ABSTRACT
Immunity is popularly understood to be a means of bodily self-defence in the face of illness and infection. It also has meanings linked with the suspension of obligations to others framed by economy and law, for example, immunity from prosecution, taxation, or in diplomacy. Chapter 1 therefore considers immunity as powerful biopolitical metaphor with myriad implications for action on health, medicine and the body. The chapter also explains that self-defensive rationality is not the only way of conceptualising either biological or political immunity, which is the source of additional complexity. Key for this book is the merging of immunity and economy, expressed in immunological knowledge systems, philosophy of self, relationships with others and embodiment. The chapter provides some examples of immunity that circulate in consumer culture and therefore establishes the book’s focus on immunity in everyday life. The chapter also establishes the salience of assemblage analytics and maps out the argument supported by the chapters to follow.
