Blind Spot: How Neoliberalism Infiltrated Global Healthvolume 30

ISBN-13: 9780520282841 / Angielski / Miękka / 2014 / 288 str.

Salmaan Keshavjee; Paul Farmer

Opis

Neoliberalism has been the defining paradigm in global health since the latter part of the twentieth century. What started as an untested and unproven theory that the creation of unfettered markets would give rise to political democracy led to policies that promoted the belief that private markets were the optimal agents for the distribution of social goods, including health care.

A vivid illustration of the infiltration of neoliberal ideology into the design and implementation of development programs, this case study, set in post-Soviet Tajikistan's remote eastern province of Badakhshan, draws on extensive ethnographic and historical material to examine a "revolving drug fund" program--used by numerous nongovernmental organizations globally to address shortages of high-quality pharmaceuticals in poor communities. Provocative, rigorous, and accessible, Blind Spot offers a cautionary tale about the forces driving decision making in health and development policy today, illustrating how the privatization of health care can have catastrophic outcomes for some of the world's most vulnerable populations.

O autorze

Salmaan Keshavjee received his ScM from the Harvard School of Public Health in 1993, his PhD in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University in 1998, and his MD from Stanford University in 2001. He completed his clinician-scientist residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Social Medicine at Brigham and Womens Hospital (BWH) in 2005. In addition to his appointment with the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Dr. Keshavjee serves on the faculty of the Division of Global Health Equity (DGHE) at BWH, where he is also a physician in the Department of Medicine. He is an affiliate and Steering Committee member at the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Paul Farmer is cofounder of Partners In Health and Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His most recent book is Reimagining Global Health. Other titles include To Repair the World; Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor; Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues; and AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, all by UC Press.