1st Edition

Geographies of Health and Development

Edited By Rachel Bezner Kerr, Isaac Luginaah Copyright 2015
    332 Pages
    by Routledge

    330 Pages
    by Routledge

    The geographies of health and development is an emerging sub-discipline, tying in with many of the conceptual, theoretical and practical components of other disciplines working in health, health care, economics, and international development. Spatially and theoretically grounded in geography, this collection offers a fresh perspective on the dialectic relationships between health and development. Health problems in a developing context take on much higher rates of prevalence as a result of the varied cultural, structural and economic vulnerabilities of the people they impact. This book begins by exploring some of the circumstances surrounding the distinctive health inequities currently facing many developing countries, including malaria, maternal mortality and HIV/AIDS. This is followed by a discussion of how matters of physical access and human resource issues and, perhaps most importantly, the challenges of financing, together shape the access and utilization of health care. Examining how the environment interacts to influence the health of the people that live there, the next section includes discussion around challenges of food (in)security, and the importance of clean and uncontaminated water for health. Finally, the book explores the influence of globalization on health, specifically within the urban environment, against the backdrop of global health policy.

    Contents: Preface; Introduction, Isaac Luginaah, Rachel Bezner Kerr and Jenna Dixon. Part I Disparities in Health Outcomes and the Challenges to Health Equity: Malaria risk profiles, treatment seeking practices and disease intervention efforts in poor communities: a case study in Sierra Leone, Florence M. Margai and Jacob B. Minah; The geography of maternal mortality in Nigeria, Joseph R. Oppong and Jane Ebeniro; Sex [work] and [structural] violence: a study of commercial sex workers in Budhwar Peth, Pune, India, Jacqueline P. Hellen and Vandana Wadhwa; Aboriginal health and development: two steps forward and one step back?, Kathi Wilson, Mark. W. Rosenberg and Ashley Ning. Part II Health Access and Utilisation in Developing Countries: The place of 'health' in social health insurance in developing countries: a study in Ghana's Upper West Region, Jenna Dixon and Paul Mkandawire; From effective cure to affective care: access barriers and entitlements to health care among urban poor in Chennai, India, Christina Ergler, Patrick Sakdapolrak, Hans-George Bohle and Robin Kearns; Human resources for health: challenges facing Sub-Saharan Africa, Gavin George, Candice Reardon and Tim Quinlan; Wanting to care: a comparison of the ethics of health worker education in Cuba and the Philippines, Robert Huish. Part III Environmental Influences on Health and Development: Living in the same place, eating in a different space: food security and dietary diversity of youth living in rural northern Malawi, Lauren Classen, Rachel Bezner Kerr and Lizzie Shumba; Resource depletion, peak oil, and public health: planning for a slow growth future, Michael Pennock, Blake Poland and Trevor Hancock; The water-health nexus, Corinne J. Schuster-Wallace, Susan J. Elliott and Elijah Bisung; Groundwater arsenic contamination and its health and social impacts in rural Bangladesh, Bimal Kanti Paul. Part IV Globalisation and Urbanisation: Global Policy Consequences on Local Health Problems: Tubercu

    Biography

    Isaac Luginaah is at The University of Western Ontario, Canada and Rachel Bezner Kerr, Cornell University, USA.

    (…) "it does offer a smorgasbord of locations, socio-cultural contexts and health issues that speak to the rich interplay between health, development, space and place. It is, overall, a stimulating collection of studies, with the geographic framing providing a new prism for analysis and understanding." - Assoc. Prof. Peter Hill Global Health Systems, School of Public Health, The University of Queensland