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Summary of research Working under the supervision of the School of Geographical and Earth Sciences and the Glasgow Biomedical Research Centre, this project diverges from an exclusive biomedical conception of (ill)health, calling into question the degree to which (ill)health can be considered entirely ‘natural’ or ‘biologically determined’. It is predicated on an understanding of the human body as a social entity, embedded in, and ultimately embodying, wider structures and systems – political, cultural, social, economic, biological and ecological. That is to say, individuals are not merely floating biological organisms, but socially porous, continually affected (and infected) by the world around us. Focussing upon vector-borne diseases in Tanzania, the overarching aim of the interdisciplinary research project is to unravel and make explicit the threads of influence. Initially focusing on the global politics of health governance, this research is interested in how the politics and policies of international actors play out at the household level. The research is also interested in the epistemologies of health: how these epistemologies are formed and crafted and how ‘Western’ biomedical understandings of health are negotiated and accommodated within them. The research is interested in how these epistemologies in turn effect the treatment-seeking behaviour of individuals. One further area of interest is the role 'participation' can play in improving health. Since entering mainstream development lexicon, 'participation' has come under intense critique, however, some have suggested that its emancipatory potential can be recaptured. This research is interested in this debate and the degree to which participation could prove a fruitful project in the achieving the right to health.
Throughout, this research is injected with a postcolonial caution, acutely aware not to fall into trope of (re)presenting a homogenised Africa as a ‘dangerous space’, where disease is ‘rampant’ and ‘passive victims’ wait for Western intervention. Supervisors Professor Joanne Sharp
Dr Heather Ferguson
Professor Mike Turner Recent publications Sharp, J., Campbell, P. and Laurie, E. 2010. The violence of aid? Giving, power and active subjects in One World Conservatism. Third World Quarterly 31(7): 1125-1143. doi:10.1080/01436597.2010.518789 >> Recent research grants Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Scholarship 2009-2013 |
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