Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases

Infectious diseases, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and avian influenza, have recently been high on the agenda of policy makers and the public. Although hygiene and biosecurity are preferred options for disease management, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the crit...

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Main Authors: Brown, Brian, Nerlich, Brigitte, Crawford, Paul, Koteyko, Nelya, Carter, Ronald
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1374/
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author Brown, Brian
Nerlich, Brigitte
Crawford, Paul
Koteyko, Nelya
Carter, Ronald
author_facet Brown, Brian
Nerlich, Brigitte
Crawford, Paul
Koteyko, Nelya
Carter, Ronald
author_sort Brown, Brian
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Infectious diseases, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and avian influenza, have recently been high on the agenda of policy makers and the public. Although hygiene and biosecurity are preferred options for disease management, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the critical role that communication assumes in protecting people during outbreaks and epidemics. This article makes the case for a language-based approach to understanding the public perception of disease. Health language research carried out by the authors, based on metaphor analysis and corpus linguistics, has shown that concepts of journeys, pathways, thresholds, boundaries and barriers have emerged as principal framing devices used by stakeholders to advocate a hygiene based risk and disease management. These framings provide a common ground for debate, but lead to quite different perceptions and practices. This in turn might be a barrier to global disease management in a modern world.
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spelling nottingham-13742020-05-04T16:28:35Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1374/ Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases Brown, Brian Nerlich, Brigitte Crawford, Paul Koteyko, Nelya Carter, Ronald Infectious diseases, such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and avian influenza, have recently been high on the agenda of policy makers and the public. Although hygiene and biosecurity are preferred options for disease management, policy makers have become increasingly aware of the critical role that communication assumes in protecting people during outbreaks and epidemics. This article makes the case for a language-based approach to understanding the public perception of disease. Health language research carried out by the authors, based on metaphor analysis and corpus linguistics, has shown that concepts of journeys, pathways, thresholds, boundaries and barriers have emerged as principal framing devices used by stakeholders to advocate a hygiene based risk and disease management. These framings provide a common ground for debate, but lead to quite different perceptions and practices. This in turn might be a barrier to global disease management in a modern world. Wiley 2009-09-23 Article PeerReviewed Brown, Brian, Nerlich, Brigitte, Crawford, Paul, Koteyko, Nelya and Carter, Ronald (2009) Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases. Sociology Compass, 3 (5). pp. 811-823. ISSN 1751-9020 Risk Infectious Diseases Hygiene Biosecurity Health Language Communication Metaphor Corpus Linguistics http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00230.x/abstract doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00230.x doi:10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00230.x
spellingShingle Risk
Infectious Diseases
Hygiene
Biosecurity
Health Language
Communication
Metaphor
Corpus Linguistics
Brown, Brian
Nerlich, Brigitte
Crawford, Paul
Koteyko, Nelya
Carter, Ronald
Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title_full Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title_fullStr Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title_full_unstemmed Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title_short Hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
title_sort hygiene and biosecurity: the language and politics of risk in an era of emerging infectious diseases
topic Risk
Infectious Diseases
Hygiene
Biosecurity
Health Language
Communication
Metaphor
Corpus Linguistics
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1374/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1374/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/1374/