Mark Nichter: Global Health: Why Cultural Perceptions,Social Representations, and Biopolitics Matter

摘要

Traditionally public health initiatives have focused on questionnaires and short interviews to identify the depth of local knowledge about a particular disease or to identify cultural barriers to health programs. Global Health by Mark Nichter (2008) demonstrates how qualitative in-depth ethnographic studies enhance our understanding of the relationship between local beliefs, rhetoric, and public health. This book challenges social scientists and medical practitioners to go beyond simplistic “cultural barrier”explanations for the failure of particular public health projects in the developing world. Health practitioners,patients, and social scientists all have their own culturally relevant strategies that determine if medicine is practiced in such a way as to effectively aid local health.