{"id":186,"date":"2022-04-12T17:45:36","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T17:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xzn.tkv.mybluehost.me\/?page_id=186"},"modified":"2026-07-14T16:26:44","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T16:26:44","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186","title":{"rendered":"Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS<\/strong>&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2026-2027<br>Visiting Professor, Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (funded by Otto M\u00f8nsted Foundation)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2026<br>Working Group, Center of Advanced Internet Studies College, Bochum, Germany<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2023<br>Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2021 &#8211; now<br>Member, <a href=\"https:\/\/platformeconomies.net\/\">Platform Economies Research Network<\/a>, The New School, USA<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2020<br>Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark [postponed due to Coronavirus] <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2019 &#8211; now<br>Scientific Advisory Board, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcts.tum.de\/en\/\">Department of STS<\/a> (formerly MCTS), Technical University Munich, Germany<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2019 &#8211; now<br>Associate Member, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lancaster.ac.uk\/educational-research\/research\/centre-for-higher-education-research-and-evaluation\/\">Centre for Higher Education Research and Evaluation<\/a>, Lancaster University, UK<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2017<br>Visiting Scholar, Department of Business and Politics, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2017<br>Visiting Professor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mcts.tum.de\/en\/\">Munich Center for Technology in Society<\/a> (MCTS), Technical University of Munich<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2016 &#8211; now<br>Advisory Board, <a href=\"https:\/\/politicaleconomyoftechnoscience.wordpress.com\/\">Changing Political Economy of Research and Innovation<\/a> annual workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RESEARCH INTERESTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Current &amp; Future Research Agenda<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\"><em>Digital Ledger &amp; Blockchain Technologies in Finance<\/em>: I&#8217;m at the start of a project looking at the use of blockchain in financial markets and the construction of alternative asset classes using new techno-financial mechanisms. I&#8217;m especially interested in the tokenization of real world assets and the use of blockchain technologies in payment systems.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Assetization in Technoscientific Capitalism<\/em>: broadly-speaking, my current and future research is concerned with understanding the entanglement of finance and technoscience manifested in the transformation of things into assets. This research has been funded by Canada&#8217;s Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Data Assets &amp; Data Rentiership: <\/em>I&#8217;m increasingly focusing on questions about the measurement and valuation of digital data, globally &#8211; includes projects funded by SSHRC and Germany&#8217;s GIZ. I explore these issues through the concepts of <em>assetization <\/em>and <em>rentiership<\/em>, where the latter entails the extraction of value from social activities and relations rather than the creation of new products and services: <a href=\"https:\/\/rentiership.com\/\">https:\/\/rentiership.com<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Financing in High-tech Sectors (e.g. life sciences, digital tech)<\/em>: I&#8217;m interested in economic expertise, assumptions, and knowledges as well technoscience itself in high-tech sectors. I study the financing of technoscience in order to understand how financial logics (e.g. capitalization), financial knowledges (e.g. accounting), and financial practices (e.g. corporate governance) come to configure the organization and governance of high-tech sectors.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Past Research<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\"><em>Biofuels, Biotechnology &amp; Emerging Bio-economies<\/em>: funded by SSHRC and focused on innovation in renewable energy generation from \u2018advanced\u2019 or \u2018second generation\u2019 biofuels. I was interested in how new forms of environmental technoscience (e.g. advanced biofuels) are configured by market imperatives and, in turn, how they come to configure markets in particular ways. This research was part of a long-running interest in the bio-economy, which included the use of biomass in the production of products, chemicals, etc.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Sustainable Infrastructure &amp; the Engineering Profession<\/em>: funded by Work in Warming World program, I looked at innovation in transport infrastructure&nbsp; that respond to needs for climate change adaptation and mitigation. I was interested in the implications of this sort of innovation for the engineering profession (e.g. codes, training, education, licensing, etc.).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Public-private Partnerships &amp; the New Market-State<\/em>: I examined the marketization of public services and public infrastructure developments.