ABSTRACT

Biosecurity is a term to describe the practice of trying to control the movements of biological organisms. It exists in tension with an economic logic of increasing the circulation of traded goods. The more things circulate, the greater the possibility for invasive species, microbes and their vectors to have devastating effects. But this focus on movement shouldn’t distract attention from the roles played by economic production in making hosts, landscapes and people more susceptible to the effects of ‘infection’. In outlining the various logics of biosecurity, the entry provides resources for critically evaluating conventional accounts of securing life.