Space and Culture

Emergent viruses (e.g. Bird Flu H5N1) are a growing public health concern across the globe. Although the vast majority of emergent pathogen virulence seems to take place in so called ‘Third World’ countries of South and East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the tropical zone of South America, modern transportation technologies ensure that no part of the world can regard itself as being safe from those risks. For example, during the incubation time of Ebola (7-10 days), one may have already travelled around the globe 3 or 4 times. One of the phenomena often associated with emergent pathogen virulence is migration. The movement of people, either because of warfare, hunger or general poverty, is often paired with the emergence of old and new viral epidemics. Space and Culture are looking for papers that explore >how population movements, including those associated with military conquests, trade, urban development etc etc, could be conceived as an inauguration of junctural zones where different organisms, for example humans, viruses and their vectors, meet.