| Your Pocket Is What Cures You: The Politics of Health in Senegal Contributor(s): Foley, Ellen E. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0813546672 ISBN-13: 9780813546674 Publisher: Rutgers University Press OUR PRICE: $148.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 2009 Annotation: "Your Pocket Is What Cures You" examines qualitative shifts in health and healing spurred by sub-Saharan African structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and health reforms in the 1990s, and analyzes the dilemmas they create for health professionals and patients. Grounded in ethnography, it also explores how cultural frameworks, particularly those stemming from Islam and Wolof ethnomedicine, are central to understanding how people manage vulnerability to ill health. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Anthropology - General - Political Science | Public Policy - General - Medical | Health Policy |
| Dewey: 362.109 |
| LCCN: 2009018768 |
| Series: Studies in Medical Anthropology |
| Physical Information: 0.63" H x 6" W x 9" (0.97 lbs) 216 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In the wake of structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and health reforms in the 1990s, the majority of sub-Saharan African governments spend less than ten dollars per capita on health annually, and many Africans have limited access to basic medical care. Using a community-level approach, anthropologist Ellen E. Foley analyzes the implementation of global health policies and how they become intertwined with existing social and political inequalities in Senegal. "Your Pocket Is What Cures You" examines qualitative shifts in health and healing spurred by these reforms, and analyzes the dilemmas they create for health professionals and patients alike. It also explores how cultural frameworks, particularly those stemming from Islam and Wolof ethnomedicine, are central to understanding how people manage vulnerability to ill health. While offering a critique of neoliberal health policies, "Your Pocket Is What Cures You" remains grounded in ethnography to highlight the struggles of men and women who are precariously balanced on twin precipices of crumbling health systems and economic decline. Their stories demonstrate what happens when market-based health reforms collide with material, political, and social realities in African societies. |