Exploring the emerging environmental dimensions of antimicrobial resistance from a human geography perspective

With Anthony Shenton, University of Nottingham.

Much has been written by scientists and policymakers about the risks that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses to human health. For example, the World Health Organisation (2015) estimates that 700,000 deaths related to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occur every year and that this could rise to 10 million every year by 2050, which is more than the number of people who currently die from cancer. Although AMR is emerging as an important environmental issue, no published social science research has explored how ‘environmental publics’ makes sense of the environmental dimensions of AMR and how these publics are imagined by ‘experts.’ Without this information, AMR ‘action plans’ risk failure when put into practice.

In this study, analysis of AMR policy documents and semi-structured interviews with surfers, open-water swimmers and scientists revealed that, although ‘the public’ was mostly constructed as being deficient in knowledge about AMR, surfers and open-water swimmers rely on their senses to mitigate the risks of contracting a serious infection that could be resistant to antibiotics. This presentation will explore these finding in more detail.

All seminars online. Please contact sue.davis@nottingham.ac.uk for the link. Subject to change.

Part of the Environment and Society Seminar Series.