The Pathogens of Finance

How Capitalism Breeds Vector-Borne Disease

Author: Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin Series: Critical Environments: Nature, Science, and Politics

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Description

The Pathogens of Finance is an exploration of how the rising power and profits of Wall Street underpin the contemporary increases in and inadequate responses to vector-borne disease. Over the past fifty years, insects have transmitted infectious diseases to humans with greater frequency and in more unexpected places. To examine this phenomenon, Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin take readers to the exurban homes of northern Virginia; the burgeoning agricultural outposts of Mato Grosso, Brazil; and the smallholder coffee farms of the Bududa District of eastern Uganda. Through these case studies, the authors illuminate how the broader financialization of society is intimately intertwined with both the creation of landscapes more conducive to vector-borne disease and the failure to prevent and cure such diseases throughout the world.

About the Author

Brent Z. Kaup is Professor of Sociology at William & Mary and author of Market Justice: Political Economic Struggle in Bolivia.

Kelly F. Austin is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Lehigh University.