Authors:
Focuses on the interactions and collaborations between scientists, policymakers, campaigners and the public to understand how this problem has developed into today’s publicly polarised controversy
An Open Access title that combines historical and social science approaches, incorporating policy archives, mass media and oral history
Provides a reliable source of information for those currently engaged in this continuing debate and offers recommendations for moving ahead
Buying options
Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Contexts
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Front Matter
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Reframing Bovine TB (c. 1960–1995)
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Front Matter
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Contesting Animal Health (1996–Present)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This open access book provides the first critical history of the controversy over whether to cull wild badgers to control the spread of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in British cattle. This question has plagued several professional generations of politicians, policymakers, experts and campaigners since the early 1970s. Questions of what is known, who knows, who cares, who to trust and what to do about this complex problem have been the source of scientific, policy, and increasingly vociferous public debate ever since. This book integrates contemporary history, science and technology studies, human-animal relations, and policy research to conduct a cross-cutting analysis. It explores the worldviews of those involved with animal health, disease ecology and badger protection between the 1970s and 1990s, before reintegrating them to investigate the recent public polarisation of the controversy. Finally it asks how we might move beyond the current impasse.
Keywords
- bTB
- TB
- Cow
- Robert Koch
- Cattle
- Testing
- Vaccination
- Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF)
- Badger cull
- Policy
- Legislation
- Welfare
- Land and wildlife management
- Oral history
- Science and society
- Open Access
- medical geography
Reviews
“This book is a history of the science and policy behind Britain’s ongoing badger controversy. … The advantage of Dr Cassidy’s book is that she carefully peels back the layers and reveals the full complexity of a situation that seems to have little hope of immediate resolution. … Dr Cassidy’s style is admirably clear, jargon-free and without artifice.” (Peter J. Atkins, Agricultural History Review, Vol. 69 (1), 2021)
“Dr Cassidy draws pertinent general conclusions about generating policy and mediating the role of the expert in today’s science-sceptic and increasingly polarised society... It is both a useful and original contribution, specifically to the history of zoonotic disease policy, and policy history more generally.” (Helen Bynum, Author of Spitting Blood: The History of Tuberculosis (2012))
Authors and Affiliations
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Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR) University of Exeter, Exeter, UK
Angela Cassidy
About the author
Angela Cassidy is a Lecturer in the Centre for Rural Policy Research (CRPR), University of Exeter, UK. She works across the history and social studies of science, researching public controversies and policy through an interdisciplinary lens.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Vermin, Victims and Disease
Book Subtitle: British Debates over Bovine Tuberculosis and Badgers
Authors: Angela Cassidy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19186-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019
License: CC BY
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-19185-6Published: 02 October 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-19188-7Published: 11 September 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-19186-3Published: 25 September 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXIV, 366
Number of Illustrations: 11 b/w illustrations, 9 illustrations in colour
Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, History of Medicine, Animal Ethics, Environmental Policy, Modern History, Integrated Geography