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Paper short abstract

This paper presents findings from a qualitative interview study with Australians about their understandings and practices related to immunity and the microbiome, identifying how they contribute to notions of immune selves, immuno-diversity and immuno-privilege in relation to immunitary politics.

Paper long abstract

This paper presents findings from a qualitative interview study with members of the Australian public of diverse ages and geographical locations about their understandings and practices related to immunity and the microbiome. It explores how both beneficial and pathogenic microbes are understood to play a role in individual and planetary health. The study is sited within social theoretical perspectives on human-microbial relations in an era in which immunitary politics have become fraught sites of contestation, environmental devastation is contributing to the emergence of novel pathogens as well as disturbing planetary microbiomes, and misinformation and anti-public health sentiment are widespread. Participants were asked about how they defined the phenomena of immunity, microbes and the microbiome, the practices in which they engaged to strengthen their immune system responsiveness, what microbes they identified as beneficial or ‘good’ for their health and which were pathogenic or ‘bad’, and how they conceptualised their own personal microbiomes as interlinked with that of broader ecological microbiomes. The findings identify the meanings that the participants attribute to human-microbial encounters, individual immune system strength, measures such as vaccination, medications such as anti-virals and antibiotics, and consuming prebiotic and probiotic foods. The ways that these meanings and practices contribute to notions of immune selves, immuno-diversity and immuno-privilege in relation to immunitary politics and are structured through lived health experiences and biographies of illness together with socioeconomic attributes such as gender, age, ethnicity and location.