Corporate knowledge and corporate power. Reining in the power of corporations as epistemic agents

In this paper I discuss the power of corporations as epistemic agents. Corporations need to hold certain forms of knowledge in order to develop and produce goods and services. Intellectual property is meant to incentivize them to do so, in ways that orient their activities towards the public good. H...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Critical review of international social and political philosophy 2024-04, Vol.27 (3), p.363-382
Main Author: Herzog, Lisa
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Companies
corporations
democracy
Epistemology
Intellectual property
intellectual property rights
Knowledge
Markets
Organizational power
Power
Property
Public relations
Regulation
Scientific evidence
surveillance capitalism
Tobacco
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Summary:In this paper I discuss the power of corporations as epistemic agents. Corporations need to hold certain forms of knowledge in order to develop and produce goods and services. Intellectual property is meant to incentivize them to do so, in ways that orient their activities towards the public good. However, corporations often use their knowledge strategically, not only within markets, but also in the processes that set the rules for markets. I discuss various historical examples, including the so-called 'tobacco strategy' of creating doubt about scientific evidence, and argue that as long as corporations are set up as profit-oriented entities, it is a dangerous strategy to provide them with too much epistemic power. I suggest various policies for reigning in this form of corporate power, for example regulations on PR activities. I then turn to the power of digital corporations, which is based on their collection and analysis of data. These kinds of companies, and the technologies they use, make the control of corporations as epistemic agents all the more urgent for democratic societies.
ISSN:1369-8230
1743-8772
DOI:10.1080/13698230.2022.2113227