Book review: academic conferences as neoliberal commodities by Donald J. Nicolson

What role do academic conferences play in the construction of an academic career? In Academic Conferences as Neoliberal Commodities, Donald J. Nicolson examines the link between the value attributed to participation in academic conferences and the broader neoliberalisation of the academy. Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani welcomes this short book for beginning a meaningful conversation about the significance of this aspect of academic life

Speaking Back to the Self: A Call for Voice Notes as Reflexive Practice for Feminist Ethnographers

While what comprises “feminist research methods” is subject to debate, research with a feminist orientation is often characterised by heightened reflexivity and a recognition of the subjective nature of knowledge claims (Ryan-Flood and Gill, 2010). By drawing upon ethnographic research conducted among young people in post-apartheid South Africa, this paper interrogates the potential value of audio recordings or “voice notes” during fieldwork, in conjunction with the more traditional form of the fieldwork diary. I argue that, by providing an additional means through which to articulate the inevitable messiness of fieldwork, the recording of “voice notes” enables the researcher to “speak back” to themselves, generating valuable material to reflect upon when analysing and writing up one’s data. By privileging voice, this companion method potentially elucidates the conscious, and unconscious, self-censorship we impose when relying solely upon a textual rendering of experience. As such, it helps to lessen the uncomfortable distance between what researchers feel in the “field” and what they express at the “desk.” Mobilizing the insights of post-structural feminist scholars, I consider the importance of acknowledging ethnographic “processes” as well as “products,” in order to develop more reflexive research practice and a feminist sensibility, which interrogates the representations that it makes

Book review: air & light & time & space: how successful academics write by Helen Sword

With Air & Light & Time & Space: How Successful Academics Write, Helen Sword explores how academics find the ‘air and light and time and space’ to write, drawing on interviews with 100 scholars seen as exemplary writers in their fields. In underscoring that there is no one ideal way to write, this is an elegantly crafted book for those who like to experiment with and think deeply about their writing practices, recommends Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani

Book review: crumpled paper boat: experiments in ethnographic writing edited by Anand Pandian and Stuart McLean

In Crumpled Paper Boat: Experiments in Ethnographic Writing, editors Anand Pandian and Stuart McLean offer a collection that seeks to open up the possibilities for ethnographic research by approaching writing as a ‘material adventure’. As the volume grapples with longstanding questions regarding the ethical challenges of capturing one’s subjects in language, Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani nonetheless finds this a moving reminder of the power of words to enable entry into alternative ways of seeing, and potentially being, in the world

Navigating the ‘new South Africa’: an ethnographic study of the ‘born free’ generation in Mpumalanga province

This thesis explores the aspirations of black South Africans who were born after the end of apartheid. These young people are controversially referred to as the ‘born free’ generation. They were born into a democracy that officially offers them equal opportunities but continues to grapple with a legacy of racial discrimination, spatial segregation and unequal educational provision. Despite the majority of ‘born frees’ experiencing poor educational attainment and high levels of unemployment, existing research indicates that those in this category hold ambitious future aspirations, although these rarely come to fruition. The focus of my work is the aspirations of rural youth and draws upon ten months of ethnographic data collected within a township in Mpumalanga province. It analyses selected curriculum content, observations, focus groups and interviews with two groups of young people – those in their last year of schooling and those two years out of school. Through ethnographic observations in one secondary school in particular, I elucidate how students’ schooling environments relay particular discourses concerning what constitutes a ‘good education’ and what it means to aspire towards a ‘good life.’ Integrating insights from feminist, poststructural and postcolonial theories, I consider how the discourses of the ‘new South Africa’ are transmitted within the schooling environments, homes and wider social and political arenas which these young people occupy, thereby creating and structuring ways for them to speak and think about their futures. My analysis engages with the shifting attachments that shape how South Africans living in a rural area construct their narratives of the future and demonstrates how these young people’s performances of identity are both spatially constructed and affectively negotiated. By considering the silences and contradictions in their imaginaries, this thesis shows how the discourses through which these imaginaries are constructed create boundaries around ways of being and becoming that are deemed valuable and those that are not. In problematising an understanding of aspiration as an individual disposition, my research demonstrates that the hopes of young, black South Africans are rooted in social and spatial inequalities

Book review: race, education and citizenship: mobile Malaysians, British colonial legacies and a culture of migration by Sin Yee Koh

In Race, Education and Citizenship: Mobile Malaysians, British Colonial Legacies and a Culture of Migration, Sin Yee Koh offers a study of the migratory trajectories of tertiary-educated mobile Malaysian migrants and explores how the legacies of colonialism continue to impact upon the meanings of race, education and citizenship in this context. Fawzia Haeri Mazanderani strongly recommends this book to scholars interested in conceptualising migration and citizenship practices through a post-colonial lens

Community Care Workers, Poor Referral Networks and Consumption of Personal Resources in Rural South Africa

