Neil Howard
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 171696 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Neil Howard |
| NOMBRES | Neil |
| APELLIDO | Howard |
| FIRMA | HOWARD N |
| AFILIACIONES | National University of Singapore |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4174-7349 |
| VERIFICADO | Sí |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 71 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 97 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 70 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 1 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1973 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 5 |
The ‘Other’ face of health security
The ‘health security’ paradigm has reshaped global health since Covid-19, framing infectious diseases as existential threats and targeting marginalised populations as risky ‘others’ to surveil and contain. However, its exclusionary consequences for those ‘othered’ remain underexamined, particularly from the perspective of lived experience. Drawing on ethnographic and archival case studies in Lebanon, Nepal, Serbia, and Syria (2021–2025), we exami…
‘Improving, not leaving’
This paper empirically explores the effects of an unconditional basic income (UBI) on labour power for marginalised and precarious workers in Indian slums. Drawing on mixed-methods research over an 18-month pilot, we find that a modest, time-limited UBI does little to unsettle the structural forces that shape labour choices for those in ‘indecent’ work. At the level and duration it was trialled, the UBI neither served wage-replacement nor alterna…
“We are already naked”
Singapore’s pragmatic governance of sex work, combining criminalisation and toleration, is exemplified by the Medical Surveillance Scheme (MSS) introduced in 1976 to manage STIs/HIV among registered sex-workers. While the MSS provides conditional healthcare access, it excludes undocumented migrant sex-workers, leaving them vulnerable to health inequalities, precarity, and state violence. Drawing on an ethnography-informed conducted between March …
‘No one ever asked for my suggestions…’
Since 2017, more than 600 000 Rohingya have sought refuge in Bangladesh, as Forcibly Displaced Myanmar Nationals (FDMN), in registered camps or improvised settlements in Cox's Bazar. Although humanitarian responses have significantly improved in the past decades, coordination gaps remain between health and non-health sectors (eg, little is known about the impacts of shelter or protection responses on refugee health). We thus aimed to explore FDMN…
Beyond trauma
Encounters with patient death, often seen as traumatic for health professionals, may also drive post-traumatic growth and systemic improvement. This study explores how such experiences transform community health professionals (CHPs) in China. Employing a constructivist grounded theory approach, we conducted a year of non-participant observation and 23 semi-structured interviews with CHPs in Shenzhen. Our analysis produced a psychological-professi…
Evaluating a ‘UBI Plus’ Intervention
As pilots in Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilots proliferate, there is increasing recognition that cash alone may not be enough to support envisioned transformation. Consequently, recent years have seen pilots in 'UBI Plus' - combinations of unconditional cash transfers with other social interventions. In this article, we present a mixed-methods needs-based evaluation of WorkFREE, a major UBI Plus pilot. Between 2020 and 2024, WorkFREE brought to…
Mixed methods
Exploring ways to improve healthcare service access for people experiencing homelessness in Manchester, UK
Homelessness is a significant social issue in the UK, affecting the health and life chances of ∼320 000 people annually. This study aims to explore primary healthcare provision from the perspectives of people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in the Greater Manchester area. We conducted a qualitative multimethod study, including unstructured observations and semistructured interviews with 20 PEH across four homelessness day facilities in Greater Ma…
“Basically a PR exercise…”
Background Dengue cases are increasing despite continued efforts to control its vectors, with the Asia-Pacific region projected to bear a substantial proportion of the global burden. However, literature on dengue vector control methods and evidence use in national control programmes in the region is limited. We thus aimed to explore expert perspectives on current methods and how to improve dengue vector control programmes across the region. Metho…
Rethinking climate vulnerability in post-colonial Ghana
This paper examines how colonial legacies, social identities, and positionalities intersect to shape the vulnerability and adaptation of Ghanaian women to climate change. Drawing on in-depth interviews (n = 49) with women farmers in Koraso, a flood-prone village in Berekum, Ghana, the study employs intersectionality and the matrix of domination from Black feminist thought to analyze how overlapping power structures – patriarchy, ethnicity, illite…
“I just wanted to be like everyone else…”
Somalia has the highest estimated prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) globally. However, significant literature gaps exist on associated knowledge and contextual factors within the country, particularly among affected women. This study thus aimed to explore Somali women’s perspectives about FGM/C and its potential abandonment in Somalia. We conducted an exploratory qualitative study, informed by critical feminist and social no…
The use of quarantine as an international travel measure during the Covid-19 pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, virtually all countries used a range of measures to mitigate the risks of virus introduction and onward transmission via international travel. Quarantine was a key international travel measure (ITM) used by governments to achieve public health goals. However, the highly varied ways in which quarantine was implemented makes lesson learning for future pandemics challenging. Moreover, most studies overlook the secondary…
“…Pretty Much All White, and Most of Them Are Psychiatrists and Men”
