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Unit 1 - Political Economy Approaches to AMR and Infectious Diseases Research

Site: Interdisciplinary Hub Education Network
Course: Political Economy of Antimicrobial Resistance and Infectious Diseases (2)
Book: Unit 1 - Political Economy Approaches to AMR and Infectious Diseases Research
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Date: Thursday, 25 April 2024, 9:58 AM

Table of contents

Unit Introduction

Unit Title:

Political Economy of Antimicrobial Resistance and Infectious Diseases (AMR/ID) in Livestock Systems

This unit was delivered by Dr. Mehroosh Tak, RVC and Mr. Adam Willman, SOAS



Unit Description

The lecture is divided into three sections. The first section introduces the structure of the course, assessment and requirements to achieve credits. An ice-breaker game will be played to create space for participants to get to know each other. The second section will describe how political economy as a discipline can help better understand socio-economic and political determinants of AMR/ID and the relevance of this course. Particular attention will be paid to concept of meatification of diets and industrial livestock disease complex. In the final section, we introduce political economy approaches, where ontological and epistemological difference between political economy and natural sciences are explored.


Learning Objectives

By the end of the lecture the students will be able to:

  1. Identify political economy questions in relation to AMR and infectious disease in livestock systems research
  2. Apply the concept of meatification of diets in relation to a country of their choice
  3. Describe the industrial livestock disease complex
  4. Distinguish ontological and epistemological differences between natural and social science approaches to research


Unit 1 Lecture Slides

Slides will be uploaded 1-2 days before the live lecture on 15th February 2021.
Please click HERE (link) to access the slides for this week.

Core Reading List

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  1. Adegbola T.Adesogan, Arie H.Havelaar, Sarah L.McKune, Marjatta Eilittä, Geoffrey E.Dahla, 2020, Animal source foods: Sustainability problem or malnutrition and sustainability solution? Perspective matters, Global Food Security, Volume 25, June 2020 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211912419300525?via%3Dihub (link)
  2. Tony Weis, 2013, The Ecological Hoofprint: The Global Burden of Industrial Livestock. Zed Books. November 2013. Introduction. (link)
  3. Moon, K. and Blackman, D (2017). A guide to ontology, epistemology, and philosophical perspectives for interdisciplinary researchers. https://i2insights.org/2017/05/02/philosophy-for-interdisciplinarity/ (link)

Additional Resources

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The Industrial Grain-Oilseed-LIvestock Complex with Tony Weis



The Meatification of Diets and the Ecological Hoofprint with Tony Weis


True Cost of Food 


Listen - Defining Political Economy 
 



Additional Reading

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On Course Context

  1. How Humanity Unleashed a Flood of New Diseases- What do Covid-19, Ebola, Lyme and AIDS have in common? They jumped to humans from animals after we started destroying habitats and ruining ecosystems. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/17/magazine/animal-disease-covid.html (link)
  2. Laurence S. J. Roope, Richard D. Smith, Koen B. Pouwels, James Buchanan, Lucy Abel, Peter Eibich, Christopher C. Butler, Pui San Tan, A. Sarah Walker, Julie V. Robotham, Sarah Wordsworth, 2019, The challenge of antimicrobial resistance: What economics can contribute, Science https://science.sciencemag.org/content/364/6435/eaau4679/tab-e-letters (link)
  3. Smith, K. F., Goldberg, M., Rosenthal, S., Carlson, L., Chen, J., Chen, C., & Ramachandran, S. (2014). Global rise in human infectious disease outbreaks. Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 11(101), 20140950. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2014.0950   (link)
  4. Booth, D., Williams, G., Duncan, A., Unsworth, S., Landell-Mills, P., Cammack, D., 2009. Political Economy Analysis How To Note. DFID. Available at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/odi-assets/publications-opinion-files/5866.pdf (link)

Ontological and Epistemological Roots of Economics
  1. Bronk, R. (2011). Epistemological difficulties with neoclassical economics. Southern Economic Association. Available at : http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/39423/1/Epistemological_difficulties_with_neoclassical_economies_(LSERO).pdf (link)
  2. Dow S (2003) Critical Realism and Economics. In: Downward P (ed.). Applied Economics and the Critical Realist Critique. Routledge INEM Advances in Economic Methodology, 2, London: Routledge, pp. 12-26. Available at: https://storre.stir.ac.uk/bitstream/1893/25182/1/2003%20downward%20CR%20methodology.pdf (link)
  3. MOON, K. and BLACKMAN, D. (2014), A Guide to Understanding Social Science Research for Natural Scientists. Conservation Biology, 28: 1167-1177. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12326 (link)
  4. Phillips, N., 2017. Power and inequality in the global political economy. International Affairs 93, 429–444. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iix019 (link)