Responding to uncertainty: Bats and the construction of disease risk in Ghana
dc.contributor.author | Waldman, Linda | |
dc.contributor.author | Gadzekpo, Audrey | |
dc.contributor.author | MacGregor, Hayley | |
dc.coverage.spatial | Ghana | en |
dc.date.accessioned | 2015-08-10T13:32:11Z | |
dc.date.available | 2015-08-10T13:32:11Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2015-02-12 | |
dc.identifier.citation | Waldman, L., Gadzekpo, A. and MacGregor, H. (2015) Responding to uncertainty: Bats and the construction of disease risk in Ghana, STEPS Working Paper 80, Brighton: STEPS Centre | en |
dc.identifier.isbn | 9781781182208 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/6702 | |
dc.description | One of a series of seven working papers considering the political economy of One Health. | en |
dc.description.abstract | Zoonotic disease has gained international attention since the identification of avian and swine influenza, with academic focus on the modelling of disease emergence, and policy centring on disciplinary approaches of analysis. Recent scholarship has recognised that the conditions which encourage zoonotic diseases are both ecological and socio-political. The challenge lies in the deeply complex causality and high uncertainty in identifying causal links between human, wildlife and livestock diseases. There is a disjuncture between existing academic knowledge on zoonoses and the role that uncertainty plays in anticipating and preventing future outbreaks of as yet unidentified diseases, and the way that policy makers tend to frame such evidence. This paper examines Ghana policy makers’ diverse perspectives on uncertainty related to newly emerging zoonotic diseases through the specific example of fruit bats, showing why it is so difficult to develop appropriate policy for emerging zoonotic disease. These animals have significant potential for zoonotic transmission, as evidenced in the 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This research predated this outbreak and provides a prescient account of framings of risk, uncertainty and zoonotic disease potential prior to this regional crisis. | en |
dc.description.sponsorship | Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) | en |
dc.language.iso | en | en |
dc.publisher | STEPS Centre | en |
dc.relation.ispartofseries | STEPS Working Paper;80 | |
dc.rights | Users are welcome to copy, distribute, display, translate or perform this work without written permission subject to the conditions set out in the Creative Commons licence. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. If you use the work, we ask that you reference the STEPS Centre website (www.steps-centre.org) and send a copy of the work or a link to its use online to the following address for our archive: STEPS Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK (steps-centre@ids.ac.uk). | en |
dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ | en |
dc.subject | Health | en |
dc.title | Responding to uncertainty: Bats and the construction of disease risk in Ghana | en |
dc.type | Series paper (non-IDS) | en |
dc.rights.holder | STEPS Centre | en |
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as Users are welcome to copy, distribute, display, translate or perform this work without written permission subject to the conditions set out in the Creative Commons licence. For any reuse or distribution, you must make clear to others the licence terms of this work. If you use the work, we ask that you reference the STEPS Centre website (www.steps-centre.org) and send a copy of the work or a link to its use online to the following address for our archive: STEPS Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9RE, UK (steps-centre@ids.ac.uk).