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Rethinking Neoliberalism<\/em>: I critically unpacked the concept of neoliberal. This arose from a dissatisfaction with current analytical accounts of neoliberalism that characterize it as a market-centred ideology, project or epistemic order. Much of this research agenda came out of an examination of the varieties of neoliberal restructuring at the supra-national, national and regional scales; this research was funded by the UK&#8217;s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\"><em>Innovation and Knowledge-based Commodity Chains in the Life Sciences<\/em>: longstanding interest in the innovation and spatial dynamics of the life sciences. I received funding from the ESRC to study the particular forms of innovation and economic governance along \u2018knowledge-based commodity chains\u2019 and how this relates to regional development and upgrading.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>WORKING PAPERS<\/strong> (Rather old now)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"\">Birch, K. (2015) <a href=\"http:\/\/warming.apps01.yorku.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/WP_2015-01_Birch_Socio-mateial-systems-sustainble-transitions_1.pdf\">Socio-material systems and sustainability transitions: Integrating climate change into transport infrastructure in Ontario, Canada<\/a>, Work in a Warming World (W3) Working Paper #2015-01.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Birch, K. (2013) <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/file\/d\/0B3Ogk5cwwYO_QkRLbWxybW1LYVk\/edit?usp=sharing\">Where is value in the bio-economy?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Birch, K (2011) <a href=\"http:\/\/www.iippe.org\/wiki\/images\/c\/cd\/Working_Paper_Ever_Neoliberal.pdf\">Have We Ever Been Neoliberal?<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Birch, K. (2010) <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/viewer?a=v&amp;pid=explorer&amp;chrome=true&amp;srcid=0B3Ogk5cwwYO_ODgzYmI4ZTYtOTZjMi00NjJmLTljOTItZGVmMDVhMzZkN2Yz&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CLywmJUK\">On Failure: Rethinking evolutionary change in economic geography<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"\">Birch, K. and Connolly, M. (2010) <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/viewer?a=v&amp;pid=explorer&amp;chrome=true&amp;srcid=0B3Ogk5cwwYO_OTEwZDFhODktOGE3Ny00YjNiLTg4YzctMDVlYzUwMWM3MDhh&amp;hl=en&amp;authkey=CLKPnLcK\">Neoliberalising climate change: Free market think tanks and the representation of climate change science and policy in the UK<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS&nbsp; 2026-2027Visiting Professor, Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (funded by Otto M\u00f8nsted Foundation) 2026Working Group, Center of Advanced Internet Studies College, Bochum, Germany 2023Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 2021 &#8211; nowMember, Platform Economies Research Network, The New School, USA 2020Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen&hellip;&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186\" rel=\"bookmark\">Read More &raquo;<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Research<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-186","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Research - Kean Birch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Research - Kean Birch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS&nbsp; 2026-2027Visiting Professor, Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (funded by Otto M\u00f8nsted Foundation) 2026Working Group, Center of Advanced Internet Studies College, Bochum, Germany 2023Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 2021 &#8211; nowMember, Platform Economies Research Network, The New School, USA 2020Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen&hellip;&nbsp;Read More &raquo;Research\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Kean Birch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T16:26:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?page_id=186\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?page_id=186\",\"name\":\"Research - Kean Birch\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-12T17:45:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-14T16:26:44+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?page_id=186#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?page_id=186\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?page_id=186#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Research\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/\",\"name\":\"Kean Birch\",\"description\":\"Penguin, chicken, aardvark\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/keanbirch.net\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Research - Kean Birch","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Research - Kean Birch","og_description":"RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS&nbsp; 2026-2027Visiting Professor, Department of Management, Society and Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark (funded by Otto M\u00f8nsted Foundation) 2026Working Group, Center of Advanced Internet Studies College, Bochum, Germany 2023Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 2021 &#8211; nowMember, Platform Economies Research Network, The New School, USA 2020Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen&hellip;&nbsp;Read More &raquo;Research","og_url":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186","og_site_name":"Kean Birch","article_modified_time":"2026-07-14T16:26:44+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186","url":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186","name":"Research - Kean Birch","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-04-12T17:45:36+00:00","dateModified":"2026-07-14T16:26:44+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?page_id=186#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Research"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/#website","url":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/","name":"Kean Birch","description":"Penguin, chicken, aardvark","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=186"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/186\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/keanbirch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}