How 'Dangerous’ Are Migrants’ Bodies? Narratives about Disease and Public Health and Techniques of Governance Cover Image

Колико су „опасна“ тела миграната? Наративи о болести и јавном здрављу и технике управљања
How 'Dangerous’ Are Migrants’ Bodies? Narratives about Disease and Public Health and Techniques of Governance

Author(s): Marta Stojić Mitrović
Subject(s): Cultural Anthropology / Ethnology, Social differentiation, Health and medicine and law, Migration Studies
Published by: Етнографски институт САНУ
Keywords: migrants; discourse of infection; techniques of governance;

Summary/Abstract: In this text I represent the narratives about migrants which are related to their bodies as potential/plausible carriers of diseases that could be spread to local population. Тhe narratives are considered as special manifestations of the discourse of fear, though which migrants are being construed as a form of corporeal security threat. In particular, through the analysis of narratives about ebola and scabies, the potential to use the fear from disease as symbol and instrument of political power is indicated, when a disease ceases to be medical problem and becomes predominantly a social one. Fear from disease and measures undertaken to annul it are thus integrated into techniques of governance.

  • Issue Year: LXV/2017
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 593-609
  • Page Count: 17
  • Language: Serbian