The Invention of Traditional Knowledge.

Part of a special issue commemorating ten years of cultural environmentalism. The metaphor of “cultural environmentalism” helped to lay the foundation for the recognition and protection of traditional knowledge and natural resources in the developing world. However, the project of cultural environ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Law & Contemporary Problems Vol. 70; no. 2; pp. 97 - 125
Autor principal: Sunder, Madhavi
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Duke University Spring2007
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Part of a special issue commemorating ten years of cultural environmentalism. The metaphor of “cultural environmentalism” helped to lay the foundation for the recognition and protection of traditional knowledge and natural resources in the developing world. However, the project of cultural environmentalism both supports and obstructs the project of protecting poor people's knowledge and promoting development through intellectual property. Reifying the public domain may have the unintended effect of congealing traditional knowledge as the “opposite of property” and may present poor people's knowledge merely as the raw material of innovation rather than as intellectual property. This approach allows those who hold traditional knowledge to be rewarded for conserving biodiversity and contributing the raw materials of innovation, but fails to acknowledge them as holders of intellectual property in their own right.