The Pathogens of Finance is an exploration of how the rising power and profits of Wall Street underpin the contemporary increases in and inadequate responses to vector-borne disease. Over the past fifty years, insects have transmitted infectious diseases to humans with greater frequency and in more unexpected places. To examine this phenomenon, Brent Z. Kaup and Kelly F. Austin take readers to the exurban homes of northern Virginia; the burgeoning agricultural outposts of Mato Grosso, Brazil; and the smallholder coffee farms of the Bududa District of eastern Uganda. Through these case studies, the authors illuminate how the broader financialization of society is intimately intertwined with both the creation of landscapes more conducive to vector-borne disease and the failure to prevent and cure such diseases throughout the world.
Brent Z. Kaup is Professor of Sociology at William & Mary and author of Market Justice: Political Economic Struggle in Bolivia.
Kelly F. Austin is Professor of Sociology and Global Studies at Lehigh University.
"With rigorous research and lucid prose, Brent Kaup and Kelly Austin reveal in eye-opening detail how finance is transforming landscapes and shaping the spread of infectious disease across the globe. This richly textured book masterfully combines ecological insight, public health data, and financial history to reveal just how profoundly finance is altering (and ending) human lives."— Madeleine Fairbairn, author of Fields of Gold: Financing the Global Land Rush
"In this startling contribution to epidemiology, sociology, international relations, and geography, Kaup and Austin trace pandemic ecology through the frontiers and metastases of neoliberal capitalism. This book performs exceptional service by bringing a vast array of intellectual fields into productive and innovative conversation."—Raj Patel, coauthor of A History of the World in Seven Cheap Things: A Guide to Capitalism, Nature, and the Future of the Planet
"This prescient book examines the intersections between economic financialization and new landscapes of epidemiological risk. The Pathogens of Finance offers a wealth of fascinating insights into emerging threats to global health and how only fundamental political and structural change will create a safer world for everyone."—Matthew Gandy, Professor of Geography, University of Cambridge
"Operating across several highly diverse geographical areas across the globe and covering a range of vector-borne infections, Kaup and Austin’s pathbreaking book illustrates and illuminates powerful relations between the emergence and persistence of infectious disease, the spread of vectors, and the pervasive submission of our societies to neoliberalization and financialization, creating a much more vulnerable world of widely distributed, yet uneven threats."—Roger Keil, coauthor of Pandemic Urbanism: Infectious Diseases on a Planet of Cities
274 pp.6 x 9
9780520412491$95.00|£80.00Hardcover
May 2025