"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia
Abstract This article details the social construction of the 'swiftlet farming' industry in George Town, Malaysia. It argues that narratives of health and disease continually police which landscape practices are acceptable for the increasingly globalizing and image conscious city. 'Sw...
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University of Arizona
2017
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ftunivarizonaojs:oai:journals.uair.arizona.edu:article/20780 2023-05-15T15:34:29+02:00 "Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia Connolly, Creighton 2017-09-27 application/pdf https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780 https://doi.org/10.2458/v24i1.20780 eng eng University of Arizona https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780/20468 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780 doi:10.2458/v24i1.20780 Copyright (c) 2017 Creighton Connolly http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 CC-BY Journal of Political Ecology; Vol 24, No 1 (2017); 24-43 1073-0451 10.2458/jpe.v24i1 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2017 ftunivarizonaojs https://doi.org/10.2458/v24i1.20780 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.v24i1 2020-11-14T16:48:16Z Abstract This article details the social construction of the 'swiftlet farming' industry in George Town, Malaysia. It argues that narratives of health and disease continually police which landscape practices are acceptable for the increasingly globalizing and image conscious city. 'Swiftlet farming' refers to the use of inner city shophouses and other commercial buildings for harvesting the edible nests of swiftlets (constructed from their saliva). Due to the high global demand and prices for birds' nests, the number of swiftlet farms have exploded in cities and towns across the country over the past decade, as entrepreneurs have been trying to cash in on the lucrative industry. The competing discourses and reactions to swiftlet farming in George Town, particularly in relation to its alleged potential for causing outbreaks of disease such as avian flu or dengue fever offer an apt entry point for studying this contested normative landscape. In doing so, I draw on recent writing on landscape and political ecology to analyze how swiftlet farm(er)s have been politicized by various stakeholders as (in)appropriate for the urban landscape. The article concludes by considering the significance of such an approach can help to make sense of the contradictions and uncertainties that abound in urban health controversies. Key words: political ecology, health, disease, landscape, birds' nest, Malaysia Article in Journal/Newspaper Avian flu Journals at the University of Arizona Journal of Political Ecology 24 1 |
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Journals at the University of Arizona |
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English |
description |
Abstract This article details the social construction of the 'swiftlet farming' industry in George Town, Malaysia. It argues that narratives of health and disease continually police which landscape practices are acceptable for the increasingly globalizing and image conscious city. 'Swiftlet farming' refers to the use of inner city shophouses and other commercial buildings for harvesting the edible nests of swiftlets (constructed from their saliva). Due to the high global demand and prices for birds' nests, the number of swiftlet farms have exploded in cities and towns across the country over the past decade, as entrepreneurs have been trying to cash in on the lucrative industry. The competing discourses and reactions to swiftlet farming in George Town, particularly in relation to its alleged potential for causing outbreaks of disease such as avian flu or dengue fever offer an apt entry point for studying this contested normative landscape. In doing so, I draw on recent writing on landscape and political ecology to analyze how swiftlet farm(er)s have been politicized by various stakeholders as (in)appropriate for the urban landscape. The article concludes by considering the significance of such an approach can help to make sense of the contradictions and uncertainties that abound in urban health controversies. Key words: political ecology, health, disease, landscape, birds' nest, Malaysia |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Connolly, Creighton |
spellingShingle |
Connolly, Creighton "Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
author_facet |
Connolly, Creighton |
author_sort |
Connolly, Creighton |
title |
"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
title_short |
"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
title_full |
"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
title_fullStr |
"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
title_full_unstemmed |
"Bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'Swiftlet farming' in George Town, Malaysia |
title_sort |
"bird cages and boiling pots for potential diseases": contested ecologies of urban 'swiftlet farming' in george town, malaysia |
publisher |
University of Arizona |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780 https://doi.org/10.2458/v24i1.20780 |
genre |
Avian flu |
genre_facet |
Avian flu |
op_source |
Journal of Political Ecology; Vol 24, No 1 (2017); 24-43 1073-0451 10.2458/jpe.v24i1 |
op_relation |
https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780/20468 https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/JPE/article/view/20780 doi:10.2458/v24i1.20780 |
op_rights |
Copyright (c) 2017 Creighton Connolly http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.2458/v24i1.20780 https://doi.org/10.2458/jpe.v24i1 |
container_title |
Journal of Political Ecology |
container_volume |
24 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766364859909275648 |