Performativity and a microbe: exploring Mycobacterium bovis and the political ecologies of bovine tuberculosis

Robinson, P. A. (2019) Performativity and a microbe: exploring Mycobacterium bovis and the political ecologies of bovine tuberculosis. BioSocieties, 14(2), pp. 179-204. (doi: 10.1057/s41292-018-0124-1)

Abstract

Mycobacterium bovis, the bacterium responsible for causing bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in cattle, displays what I call ‘microbial performativity’. Like many other lively disease-causing microorganisms, it has an agency which is difficult to contain, and there is a need for fresh thinking on the challenges of dealing with this slippery and indeterminate microbe. As a practising veterinary scientist who side-stepped mid-career into a parallel training in the social sciences to view bTB from an alternative perspective, I create an interdisciplinary coming-together where veterinary science converges with a political ecology of (animal) health influenced by science and technology studies (STS) and social science and humanities scholarship on performativity. This suitably hybridized nexus creates a place to consider the ecologies of a pathogen which could be considered as life out of control. I consider what this means for efforts to eradicate this disease through combining understandings from the published scientific literature with qualitative interview-based fieldwork with farmers, veterinarians and others involved in the statutory bTB eradication programme in a high incidence region of the UK. This study demonstrates the value of life scientists turning to the social sciences to re-view their familiar professional habitus—challenging assumptions, and offering alternative perspectives on complex problems.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Robinson, Dr Philip
• Authors: Robinson, P. A.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: BioSocieties
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• ISSN: 1745-8552
• ISSN (Online): 1745-8560
• Published Online: 06 June 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature
• First Published: First published in BioSocieties 14(2): 179-204
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy