Cite as:
Bingham N, Lavau S, 2012, "The object of regulation: tending the tensions of food safety" Environment and Planning A 44(7) 1589 – 1606
Download citation data in RIS format
The object of regulation: tending the tensions of food safety
Nick Bingham, Stephanie Lavau
Abstract. "I’m struggling to see what it actually is”, says Alison, peering into a colander of defrosting meat. What 'it' is, we propose in this paper, is helpfully thought of as 'the
object of regulation' in at least three senses which together signal both our inheritance
of a Foucauldian problematic and our departure from it. Our suggestion is that much of
even the best work on biopolitics, biopower, and biosecurity that has been inspired and
informed by these writings has replicated Foucault’s own struggle to get to grips with the
complexity of matters that he variously refers to “natural” or “artificial” “givens”. By
following science and technology studies scholars in using broadly ethnographic techniques
to explore objects as and at the intersection of practices, we redress this balance somewhat
by thinking through an empirical study of the securing of food safety—specifically
Alison’s inspection of a restaurant kitchen. What we find is that the securing of meat as
a material object of regulation is primarily done by in-volving multiple versions of the
future, something which requires a great deal of usually underrecognised, undervalued,
and undertheorised articulation work. With risk-based regulation, cost sharing, and
public sector cuts in the UK set to redefine the ways in which Alison and her colleagues
engage with food business operators, we conclude by arguing for a greater appreciation
of the skilful work of tending the tensions of food safety—as well as recognition of its
limitations.
Keywords: food safety, securing, biopolitics, biosecurity, future
Restricted material:
Full-text PDF size: 2481 Kb
Your computer (IP address: 23.20.196.179) has not been recognised as being on a network authorised to view the full text or references of this article. If you are a member of a university library that has a subscription to the journal, please contact your serials librarian (subscriptions information).
