Nadine Voelkner

Managing pathogenic circulation: human security and the migrant health assemblage in Thailand

This article traces the emergence of human security as a situated political strategy for managing the circulation of pathogens relating to Burmese migrant communities in Thailand. Specifically, it focuses on the intricate and productive interplay of a range of human and non-human elements that helped to bring forth and shape the vernacular micropolitics of human security. The article documents the techno-(bio)political mechanisms of the human security intervention in two of Thailand’s provinces. By enframing, ordering and depoliticizing the complex health world of Burmese migrants in terms of simple dichotomies in which ‘unruly’ nature (pathogens, diseases, bodies) is contrasted with human techno-scientific ingenuity (scientific evidence, technological innovations, managerial effectiveness), these mechanisms render the circulation of pathogens amenable to biopolitical governance. It is here argued that in the struggle to manage pathogenic circulation, human security transforms the issue of migrant health into a technical matter concerned with the (self-)management of bodies and the governmentalization of the Thai state to the exclusion of important but difficult questions concerning a violent politics of exclusion.

Neuer Materialismus in den Internationalen Beziehungen

Drohnen, Viren, Wirbelsturme, kritische Infrastrukturen – dies sind nur einige der materiellen Elemente, die in der internationalen Politik eine Rolle spielen. Diese Materialitat wird zunehmend wiederentdeckt in gegenwartigen diskurstheoretischen Erklarungsansatzen der Internationalen Beziehungen. In der noch jungen Debatte um den Neuen Materialismus geht es vor allen Dingen darum, wie eine aktive statt passive Materialitat in der politischen Welt zu verstehen ist.