Avian Influenza. An Anthropological Perspective on a Contemporary Crisis

In recent years, avian influenza has gradually emerged as a topic of journalistic attention, political urgency, public anxiety, medical concern, and scientific challenge. A broadening range of policy-makers, public health officials, and scientific experts have turned their attention to the troubling prospect of an avian influenza pandemic posing unprecedented problems for the protection of life on a national and international scale. Today, the H5N1 avian influenza virus is considered in many domains of expertise a major challenge to both national security and public health.Given contemporary developments, there is a need and an opportunity for critical engagement with avian influenza as both a political and biological problem. The existing literature on avian influenza is predominantly journalistic and policy-oriented, or it is technical literature in the biological and medical sciences. In this context, my project proposes to develop a conceptually innovative and empirically grounded anthropological inquiry into the scientific, technical, political, and ethical dimensions of avian influenza. Keywords infectious diseases; avian influenza; risk; danger; precaution; preparedness; rationality Hauptdisziplin Ethnologie