What is biotechnology?: Biotechnology development and the dynamic process of constructing industrial boundaries

This dissertation investigates how the concept of biotechnology was developed and institutionalized between 1955 and 2005. Biotechnology is viewed as a socially constructed phenomenon, a frame through which national and local governing bodies could plan for industrial renewal during a period of economic upheaval.;In the examination of a top-down diffusion process, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was shown to have presented biotechnology as an "enabling technology". This new frame provided a solution to the problem of economic decline and meshed perfectly with the political tone and perceived economic and technological needs of the 1970s and 1980s. The frame thus allowed the alignment of global and local actors around a common vision. The OECD inscribed the meaning of the new genetics within the setting of larger global economic problems as well as future directions for the international community. In this way, the OECD built the cognitive foundation of biotechnology industry development. Conference proceedings data reveals a rich body of transnational organizations that engaged the framework. Organizations coupled many meanings to the frame over time. NGO work developed alongside explicit government attempts to plan the path the industry's development. In all, keywords like "biotechnology" are shown to have cultural power, working to garner institutional energies around particular projects. They will have this effect based on how they mesh with existing cognitive frameworks and how they couple to "real life" activity. Findings validate a novel approach to the study of transnational culture.