‘There is worse to come’: The biopolitics of traumatism in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

TY - JOUR

T1 - ‘There is worse to come’

T2 - The biopolitics of traumatism in Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR)

AU - Brown, Nicholas Gerard Francis

AU - Nettleton, Sarah Joan

N1 - © 2016, Sociological Review Publication Limited.This is an author-produced version of the published paper. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self-archiving policy. Further copying may not be permitted; contact the publisher for details.

PY - 2017/9/1

Y1 - 2017/9/1

N2 - This paper reflects on the different futures and imaginaries constructed through the politics and policy of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We examine the role of catastrophism, trauma and notions of ‘resistance’ expressed at different moments in the development of the AMR debate. The paper focuses on a number of imaginaries in the politics of AMR, particularly a characterisation of Britain as the ‘sick man of Europe’ or the ‘British disease’ and, more recently, the catastrophist prospect of a ‘return to the dark ages of medicine’. We draw upon recent writing in biopolitical philosophy on immunity and autoimmunity, particularly in the work of Derrida and Sloterdijk, to interrogate immunitary politics of AMR at the intersections of the human and the microbial.

AB - This paper reflects on the different futures and imaginaries constructed through the politics and policy of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). We examine the role of catastrophism, trauma and notions of ‘resistance’ expressed at different moments in the development of the AMR debate. The paper focuses on a number of imaginaries in the politics of AMR, particularly a characterisation of Britain as the ‘sick man of Europe’ or the ‘British disease’ and, more recently, the catastrophist prospect of a ‘return to the dark ages of medicine’. We draw upon recent writing in biopolitical philosophy on immunity and autoimmunity, particularly in the work of Derrida and Sloterdijk, to interrogate immunitary politics of AMR at the intersections of the human and the microbial.

KW - Antimicrobial resistance

KW - Autoimmunity

KW - Catastrophism

KW - Imaginaries

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032036967&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/1467-954X.12446

DO - 10.1111/1467-954X.12446

M3 - Article

SN - 0038-0261

VL - 65

SP - 493

EP - 508

JO - The Sociological Review

JF - The Sociological Review

IS - 3

ER -