Biosecurity Borderlands: making biosecurity work in a complex landscape
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Exeter
Department Name: Geography
Abstract
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Organisations
Publications
Allen J
(2014)
'Just-in-Time' Disease Biosecurity, poultry and power
in Journal of Cultural Economy
Bingham N
(2012)
The Object of Regulation: Tending the Tensions of Food Safety
in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
Bridge, G,
(2011)
The New Blackwell Companion to the City
Craddock S
(2015)
One world, one health? Social science engagements with the one health agenda.
in Social science & medicine (1982)
Dobson, Andrew; Barker, Kezia; Taylor, Sarah L.
(2013)
Biosecurity: The Socio-Politics of Invasive Species and Infectious Diseases
Hinchliffe
(2016)
Pathological Lives: Disease, Space and Biopolitics
Hinchliffe S
(2015)
More than one world, more than one health: re-configuring interspecies health.
in Social science & medicine (1982)
Hinchliffe S
(2013)
Differentiated Circuits: The Ecologies of Knowing and Securing Life
in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space
Hinchliffe S
(2014)
Geographies of folded life: How immunity reframes biosecurity
in Geoforum
| Description | The key messages from this research are: 1. Emerging infectious disease (EID) threats are made in social settings and are shaped by economic, regulatory as well as microbiological conditions. 2. Biosecurity, or the response to these disease threats, is also shaped within extant market, regulatory and scientific conditions. 3. Biosecurity tends to be formulated as a narrowly technical response to microbiological threat, rather than as a broad review of the range of conditions that make disease more or less likely. 4. In this sense, biosecurity interventions can sometimes exacerbate longer-term risk. The research is critical of existing approaches to zoonotic, epizootic and food borne disease risks. Using evidence from in-depth fieldwork within the UK's wildlife, food and farming sectors, we have sought to change the questions with respect to biosecurity and related concerns. We have promoted a social science-informed re-framing of disease risk through academic, web-based, pedagogic, policy and arts based interventions. Our overall aim has been to use our empirical, policy and conceptual work to shift the terms of the disease emergency from one of 'invasion, borders and battle' to one of 'processes, pressures and conditions'. As a result we have argued for a social science-led focus on the socio-economic conditions for disease. We argue that it is not sufficient to simply seek to protect life in order to shore up 'business as usual'. Rather, making life safe involves questioning how those lives are configured in the current socio-economic landscape. This criticality undoubtedly sits uncomfortably with existing political and commercial demands. In that sense, impact is unlikely to be immediate or direct, and is a matter for targeted intervention and capacity building. As we detail below, from appointment to national committees to an article in a national newspaper, we are seeking to maximise impact in ways that work within current institutional frames. The work contributed to the PI's appointment to DEFRA's Science Advisory Council Sub-Group on Exotic Diseases. See https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/411998/sac-ed-meeting-141126-hpai-h5n8.pdf for input. The PI has also served as an appointed member of the Food Standards Agency Social Science Research Committee, contributing insights on infectious and food borne disease. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Agriculture, Food and Drink,Environment |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Appointment to DEFRA SAC Exotic Diseases |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |