scholarly journals Connecting political ecology of health and disease with ‘structural stigmatization’: Declining use of forest foods and medicines in Kédougou, Senegal

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Taylor Keach Lucey ◽  
Kerry Grimm
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Local Foods ◽  
Access To Resources ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Risk Of Disease ◽  
Unequal Access ◽  
Expanding Population ◽  
Political Ecology Of Health ◽  
Forest Foods

Recent political ecology (PE) frameworks have evolved to identify power disparities that have consequences for human health and disease development. These power disparities can lead to unequal access to health information, natural resources (e.g. farmland, clean water), micronutrients, healthcare, and other elements necessary to maintain healthy bodies and reduce risk of disease. While many PE and political ecology of health and disease (PEHD) frameworks examine access in terms of limitations, few examples highlight effects from increased access to resources. This article uses a PEHD lens to examine how diets and health in rural Kédougou, Senegal are influenced by increased access to globalized foodstuffs and stigmatization of local foods and medicines. A better understanding of dietary decision-making is critical in understudied regions such as Senegal because West Africa has a rapidly expanding population and is projected to be among regions of the world that are most burdened with non-communicable diseases (NCD). We used qualitative methods to: 1) describe current and historic diets in Kédougou; 2) identify perceived changes about diet, health, and access to resources; and 3) understand what might be influencing these changes. Our article shows that increased access and limited access are interconnected because increased, regular access to globalized foods and medicines could factor into reduced access to local foods and medicines. We found that social context strongly influenced use of local forest foods and medicines, even leading to a gradual stigmatization of using these resources.

scholarly journals Tracing narratives and perceptions in the political ecologies of health and disease

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Creighton Connolly ◽  
Panagiota Kotsila ◽  
Giacomo D'Alisa
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Special Section ◽  
Local Environment ◽  
Health Perceptions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Cultural Aspects ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
Political Ecology Of Health

Abstract Political ecology has, in the past decade, emerged as an increasingly accepted framework for studying issues of health and disease and has thus given rise to a distinct sub-field: the political ecologies of health and disease (PEHD). More recently, scholars have suggested more specific avenues through which the sub-field can be further developed and focused. Building on recent work, we suggest that the role of health perceptions and health discourses is one area that could benefit from examination through the lens of political ecology. The papers in this special section thus intend to further contribute to the empirical richness of this area of study, through an emphasis on anthropological and cultural aspects of health injustices. We emphasize the role of health perceptions, in particular, as a way of exploring how people's experiences of the local environment often differ from dominant discourses related to un/healthy environments, and the effects stemming from this disjuncture. Keywords: Political ecology of health, disease, perceptions, discourse, ethnography, environmental justice

Spirit hospitals and “concern with herbs”: A political ecology of healing and being-in-common in Ghana

2019 ◽  
pp. 251484861989391
Author(s):  
Heidi Hausermann
Keyword(s):  
Political Ecology ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Botanical Knowledge ◽  
Alternative Economies ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Knowledge Practice ◽  
Political Ecologies ◽  
Political Ecology Of Health

Despite attention to the transformative capacities of “nonhumans” in both political ecology and commons scholarship, analyses remain limited to material realms, ignoring spiritual understandings. This article draws attention to the neglected domain of spirituality and being-in-common in the geographic study of health and disease. In Ghanaian healing contexts, spiritualists move between human and nonhuman domains to gain information and counter witchcraft, enlisting other material and spiritual entities in the process. Herbalists, by contrast, privilege botanical knowledge/practice over disease ontologies. All healers draw from therapeutic plants in assemblage with others (spirits, witches, ancestors, patients) and enact alternative economies. This research contributes to geographic scholarship in several ways. First, I integrate recent commons research into a political ecology of health framework with an eye on affective healing relations in material and spiritual realms. I draw from long-term ethnographic research and indigenous standpoints to understand spirituality in health contexts. Such integration leads to more robust and decolonial political ecologies of health and clearer understandings of how and why healing occurs.

scholarly journals Racism in European Health Care: Structural Violence and Beyond

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1662-1673 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Hamed ◽  
Suruchi Thapar-Björkert ◽  
Hannah Bradby ◽  
Beth Maina Ahlberg
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Structural Violence ◽  
Theoretical Research ◽  
Subtle Racism ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
European Health ◽  
Unequal Access

Research shows how racism can negatively affect access to health care and treatment. However, limited theoretical research exists on conceptualizing racism in health care. In this article, we use structural violence as a theoretical tool to understand how racism as an institutionalized social structure is enacted in subtle ways and how the “violence” built into forms of social organization is rendered invisible through repetition and routinization. We draw on interviews with health care users from three European countries, namely, Sweden, Germany, and Portugal to demonstrate how two interrelated processes of unequal access to resources and inequalities in power can lead to the silencing of suffering and erosion of dignity, respectively. The strength of this article lies in illuminating the mechanisms of subtle racism that damages individuals and leads to loss of trust in health care. It is imperative to address these issues to ensure a responsive and equal health care for all users.

scholarly journals The Effects Of Unequal Access To Health Insurance For Same-Sex Couples In California

2010 ◽  
Vol 29 (8) ◽  
pp. 1539-1548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ninez A. Ponce ◽  
Susan D. Cochran ◽  
Jennifer C. Pizer ◽  
Vickie M. Mays
Keyword(s):  
Health Insurance ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
Unequal Access

The gallbladder and vermiform appendix influence the assemblage of intestinal microorganisms

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (7) ◽  
pp. 541-555
Author(s):  
Jiezhong Chen ◽  
Avni Sali ◽  
Luis Vitetta
Keyword(s):  
Bile Acid ◽  
Bile Salts ◽  
Vermiform Appendix ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Bile Secretion ◽  
Proximal Colon ◽  
Intestinal Microbiome ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
Health And Disease ◽  
Risk Of Disease

Surgical procedures for the symptomatic removal of the gallbladder and the vermiform appendix have been posited to adversely shift the assemblage of the intestinal microbiome increasing the risk of disease. The associated mechanisms have been linked with dysbiosis of the gut microbiota. Cholecystectomy causes changes of bile acid compositions and bile secretion patterns as bile acids interact with the intestinal microbiota in a bidirectional capacity. An appendectomy precludes the further recolonization of the proximal colon with a commensal biofilm that could maintain a stable intestinal microbiome. Epidemiological studies indicate that there is an increased risk of disease rather than causality following a cholecystectomy and appendectomy. This narrative review summarizes studies that report on the role that bile salts and the appendix, contribute to the assemblage of the intestinal microbiome in health and disease.

Has China’s Health Sector Development Matched the Rapid Growth in the Country?

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (36) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Marta Tripane
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Empirical Data ◽  
Access To Health Care ◽  
Health Sector ◽  
The Third ◽  
Health Area ◽  
Access To Health ◽  
The World ◽  
Unequal Access

China is the world's largest country by population, the third largest by territory and the second largest world’s economy by GDP. Therefore it is important to follow the successes and failures of China in the field of health, because they affect the health area and processes in the world. This article includes retrospective analysis of empirical data to analyze the main inputs and outputs of China's health policy in order to identify the main problems and highlight the major challenges. In the article is concluded that main problems are related with insufficient and unequal access to health care.

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