Mental health is increasingly recognised as a global health priority, with ‘global mental health’ gaining relevance as a field. We thus aimed to identify the most influential actors in global mental health and key challenges in the design and implementation of policies and interventions within this relatively nascent field, to provide suggestions on how mental health could be promoted and diversified at the global level to improve mental health o…
Maternal Experiences and Perspectives of Marketing and Regulation of Commercial Milk Formula in Thailand
Commercial milk formula (CMF) marketing adversely influences breastfeeding practices globally. Thailand enacted the Control of Marketing Promotion of Infant and Young Child Food Act ('Thai Code') in 2017 to restrict the marketing of CMF for infants aged 0-12 months. This qualitative study aimed to explore mothers' experiences and perspectives of CMF marketing and its regulation by the Thai Code through semistructured interviews with 15 mothers ac…
Community people are the most powerful resources’
Meaningful co-production requires recognising communities- through legitimate leadership/representation- as expert and equal partners who can 'work alongside' at all stages of any initiative. Implications from this research include the importance of promoting trust in communities through inclusion of influential community members (community health volunteers, traditional medicine practitioners, women's group leaders); the use of indigenous langua…
Repressive, reformist, radical? Representing and responding to child labour in artisanal and small-scale mining
Fierce debates rage over ‘what to do’ about child labour in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM). Long decried as a site of exploitation, ASM is demonised by much of the international child protection architecture as an archaic relic in need of eradication. By contrast, working children’s movements, civil society advocates, and sympathetic academics all argue that the picture is more complex, that child work, including in ASM, can bring many be…
Zoonotic anxieties
Based on fieldwork conducted in Nepal (2022-2024) and by paying attention to how local and transnational notions of epidemiological risk are deployed, this ethnography introduces the concept of "zoonotic anxieties" to make sense of the multi-species relational ethos that contemporary global health regimes propose. Namely, at the intersection of "health security," "pandemic preparedness," and "One Health," multispecies interactions are becoming su…
The role of global health partnerships in vaccine equity
The emergence of global health partnerships (GHPs) towards the end of the twentieth century reflected concerns about slow progress in access to essential medicines, including vaccines. These partnerships bring together governments, private philanthropic foundations, NGOs, and international agencies. Those in the vaccine field seek to incentivise the development and manufacture of new vaccines, raise funds to pay for them and develop and support s…
Anaesthesia delivery systems in low and lower-middle-income Asian countries
Literature on anaesthesia systems in low and lower middle-income countries is limited, focused on the Africa region, and provides minimal data on anaesthesia or associated disciplines within intensive care, pain management and emergency medicine. We thus conducted a scoping review of primary and secondary research literature on capacity and effectiveness of anaesthesia delivery in low and lower middle-income countries in the Asia region from 2000…
Factors associated with initial AstraZeneca vaccine knowledge, attitudes, and uptake among hospital nurses
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 171,657 confirmed cases and 1,462 deaths in Ghana, particularly among frontline health-workers involved in pandemic response. Prevention measures in Ghana include AstraZeneca ‘Covishield’ vaccination of health-workers, but research on factors affecting uptake of COVID-19 vaccines in Ghana were initially limited. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse knowledge, attitudes, and initial uptake of Covishield amon…
“When a story gets a face…”
Serbia is a country through which many Afghans pass, en route to the European Union. Pregnancy and birth continues for Afghan women while journeying. This study aims to examine the understanding and attitudes of Serbian health professionals and members of women’s civil society organisations (CS0) about the perinatal experiences of Afghan women in Serbia, using a webcomic to elicit responses. A total of 38 respondents completed the questionnaire, …
The nexus between maternity care and bordering practices
Serbia is a well-established transit country for Afghans travelling overland to seek protection in Western Europe, and Afghan women continue to experience pregnancy and birth during migration. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences and of clinical and non-clinical perinatal care and support providers to Afghan women during migration through Serbia, using a critical border studies lens. Semi-structured interviews …
The long-run effect of historical redlining practices on social vulnerability in U.S. cities
‘ Covid-19 is just another way to die… ’
INTRODUCTION: Governance of COVID-19 responses has been challenging for all countries. Syria has been particularly challenged due to protracted multiparty conflict and debilitated health systems fragmented across different areas of control. To improve response governance, better understanding of frontline response policy implementation across the country is needed. This study thus explored perspectives of COVID-19 response governance among frontl…
‘What we lacked was the courage to take decisions that differed from the rest of the world’
INTRODUCTION: Iraq reported its first COVID-19 case on 24 February 2020 and formed a national committee and advisory committees to support its response. While global experts have suggested that the COVID-19 pandemic provided an exceptional opportunity for advancing evidence-informed policymaking (EIPM), no research has examined this in Iraq. Therefore, this study aimed to examine evidence use in COVID-19 policymaking in Iraq. METHODS: This qualit…
Why does child trafficking policy need to be reformed? The moral economy of children's movement in Benin and Ethiopia
