Medicine Anthropology Theory
Not a member yet
559 research outputs found
Sort by
Perfect etiquette: On diplomatically arguing with members
No full textAs a starting point for this article, the concept of diplomatic ethnography inspired by the work of Bruno Latour is presented as an ideal: a model for ‘good anthropology’, which truthfully follows members’ actions and the associations they form with others, simultaneously respecting their values. The workability of this ideal is then ethnographically tested in a research setting where direct communication with actors about the results of the researcher’s work is inescapable, while arriving at a common description of networks and values is difficult, as one group of actors routinely disqualifies members of another group by including them in the strongly naturalised category of ‘people with mental impairment’. How to understand and interpret the life of Pete, a resident of a ‘home for persons with health impairment’, who strives to rein in his hearty appetite while those taking care of him describe him as a ‘wicked child’ whose actions reflect only his syndrome? On the basis of my negotiations about his case, I come to the conclusion that the project of diplomatic ethnography is viable, if the obduracy of the ordering arrangements is duly taken into account and values are honoured, and, while arguing with members is inevitable under given circumstances, it is potentially productive for envisioning change in existing modes of ordering
Partnerships for now? Temporality, capacities, and the durability of outcomes from global health ‘partnerships’
No full textScientific alliances are typically referred to as ‘collaborations’ but in recent times, those with global health or other development goals are increasingly referred to as ‘partnerships’. I observe that one of the features common to this type of partnership is temporality: flagship programs are frequently initiated but less commonly sustained. Thus the pressure that short-term transnational projects place on African health and educational systems that implement them is sometimes hard to justify. I suggest that one reason for the short life spans of partnerships is inadequate attention to the need to build ‘hard’ and leadership capacities: infrastructure, managerial expertise, administrative capabilities, and the capacity to improvise at African partner institutions
Dealing with highly contagious animal diseases under neoliberal governmentality in Mongolia
Get PDFIn Mongolia, since the collapse of communism in 1990, the government has implemented a centralized system of veterinary care inherited from the Communist period that suffers from inadequate infrastructures. Highly contagious diseases chronically re-emerge, undermining the country, its economy, and the way of life of its affected inhabitants. Since the early 2000s, the government has put in place a new surveillance system that relies on nomadic herders as ‘sentinels’. These herders combine popular perceptions and treatments of animal diseases with some veterinary practices and international standards of surveillance and control. But they sometimes refuse to cooperate with private veterinarians or report symptoms, out of a lack of trust in the system of financial compensation for culled herds, compensation that – if sufficient – would enable them to maintain a substantial herd and a nomadic way of life. This article argues that Mongolia constitutes a sort of laboratory to study a neoliberal governmentality toward animal diseases, where the capacities to manage diseases that spread across species (wild/domestic, animal/human) and political borders (regional, national, continental) are delegated to local actors (nomadic herders) who resort to compromises in order to address tensions with political leaders regarding how to control highly contagious animal diseases
Is Africa part of the partnership?
Get PDFThis essay presents an African perspective on medical research partnerships done in Africa. While African institutions have a long history of establishing research partnerships with Western institutions it is important to assess how they have been contributing to this relationship. After describing how partnerships are established and how they currently function for many institutions, I discuss how mutual and antagonistic interests can affect those global health relationships that finish in ‘divorce’. I end with defining the place of Africa in its partnerships with Western institutions in medical research, and argue for a new mind-set that would bolster African ownership and funding of research done in Africa
The trouble with inequalities in global health partnerships
Get PDFIn this essay, I offer a philosophical–ethical analysis of inequalities in global health partnerships. Using literature from medical anthropology and the health sciences as a basis, I begin by distinguishing two categories of concern. First, I identify the inequalities between partners, such as between research institutions in the United States and African countries, which can include resource, epistemic, and power inequalities, and, second, I highlight associated concerns such as the lack of acknowledgement of inequalities. I then focus on what might be ethically wrong with these inequalities, emphasizing that there can be significant instrumental and noninstrumental harms associated with them. By underscoring what may be ethically troubling about inequalities in global health partnerships, this essay provides preliminary guidance on how to create more equal and more equitable relationships between partners in the field of global health