Acts of Resistance

In Acts of Resistance, Katharina Rynkiewich explores the fight to save the utility of antibiotic medicines amid global antimicrobial resistance. This engaging ethnography follows bacteria, patients, and practitioners as they weave in and out of North American medical institutions. Through an examination of the social dynamics and ethical challenges of everyday antibiotic use, the author expands on the limitations of good intentions in current antibiotic stewardship policy. Her ethnographic account shows the lived experience of multiple central figures as she shifts setting and tone, ultimately deepening our understanding of the global antimicrobial resistance crisis as emergency.

The global scale of impact related to antimicrobial resistance has made the responsibilization of industry and institution difficult to navigate. Contributing to this web of irresponsibility is the wide region spread of multidrug-resistant organisms. With bacteria making their homes within institutions and in the community, tracing the origins of an infection can be an insurmountable challenge. Rynkiewich takes up the epidemiologic concept of “regional epidemiologies” to demonstrate how “microbial highways” coexist along human highways.