Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958
<p>The question of how medical experts and the state respond to rapidly spreading infectious diseases has obvious relevance amidst the current Covid-19 pandemic. The question of when and where these responses actually emerged, however, is far less apparent and far more opaque. This project stu...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
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2022
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| _version_ | 1826309191681179648 |
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| author | Benham, A |
| author2 | Vasudevan, A |
| author_facet | Vasudevan, A Benham, A |
| author_sort | Benham, A |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>The question of how medical experts and the state respond to rapidly spreading infectious diseases has obvious relevance amidst the current Covid-19 pandemic. The question of when and where these responses actually emerged, however, is far less apparent and far more opaque. This project studies the actions, writings and careers of British experts as they respond to three historic diseases – cholera, plague and tuberculosis – that all posed profound threats to Britain and its colonial empire. Beginning at the end of the 18th century, this postcolonial historical geography of medicine attends to what Chris Philo calls the ‘stuff’ of medicine, with particular focus on the relation between theories of contagion and practices of disease control. I trace the emergence of these acts and ideas through intra-imperial networks, which I argue held colony and metropole together in a state of mutual interpolation and co-constitution. Through this tracing, I uncover a particular arrangement or dispositif of theories, practices, individuals and institutions that were brought together by a single, striking argument: that the spread of disease is a consequence of the disorder innate to racialised populations and their inherent propensity to breach social and spatial boundaries. This argument justifies an expert, interventionist response that seeks to control the spread of disease through the coercive implementation of lines, borders and boundaries to contain disorder. I name this expansive dispositif ‘counter-contagion’.</p>
<p>This project begins by analysing four key components that constituted counter-contagion: Benthamite interventionism, counter-insurgency, racial science and germ theory. While these individual components all arose in the 19th century, it took until the 1890s for all four components to finally come together. During the Third Plague Pandemic in Hong Kong and Bombay (Mumbai), these components were combined into an expert-led, interventionist response that fused the medical with the martial. This new response, and the experts who enacted it, became part of a broader dispositif of counter-contagion that gained institutional weight through the progressive wing of tropical medicine. This institutionalisation effectively embedded the logics of counter-contagion in progressive medicine in twentieth century Britain, with decisive and understudied effects on the medical profession, the political sphere and broader civil society.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:32:01Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:79aef176-4c82-4d3d-9f22-f033579752ba |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T07:32:01Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:79aef176-4c82-4d3d-9f22-f033579752ba2023-01-23T11:38:26ZCounter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958Thesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:79aef176-4c82-4d3d-9f22-f033579752baHistoryCritical theoryPublic healthGeographyEnglishHyrax Deposit2022Benham, AVasudevan, A<p>The question of how medical experts and the state respond to rapidly spreading infectious diseases has obvious relevance amidst the current Covid-19 pandemic. The question of when and where these responses actually emerged, however, is far less apparent and far more opaque. This project studies the actions, writings and careers of British experts as they respond to three historic diseases – cholera, plague and tuberculosis – that all posed profound threats to Britain and its colonial empire. Beginning at the end of the 18th century, this postcolonial historical geography of medicine attends to what Chris Philo calls the ‘stuff’ of medicine, with particular focus on the relation between theories of contagion and practices of disease control. I trace the emergence of these acts and ideas through intra-imperial networks, which I argue held colony and metropole together in a state of mutual interpolation and co-constitution. Through this tracing, I uncover a particular arrangement or dispositif of theories, practices, individuals and institutions that were brought together by a single, striking argument: that the spread of disease is a consequence of the disorder innate to racialised populations and their inherent propensity to breach social and spatial boundaries. This argument justifies an expert, interventionist response that seeks to control the spread of disease through the coercive implementation of lines, borders and boundaries to contain disorder. I name this expansive dispositif ‘counter-contagion’.</p> <p>This project begins by analysing four key components that constituted counter-contagion: Benthamite interventionism, counter-insurgency, racial science and germ theory. While these individual components all arose in the 19th century, it took until the 1890s for all four components to finally come together. During the Third Plague Pandemic in Hong Kong and Bombay (Mumbai), these components were combined into an expert-led, interventionist response that fused the medical with the martial. This new response, and the experts who enacted it, became part of a broader dispositif of counter-contagion that gained institutional weight through the progressive wing of tropical medicine. This institutionalisation effectively embedded the logics of counter-contagion in progressive medicine in twentieth century Britain, with decisive and understudied effects on the medical profession, the political sphere and broader civil society.</p> |
| spellingShingle | History Critical theory Public health Geography Benham, A Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title | Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title_full | Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title_fullStr | Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title_short | Counter-Contagion: The emergence, dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response, 1791- 1958 |
| title_sort | counter contagion the emergence dissemination and continuing effects of a new apparatus of disease response 1791 1958 |
| topic | History Critical theory Public health Geography |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT benhama countercontagiontheemergencedisseminationandcontinuingeffectsofanewapparatusofdiseaseresponse17911958 |