Description
Book SynopsisThis ethnographic study of a low-income neighborhood in the northeastern state of Ceará analyzes the complicated and compromised realities of Brazil's universal health care system, pointing the way toward more successful planning of future reforms.
Trade ReviewThis excellent ethnography . . . will appeal to many audiences and lends itself well to undergraduate teaching. What is particularly attractive about the book is its deft handling of ethnographic evidence: it shows rather than tells. This approach is gratifying because it trusts the scholarly reader to draw suggestive connections to multiple bodies of contemporary theory rather than hammering together an ambitious theoretical armature with a few slender tacks of ethnographic detail. It is inviting to the student reader because it is a lively, funny, touching read – full of memorable, evocative description and incident – that students will readily be able to mine for social theoretical points. . . . Jerome’s analysis offers keen insight into the current political situation in Brazil. * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *
[A] compelling and timely ethnography…
A Right to Health combines a detailed history of Brazilian health care with compelling illness narratives. * Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology *
[Jerome's] goal is to explore the relationship between a formal right to health care and the way in which people experience that right...Jerome shows that patronage and dependency have continued to dominate favela life, as reciprocity among family members, friends, and neighbors, and the presence of good or bad bosses dominate the life of its inhabitants...Excellent. * Latin American Research Review *
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1. Pirambu: Historical and Contemporary Accounts of Citizenship in a Favela
- Chapter 2. A History of Welfare and the Poor in Ceará
- Chapter 3. Democratizing Health Care: Health Councils in Pirambu
- Chapter 4. Prescribing Knowledge: Farmácia Viva and the Rationalization of Traditional Medicine
- Chapter 5. Favors, Rights, and the Management of Illness
- Chapter 6. Public and Private Medical Care for a New Generation in Pirambu
- Conclusion: A Politics of Health
- Notes
- References
- Index
