Professor
Co-Editor, Science as Culture
Director, Institute for Technoscience & Society
Series Editor, Technoscience & Society Book Series, University of Toronto Press
Credentials
PhD Planning, Oxford Brooks University
MSc Technology Studies, University of Edinburgh
MA (Honours) Sociology, University of Edinburgh
Research Keywords
Innovation; Technoscientific capitalism; Assets, assetization & rentiership; Digital & data economies; Big Tech; Finance & technoscience; Bio-economy & biofuels; Sustainability transitions.
Graduate Supervision
I supervise students in the graduate programs in Science & Technology Studies and Geography

Contact Information
4700 Keele Street
Toronto, ON M3J 1P3
416 736 2100
http://www.keanbirch.net | https://www.yorku.ca/research/its/
Research Interests
I am particularly interested in understanding technoscientific capitalism and draw on a range of perspectives from science & technology studies, economic geography, and economic sociology to study it. More specifically, my research focuses on the restructuring and transformation of the economy & financial knowledges, technoscience & technoscientific innovation, and the relationship between markets & natural environments. Currently, I am researching how different things (e.g. knowledge, personality, loyalty, etc.) are turned into assets and how economic rents are then captured from those assets - basically, in processes of assetization and rentiership.
Research Projects
Research Output
Recognition & Awards
- Editorial Board Member, Progress in Economic Geography (2022-now)
- Editorial Board Member, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (2022-now)
- Editorial Board Member, Social Epistemology (2020-now)
- Editorial Board Member, Science, Technology & Human Values (2018-now)
- Editorial Board Member, OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology (2014-now)
- Scientific Advisory Board, Munich Center for Technology in Society/Department of STS, Technical University Munich (2019-now)
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Organization, Copenhagen Business School (2020)
- Visiting Scholar, Department of Business & Politics, Copenhagen Business School (2017)
- Visiting Professor, Munich Center for Technology in Society, Technical University of Munich (2017)
- #1 Most Cited Article (published last 3 years), Science, Technology, & Human Values
- #1 Most Cited Article (published last 3 years), Policy Studies
- Highly Cited Papers, Web of Science, Top 1% Most Cited Worldwide
- At-large Board Member, AAG Economic Geography Specialty Group (2018-2019)
Courses
Course Code | Title |
---|---|
EUC2110 3.0 | Geographies of Global Political Economy and Power |
EUC3150 3.0 | Technological Worlds: Geographies of Digital Capitalism |
EUC4220 3.0 | Neoliberal Geographies |
STS6005 3.0 | Research Cluster: Technoscientific Injustices |
STS6006 3.0 | Digital Technoscience |
GEOG5025 3.0 | Research Design and Formulation in Human Geography |