Somatosphere 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 […]
In 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 […]
In 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 […]
Somatosphere 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 […]
“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 […]
This 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 […]
Introduction 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 […]
Somatosphere 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 […]
It’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.
Why 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, […]
Somatosphere welcomes you to the June edition of “In the Journals.” Scroll through our monthly round up of new research across anthropology, STS and social science journals. American Anthropologist Positioning Ontologies of Racial Inequity That are Prevalent in Reproductive and Maternal Health in South Africa Efua Prah This paper discusses the racialized historical trajectories through […]
