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Accepted Paper:
Indignation and refusal: slow violence and the crisis of public health-care in Kenya
Ruth Prince
(University of Oslo)
Paper short abstract:
Based on research in a Kenyan public hospital, this paper discusses how the concept of "slow violence" might relate to local aetiologies of suffering, abandonment and responsibility as they emerge in the hospital and in critiques on social media about the state´s indifference to the public´s health.
Paper long abstract:
Based on ethnographic research in a Kenyan public hospital, this paper discusses how the concept of "slow violence" might relate to local aetiologies of suffering, abandonment and responsibility as they emerge on the hospital wards and in critiques on social media about the state´s indifference to the public´s health amidst the expansion of lucrative medical markets. Despite the influx of global health funds into Kenya, deteriorating national health infrastructures act together with out-of-pocket payments to undermine treatment trajectories, and patients experience an uneven environment of both care and neglect. This paper attends to moments or events of critique, when the status quo is confronted, and endurance of these conditions turns into indignation, anger and refusal.