Global Health and the Demands of the Day

Authors

  • Meg Stalcup Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Department of Anthropology, University of Washington
  • Stéphane Verguet Department of Global Health, University of Washington

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5195/hcs.2011.57

Keywords:

global health, public health, HIV/AIDS, vaginal microbicides, anthropology, ethics

Abstract

We have two goals in this paper: first, to provide a diagnosis of global health and underline some of its blockages; second, to offer an alternative interpretation of what the demands for those in global health may be. The assumption that health is a "good" that requires no further explanation, and that per se it can serve as an actual modus operandi, lays the foundations of the problem. Related blockages ensue and are described using HIV prevention with a focus on vaginal microbicides as a case study. Taking health as a self-evident, and self-explanatory "good" limits other possible goods; and prevents further inquiry into the actual practices of creating good practices and good measures. We propose that to create conditions under which global health could be reconstructed, "problematization" be taken up as a practice, around a series of questions asked in conjunction with those ever-urgent ones of how to ameliorate the condition of living beings.

Author Biographies

Meg Stalcup, Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Department of Anthropology, University of Washington

Meg Stalcup is a senior research fellow and staff scientist at the Center for Biological Futures, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; and affiliated faculty with the Department of Anthropology, University of Washington. Her research interests include anthropology of the contemporary, science, security, and global health; and she has done research in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe. She holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology from University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco.

Stéphane Verguet, Department of Global Health, University of Washington

Stéphane Verguet is a senior fellow in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. His research interests include mathematical modeling and health economics, specifically economic evaluations of health interventions and service delivery platforms, policy instruments for influencing the uptake of health interventions and the evaluation of health systems’ performance. He is a graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique, and holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley and a Master in Public Policy from the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley.

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Published

2011-10-11

Issue

Vol 1, No 1 (2011): PERSPECTIVES

Section

Articles

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