Vermin, Victims and Disease
British Debates over Bovine Tuberculosis and Badgers
Authors: Cassidy, Angela
Free Preview- Focuses on the interactions and collaborations between scientists, policymakers, campaigners and the public to understand how this problem has developed into today’s publicly polarised controversy
- An Open Access title that combines historical and social science approaches, incorporating policy archives, mass media and oral history
- Provides a reliable source of information for those currently engaged in this continuing debate and offers recommendations for moving ahead
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- About this book
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This open access book provides the first critical history of the controversy over whether to cull wild badgers to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in British cattle. This question has plagued several professional generations of politicians, policymakers, experts and campaigners since the early 1970s. Questions of what is known, who knows, who cares, who to trust and what to do about this complex problem have been the source of scientific, policy, and increasingly vociferous public debate ever since. This book integrates contemporary history, science and technology studies, human-animal relations, and policy research to conduct a cross-cutting analysis. It explores the worldviews of those involved with animal health, disease ecology and badger protection between the 1970s and 1990s, before reintegrating them to investigate the recent public polarisation of the controversy. Finally it asks how we might move beyond the current impasse.
- About the authors
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Angela Cassidy is a Lecturer in the Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR), University of Exeter, UK. She works across the history and social studies of science, researching public controversies and policy through an interdisciplinary lens.
- Reviews
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“Dr Cassidy draws pertinent general conclusions about generating policy and mediating the role of the expert in today’s science-sceptic and increasingly polarised society... It is both a useful and original contribution, specifically to the history of zoonotic disease policy, and policy history more generally.” (Helen Bynum, Author of Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis (2012))
- Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Of Badgers, Bovines and Bacteria
Pages 3-46
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How the Badger Became Tuberculous
Pages 47-72
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Changing Veterinary Knowledge
Pages 75-117
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Pest Control and Ecology
Pages 119-159
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Protecting the Badger?
Pages 161-201
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
Bibliographic Information
- Bibliographic Information
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- Book Title
- Vermin, Victims and Disease
- Book Subtitle
- British Debates over Bovine Tuberculosis and Badgers
- Authors
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- Angela Cassidy
- Copyright
- 2019
- Publisher
- Palgrave Macmillan
- Copyright Holder
- The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s)
- eBook ISBN
- 978-3-030-19186-3
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-030-19186-3
- Hardcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-19185-6
- Softcover ISBN
- 978-3-030-19188-7
- Edition Number
- 1
- Number of Pages
- XXIV, 366
- Number of Illustrations
- 11 b/w illustrations, 9 illustrations in colour
- Topics