Latin American Perspectives on the Sociology of Health and Illness


Book Description

The sociology of health and illness is a rapidly growing field. Yet, as a field, it has suffered from a remarkably limited perspective dominated by scholarship produced in the global north. Scholars in the sociology of health and illness have been late to enter debates in global health and have generally failed to learn lessons from work originating in the global south. To begin to address this limitation, this edited collection features notable contributions from Latin American scholars exploring key issues, including sickle cell disease in Brazil, cancer and Chagas disease in Argentina and reproductive health in Mexico. This collection, offering a snapshot of the rich and nuanced research being conducted in the region, offers readers valuable lessons. It is our argument that Latin American health sociology has much to offer the larger field of sociology – both for what it can teach us about Latin America in and of itself, and for what this field of scholarship can teach us about health and illness as broadly defined. This collection challenges readers to think about the global nature of health inequalities. Rich in empirical data and theoretical substance, this book is an essential collection for readers interested in understanding the sociology of health and illness. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Health Sociology Review and as individual papers in Global Public Health and Critical Public Health.




The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Global Health


Book Description

The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Global Health provides an overview of the complex relationship between anthropology and global health. The book brings together a diverse group of scholars who consider the intersection of anthropological concerns with health and disease as understood and intervened upon by the field of global health. The book is structured around five sections: (1) social, cultural, and political determinants of health; (2) knowledge production in anthropology and global health; (3) persistent invisibilities in global health; (4) reimagining a critical global health; and (5) new horizons in anthropology and global health. Over these five themes a range of topics is explored, including: rare diseases medical pluralism universal global health protocols HIV health security indigenous communities (non)communicable diseases decolonizing global health The Routledge Handbook of Anthropology and Global Health is an essential resource for upper-level students and researchers in anthropology, global health, sociology, international development, health studies, and politics.




Critical Medical Anthropology


Book Description

Critical Medical Anthropology presents inspiring work from scholars doing and engaging with ethnographic research in or from Latin America, addressing themes that are central to contemporary Critical Medical Anthropology (CMA). This includes issues of inequality, embodiment of history, indigeneity, non-communicable diseases, gendered violence, migration, substance abuse, reproductive politics and judicialisation, as these relate to health. The collection of ethnographically informed research, including original theoretical contributions, reconsiders the broader relevance of CMA perspectives for addressing current global healthcare challenges from and of Latin America. It includes work spanning four countries in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Guatemala and Peru) as well as the trans-migratory contexts they connect and are defined by. By drawing on diverse social practices, it addresses challenges of central relevance to medical anthropology and global health, including reproduction and maternal health, sex work, rare and chronic diseases, the pharmaceutical industry and questions of agency, political economy, identity, ethnicity, and human rights.




An Open Secret


Book Description

Many women throughout the world face the challenge of confronting an unexpected or an unwanted pregnancy, yet these experiences are often shrouded in silence. An Open Secret draws on personal interviews and medical records to uncover the history of women’s experiences with unwanted pregnancy and abortion in the South American country of Bolivia. This Andean nation is home to a diverse population of indigenous and mixed-race individuals who practice a range of medical traditions. Centering on the cities of La Paz and El Alto, the book explores how women decided whether to continue or terminate their pregnancies and the medical practices to which women recurred in their search for reproductive health care between the early 1950s and 2010. It demonstrates that, far from constituting private events with little impact on the public sphere, women’s intimate experiences with pregnancy contributed to changing policies and services in reproductive health in Bolivia.




Teaching and Learning Practices That Promote Sustainable Development and Active Citizenship


Book Description

The profound changes that we are experiencing at the political, environmental, economic, social, and cultural levels of our “postmodern” society pose immense challenges to education. In order to empower students to analyze, reflect, and take action for a sustainable world, the learning and educational process must be experienced in the context of citizenship; that is, it must be designed, planned, and implemented having global sustainability as a framework, thus developing societal awareness, values, and principles. Teaching and Learning Practices That Promote Sustainable Development and Active Citizenship is an essential research book that provides comprehensive research on education as a fundamental factor in empowering citizens to understand and act on the multiple risks and challenges to the sustainability of our society and world. Highlighting a range of critical learning strategies such as global and critical education, development education, and transformational education, among others, this book is ideal for academicians, education professionals, researchers, policymakers, and students.




Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of the Anthropocene


Book Description

Environment, Social Justice, and the Media in the Age of Anthropocene addresses three imminent challenges to human society in the age of the Anthropocene. The first challenge involves the survival of the species; the second the breakdown of social justice; and the third the inability of the media to provide global audiences with an adequate orientation about these issues. The notion of the Anthropocene as a geological age shaped by human intervention implies a new understanding of the human context that influences the physical and biological sciences. Human existence continues to be affected by the physical and biological reality from which it evolved but, in turn, it affects that reality as well. This work addresses this paradox by bringing together the contributions of researchers from very different disciplines in conversation about the complex relationships between the physical/biological world and the human world to offer different perspectives and solutions in establishing social and environmental justice in the age of the Anthropocene.




The Taste for Knowledge


Book Description

The Taste for Knowledge: Medical Anthropology Facing Medical Realities demonstrates how medical anthropology is becoming increasingly important in the fields of medical research and public health. The authors examine some of the major issues in medical anthropology today. In this volume, a group of international researchers reflect, for example, on: the way anthropology faces and deals with interdisciplinarity in its encounter with medicine and doctors; the new medical realities and patient strategies that exist in changing medical systems; and the interactions between practice, power and science. The book will appeal to clinicians/practitioners, anthropologists in general, and all those engaged in the interface between medicine and anthropology, but will also be a valuable tool for students of medicine and anthropology who have a special interest in the social realities and interdisciplinarity of health and illness.




A Companion to the Anthropology of Reproductive Medicine and Technology


Book Description

Provides fresh perspectives on the past, present and future-facing contributions of the anthropology of reproduction. A Companion to the Anthropology of Reproductive Medicine and Technology provides a timely and comprehensive overview of the anthropological study of reproductive practices, technologies, and interventions in a global context. Exploring the medical and technological management of human reproduction through a sociocultural lens, this groundbreaking volume reviews past and current research, discusses contemporary debates and recent theoretical developments, introduces key themes and trends, examines ongoing issues of equity, inclusivity, and reproductive justice around the world, and more. The Companion brings together essays by multidisciplinary scholars in fields including sociocultural anthropology, medical anthropology, reproductive health, global public health, Science and Technology Studies (STS), gender and sexuality studies, critical race studies, and environmental studies, to list but a few. Five thematically organized sections address reproductive practitioners and paradigms, global reproductive health and interventions, reproductive justice, the life-course approach to the study of reproductive health, and the future of reproductive technology and medicine. Using clear, jargon-free language, the authors investigate pregnancy and childbirth; fertility treatments; birth control, contraception and abortion; COVID-19 and reproduction; reproductive cancers; epigenetics; social discrimination; gender and sexualities and reproduction for LGBTQIA+ communities; race and reproduction; migration and reproduction; reproduction and war; reproductive health financing; reproduction and disabilities, reproduction and the environment; and other important contemporary topics. A cutting-edge guide to the modern study of reproduction, this groundbreaking volume: Provides an overview of the links between anthropological study and progressive work in medicine, healthcare, and technology Addresses both the challenges and opportunities facing researchers in the field Identifies gaps in current scholarship and offers recommendations for future research topics and methodologies Highlights the importance of ethnographic research combined with critical engagements with other disciplines for the anthropology of reproduction Explores the impact of socioeconomic conditions, environmental challenges, public policy, and legislation on reproductive health outcomes Traces the history of the field and demonstrates how anthropologists have engaged with issues of reproductive justice Part of the acclaimed Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology series, A Companion to the Anthropology of Reproductive Medicine and Technology is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students, researchers, and scholars in medical anthropology, science technology and society, cultural anthropology, ethnology, and gender studies, as well as medical practitioners, policymakers, and activists involved in global and public health and reproductive justice.