Introduction

NHS Activism: The Limits and Potentialities of a New Solidarity

“…The ethnographic literature documents the consequences of health care privatization for local populations, and their responses to it. Anthropologists have often described these consequences in morally weighted termsin relation to oppression, immiseration, and inequality (Basilico et al 2013;Pfeiffer and Chapman 2010). Drawing on Farmer's work (1997,2005), I suggest that the morality evinced by such terms is a judgement of the anthropologist rather than a focus of ethnographic investigation.…”

“…The World Bank argued that this would eventually lead to more efficiently delivered services with better access for citizens. Anthropologists who have investigated the actual experiences of individuals attempting to access these services have found increased immiseration, greater health inequalities (Pfeiffer and Chapman 2010) and worse public health indicators (Basilico et al 2013). Farmer has elaborated these experiences, using the concept of structural violence (Farmer 1997) to describe and analyze the structural factors that lead to the suffering of the oppressed.…”

Hur stor är en gruva?

“…De utgår från en syn på det allmännas bästa som eftersträvansvärda ideal som anses vara till godo för alla. I denna förståelse ligger det också att dessa ideal är föränderliga och kommer att förstås på olika sätt vid olika tillfällen (Bear & Mathur, 2015). Som jag kommer att visa senare, är tolkning av uppdraget en framträdande del av myndigheternas yttranden.…”

March/April 2021 Print Issue: Pedagogy

“…"That's why I put on the shoes of the state, " she said. "My heart has always been in serving others, and we have to do that from lo público, " a term which conflates the public sector with the public good, suggestive of the Weberian ideal of a state that furthers utopian goals in a rational manner (see Bear and Mathur 2015). She frequently expressed awareness of the state's problems, saying that in order to change it one had to strive to "do things differently as the state. "…”