UC Davis

This research examines a) the rise of the human microbiome scholarship, b) the ways in which geographical thinking and methodologies could enhance this increasingly important line of inquiry, and c) the dangers of over-relying on this relatively new area of research. Advancement in computer technology brought about by the turn of the 21st century helped microbiologists and bioinformatics scholars to shed light on the vast ecology that covers different surfaces of the human body. During this period, microbiologists became aware of the importance of the surrounding environment in the creation and maintenance of the human microbiome. When trying to examine the extent to which environmental factors including locality influence the human microbiome, microbiologists inadvertently have used geographical techniques without engaging with their theoretical underpinnings. As a result their geographic analyses have been suffering from fallacies of spatial inference. Not only does this research enumerate those fallacies, but also present certain methods to sidestep them.

Findings demonstrate that geographers and geographical techniques can provide fruitful insights for microbiologists. By moving beyond fallacies of spatial inference, scholars can examine the composition and function of the situated human microbiome one that is influenced by a socioeconomic structures present in everyday life. Using a political ecology framework, this research also highlights the dangers of over relying on the human microbiome paradigm. By connecting the rise of bioinformatics, precision nutrition and functional foods, to the exponential growth of fermented foods sales and consumption, this study shed light on important problems including the systematic erasure of traditional knowledges.