Animals, Power and Space: More-than-Human Political Geographies of Animal Health

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Animals and viruses set in motion powerful spatial orderings. This becomes strikingly illustrated in the context of animal diseases, such as African Swine Fever or Foot-and-Mouth Disease. With the aims of establishing animal health for certain subpopulations and protecting national meat economies, governmental actors implement various measures that materialize in territorializations and border-making processes. This research project focuses on the more-than-human governing practices that become visible in this context:(1) Fencing - the construction of fences for immobilizing viruses and 'risky' wild animals, who are classified as disease reservoirs,(2) Zoning - the demarcation of zones with different biosecurity levels and regulations and(3) Mapping - the creation of geographical maps to visualize zones, fences and 'risky' (im)mobilities.The project investigates how the production of animal health (re)produces, shifts or subverts current spatial and political orderings. At the same time, it regards animals and viruses themselves as political actors who continuously challenge governing practices and might reveal inconsistencies in existing spatial orders. Conceptually speaking, the project focuses on the tension between animals, power and space. It centres on an analytical perspective that links core concepts of political geography with posthumanist approaches, such as more-than-human geographies. The aim is to contribute to (a) establishing animals, viruses and other materialities as relevant research subjects in political geography and (b) understanding the political as a structuring element of more-than-human worlds. By looking at the spatial production of animal health through the perspective of animal (im)mobilities, this project is also inclined to the mobility turn in human geography and neighbouring disciplines. Empirically speaking, the research project builds on qualitative-ethnographic fieldwork in Europe and southern Africa. In the first year, it investigates the recent measures to prevent African Swine Fever in the German-Danish and German-Polish border region. The infectious disease, also known as "Pig Ebola", is currently framed as the most threatening global animal disease of the 21st century. In the second year of research, the project examines the (post)colonial (dis)continuities in dealing with animal diseases, such as Foot-and-Mouth Disease, through field trips to Namibia and Botswana. This multi-sited research design allows a differentiated understanding of the spatial production of animal health by taking into account (post)colonial and transregional interrelations.