Doctoral Dissertation Research: Governing Foodborne Disease in a Changing World

近年来，食源性疾病暴发和相关产品召回已成为主要的社会政治问题。治理这一问题需要各种不同的、广泛的和分散的机构行为者之间的协调，这些行为者利用各种技术手段和工具试图将病原体排除在食物之外。这篇论文详细介绍了食源性疾病在当代美国是如何管理的。本研究采用定性的STS方法，包括组织民族志、深度访谈和文献分析，重点研究了制度行为者在发现和管理风险以及规范方法方面面临的挑战。食源性致病菌暴发问题是公众关注的重大政策问题，涉及到我国最大的经济部门之一-S-食品体系。研究结果将与联邦和州公共卫生和监管官员进行沟通，以促进更好地了解和改善机构行为者之间的沟通。除了学术受众外，鉴于公众对食品安全的广泛关注，这项研究产生的一些出版物将针对政策制定者和消费者。

Foodborne disease outbreaks and associated product recalls have become major sociopolitical problems in recent years. Governance of this problem requires coordination amongst a heterogeneous, extensive, and distributed set of institutional actors who utilize a variety of technical means and tools to try to keep pathogens out of food. This dissertation details how foodborne disease is governed in the contemporary United States. Using qualitative STS methods, including organizational ethnography, in-depth interviewing, and document analysis, this study focuses on the challenges institutional actors grapple with in detecting and managing risk, and standardizing methods.The topic of foodborne pathogen outbreaks is an important policy problem of public concern that touches on one of our nation?s largest economic sectors, the food system. Results of the research will be communicated with federal and state public health and regulatory officials to promote better understanding and improved communication between institutional actors. In addition to academic audiences, some publications resulting from the research will be aimed at policy-makers and consumers given the wide public concern about food safety.