The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of many people around the globe and has brought to the fore discussions about the ways in which relations of power have shaped human biology and the health of populations. Focusing on these biopolitics, this collection brings together a number of historical and cultural perspectives on processes of othering in the long transnational human history of epidemics and pandemics. Contributors explore the intertwinement of biopolitics and othering with regard to specific bodies, people, and places, in relation to COVID-19 and beyond, as they discuss othering dynamics in the context of post/colonialism and with reference to a number of different cultural, political, medical and media discourses.

Recent disease events such as SARS, H1N1 and avian influenza, and haemorrhagic fevers have focussed policy and public concern as never before on epidemics and so-called 'emerging infectious diseases'. Understanding and responding to these often unpredictable events have become major challenges for local, national and international bodies. All too often, responses can become restricted by implicit assumptions about who or what is to blame that may not capture the dynamics and uncertainties at play in the multi-scale interactions of people, animals and microbes. As a result, policies intended to forestall epidemics may fail, and may even further threaten health, livelihoods and human rights. The book takes a unique approach by focusing on how different policy-makers, scientists, and local populations construct alternative narratives-accounts of the causes and appropriate responses to outbreaks- about epidemics at the global, national and local level. The contrast between emergency-oriented, top-down responses to what are perceived as potentially global outbreaks and longer-term approaches to diseases, such as AIDS, which may now be considered endemic, is highlighted. Case studies-on avian influenza, SARS, obesity, H1N1 influenza, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and haemorrhagic fevers-cover a broad historical, geographical and biological range. As this book explores, it is often the most vulnerable members of a population-the poor, the social excluded and the already ill-who are likely to suffer most from epidemic diseases. At the same time, they may be less likely to benefit from responses that may be designed from a global perspective that neglects social, ecological and political conditions on the ground. This book aims to bring the focus back to these marginal populations to reveal the often unintended consequences of current policy responses to epidemics. Important implications emerge - for how epidemics are thought about and represented; for how surveillance and response is designed; and for whose knowledge and perspectives should be included. Published in association with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

By investigating thousands of descriptions of epidemics reaching back before the fifth-century-BCE Plague of Athens to the distrust and violence that erupted with Ebola in 2014, Epidemics challenges a dominant hypothesis in the study of epidemics, that invariably across time and space, epidemics provoked hatred, blaming of the "other", and victimizing bearers of epidemic diseases, particularly when diseases were mysterious, without known cures or preventive measures, as with AIDS during the last two decades of the twentieth century. However, scholars and public intellectuals, especially post-AIDS, have missed a fundamental aspect of the history of epidemics. Instead of sparking hatred and blame, this study traces epidemics' socio-psychological consequences across time and discovers a radically different picture: that epidemic diseases have more often unified societies across class, race, ethnicity, and religion, spurring self-sacrifice and compassion.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

Overall, the book provides a valuable insight into attitudes to and perceptions of older people. It is especially helpful to have a rigorously researched sociological text that covers the interplay between societies and the killing older members who have contributed, developed and supported those societies. Its usefulness to the literature on abuse is clear... I would recommend this book to readers.' - Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect 'This book goes beyond the abuse of the elderly, and "is about, bluntly, the killing of old people" (p.11). For sociologists, criminologists, social workers and carers of the elderly, this book is well worth reading as it is thought provoking and therefore refreshing.' - International Journal of the Sociology of Law 'This is a thought-provoking book. It uses a variety of strategies to forward its central thesis: older people have always been regarded as a residual group by other members of society presumed to be more productive... This book is a good read and has an important point to make.' - European Journal of Social Work 'This book addresses elderly homicide and euthanasia, and puts it in a historial and social context. Mike Brogden provides a useful and appropriate critique on the concept of geronticide. The book does assist with the urgency of the need for a major cultural shift in the way we perceive and treat the elderly.' - International Journal of the Sociology of Law 'This dramatically titled book is a powerful one... Geronticide is a modern term but the concept is ages old. Brogden takes us via history, literature, science, religion, demography, economics, sociology, anthropology, social history and the law... This is not a book for holiday packing but a potent one to remind us of the pervasive and pernicious influence of ageism; society's and our own.' -International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 'Mike Brogden's book on geronticide is both thought-provoking and an eye-opener. His work is a comprehensive study into one of the greatest and most difficult challenges facing our modern world. How will our society cope with the rapidly growing population of the oldest old, and the care for the increasing numbers of old, seriously ill and dying people. The book deals with the sociological, anthropological and literary aspects, revealing the fact that killing older people, on either a voluntary or involuntary basis, has been a theme throughout history... My sincere wish is that this very powerful and useful book should reach all the politicians, administrators and others involved in planning the future with regards to older people, all over the world, in the hope that it would enable us to understand the serious consequences our decisions may have for a very valuable but vulnerable group of still equally worthy members of our society.' - British Journal of Social Work 'We live in a different world after Harold Shipman. The trial and the resulting public anxiety about trust in professionals has meant that the deliberate and systematic killing of older people is no longer seen as remote or part of other societies. Mike Brogden's overview of the subject starts and finishes with Shipman, but his main discussion explores how geronticide has been and continues to be a feature of "care" for the aged... This book, then, is compelling on its' level of sweeping themes and illuminating in its' often harrowing reports of individual abuse and death. It may also encourage further reading on this subject. At a time when the National Service Framework has made strong calls for anti-ageist values, this book provides evidence of the excess of ageism.' - Community Care The increasing elderly population poses many economic and ethical questions for modern society. One of the most topical and controversial of these is the debate about euthanasia. Drawing on a variety of historical, contemporary, anthropological and literary sources, this book considers the present day debates about the sanctity of elderly lives and the question of euthanasia. The book shows that killing the elderly, voluntarily or involuntarily, has been a feature of many societies, from the primitive to the present day. Elderly homicide and euthanasia today are most commonly concealed in the home or the care institution, a situation which is attracting increasing professional concern. Geronticide: Killing the Elderly seeks to place the current debate in a wider historical and social context, while providing a comprehensive overview of current academic and professional concerns. This thorough, authoritative book will be a useful, thought-provoking read for anyone involved in working with the elderly.

Through a tumultuous 20th-century period of revolution and foreign wars, Vietnam's public health system was praised by international observers as a “bright light in an epidemiologically dark world,” standing out for its accomplishments in infectious disease control. Since the country's transition to a “market economy with socialist orientation” in the mid-1980s, however, some of these achievements have been reversed as the “renovation” of national systems for welfare and health leaves gaps in the social safety net. A series of cholera outbreaks that spread through Northern Vietnam in 2007-2010 revealed the paradoxes, contradictions, and challenges that Vietnam faces in its post-transition period. This book presents an anthropological analysis of the political, economic, and infrastructural inputs to these epidemics and suggests how the most commonly repeated accounts of disease spread misdirected public attention and suppressed awareness of risk factors in Vietnam's capital. Drawing a parallel to the experience of novel coronavirus in Asia and beyond, this book reflects on how political priorities, economic forces, and cultural struggles influence the experience and the epidemiology of infectious disease.