Somatosphere
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In the Journals September 2026
View article: In the Journals September 2026Somatosphere welcomes you to the September edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. Technology and Culture The Problem with the Sex Toy Narrative: Design and Medical Intent in Early Vibrators Dianya Mia Hua This article challenges the dominant interpretation of early…
Somatosphere is a collaborative website covering the intersections of medical anthropology, medical sociology, history of science and medicine, science and technology studies, and cultural psychiatry.
Featured articles
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Online and offline middlemen: contrasting ways of creating trust in the pharmaceutical markets of north India
View article: Online and offline middlemen: contrasting ways of creating trust in the pharmaceutical markets of north IndiaIn many parts of the world, there is an increasing discomfort with middlemen in the healthcare industry (Pearl, 2024). They are characterized as greedy, profit seekers and vilified characters that put money before health and proliferate the markets with fake medicines, putting public health in danger (Kaprove R and M.D 2014, Rowland D 2021, Edema…
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Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in Iran
View article: Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in IranIn one of the oldest streets in Tehran’s city centre, an informal pharmaceutical marketplace unfolds amidst a crowded street, where ‘dalals’[1] (brokers) stand on the pavements, hands brimming with packages of pharmaceuticals, whispering various medication names to pedestrians. Here Maryam, seeking Bisoprolol for her mother’s heart condition, engages in conversation with Davood, a dalal in…
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In the Journals August 2026
View article: In the Journals August 2026Somatosphere welcomes you to the August edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. Sociology of Health and Illness More Than a Role Dispute: Physician Associates and the Changing Grounds of Medical Authority Louise Ashley This article examines how the legitimacy of…
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Become a nurse in Germany!
View article: Become a nurse in Germany!“Most of these other agency heads are, in my opinion, car salesmen. They would sell anything and would probably also somehow sell their grandmother’s washing machine, probably also their grandmother if they could get money for it.” This is how one CEO of a German nurse recruitment company explained to us what distinguished his enterprise…
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The taskforce as middleman: The rise and fall of IMPACT
View article: The taskforce as middleman: The rise and fall of IMPACTThis is the story of how the World Health Organisation (WHO) came to partner with Interpol and the pharmaceutical industry to fight a war against fake drugs. This partnership took the form of a taskforce, the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeit Taskforce (IMPACT), which contributed greatly to how counterfeit drugs became understood as a threat to…
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The “Suitcase Trader”: The Middlemen in the Cosmetics Market of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
View article: The “Suitcase Trader”: The Middlemen in the Cosmetics Market of Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaIntroduction I’m walking through Mwenge, one of Dar es Salaam’s central business districts. I’ve been spending time here with Hassan, a petty cosmetics trader, who carries his goods in a suitcase as he makes his daily tour of the market. We’ve been walking a while and Hassan suggests that we stop by at his favourite…
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In the Journals – July 2026
View article: In the Journals – July 2026Somatosphere welcomes you to the July edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. Cultural Anthropology Out of Time? Chronocracy and Ageism in Brexit–COVID-19 England Cathrine Degnen Generation or relative age is a common way humans define social difference. In Europe and…
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Biopolitical Fieldwork in Practice: Notes from Our Delhi Workshop
View article: Biopolitical Fieldwork in Practice: Notes from Our Delhi Workshop1. Biopolitical Fieldwork By the end of 2023, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 public health emergency to be over. With this announcement came the realisation that, despite an abundance of publications, online debates, and solitary reflection, it remained difficult to know how to think about what we had lived through – or even…
Featured articles
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Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in Iran
View article: Middlemen and Fakes: Brokering Pharmaceutical Nationalism in IranIn one of the oldest streets in Tehran’s city centre, an informal pharmaceutical marketplace unfolds amidst a crowded street, where ‘dalals’[1] (brokers) stand on the pavements, hands brimming with packages of pharmaceuticals, whispering various medication names to pedestrians. Here Maryam, seeking Bisoprolol for her mother’s heart condition, engages in conversation with Davood, a dalal in…
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In the Journals August 2026
View article: In the Journals August 2026Somatosphere welcomes you to the August edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. Sociology of Health and Illness More Than a Role Dispute: Physician Associates and the Changing Grounds of Medical Authority Louise Ashley This article examines how the legitimacy of…
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Become a nurse in Germany!
View article: Become a nurse in Germany!“Most of these other agency heads are, in my opinion, car salesmen. They would sell anything and would probably also somehow sell their grandmother’s washing machine, probably also their grandmother if they could get money for it.” This is how one CEO of a German nurse recruitment company explained to us what distinguished his enterprise…
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The taskforce as middleman: The rise and fall of IMPACT
View article: The taskforce as middleman: The rise and fall of IMPACTThis is the story of how the World Health Organisation (WHO) came to partner with Interpol and the pharmaceutical industry to fight a war against fake drugs. This partnership took the form of a taskforce, the International Medical Products Anti-Counterfeit Taskforce (IMPACT), which contributed greatly to how counterfeit drugs became understood as a threat to…
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The “Suitcase Trader”: The Middlemen in the Cosmetics Market of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
View article: The “Suitcase Trader”: The Middlemen in the Cosmetics Market of Dar es Salaam, TanzaniaIntroduction I’m walking through Mwenge, one of Dar es Salaam’s central business districts. I’ve been spending time here with Hassan, a petty cosmetics trader, who carries his goods in a suitcase as he makes his daily tour of the market. We’ve been walking a while and Hassan suggests that we stop by at his favourite…
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In the Journals – July 2026
View article: In the Journals – July 2026Somatosphere welcomes you to the July edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. Cultural Anthropology Out of Time? Chronocracy and Ageism in Brexit–COVID-19 England Cathrine Degnen Generation or relative age is a common way humans define social difference. In Europe and…
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We are all fakes brokers: reflections from staging fakes in Mombasa
View article: We are all fakes brokers: reflections from staging fakes in MombasaIt’s a Ramadhan morning in the port city of Mombasa, early April 2023. I’m standing behind an audience of about 100 people who have turned up to a makeshift stage on the edge of the neighbourhood of Old Town. A performance of Lisemwalo Lipo: A play about vaccine rumours is in full swing.
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Middlemen, fakes, and global health: Opening provocations
View article: Middlemen, fakes, and global health: Opening provocationsWhy should the figure of the middleman matter for scholars of global health? The short answer is: they are impossible to avoid. The long answer is as follows: Throughout the twenty-first century, claims have circulated that the global pharmaceutical supply chain is awash with fakes, and these claims sparked our curiosity. For nearly a decade,…
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