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Good proposal 4 - Pests in the hom
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Good proposal 4 - Pests in the hom
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Dissertation Proposal - RevisedPests in the home: exploring perceptions of sanitation, hygiene, and body boundaries
as affected by the household presence of bedbugs, lice, fleas and cockroaches.
Theoretical and contextual framework:
The importance of cleanliness and hygiene is frequently emphasised by
modern biomedicine and healthcare officials as a necessity to maintaining ‘good
health’. This sphere of hygiene not only covers the individual body but also the home
and the wider community. “Cleanliness is an ideal for body care that reflects a
culture’s various representation of the body – spiritual, social, medical, and
economic” (Brown, 2009:4), reflecting social constructions of what a healthy body is,
and how it can be maintained.
Household pests such as cockroaches and bedbugs are commonplace across
Glasgow, but particularly condensed in areas such as Govanhill (Bowditch, 2012).
This increase in insect presence is often stated to be symptomatic of wider sanitation
issues of the area. Govanhill is frequently recognised as one of Glasgow’s most socio-
economically deprived areas with a high level of housing density, a lower life
expectancy than the Scottish average, and lower income per capita compared to the
national average. The quality of housing infrastructure, neglected floorboards or
walls, and the financial costs associated with extermination mean that insect
infestations last for longer and can have a far greater negative impact upon low
income homes concentrated into small geographic areas (Ineichen, 1993). However,
contrary to popular belief, insects do not discriminate homes based on socio-economic
background or neighbourhood demographics. All homes can experience an
infestation. Nevertheless, this correlation between household pests and socio-
economic deprivation contributes to a significant social stigma.
Bed bugs pose a significant threat to human health, as they feed on human
blood and leave visible physical bites, skin irritations or elisions. Similar reactions
interactions with human skin occur with fleas and lice. Additionally, there is a strong
overlap presence between cockroaches and bedbugs, particularly in Govanhill
(Bowdich, 2012). Cockroaches exist naturally in the Scottish environment, and do not
pose any significant “disease vectors, particularly in the developed world” (Burridge
and Ormandy, 1993). They are still capable of spreading bacteria across surfaces, and
are regarded as “highly unpleasant” (Busvine, 1980: 17). However, cockroaches carry
more of a symbolic threat to human health more than a literal one. They belong in a
bounded system of ideas that classify the unclean from the clean, and the unhealthy
from the healthy (Okely, 1983).
James Busvine (1980) theorises an immediate social and cultural association
between household pests and unhygienic living conditions. The mere presence of
insects in the home provokes perceptions of germs, disease, unsanitary conditions and
threats to health and illness, especially upon neighbours and the wider community.
Issues of cleanliness also tie into wider issues of morality, as an infested home could
spread to neighbours. Therefore, “a polluting person is always in the wrong. He has
developed some wrong condition…. and this displacement unleashes danger for
someone” (Douglas, 1966: 113). Therefore, “certain social rules [are] defined by
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