Stabilizing a fragile antibiotic order: reconstructing the development of EU policy on antimicrobial resistance

Displaying findings from a discourse and dispositif analysis, this article traces the emergence and evolution of European Union antimicrobial resistance (AMR) regulation, addressing a significant gap in medical sociology and social science research. We understand antibiotics as infrastructure. Hence, we understand AMR as a phenomenon of infrastructural destabilization of a techno-social order and its political regulation as an endeavour to reestablish stability. The EU’s biopolitical regulatory dilemma — balancing its public health mandate versus economic imperatives and the individual’s right to access antibiotics — reflects deeper tensions between free trade market policies, extractive prosperity models, and the pursuit of technological control. While early regulatory steps were taken, the EU’s approach remains hesitant and fragmented, as the cultural symbolism of antibiotics as a “miracle weapon” and productivity factor obstructs recognition of AMR as a socially produced consequence. Ultimately, EU measures have prioritized status quo containment over structural reform, perpetuating an unstable antibiotic order.