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When People Come First: Critical Studies in Global Health
A people-centered approach to global health
When People Come First critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach.
Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The contributors explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast.
When People Come First sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.
When People Come First critically assesses the expanding field of global health. It brings together an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars to address the medical, social, political, and economic dimensions of the global health enterprise through vivid case studies and bold conceptual work. The book demonstrates the crucial role of ethnography as an empirical lantern in global health, arguing for a more comprehensive, people-centered approach.
Topics include the limits of technological quick fixes in disease control, the moral economy of global health science, the unexpected effects of massive treatment rollouts in resource-poor contexts, and how right-to-health activism coalesces with the increased influence of the pharmaceutical industry on health care. The contributors explore the altered landscapes left behind after programs scale up, break down, or move on. We learn that disease is really never just one thing, technology delivery does not equate with care, and biology and technology interact in ways we cannot always predict. The most effective solutions may well be found in people themselves, who consistently exceed the projections of experts and the medical-scientific, political, and humanitarian frameworks in which they are cast.
When People Come First sets a new research agenda in global health and social theory and challenges us to rethink the relationships between care, rights, health, and economic futures.
456 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2013
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About the author
João Biehl
13 books9 followersJoão Guilherme Biehl is Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
August 20, 2015
Tried to get through this one. Really made the effort, but ultimately had to call it quits.
This book had so much potential, but often got lost in unnecessarily complex language and long-winded forms. A few chapters in this book were eye-opening (in particular the chapter on "pain"), but many were just dozens of pages of repetition.
This book had so much potential, but often got lost in unnecessarily complex language and long-winded forms. A few chapters in this book were eye-opening (in particular the chapter on "pain"), but many were just dozens of pages of repetition.
March 7, 2018
The witch doctor rallying for a militant march. Or at least some blessed pillaging for a good cause. In short: bureaucrats justifying their wages while aiming for a better pension plan.
*people*, *come first*, a string of empty populist cries and not much.
Global health? People eat better, have better living spaces and that is enough for paper pushers to build more fallacious arguments for some new crusade. And of course none of the causes have anything to do with the work of the witch doctors. Quite the opposite. People have less money to spend on health precisely because of bureaucrats like these authors.
*people*, *come first*, a string of empty populist cries and not much.
Global health? People eat better, have better living spaces and that is enough for paper pushers to build more fallacious arguments for some new crusade. And of course none of the causes have anything to do with the work of the witch doctors. Quite the opposite. People have less money to spend on health precisely because of bureaucrats like these authors.
June 19, 2019
An excellent book for people working in Global Health to better understand the impact of technologies, policies and silver bullet solutions on communities. Excellent case studies and analyses and a cry for more ethnographic research and tailoring global programs to the needs of different countries and communities.
October 11, 2024
essays on global health moving the field from “magic bullet” to a more humanistic, wholistic approach
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews