Post by Somatosphere

Who are the "middlemen" behind fake medicines? We often imagine fake medicines as circulating through shadowy networks of corrupt brokers. But what if the real circulation is not primarily pharmacological, but discursive? In the first essay of our new series on "Middlemen and Global Health", Zoë Goodman reflects on Lisemwalo Lipo, a participatory play and short film co-created with Jukwaa Arts Productions in Mombasa [https://lnkd.in/eY2wUVvP]. Drawing on ethnographic research into fake drugs, the project uses theatre to explore the language of Covid-vaccine rumours. Challenging the notion of fakes being traded by morally vacuous middlemen, the play centres the mundane way fakes are brokered – by ordinary people in ordinary places. (Claims about) fakes circulate because they offer a language through which to voice frustration with social inequities. Read the full essay here: https://lnkd.in/eXAZjKF9 #MedicalAnthropology #GlobalHealth #Ethnography #ParticipatoryResearch #Theatre #VaccineConfidence #Covid-19 #Somatosphere #FakeDrugs #Kenya