Between Anatamo- and Bio-Politics: Geographies of Sexual Health in Wartime Seattle

Publication Date

9-1-2010

Document Type

Article

Abstract

We offer an analysis of public health governmentality and its constitutive elements during a moral panic around venereal disease in World-War II Seattle, Washington. Tracing how norms of sexuality, gender, race, age and class were instilled through urban public health practices, we highlight the importance of the local state's spatial ontologies and imaginations in connecting in particular the elements of anatamo-politics and bio-politics. By doing this, we extend current work on governmentality in geography by suggesting that geographical imaginations and ontological framings by the local state - particularly urban public health authorities - are themselves important elements in the control of populations and identity.

Publication Title

Political Geography

Volume

29

Issue

7

First Page

392

Last Page

403

DOI

10.1016/j.polgeo.2010.10.001

Publisher Policy

pre-print, post-print

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