A Fence in Time: Chrono-Material Ecologies of Decay, Governance and Knowledge

In this chapter, focusing empirically on anti-wild-boar fences in Denmark and Czechia that are intended as veterinary infrastructure in response to the advent of African swine fever (ASF), we wish to emphasise the temporal rather than the merely spatial dimension of the workings of fences. First, employing the notion of ‘material ecology’ (Domínguez Rubio), we revisit the obvious fact that fences exist in time – they are built, function, and are dismantled or fall into disrepair and decay. Second, the chapter discusses the rationale of employing fencing as a biosecurity measure in fighting the spread of ASF. We argue that fences are rarely viewed as total obstacles that can deliver a permanent solution to the spread of disease. Rather, in veterinary epidemiology they are understood as tools that slow the spread; in other words, as speed is a function of time and space, the kind of intervention that fences are meant to deliver is equally temporal and spatial. What is more, by slowing down the spread of disease, fences are helping to ‘buy time’ needed to fight the disease by other means. Finally, focusing on specific examples of experimental fences, we argue that by facilitating the production of universally applicable knowledge, these fences stand for other fences distant not only in space but in time. We conclude that fences support efforts to govern life not only across landscapes but also across timescapes.