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Striking health workers

Precarity and healthcare in neoliberal Kenya

Bibliographic Data

ID2248075
AuthorsEdwin Ambani Ameso (0000-0003-3903-2942, corresponding author), Ruth J Prince (0000-0001-8717-9063)
Year2022
Volume38
Issue4
Pages11-14
Publication date2022-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology Today (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-540X • E-ISSN: 1467-8322
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8322.12742
OpenAlexW4289336068
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited18

Precarity is increasingly a condition of life for Kenyan health workers as even professionals face costs of living and forms of debt that exceed their (unstable) salaries. Years of austerity and chronic scarcity have eroded healthcare infrastructures and rendered crises part of everyday work. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Kenya from 2018 to 2020, we explore health workers' experiences and concerns about the precarity of their working conditions, livelihoods, health and futures amidst the government's attempts to experiment with 'universal health coverage' (UHC) and improve access to healthcare. While UHC appears to call for greater state responsibility for healthcare futures, healthcare provision is being further outsourced and privatized, underlining that seemingly progressive health policies like UHC are sustaining and replicating neoliberal trends

Austerity · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Health care · Livelihood · Political science · Politics · Precarity · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Global Health Care Issues · Healthcare Systems and Challenges

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Unique citing works9
Citations per year2,25
Citation span2022 - 2026 (5)
Citation velocitycurrent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 8
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