I.TheMaterialismofBiologicalEncounters
1.EmbodiedEncounters:EmergenceandEmergency
In this chapter I will attempt to articulate my reflections on biology
in the previous segment with a new set of issues, those arising in the
context of mobility. This is an admittedly broad proposition, and
requires some introductory remarks to guide readers through the
followingargument.
The articulation attempted here can easily claim some empirical
plausibility,sinceevenatfirstglancebiologyandmobilityhavealotin
common: both are enormously important factors that shape, even
determine, human life, individually and collectively. Whatever their
conjunction in a given historical moment, biology and mobility are two
concepts through which people experience and think about their lives,
about what a good life is or what rights and entitlements human beings
canclaim—inshort,whatitmeanstobehuman.Thisisespeciallysoin
thepresentmomentwhenmobilityhasbecomeafactoflifeatthesame
time that the facts of life are being re-shuffled by new discoveries and
new technologies in the biomedical sector, and here especially
molecular genetics.^1 The ongoing debates in the U.S. and across the
(^1) Sincethischapterwilladdresstermsandissueswhichareforthemostpartnot
usually objects of cultural critique, a brief note on definition and usage may be
in order: Biota refers broadly to the sum total of "the living organisms of a
regionorhabitat"("Biota"n.pag.).
Illness will be understood as designating "[t]he subjective sensation of
experiencing a diseased state" (Last, "Illness") in contradistinction from disease
as "a conceptual entity defined by clinical, pathological, and epidemiological
criteriathatenableittobestudiedsystematically"(Last,"Disease").
Infection is used here to describe "[t]he invasion of a susceptible host by a
disease agent (a pathogenic organism) that can develop and proliferate and
usually, but not necessarily, causes overt disease. Pathogenic organismsinclude
viruses, bacteria, mycoses (fungi), protozoa such as the malaria parasite, and