Resistant bugs, porous borders and ecologies of care in India

Alex Broom*, Assa Doron

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    14 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    As social science scholarship has routinely illustrated, professional practice is rarely as contained or coherent as it is often imagined to be. The increasing emphasis on the rise of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) has drawn renewed attention to the interconnectedness of clinic, community, environment and planet, and how proposed ‘solutions’ to major problems such as AMR require a broad, cross-cutting lens. In this study, set in Hyderabad, India, we draw on a series of interviews with hospital-based clinicians completed during 2019 and early 2020, to unpack the multidimensional, ecological acceleration of AMR and the implications for everyday practice. Their accounts make visible how practice operates in relation to industrial economies, community vulnerabilities, and ecologies. This in turn highlights the problem of epistemic bordering, where ‘sites’ of AMR are targeted but are prone to leakage and transgressions. We propose an ecological approach to conceptualising antimicrobial practices with implications for AMR interventions being rolled out in the sub-continent and beyond.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number114520
    JournalSocial Science and Medicine
    Volume292
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jan 2022

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