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OCTOBER 2019
Dear Colleague,

This past month has seen some fantastic social research on AMR being presented across the globe. Here we highlight an array of panels, including some from the recent Association of Social Anthropologists (ASA) conference and the 4S Conference in New Orleans. We also take a forward look to the many upcoming events as the academic year flies into full swing! 
 
Prof. Helen Lambert’s ASA panel included seven papers, representing research from Bangladesh, China, India, and Spain, with questions posed about ‘post-normal’ science, what it means to be ‘mircobially entangled’, and a reconceptualization of the ‘anthropology of knowledge’. 
 
Nicolas Fortane and Henry Buller’s panel at 4S was an ambitious look at AMR and farming, they sought “to bring new understanding to the social, technical and economic structures of agri-food production and distribution systems that integrate, and have integrated, antimicrobials as key elements in the processes of livestock farming or, on occasion, have sought to encourage their reduction". 
 
Salla Sariola and Jose A. Cañada’s panel focused on “New Social Forms of the Post-Antibiotic Era: More-than- Human Hybrids, Governance and Knowledge of Human- Microbe Relations”. The papers explored modes of living with microbes, via attention to “new social forms that enable peaceful coexistence with microbes…instead of a war against microbes…Societies are rethinking relationships between humans, animals, and environment in radically new ways…by building immunity through fermentation or enhancement of gut microbiota; development of vaccines, phage therapy or novel antibiotics; and promotion of sustainable food production”. In their novel fermentation workshop, they curated a “creative journey into micro organic intelligence”. You can read more about the workshop and their work more broadly here
 
Claas’ Kirchhelle’s talk in Upsalla, entitled ‘Pyrrhic Progress - a global history of antibiotics in food production (1938-2018)’, addressed “the historical roots of modern antibiotic infrastructures, the economic, political, and cultural reasons behind the fragmentation of international antibiotic stewardship, and the role of historical path dependencies in structuring current policy interventions.”. The full seminar can be accessed here. Claas’ book will be out soon too – ask your libraries to pre-order!
 
Here are some links to some newly published pieces on AMR in the social sciences: 
 
Andrea Whittaker et alInvestigating Understandings of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in Diverse Ethnic Communities in Australia: Findings from a Qualitative Study' in Antibiotics
 
Paul Mason et al: ‘The technological imperative in tuberculosis care and prevention in Vietnam’ in Global Public Health
 
Jane Mingjie Lim et al‘Impact of national interventions to promote responsible antibiotic use: a systematic review’ in the Journal of Antimicrobial Therapy
 
Laurie Denyer Willis and Clare Chandler: ‘Quick fix for care, productivity, hygiene and inequality: Reframing the entrenched problem of antibiotic overuse’ in the BMJ: Global Health.  

Ayako Ebata: How talking could help tackle antimicrobial resistance on the website, One Health Poultry Hub. 

There are many upcoming events, opportunities, conferences and talks we would also like to draw your attention to:
 
- Engaging Critical Social Science in Public Health and Medicine in West Africa, Benin, contact Cultures of Culture for more information: https://blogs.helsinki.fi/culturesofcultures/
 
- Social Theory and AMR Workshop at Durham University. For more information see: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/social-theory-and-amr-tickets-74103901765
 
- Upcoming Symposium: Ethnographics and statistics of global traveling practices, multiple borders, infectious diseases at Maastricht University. Find details here: https://www.caphri.nl/symposium-ethnographics-and-statistics-global-traveling-practices-multiple-borders-infectious
 
And one more thing: We’ll be hiring a new AMIS researcher in the coming months, so please watch this space! 
 
As ever, we look forward to hearing more about your ongoing social research on AMR. Please do continue to share any updates or upcoming events or writing you’d like us to share in our network.

 
Best, 
 
Clare and Laurie 

 
Quick fix for care, productivity, hygiene and inequality: Re-framing the entrenched problem of antibiotic overuse

An analysis piece by researchers Dr. Laurie Denyer Willis and Dr. Clare Chandler at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, shows why behaviour change interventions often have limited impact. They reveal that antibiotics are often used as a ‘quick fix’ – they paper over underlying structural issues related to marginality, inequality, violence, health systems, and infrastructures. Antibiotics can be understood as a quick fix for care and, by extension, a quick fix for productivity. Antibiotics have become a quick fix for hygiene in some settings and more broadly a quick fix for inequality on local and global scales.The researchers call for an approach to lowering antibiotic use that is broader than an individual-behaviour change model.
 
Essential Reading: Investigating Understandings of Antibiotics and Antimicrobial Resistance in Diverse Ethnic Communities in Australia:  Findings from a qualitative study, by Andrea Whittaker et al
This paper explores the understandings of antibiotics and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) among ethnically diverse informants in Melbourne, Australia. A total of 31 face-to-face semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of ethnic in-patients who were admitted with an acquired antimicrobial infection in a public hospital (n = 7); five hospital interpreters; and ethnic members of the general community (n = 19) as part of a broader study of lay understandings of AMR. Thematic analysis revealed there was poor understanding of AMR, even among informants being treated for AMR infections. Causes of the increasing incidence of AMR were attributed to: weather fluctuations and climate change; a lack of environmental cleanliness; and the arrival of new migrant groups. Asian informants emphasized the need for humoral balance. Antibiotics were viewed as ‘strong’ medicines that could potentially disrupt this balance and weaken the body. Travel back to countries of origin sometimes involved the use of medical services and informants noted that some community members imported antibiotics from overseas. Most used the internet and social media to source health information. There is a lack of information in their own languages. More attention needs to be given to migrant communities who are vulnerable to the development, transmission and infection with resistant bacteria to inform future interventions.

You can access the article here
Researchers in AMR: Catherine Will

Catherine Will is a Reader in the Sociology of Science and Technology (Sociology) at the University of Sussex. Catherine was recently awarded a Wellcome Trust investigator award for work on AMR and inequality in the UK and the US, on the project ‘Marginalisation and the Microbe: How to mobilise around antimicrobial resistance without increasing social inequalities’. 

Read more about Catherine Will and her new project

Notice Board
 
Please email AnthropologyAMR@lshtm.ac.uk if you have any information you'd like to distribute on the AMIS programme notice board.
 
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