Biosecurity: securing circulations from the microbe to the macrocosm

Abstract

Biosecurity poses the problem of how to live with and manage the complex, contingent and emergent circulations of life. This excess of circulating life manifests in a host of different circumstances: from the biopolitical attempt to sort 'good' from 'bad' circulations disrupted by a zoonotic virus making use of air transportation networks; to fluid microbial topologies that challenge the bounded individual body; from a biosurveillance network signal prompting anticipatory governance responses; to the intersection of financial and microbial geographies in the risky practices of industrial agribusiness. The 'shock of the real' from these eventful and everyday occurrences not only illuminates empirical connections between circulating bodies, microbes, knowledges, electronic signals, seeds, capital, food and anxiety, but also highlights that the complexity of securing processes that are elaborating new forms of life cannot be fully captured through any one theoretical lens. In this review article I consider the burgeoning field of biosecurity studies through attention to these differing concepts of circulation, and suggest neglected circulations for future research.

Digital epidemiology and global health security; an interdisciplinary conversation

“…On the one hand, those systems introduce a new expectation and a demand to constantly assure the normal state of affairs. New technologies of surveillance are employed to be able to illustrate an absence, to be able to constantly assure that there is nothing to worry about, as Kezia Barker argues (Barker 2014). In order to be aware of unusual events, resources, work and infrastructure are invested to extensively monitor the routine state of public health.…”

Tactile topologies of the rural

“…Authorities, agencies, and government departments monitor, report, and intervene based on so-called 'biosecurity' threats (e.g. see Enticott, 2008;Hinchliffe et al, 2013;Hinchliffe and Ward, 2014; on biosecurity processes and 'circulations' more generally, see Barker, 2008Barker, , 2015. At stake in times of 'biosecurity' crisis is the viability of diverse and (varyingly) interconnected actors in a livestock industry constituted by many farmers operating under "economic duress" (Hinchliffe and Ward, 2014: 140).…”

Pandemic cities: biopolitical effects of changing infection control in post‐SARS Hong Kong

“…Triggered by the SARS events, Hong Kong became a pioneer in the use of investigative technologies for the purpose of infection control and health monitoring. In the meantime, biosurveillance has become a significant feature of several national infection control efforts (Barker ). Responding to the ‘emerging diseases worldview’ and its demand for preparedness, surveillance and early detection, comparable cooperation and technologies have been employed in the US (Fearnley ), the UK, and France (Triple S Project ).…”