On the Verge of Death: Visions of Biological Vulnerability

TitleOn the Verge of Death: Visions of Biological Vulnerability
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2014
AuthorsCaduff, Carlo
JournalAnnual Review of Anthropology
Volume43
Issue1
Pagination105-121
AbstractThis article considers how anthropologists and other social scientists examine biosecurity as an object in the making. It suggests that scholars encountered this object in research projects concerned with questions of global health, capitalism, neoliberalism, humanitarianism, citizenship, science, medicine, technology, ecology, surveillance, and risk. This growing body of work explores emerging modes of government that are characteristic for the post–Cold War period of global capitalism. Ethnographic accounts demonstrate how actors and institutions located in the Global North and the Global South perceive the spread of dangerous biological things as a threat to the health of individuals and populations. This article aims to review this literature and supplement the current approach with a theory of security performativity.
URLhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030341
DOI10.1146/annurev-anthro-102313-030341
Short TitleOn the Verge of Death