Theorizing global health
Reflecting on the recent West African Ebola outbreak, this piece advocates for a critical and people-centered approach both to and within global health. I discuss the current state of the field as well as critical theoretical responses to it, arguing that an ethnographic focus on evidence and effica...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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University of Edinburgh Library
2016-09-01
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| Series: | Medicine Anthropology Theory |
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| Online Access: | http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4651 |
| _version_ | 1831746932664434688 |
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| author | João Biehl |
| author_facet | João Biehl |
| author_sort | João Biehl |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Reflecting on the recent West African Ebola outbreak, this piece advocates for a critical and people-centered approach both to and within global health. I discuss the current state of the field as well as critical theoretical responses to it, arguing that an ethnographic focus on evidence and efficacy at the local level raises rather than lowers the bar for thoughtful inquiry and action. The current moment calls less for the all-knowing hubris of totalizing analytical schemes than for a human science (and politics) of the uncertain and unknown. It is the immanent negotiations of people, institutions, technologies, evidence, social forms, ecosystems, health, efficacy, and ethics – in their temporary stabilization, production, excess, and creation – that animate the unfinishedness of ethnography and critical global health. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T21:23:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b70c22ac368744138a5c3688069dbe90 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2405-691X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T21:23:54Z |
| publishDate | 2016-09-01 |
| publisher | University of Edinburgh Library |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Medicine Anthropology Theory |
| spelling | doaj.art-b70c22ac368744138a5c3688069dbe902022-12-21T18:49:49ZengUniversity of Edinburgh LibraryMedicine Anthropology Theory2405-691X2016-09-013210.17157/mat.3.2.4344651Theorizing global healthJoão BiehlReflecting on the recent West African Ebola outbreak, this piece advocates for a critical and people-centered approach both to and within global health. I discuss the current state of the field as well as critical theoretical responses to it, arguing that an ethnographic focus on evidence and efficacy at the local level raises rather than lowers the bar for thoughtful inquiry and action. The current moment calls less for the all-knowing hubris of totalizing analytical schemes than for a human science (and politics) of the uncertain and unknown. It is the immanent negotiations of people, institutions, technologies, evidence, social forms, ecosystems, health, efficacy, and ethics – in their temporary stabilization, production, excess, and creation – that animate the unfinishedness of ethnography and critical global health.http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4651theories of global healthethnographic theorizingcritical global health |
| spellingShingle | João Biehl Theorizing global health Medicine Anthropology Theory theories of global health ethnographic theorizing critical global health |
| title | Theorizing global health |
| title_full | Theorizing global health |
| title_fullStr | Theorizing global health |
| title_full_unstemmed | Theorizing global health |
| title_short | Theorizing global health |
| title_sort | theorizing global health |
| topic | theories of global health ethnographic theorizing critical global health |
| url | http://www.medanthrotheory.org/article/view/4651 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT joaobiehl theorizingglobalhealth |