Greenwoods is a neighbourhood in Nairobi, Kenya, dotted with diplomatic residences. At the time of my research on public-private assemblages of security provision and the reconfiguration of citizenship in Nairobi, Greenwoods’ residents association was sponsoring a security partnership between the state police and a private security company, Maximum Security.[1] The night patrol team of Maximum Security regularly hosted two …
Tag Archives: Politics
The Milk of Human Kindness
Sour Milk
At the World Health Assembly (WHA) meetings in late May, 2018, the US delegation tried to water-down or dump a very mild resolution to confirm and update earlier WHA resolutions that protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. No new controversial language had been added to the older resolutions. Ecuador was ready to introduce the resolution until the US threatened …
Breaking news! Big Shift in Biomediatization from “Swine Flu” to H3N2 to the Trump Administration’s Attack on Breastfeeding
The H3N2 epidemic didn’t really take off until early January 2018—at least as far as US media coverage is concerned. A crucial marker was the New York Times‘ publication of an op-ed by a prominent germ cold warrior, Michael Osterholm, along with Mark Olshaker, co-author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War against Killer Germs. Osterholm, extensively profiled by Andrew …
We Need to Talk About “Gun Violence”: Reflections on Terminology and Contexts of Violence
This article is part of the series: Notes on guns and violence
Among the many political challenges of our time, gun violence in America has emerged as one of the most divisive. A retreat into partisan communities prevents us from considering the complexity or lived experiences of our political opponents. The fears and insecurities of each group are projected onto the other. Both consume media that influences how they are likely to …
Is Health Activism a Collective Responsibility?
This article is part of the series: Experiments with pedagogy
During the tumultuous “repeal and replace” frenzy in the spring and summer of 2017, the US House of Representatives and Senate moved quickly to consider bills intended to either eliminate the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) or restrict its various provisions. The American Health Care Act (AHCA) in the House and the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA) in …
Digital Food Activism – a book review
Tanja Schneider, Karin Eli, Catherine Dolan and Stanley Ulijaszek (eds.)
Routledge Series in Critical Food Studies, 2018, 234 pages
A Swiss academic scans the barcode on her plastic water bottle. The bottle touts itself as ‘Swiss mountain water’, but the app that decodes the barcode quickly dispels that image: the company is a subsidiary of …