In Dutta's Communicating for Social Change, he speaks of neoliberal governance of global health by powerful institutions such as the World Health Organisation and how their agendas are in line really with the interests and agendas of powerful transnational actors. This brings to mind an important incident in 2007 after the avian H5N1 flu virus started moving from southern China to parts of the Middle East and Europe. The virus had flared anew the year before in Indonesia. The latter outbreak was worrying to the scientific community because it happened in a single extended family in Karo, Sumatra, where the virus showed sustained transmissibility, passing from relative to relative at least three times over. This opened up the possibility that it may have mutated to becoming more easily spread among humans. But what shocked the scientific community next was how Indonesia refused to share its seed virus with international scientists. Its argument was that once released, it would b
This blog offers Mohan Dutta's reflections on the theoretical framework of the culture-centered approach, examining the interplays among Structure, Culture, and Agency in shaping marginalisation and the ways in which communities at the margins challenge structures. Writings on the blog are continually being revised to reflect the organic analysis of structure and agency.