Epidemic temporalities: A concise literature review

Abstract

How do individuals and institutions make sense of epidemics in time, before, during and after outbreaks? This concise review follows a linear chronology of outbreak ‘events’ to explore debates in medical anthropology on epidemic temporalities. It excavates key notions relating to the technologies, imaginary and governance of epidemic anticipation, epidemic emergency and epidemic aftermaths. Building upon ethnographic works which depict how epidemic temporalities are constructed, and how they travel and affect social life, it argues that they are an integral component of the evental construction of epidemics.