Partial Immunities: Rethinking Communities and Belonging through Viral Memories of Influenza

Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics

Venla Oikkonen¹ 

[1] Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, FINLAND

关键词: community;    immunity;    influenza;    intersectionality;    vaccines;   

DOI  :  10.20897/femenc/3886

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Lectito Journals

【 摘 要 】

The article explores the concept of partial immunities – our past infections providing partial protection against new related epidemics – in order to develop feminist tools for rethinking communities and belonging as situated and inherently multiple. Partial immunities challenge the idea of immunity as defence/defeat and absence/presence, allowing us to approach immunity as never fully achieved and as arising from historical coincidence rather than personal strength. The article investigates these issues through influenza. It argues that partial immunities to influenza highlight the historical layering of communal ties and interspecies entanglements. The concept of partial immunities enables us to conceptualise belonging as multiple, constantly changing, and technologically enacted. The article develops this argument through two analyses, one focusing on current attempts to create a universal influenza vaccine and one centring on the ways in which past epidemics enact invisible immunological communities across time and space.

【 授权许可】

CC BY