Global health risks and cosmopolitisation: from emergence to interference

According to Beck's 'World at Risk' theory, global risks push nations towards a cosmopolitisation of their health policy and open opportunities for a democratic turn. This article provides an empirical analysis of Beck's theory, based on the experience of Vietnamese authorities f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology of Health & Illness
Main Author: Figuié, Muriel
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2013
Subjects:
L70 - Sciences et hygiène vétérinaires - Considérations générales
L73 - Maladies des animaux
S50 - Santé humaine
Influenzavirus aviaire
Santé publique
Politique sanitaire
Danger pour la santé
Gestion du risque
Mondialisation
Organisation internationale
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_9017
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_6349
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_32496
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_34013
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_37934
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_37880
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_3918
http://aims.fao.org/aos/agrovoc/c_8227
Avian flu
Online Access:http://agritrop.cirad.fr/568254/
http://agritrop.cirad.fr/570868/
http://agritrop.cirad.fr/568254/1/document_568254.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2012.01539.x
Description
Summary:According to Beck's 'World at Risk' theory, global risks push nations towards a cosmopolitisation of their health policy and open opportunities for a democratic turn. This article provides an empirical analysis of Beck's theory, based on the experience of Vietnamese authorities from 2003 to 2007 in managing the emerging avian flu virus. It shows how Vietnam's framing of avian flu has shifted, under the pressure from international organisations and the US administration, from an epizootic and zoonotic risk (or a classic risk) to a pandemic threat (or a late modern risk). Vietnam's response was part of its overall strategy to join the World Trade Organization and it was limited by Vietnam's defence of its sovereignty. This strategy has been successful for Vietnam but has limited the possibility of cosmopolitan and democratic transformations. The case study highlights the constructed dimension of risks of late modernity and their possible instrumentalisation: it minimises the role of a community of fear relative to a community of trade.

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