Indeterminacy in-decisions – science, policy and politics in the BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) crisis

This chapter aims to use an empirical engagement with Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy-related scientific and policy practices, along with insights from non-human geographies, science studies and poststructuralism to suggest that old certainties and resolutions are misplaced. It demonstrates that the failure to take up the lessons from non human geographies has had and continues to have serious consequences. The chapter also demonstrates that the geographical &s;postmodern and cultural turns&s; offer significant potential for re-engagement with political and policy practices. In 1997, the British government&s;s Chief Scientific Advisor, Robert May, drafted a paper entitled &s;The use of scientific advice in policy making&s;. One of the characteristic features of policy and media debate throughout has been the legitimacy and relevance of scientific advice on the disease. The policy depended upon a multitude of decisions over what and where did and what and where did not matter.

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy · Epistemology · Indeterminacy (philosophy) · Pathology · Political science · Politics · Prion protein · Law · Medicine · Philosophy · Prion Diseases and Protein Misfolding