Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Co/Immunity and the Biopolitics of Purity: ‘Purity Is Danger’

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Immunitary Life

Abstract

The concluding chapter of the book takes its initial cue from the title of Mary Douglas’ eponymous classic Purity and Danger (1966). The chapter critically revisits Douglas’ insights to think about a potentially more integrated perspective on the dangers of purity. Douglas provides an initial framework for thinking about the socio-cultural and classificatory bases of pollution, risk and endangerment. The chapter looks back theoretically and empirically over the preceding discussions to articulate the notion of purity as itself a source of danger. It explores the implications of a purist politics of immunity and biosecurity and, drawing on a diverse range of literatures, examines the scope for thinking about ‘co/immunity’ in biopolitics.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Beck, S. (2011). Staging bone marrow donation as a ballot: Reconfiguring the social and the political using biomedicine in Cyprus. Body & Society, 17(2–3), 93–119.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Belton, P. (2018). A Macat analysis: Mary Douglas’ purity and danger. London: Taylor Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Böhme, G. (1993). Atmosphere as the fundamental concept of a new aesthetics. Thesis Eleven, 36(1), 113–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, B. (2007). Biopolitics and the molecularization of life. Cultural Geographies, 14(1), 6–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, B. P. (2014). A new urban dispositif? Governing life in an age of climate change. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 32(1), 49–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, N. (2017). Anatomospheres: A ‘respiratory politics’ of buildings and breath. Discover Society, DS/47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bud, R. (2006). From Epidemic to Scandal: The politicization of antibiotic resistance, 1957–1969. In C. Timmermann & J. Anderson (Eds.), Devices and designs: Medical technologies in historical perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bud, R. (2007). Penicillin. Triumph and tragedy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulmer, R. (1967). Why is the Cassowary not a Bird? Man, 2(1), 5–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connor, S. (2004). Building breathing space, A lecture given at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: An analysis of concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • DuPuis, E. M. (2015). Dangerous digestion: The politics of American dietary advice. Oakland: University of California Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Esposito, R. (2008a). The philosophy of Bios. Bios: Biopolitics and philosophy (T. Campbell, Trans.). Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heidegger, M. (1971). Building dwelling thinking. In A. Hofstadter (Trans.), Poetry, language, thought (pp. 145–161). New York: Harper Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Helmreich, S. (2011, April 24). Homo microbis and the figure of the literal. Cultural Anthropology Online.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmdahl, T., & Lanbeck, P. (2013). Design for the post-antibiotic era: Experiences from a new building for infectious diseases in Malmö, Sweden. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 6(4), 27–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kristeva, J. (1982). Powers of horror: An essay on abjection. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorimer, J. (2015). Wildlife in the Anthropocene: Conservation after nature. Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Paxson, H. (2008). Post-pasteurian cultures. Cultural Anthropology, 23(1), 15–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prior, L. (1988). The architecture of the hospital: A study of spatial organization and medical knowledge. British Journal of Sociology, 86–113.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tauber, A. I. (1998). Conceptual shifts in immunology: Comments on the ‘two-way paradigm’. Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, 19(5), 457–473.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Turner, V. W. (1969). The ritual process: Structure and anti-structure. Chicago: Aldine Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of York, York, UK

    Nik Brown

Authors
  1. Nik Brown
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Brown, N. (2019). Co/Immunity and the Biopolitics of Purity: ‘Purity Is Danger’. In: Immunitary Life. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55247-1_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55247-1_6

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-55246-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55247-1

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation