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Accepted Paper:
Paper short abstract:
This contribution, drawing on laboratory studies and participatory observation, will examine how a definition of “home” is achieved and negotiated among a consortium of scientists interested in zoonotic processes (the transmission of antimicrobial resistant bacteria) within family households.
Paper long abstract:
This contribution examines how a certain definition of “home” is achieved and negotiated among a consortium of scientists interested in zoonotic processes within family households.
Inspired by laboratory studies (especially Lynch, 1993), and drawing on a participatory observation (as being myself a member of the research program), this contribution builds on a study of a cross-disciplinary research team.
The research team, involving epidemiologists, molecular biologists, veterinarians, and social scientists, works on a project exploring the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance transmission between humans and animals in their daily environment, ie. at home, where close contacts creates opportunities for transmission and dissemination of resistant bacteria – a crucial issue as antimicrobial resistance has recently been identified as “the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity” by WHO.
The ethnographic material is constituted of conversational exchanges taking place during preparatory meetings to elaborate the study design. As the project deals with the transmission of AMR bacteria between household members (specifically between dogs and their caretakers), the definition of “home”, its extension and its boundary, in relation to sanitary issues, is crucial for the inclusion criteria: what counts as a “household member” is directly related to the circumscription of home as an analytical unit: is home just a spatial entity, where different family members get together; is it a demographic unit – and if so, how to delimit the boundaries of who is a household member and who is not? The analysis reveals how epidemiological definitions are in fact practical problems for scientists.
More-than-human care in & of (un)certain homes [SIEF Working Group on Space-lore and Place-lore]
Session 1 Thursday 8 June, 2023, -