Is there really such a thing as “one health”? Thinking about a more than human world from the perspective of cultural anthropology

Abstract

Today's era of globalization is characterized by intensified interspecies encounters, growing ecological concerns and the (re-)emergence of infectious diseases, manifesting themselves in the interplay of medical and biological, but also social, cultural and political processes. One health approaches - which combine multidisciplinary efforts to stimulate collaborations between different health professionals such as veterinarians, medical practitioners, biologists, and public health professionals - can be understood as a response to this complex interconnectedness. Integrating a social science perspective might prove beneficial to this endeavor. This essay locates the one health discussion on disease ecologies in a more than human world within recent developments in cultural and medical anthropology that focus on the entanglements between health and a multitude of animals, plants or microbes, as they are characteristic of a globalized modernity. The paper aims to examine the social dimensions of human-animal-disease-interactions, claiming that disease is a biocultural phenomenon and that social factors generally play a crucial role in the emergence, spread and management of (infectious) disease. Consequently, it will be argued that there is a need to rethink our objects of inquiry and any given assumptions of human health, the human body or the constitution of "the global" as such. Incorporating the social sciences into one health approaches can help address topics such as consumption patterns, human-animal behavior or environmental conflicts in a novel way and on a grander scale than ever before. Yet, a greater sensitivity to context may entail some skepticism about the idea of one health - not in spite of the complex entanglements between humans, environments, animals and pathogens, but precisely because of them.

Posthumanist critique and human health: how nonhumans (could) figure in public health research

“…The 'One-health' literature is medical in its orientation, and has not engaged with the social sciences (Craddock & Hinchliffe, 2015;Wolf, 2015). This is confirmed in the analysis of the key cited publications within this cluster, which are all published in medical and veterinary journals.…”

“…This includes cultural anthropology (Wolf, 2015), ethno-ecological history (Giles-Vernick, et al, 2015) and participatory epidemiology (Coffin, et al, 2015;Paige, Malave, Mbabazi, Mayer, & Goldberg, 2015). We suggest that posthumanist theories and methods could similarly move forward research concerns with nonhuman species in public health, particularly critical public health but also more applied public health approaches rooted in social epidemiology.…”

“…'Onehealth' is a call for interdisciplinary research and practice regarding the global and interspecies aspects of health and illness in the context of travel as well as declining habitats for nonhuman, non-domesticated animal species (Craddock & Hinchliffe, 2015;Wolf, 2015); it is embedded in the history of comparative medicine. The most frequently shared references in this cluster (see Supplementary Material, Table 3) give insight into the key publications within this paradigm, and highlight its orientation toward medical science (that includes veterinary medicine).…”

“…A recent special issue of Social Science & Medicine, for example, critiqued One-health for failing to address power relations (Craddock, 2015;Craddock & Hinchliffe, 2015;Giles-Vernick, et al, 2015), which has in turn meant that the social, political and economic embeddedness of human-animal interactions is not addressed by 'One-health' advocates (Coffin, Monje, Asiimwe-Karimu, Amuguni, & Odoch, 2015;Woldehanna & Zimicki, 2015;Wolf, 2015). Posthumanist theory can help public health researchers address these concerns, which are certainly shared by critical public health scholars.…”

Agrifood systems and the microbial safety of fresh produce: Trade-offs in the wake of increased sustainability

“…This involves truly multidisciplinary issues in microbiology, agriculture, animal sciences, environment, biodiversity, social science and economy, especially in our context of climate change (Jacxsens et al, 2010). Wolf (2015) recently proposed a holistic approach illustrated by the issue of wetland preservation and the risk of mosquito transmitted diseases, which could be applied to foodborne diseases and sustainable fresh produce.…”