article traces systems of exchange concerning the life sciences and capital and how they configure subjectivity in the United States and India. This is done through case studies concerning the emergence of personalized medicine in the two locales. In the U.S. case, I argue for the configuration of the subjects of personalized medicine as sovereign consumers; in the Indian case, I argue for their configuration as experimental subjects. I situate these arguments in the context of epistemologies of genomics and the consolidation of systems of speculative capitalism.