Although home-based care (HBC) programs are widely implemented throughout Africa, their success depends on the existence of an enabling environment, including a referral system and supply of essential commodities. The objective of this study was to explore the current state of client referral patterns and practices by community care workers (CCWs), in an evolving environment of one rural South African sub-district. Using a participant triangulation approach, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 CCWs, 32 HBC clients and 32 primary caregivers (PCGs). An open-ended interview guide was used for data collection. Participants were selected from comprehensive lists of CCWs and their clients, using a diversified criterion-based sampling method. Three independent researchers coded three sets of data – CCWs, Clients and PCGs, for referral patterns and practices of CCWs. Referrals from clinics and hospitals to HBC occurred infrequently, as only eight (25%) of the 32 clients interviewed were formally referred. Community care workers showed high levels of commitment and personal investment in supporting their clients to use the formal health care system. They went to the extent of using their own personal resources. Seven CCWs used their own money to ensure client access to clinics, and eight gave their own food to ensure treatment adherence. Community care workers are essential in linking clients to clinics and hospitals and to promote the appropriate use of medical services, although this effort frequently necessitated consumption of their own personal resources. Therefore, risk protection strategies are urgently needed so as to ensure sustainability of the current work performed by HBC organizations and the CCW volunteers

Leveraging the Road to Health booklet as a unique patient identifier to monitor the prevention of mothertochild transmission programme

Background. Currently there is no unique patient identification system in the South African public health sector. Therefore, routine laboratory data cannot effectively be de-duplicated, thereby hampering surveillance of laboratory-diagnosed diseases such as mother-to-child transmission of HIV.Objectives. To determine the uptake of Road to Health booklet (RTHB) identifiers at HIV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) birth test and describe their performance in linking follow-up test results in the early infant diagnosis programme.Methods. Between May 2016 and May 2017, Tshwane District Clinical Services implemented a unique patient identifier pilot project in which a sticker-page of unique, readable, barcoded patient identifiers was incorporated in the patient-retained immunisation record (the RTHB) before distribution. Uptake of RTHB identifiers at birth was calculated as the proportion of HIV PCR tests in infants aged <6 days registered with an RTHB identifier over the total number of registered HIV PCR tests. Descriptive analysis of demographic details was performed among infants with two registered HIV PCR tests linked by the RTHB identifier, and performance of the National Health Laboratory Service Corporate Data Warehouse (NHLS CDW)-linking algorithm in matching RTHB-linked results was calculated using a 2 × 2 table.Results. A total of 5 309 HIV PCR birth tests registered with an RTHB identifier were extracted from the NHLS CDW over the 13-month period of the pilot project. The number of registered RTHB identifiers increased from 24 (2% of birth PCR tests) in May 2016, peaking at 728 (56% of birth PCR tests) in May 2017. Among infants with a registered RTHB identifier at birth, 635 (12%) had a subsequent linked HIV PCR test, as indicated by the same RTHB number registered for a later specimen. Demographic details at the time of birth and subsequent PCR test were compared, demonstrating that <4% of infants had exact matches for name, surname, date of birth and sex; 74% of birth tests had variations such as ‘born to’ or ‘baby of ’ in place of a first name; surnames matched exactly in 61% of cases; 18% (n=116) of infants had both tests performed at the same facility, of which only 27% (n=31) had the same patient folder number on both test results.Conclusions. Leveraging RTHBs as unique patient identifiers, even if used temporarily until linkage to other future national unique identifiers, promises to be an effective scalable approach to laboratory-based surveillance, facilitating healthcare provider access to all test results from birth

Leveraging the Road to Health booklet as a unique patient identifier to monitor the prevention of mother-to-child transmission programme

Background. Currently there is no unique patient identification system in the South African public health sector. Therefore, routine laboratory data cannot effectively be de-duplicated, thereby hampering surveillance of laboratory-diagnosed diseases such as mother-to-child transmission of HIV.Objectives. To determine the uptake of Road to Health booklet (RTHB) identifiers at HIV polymerase chain reaction (PCR) birth test and describe their performance in linking follow-up test results in the early infant diagnosis programme.Methods. Between May 2016 and May 2017, Tshwane District Clinical Services implemented a unique patient identifier pilot project in which a sticker-page of unique, readable, barcoded patient identifiers was incorporated in the patient-retained immunisation record (the RTHB) before distribution. Uptake of RTHB identifiers at birth was calculated as the proportion of HIV PCR tests in infants aged <6 days registered with an RTHB identifier over the total number of registered HIV PCR tests. Descriptive analysis of demographic details was performed among infants with two registered HIV PCR tests linked by the RTHB identifier, and performance of the National Health Laboratory Service Corporate Data Warehouse (NHLS CDW)-linking algorithm in matching RTHB-linked results was calculated using a 2 × 2 table.Results. A total of 5 309 HIV PCR birth tests registered with an RTHB identifier were extracted from the NHLS CDW over the 13-month period of the pilot project. The number of registered RTHB identifiers increased from 24 (2% of birth PCR tests) in May 2016, peaking at 728 (56% of birth PCR tests) in May 2017. Among infants with a registered RTHB identifier at birth, 635 (12%) had a subsequent linked HIV PCR test, as indicated by the same RTHB number registered for a later specimen. Demographic details at the time of birth and subsequent PCR test were compared, demonstrating that <4% of infants had exact matches for name, surname, date of birth and sex; 74% of birth tests had variations such as ‘born to’ or ‘baby of ’ in place of a first name; surnames matched exactly in 61% of cases; 18% (n=116) of infants had both tests performed at the same facility, of which only 27% (n=31) had the same patient folder number on both test results.Conclusions. Leveraging RTHBs as unique patient identifiers, even if used temporarily until linkage to other future national unique identifiers, promises to be an effective scalable approach to laboratory-based surveillance, facilitating healthcare provider access to all test results from birth