Bringing relational comparison into development studies: Global health volunteers’ experiences of Sierra Leone
2019 ◽
Vol 19
(2)
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pp. 97-111
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Keyword(s):
Catch Up
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Global health volunteering is premised on a comparative understanding of development: hospitals in developing countries are ‘behind’ modern institutions in developed nations, and sharing volunteers’ skills will enable the latter to ‘catch-up’. We argue for a ‘relational comparison’ in development studies, which draws upon a geographical conception of inequality premised on understanding places in relation to one another rather than reifying differences between countries. We place a particular hospital within a dialectical totality of combined and uneven development. Health workers’ experiences of volunteering in Sierra Leone demonstrate that local problems, including staff shortages and corruption, are enveloped within global processes.
Keyword(s):
1992 ◽
Vol 31
(03)
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pp. 193-203
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2018 ◽
Vol 34
(1)
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2015 ◽
Vol 14
(02)
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pp. 1550015
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Keyword(s):