TY - JOUR
T1 - Performing prevention
T2 - risk, responsibility, and reorganising the future in Japan during the H1N1 pandemic
AU - Armstrong-Hough, Mari J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by a grant from the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Taylor & Francis.
PY - 2015/5/19
Y1 - 2015/5/19
N2 - One distinguishing feature of modernity is a shift from fate to risk as a central explanatory principle for uncertainty and danger. Framing the future in terms of risk creates the possibility – and, increasingly, responsibility – for prevention. This study analyses qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 20 physicians and 43 members of the general public in Japan during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 to examine how risk and responsibility were imagined, managed, and reorganised through preventative behaviours. I examined respondents’ discussions of a specific preventative recommendation issued in Japan during the 2009 pandemic: prophylactic gargling. I found that Japanese doctors had mixed, often conflicting, opinions about the efficacy of gargling to prevent infection; most felt its usefulness as a recommendation lay in its capacity to give patients the belief that they could mitigate the risk of infection. Doctors who were openly dubious about the effectiveness of gargling in reducing risk of infection continued to recommend it because they felt that gargling provided patients with peace of mind, reducing their sense of ontological insecurity. In contrast, lay respondents saw gargling as a practical, common-sense measure they could take to mitigate risk, but also citing responsibility to others as motivation for performing preventative practices that they would otherwise eschew.
AB - One distinguishing feature of modernity is a shift from fate to risk as a central explanatory principle for uncertainty and danger. Framing the future in terms of risk creates the possibility – and, increasingly, responsibility – for prevention. This study analyses qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with 20 physicians and 43 members of the general public in Japan during the H1N1 influenza pandemic of 2009 to examine how risk and responsibility were imagined, managed, and reorganised through preventative behaviours. I examined respondents’ discussions of a specific preventative recommendation issued in Japan during the 2009 pandemic: prophylactic gargling. I found that Japanese doctors had mixed, often conflicting, opinions about the efficacy of gargling to prevent infection; most felt its usefulness as a recommendation lay in its capacity to give patients the belief that they could mitigate the risk of infection. Doctors who were openly dubious about the effectiveness of gargling in reducing risk of infection continued to recommend it because they felt that gargling provided patients with peace of mind, reducing their sense of ontological insecurity. In contrast, lay respondents saw gargling as a practical, common-sense measure they could take to mitigate risk, but also citing responsibility to others as motivation for performing preventative practices that they would otherwise eschew.
KW - H1N1
KW - Japan
KW - flu
KW - gargling
KW - influenza
KW - ontological security
KW - risk
KW - risk ontologies
KW - risk society
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84949497065&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.1080/13698575.2015.1090558
DO - 10.1080/13698575.2015.1090558
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84949497065
SN - 1369-8575
VL - 17
SP - 285
EP - 301
JO - Health, Risk and Society
JF - Health, Risk and Society
IS - 3-4
ER -