1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910786771303321

Autore

Keshavjee Salmaan <1970->

Titolo

Blind spot : how neoliberalism infiltrated global health / / Salmaan Keshavjee ; foreword by Paul E. Farmer

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Oakland, California : , : University of California Press, , 2014

©2014

ISBN

0-520-95873-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (695 p.)

Collana

California Series in Public Anthropology ; ; 30

Disciplina

362.1

Soggetti

Health services accessibility

Medical care - Tajikistan

Public health - Tajikistan

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Map of Tajikistan -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Health in the Time of the USSR -- 3 Seeking Help at the End of Empire -- 4. The Health Crisis in Badakhshan -- 5. Minding the Gap? -- 6. Bretton Woods to Bamako -- 7. From Bamako to Badakhshan -- 8 Privatizing Health Services -- 9 Revealing the Blind Spot -- 10 Epilogue -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Neoliberalism has been the defining paradigm in global health since the latter part of the twentieth century. What started as an untested and unproven theory that the creation of unfettered markets would give rise to political democracy led to policies that promoted the belief that private markets were the optimal agents for the distribution of social goods, including health care. A vivid illustration of the infiltration of neoliberal ideology into the design and implementation of development programs, this case study, set in post-Soviet Tajikistan's remote eastern province of Badakhshan, draws on extensive ethnographic and historical material to examine a "revolving drug fund" program-used by numerous nongovernmental organizations globally to address shortages of high-quality pharmaceuticals in poor communities. Provocative, rigorous, and accessible, Blind Spot offers a



cautionary tale about the forces driving decision making in health and development policy today, illustrating how the privatization of health care can have catastrophic outcomes for some of the world's most vulnerable populations.