Synergies: The Edinburgh Centre for Medical Anthropology, MAT, and a Shared Vision
Editorial for the April issue, 2024.
The Medical Tech Facilitator: An Emerging Position in Dutch Public Healthcare and Their Tinkering Practices
This article focuses on the emerging position of the ‘medical tech facilitator’ developed by practitioners in the Dutch public healthcare system. The analysis is based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Dutch hospitals. It highlights, firstly, t…
Diversity amongst Decision Makers?: Workplace Inequality, Black Underrepresentation, and the Afterlife of Colonialism in NHS Governance
Whereas senior management within NHS England was once so monocultural that it was dubbed the ‘snowy white peaks of the NHS’, recent data suggests that things have begun to change. However, Black staff in particular are still underrepresented. Interview…
The Butt of the Joke: Humour and Queer Care at an Anal Dysplasia Clinic
Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork I conducted at an anal cancer prevention clinic in Chicago, USA, this article considers queer camp humour as a care practice to better understand how providers and patients navigate clinical interactions cen…
Concerning ‘Neglect’: Perspectives on the Prioritisation of Mental Health Conditions in Protracted Displacement Contexts
‘Neglect’ is a lucrative concept attracting billions of US dollars in research and development funding and transforming what is prioritised in global health. Stemming from a wider project aiming to improve healthcare at the intersection of gender and p…
Making ‘Setgel’s Creature’ Mindful: Conceptual Change in Contemporary Mongolia
As globally circulating understandings of mental health and mindfulness practices gain popularity in Mongolia, they articulate with setgel, a localised concept that has been shaped by a constellation of historical forces. Loosely translated as ‘mind’ i…
Pluralising Cancer
This Review essay seeks to interrogate the vast category of ‘cancer’. Taken together, the three books explored here pluralise cancer, locating it not just in organs and bodies but also in time and space—in the social, material, and historical specifici…
The Political Life of Research Ethics Committees And What It Means for Ethnographic Research
This review discusses three pieces of work, that is, a conference panel and two books, that deal with the role of research ethics committees (RECs) in regulating biomedical research and medical anthropological research. We summarise the papers and conv…
Cultivating Care: Notes from a Mental Health Organisation in India
This Field Note reflects on the ethics and work of professional mental health care in the context of a non-profit counselling organisation in the city of Bengaluru, India. During fieldwork, having conversations with the counsellors and attending their …
Invoking Senghor: Universal Healthcare Coverage and the Place of Culture in Senegal
Senegal introduced Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU), its version of universal health coverage (UHC), in 2013, basing it on the establishment of mutual health insurance. Mutual health organisations (mutuelles de santé) manage the pooling of funds, i…
The Medical Tech Facilitator: An Emerging Position in Dutch Public Healthcare and Their Tinkering Practices
This article focuses on the emerging position of the ‘medical tech facilitator’ developed by practitioners in the Dutch public healthcare system. The analysis is based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in Dutch hospitals. It highlights, firstly, t…
Diversity amongst Decision Makers?: Workplace Inequality, Black Underrepresentation, and the Afterlife of Colonialism in NHS Governance
Whereas senior management within NHS England was once so monocultural that it was dubbed the ‘snowy white peaks of the NHS’, recent data suggests that things have begun to change. However, Black staff in particular are still underrepresented. Interview…
The Butt of the Joke: Humour and Queer Care at an Anal Dysplasia Clinic
Based on 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork I conducted at an anal cancer prevention clinic in Chicago, USA, this article considers queer camp humour as a care practice to better understand how providers and patients navigate clinical interactions cen…
Concerning ‘Neglect’: Perspectives on the Prioritisation of Mental Health Conditions in Protracted Displacement Contexts
‘Neglect’ is a lucrative concept attracting billions of US dollars in research and development funding and transforming what is prioritised in global health. Stemming from a wider project aiming to improve healthcare at the intersection of gender and p…
Making ‘Setgel’s Creature’ Mindful: Conceptual Change in Contemporary Mongolia
As globally circulating understandings of mental health and mindfulness practices gain popularity in Mongolia, they articulate with setgel, a localised concept that has been shaped by a constellation of historical forces. Loosely translated as ‘mind’ i…
Cultivating Care: Notes from a Mental Health Organisation in India
This Field Note reflects on the ethics and work of professional mental health care in the context of a non-profit counselling organisation in the city of Bengaluru, India. During fieldwork, having conversations with the counsellors and attending their …
Invoking Senghor: Universal Healthcare Coverage and the Place of Culture in Senegal
Senegal introduced Couverture Maladie Universelle (CMU), its version of universal health coverage (UHC), in 2013, basing it on the establishment of mutual health insurance. Mutual health organisations (mutuelles de santé) manage the pooling of funds, i…
Pluralising Cancer
This Review essay seeks to interrogate the vast category of ‘cancer’. Taken together, the three books explored here pluralise cancer, locating it not just in organs and bodies but also in time and space—in the social, material, and historical specifici…
Experiencias tóxicas y género en la conflictividad socioambiental: Un análisis del liderazgo femenino para el caso chileno
En este artículo se analizan los procesos de conflictividad frente a las desigualdades para el caso chileno, enfocándose en su dimensióń socioecológica. Muestra resultados de una investigación cualitativa de cuatro años realizada en 5 territorios som…
Book Review: The Railpolitik: Leadership and Agency in Sino-African Infrastructure Development by Wang, Yuan
Africa Spectrum, Ahead of Print.
In His Own Words: Reflections on a Scholarly Career with Rene Lemarchand
by Ashley E. Leinweber Abstract What is the role of scholars in envisioning the continent and bearing witness to historic events? This paper is based on an interview with Professor Rene Lemarchand, renowned scholar of the former Belgian colonies of the African Great Lakes. His earliest book Political Awakening in the Belgian Congo is based […]
Technology Transfer from China to Kenya for Transport Infrastructure: The Case of International Trunk Roads
by Lemmy Nyongesa Mulaku, Kizito Sabala, and Paul Kamau Abstract Literature on technology transfer to Africa is dominated by studies on agribusiness, military technology, information and communication technology, energy, climate change, health, and manufacturing, while it is scanty on others like transport infrastructure. In this article, we reviewed literature and carried out key informant interviews […]
From the Cradle to the Grave: A Feminist Stylistic Reading of Select Poems from Juka Jabang’s The Phoenix
by Abdou Bassin Boye and Shafaq Fayyaz Abstract This study examines the use of poetic artistry as a contribution to social reformation in Juka Jabang’s The Phoenix to highlight the cultural and social tendencies that contribute to the oppression of women in the Gambian context. It draws attention to the oppression of Gambian women not […]
White Liberalism and Black Consciousness in Rosie Motene’s Reclaiming the Soil (2018)
by Rodwell Makombe Abstract White liberal gestures of kindness such as interventions to alleviate poverty in black communities are often seen as altruistic initiatives with noble intentions. However, in recent years, these interventions have come under greater scrutiny as scholars question the “white savior mentality” that often frames and propels such initiatives. In fact, contemporary […]
Empobrecimiento e intoxicación de cuerpos-territorios en zonas cultivadas con coca y marihuana en Colombia
En Colombia, la expansión de la frontera cocalera y la política antinarcóticos han estado atravesadas por diferentes tipos e intensidades de violencia. Entre la prolífica literatura producida recientemente, menos estudiadas se encuentran las violencias…