Biosecurity by Dobson, Andrew; Barker, Kezia; Taylor, Sarah L.;

Short description:

Biosecurity is the assessment and management of potentially dangerous infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive (alien) species, living modified organisms, and biological weapons. This introductory volume presents biosecurity as a multidisciplinary governance approach to a set of concerns that span protection against all of these threats.

Long description:

Biosecurity is the assessment and management of potentially dangerous infectious diseases, quarantined pests, invasive (alien) species, living modified organisms, and biological weapons. It is a holistic concept of direct relevance to the sustainability of agriculture, food safety, and the protection of human populations (including bio-terrorism), the environment, and biodiversity. Biosecurity is a relatively new concept that has become increasingly prevalent in academic, policy and media circles, and needs a more comprehensive and inter-disciplinary approach to take into account mobility, globalisation and climate change. 

In this introductory volume, biosecurity is presented as a governance approach to a set of concerns that span the protection of indigenous biological organisms, agricultural systems and human health, from invasive pests and diseases. It describes the ways in which biosecurity is understood and theorized in different subject disciplines, including anthropology, political theory, ecology, geography and environmental management. It examines the different scientific and knowledge practices connected to biosecurity governance, including legal regimes, ecology, risk management and alternative knowledges. The geopolitics of biosecurity is considered in terms of health, biopolitics and trade governance at the global scale. Finally, biosecurity as an approach to actively secure the future is assessed in the context of future risk and uncertainties, such as globalization and climate change.

"This mixture of science, law, social sciences, politics, asks some very difficult questions about what we need to do, why and how. The emphasis throughout is on managing risk but complex demonstrate just how confusing this whole area is…" – David Walton, BES Bulletin

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Framing Biosecurity  1. Introduction: Interrogating Bio-insecurities  2. A World in Peril? The Case for Containment  3. Power over Life: Biosecurity as Biopolitics  Part 2: Implementing Biosecurity  4. Governing Biosecurity  5. Legal Frameworks for Biosecurity  6. Biosecurity: Whose Knowledge Counts?  7. Biosecurity Management Practices: Determining and Delivering a Response  Part 3: Biosecurity and Geopolitics  8. A Neoliberal Biosecurity? The WTO, Free Trade and the Governance of Plant Health  9. Viral Geopolitics: Biosecurity and Global Health Governance  10. Biosecurity and Bio-terror: Reflections on a Decade  Part 4: Transgressing Biosecurity  11. Biosecurity and Ecology: Beyond the Nativism Debate  12. Introducing Aliens, Re-introducing Natives: A Conflict of Interest for Biosecurity? 13. The Insecurity of Biosecurity: Re-making Emerging Infectious Diseases  14. Conclusion: Biosecurity, the Future and the Impact of Climate Change