Exposing multiple malarias: A photo-ethnography of young people's malaria-related health practice in the Philippines

This thesis explores malaria in the municipality of Bataraza in the Philippines. It shows how multiple versions of malaria exist inside (and in between) various bodies. These malarias are situated in both time and space, emerge interrelationally and are enacted through embodied practice. It focuses on young people in this context and shows how their identity is similarly enacted through practice. With this in mind, the thesis critically examines how photovoice, a participatory action research method can be used to both depict young people’s malaria-related health practice as well as potentially alter it. During a 15-week photovoice project, 44 school-going children took photographs of their lived experience of different malarias and worked in groups to identify possible changes they might make. As a result of engaging in the photovoice process, young people’s interactions with each other and their families appeared to change as well as their role in promoting health in relation to others. However, in contrast to the literature that highlights the ability of approaches like photovoice to ‘empower’ individuals to make changes to their lives by generating critical consciousness, this thesis makes a unique theoretical contribution by suggesting that photovoice might be effective precisely because it directly operates at and therefore interacts with the level of situated, relational and embodied practice. Taking seriously the context-specific, situated, relational and embodied nature of practice is a key message of this thesis, with important implications for behaviour change initiatives

Depleted by Debt: “Green” Microfinance, Over-Indebtedness, and Social Reproduction in Climate-Vulnerable Cambodia

The operations of microfinance are exalted in mainstream development thinking as a key means of supporting smallholder farmers facing growing crises of agricultural productivity in the context of daily, ongoing, and often slow-onset climate disasters. Microfinance products and services are claimed to enhance coping and adaptative capacity by facilitating both risk recovery and reduction. Challenging the status quo, this paper brings together original and mixed-method data collected between 2020 and 2022 in Cambodia to critically examine the “green finance” agenda by highlighting the ways in which microfinance contributes to reproducing and exacerbating climate precarity and harm for many. We evidence how credit-taking can lead to more dangerous and individualised efforts to cope with, and adapt to, existing conditions at home, often at the cost of emotional and bodily depletion. By doing so, we contribute to answering calls for connecting literatures and thinking on social reproduction, depletion, and climate change adaptation

Trapped in the service of debt. How the burdens of repayment are fuelling the health poverty trap in rural Cambodia

Over-indebtedness is fuelling, not alleviating, the health poverty trap in Cambodia. It is associated with increased short-term health sacrifices made to repay debt, and physical, mental, and social suffering that is endured in the longer term

Depleted by debt: ‘green’ microfinance, over-indebtedness, and social reproduction in climate-vulnerable Cambodia

The operations of microfinance are exalted in mainstream development thinking as a key means of supporting smallholder farmers facing growing crises of agricultural productivity in the context of daily, ongoing, and often slow-onset climate disasters. Enhancing coping and adaptative capacity, the provision of microfinance products and services would facilitate adaptation by facilitating both risk recovery and reduction. Bringing together original and mixed-method data collected between 2020-2022 in Cambodia, this paper critically examines this ‘green microfinance’ narrative by highlighting the ways in which microfinance contributes to reproducing and exacerbating climate precarity and harm for many. We evidence how credit-taking can lead to more dangerous and individualised efforts to cope with, and adapt to, existing conditions at home, often at the cost of emotional and bodily depletion. By doing so, we contribute to answering calls for connecting the literatures on social reproduction, depletion, and climate change adaptation

Microfinance, over-indebtedness and climate adaptation: new evidence from rural Cambodia

Microfinance loans are leading to an over-indebtedness emergency that undermines borrowers’ long-term coping and adaptive capacity in a changing climate

Egypt's feminist counterpublic: The re-invigoration of the post-revolution public sphere

This study examines the current feminist counterculture movements which appears to be reinvigorating the Egyptian public sphere. The study argues women in particular have been able to find themselves alternative ways to develop a discourse focused on a desire for social changes around which they can unite. In focusing on lifestyle issues that normally are discussed only in small private spheres, they are able to challenge norms while not provoking the state or security apparatus and avoiding becoming part of the polarised political environment. This article explores the dynamics and motivations of these groups through a case study of three of the networked feminist movements. Our data from semi-structured interviews with the founders show that they grew from networks to movements which then evolved in order to be sustainable. This article argues that through the process of their evolution, these movements are helping strengthen the public sphere and enhance Egyptian democracy

Re-imaging malaria in the Philippines: how photovoice can help to re-imagine malaria

Background: This paper responds to a recent call for malaria to be re-imagined by: explaining why it needs to be re-imagined; offering one possible way in which this can be done; and describing some of benefits for malaria control when it is. Methods: This study involved conducting a 15-week photovoice project with 44 predominantly ethnically Palawan school-going children in the municipality of Bataraza in the Philippines. The primary aim was to critically examine how facilitating children to take their own pictures of malaria could alter their understanding of it as well as the practices that they then engaged into prevent and treat it. Results and discussion: During the photovoice process, participants responded to the question, ‘what does malaria mean to you?’ by photographing multiple versions of malaria. Some of these versions align with biomedical conceptions and mirror common images of: its sources (e.g. mosquitoes); symptoms (e.g. fever); prevention practices (e.g. use of mosquito nets); diagnostic practices (e.g. use Rapid Diagnostic Tests) and treatment practices (e.g. use of anti-malarial drugs). However, in addition to these depictions, participants also took images of malaria that aligned with more local understanding of the body, health and well-being, which are often neglected by health practitioners. In the case of the Palawan, these versions of malaria are structured around the central tenet of balance. Participants therefore photographed themselves and members of their family and community engaging in a number of practices, which are orientated towards restoring and maintaining balance. As well being an effective means to illuminate multiple malarias and the practices that surround them, photovoice also enabled participants to learn new things and significantly, teach these things to others using their images. Conclusion: Photovoice is an effective method for re-imaging malaria. It allowed participants to depict and describe multiple versions of malaria and the practices that they engage in in context. Photovoice also had a potentially transformative effect. It acted as a means for participants and researchers to: visually depict everyday practices; collectively gain a deeper understanding of this doing; and then seek ways in which to make changes in line with this joint understanding