It is widely assumed that humanity should be able to learn from calamities (e.g., emergencies, disasters, catastrophes) and that the affected individuals, groups, and enterprises, as well as the concerned (disaster-) management organizations and institutions for prevention and mitigation, will be able to be better prepared or more efficient next time. Furthermore, it is often assumed that the results of these learning processes are preserved as "knowledge" in the collective memory of a society, and that patterns of practices were adopted on this base. Within history, there is more evidence for the opposite: Analyzing past calamities reveals that there is hardly any learning and, if so, that it rarely lasts more than one or two generations. This book explores whether learning in the context of calamities happens at all, and if learning takes place, under which conditions it can be achieved and what would be required to ensure that learned cognitive and practical knowledge will endure on a societal level. The contributions of this book include various fields of scientific research: history, sociology, geography, psychoanalysis, psychiatry, development studies and political studies, as well as disaster research and disaster risk reduction research.

An international team of specialists in politics, policy, and activism provide an indispensable guide to the persistent challenges and emerging issues posed by the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, now in its fourth decade. The HIV/AIDS epidemic is at a critical turning point. Compelling new findings herald the potential to eventually grind the epidemic to a halt through a combination of expanded treatment coverage and new biomedical approaches to prevention. At the same time, the severe global economic downturns have negatively affected wealthy donor nations that have provided the funds and technical support for programs in the developing world. It is against this backdrop that this landmark three-volume set was developed. It provides a broad overview of the critical political issues surrounding HIV/AIDS, inspects key areas of policy and policymaking, and spotlights the most important forms of activism and community mobilization. The volumes reflect an eclectic and wide-ranging set of issues written by an international team comprising dozens of authors from nations including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ghana, South Africa, Brazil, Cambodia, Norway, and Qatar. The international contributors represent a variety of disciplines and bring with them a range of styles and methodological approaches appropriate to their specific topics and disciplines. An important addition to academic and public libraries, this expansive work will benefit students and other readers interested in politics, policymaking, public health, activism, and community mobilization, both in the United States and globally.

This book begins the discourse on post-trial access to drugs in developing countries. Underlying ethical issues in global health inequalities and global health research serve as the context of the debate. Due to rampant allegations of violations of rights of research participants, especially in developing countries, it discusses the regulatory infrastructure and ethical oversight of international clinical research, thus emphasizing the priority of safeguarding the rights of research participants and host populations as desiderata in conducting clinical trials in developing countries. This is the first book that analyzes the major obstacles of affordable access to drugs in developing countries – patent and non-patent factors and how they can be overcome through a middle ground approach and a new paradigm to establish global health justice which includes national and global health responsibilities. The book also deals extensively with all complex aspects of the discourse on affordable access to drugs in developing countries, including intellectual property law, international regulations, political and cultural systems, international trade agreements. Furthermore it contains a robust ethical debate and in-depth analysis. The book crafts a paradigm of global health justice involving a sliding scale of national and global responsibilities for the realization of the right to health in general and access to drugs in particular.

Do doctors fix patients? Or do they heal them? For all of modern medicine’s many successes, discontent with the quality of patient care has combined with a host of new developments, from aging populations to the resurgence of infectious diseases, which challenge medicine’s overreliance on narrowly mechanistic and technical methods of explanation and intervention, or “fixing’ patients. The need for a better balance, for more humane “healing” rationales and practices that attend to the social and environmental aspects of health and illness and the experiencing person, is more urgent than ever. Yet, in public health and bioethics, the fields best positioned to offer countervailing values and orientations, the dominant approaches largely extend and reinforce the reductionism and individualism of biomedicine. The collected essays in To Fix or To Heal do more than document the persistence of reductionist approaches and the attendant extension of medicalization to more and more aspects of our lives. The contributors also shed valuable light on why reductionism has persisted and why more holistic models, incorporating social and environmental factors, have gained so little traction. The contributors examine the moral appeal of reductionism, the larger rationalist dream of technological mastery, the growing valuation of health, and the enshrining of individual responsibility as the seemingly non-coercive means of intervention and control. This paradigm-challenging volume advances new lines of criticism of our dominant medical regime, even while proposing ways of bringing medical practice, bioethics, and public health more closely into line with their original goals. Precisely because of the centrality of the biomedical approach to our society, the contributors argue, challenging the reductionist model and its ever-widening effects is perhaps the best way to press for a much-needed renewal of our ethical and political discourse.

This book challenges the taken-for-granted status of organizations such as the Red Cross and Medecins Sans Frontieres by problematizing humanitarianism. It is a unique contribution to organization studies, re-reading humanitarianism to show that humanitarian organizations essentially serve as global disciplinary institutions.

Igniting the Power of Community: The Role of CBOs and NGOs in Global Public Health introduces readers to the pursuit and potential of community-based organizations and nongovernmental organizations to transform global public health. At a time of unprecedented challenges, economic crises, social inequalities, environmental stressors, emerging health threats, these organizations are initiating and driving change, often being the first to call attention to the issues and increasingly forging significant and sustainable solutions. Through concrete examples, success stories, and cautionary tales from experienced practitioners, Igniting the Power of Community demonstrates why understanding the roles of the diverse organizations of this sector is vital to anyone concerned with improving health and public health today. This forward-thinking book explains how citizen sector organizations work, their immediate and long term impact on public health, and the key players and business dynamics involved. With an emphasis on innovative approaches, it provides an "insiders view" into practical considerations regarding organizational structure, financing, and operations. A sampling of the coverage: The new era of social entrepreneurship and philanthropy Sustainability in international public health NGOs Front-line perspectives from both well-established and grassroots CBOs Faith-based organizations and public health NGOs and the military: evolving relationships in conflict and disaster zones Understanding the environmental health movement and its impact Project YEAH: a youth AIDS organizations story. Whether you are involved in clinical care, health research, public health programs, or policy development and implementation, this book provides key insights and skills, and will serve as an invaluable resource in working most effectively with and within these dynamic organizations. body>

This authoritative and comprehensive edited volume presents current research on how demography can contribute to generating scientific knowledge and evidence concerning refugees and forced migration, developing evidence based policy recommendations on protection for forced migrants and reception of refugees, and revealing the determinants and consequences of migration for origin and destination regions and communities. Refugee and other forced migrations have increased substantially in scale, complexity and diversity in recent decades. These changes challenge traditional approaches in response to refugee and other forced migration situations, and protection of refugees. Demography has an important contribution to make in this analytic space. While other disciplines (especially anthropology, law, geography, political science and international relations) have made major contributions to refugee and forced migration studies, demography has been less present with most research focusing on issues of refugee mortality and morbidity. This book specifies the range of topics for which a demographic approach is highly appropriate, and identifies findings of demographic research which can contribute to ever more effective policy making in this important arena of human welfare and international policy.

This book draws up the balance sheet of 50 years of development aid and provides an overview of all relevant players, of opportunities and obstacles, of successes and failures.