The Techno-politics of Public Health

Abstract

Beneath the confident visions of technology freeing the world from infectious disease, many architects of the international campaigns were concerned that all was not well. Plans there were in abundance and, it seemed, they had achieved results to justify belief. However, this chapter will show that inherent in the process of techno-politics was a tendency for practical obstacles to proliferate in the face of expertise, provoking more plans, more projects and constant adjustments. Timothy Mitchell argues that it is characteristic of technical assistance, in health as in other fields, that ‘failures and adjustments’ were overlooked, because ‘techno-science had to conceal its extra-scientific origins’. He suggests, and this chapter confirms, that ‘fundamental difficulties were presented as minor issues of the improper implementation of the plans, unexpected complications’ or ‘bureaucratic delays’.