This article challenges policy discourses that frame children’s independent movement as intrinsically exploitative and threatening to their development. Drawing on research with children and adults in Benin and Ethiopia, two countries caught up in current efforts to eradicate child migration and the trafficking with which it has become associated, the article critiques assumptions about children’s vulnerability and physical dependence and contest…
Migrant workers, 'modern slavery' and the politics of representation in Italian tomato production
This paper examines representational politics in relation to the production and marketization of Italy's 'red Gold', the tomato. It centres around three competing images. The first, hegemonic image is of a bucolic countryside, pushed by agro-capital and retail. A stereotypically 'fetishizing' image, it hides both labour and its exploitation. The second is its counter-hegemonic opposite, of a countryside seething with indignity, populated by explo…
Is walkability associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk
Teenage Labor Migration and Antitrafficking Policy in West Africa
Within the antitrafficking community, even legal child or youth work is often pathologized, seen as a "worst form of child labor" or, where movement is involved, as trafficking. Major policy responses thus focus on attempting to protect the young by preventing their movement or policing their work. Using a case study of adolescent labor migrants in Benin who work in artisanal gravel quarries in Nigeria, I provide evidence that suggests that the d…
Community nursing delivery in urban China
Community nurses remain understudied in research on interactional power, especially in China where community healthcare is an emerging practice. Grounded in French & Raven's typology of social power, this article conceptualises the power of community nurses in a Chinese urban context. Through thematic analysis of textual data from 26 semi-structured interviews and two additional focus group discussions with community nurses in Shenzhen, we identi…
Occupy London as pre-figurative political action
This paper reflects on the Occupy London encampment as an example of pre-figurative political action. The paper articulates the major media-political criticism of Occupy as “unwieldy” and “in search of a narrative” (Anonymous 2012), before drawing on case studies of two of the Occupation's components – the Tent City University and the Welfare and Well-being Group – to suggest that this criticism fails to understand the intentional choice that “di…
Is ‘child placement’ trafficking
Within the discursive‐institutional space occupied by organisations working on child protection, child trafficking is often assumed to represent a direct outgrowth of the socio‐cultural custom of ‘child placement’, whereby parents send their children to live (and work) within other households. In Benin, where research for this paper was conducted, the narrative of ‘placement corrupted’ has become so well established that the country's anti‐traffi…
Health for all? A qualitative study of NGO support to migrants affected by structural violence in northern France
A critical appraisal of anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in Southern Benin
This article offers a critical overview of anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in Southern Benin. The article examines the major trends in interventions pioneered by the dominant institutional actors in the field, and looks at the discursive background against which they are formed. The article contrasts mainstream policy and discourse with the alternative narratives and policy suggestions pertaining at the level of the communities who fi…
Protecting children from trafficking in Benin
This paper critically examines policy in Benin against child trafficking. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with adolescent labour migrants and their communities, it problematises both the assumptions underpinning anti-trafficking policy and the appropriateness of the initiatives that comprise it. It suggests that, in order truly to protect the young labour migrants defined as trafficked, the policymaking establishment needs to fo…
Ten years of war! You expect people to fear a ‘germ’?”
This study is the first to explore perspectives and lived experiences of internally-displaced Syrians in the weeks prior to the COVID-19 epidemic in Northwest Syria. The challenging living conditions of internally-displaced people in Syria are further threatened by the spread of COVID-19. Tailored control measures are urgently needed to reduce COVID-19 transmission in camps
Accountable to Whom? Accountable for What? Understanding anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in southern Benin
In Benin, anti-child trafficking discourse misrepresents the nature of youth labour migration, while anti-child trafficking policy fails to protect those “beneficiaries” in whose name it is officially designed. Despite this, both have remained stable for over a decade. This paper attempts to explain why. It argues that, in contrast to claims made by many other critiques of anti-trafficking work that policy makers are either ignorant or malevolent…
The nexus between maternity care and bordering practices
Serbia is a well-established transit country for Afghans travelling overland to seek protection in Western Europe, and Afghan women continue to experience pregnancy and birth during migration. This qualitative study aimed to explore the perspectives and experiences and of clinical and non-clinical perinatal care and support providers to Afghan women during migration through Serbia, using a critical border studies lens. Semi-structured interviews …
The long-run effect of historical redlining practices on social vulnerability in U.S. cities
Promoting ‘Healthy Childhoods’ and Keeping Children ‘At Home’
This article offers the first examination of its kind of the content and nature of anti‐trafficking policy as it is pursued in Benin. The article draws on data gathered from policy and project documents and from interviews and participant observation with actors integral to the constitution of policy in (and with influence over) the Beninese anti‐trafficking community. It attempts to bridge the oft‐lamented gap between page and practice by conduc…
The Strikes and Lockouts in the Iron Industry and the Formation of the Ironworkers' Unions, 1862–1869
G. D. H. Cole has drawn attention to the militancy of the unions outside of the craftsmen's trades in the 1860's. The “class cleavage” which he ascribed to the engineering, shipbuilding and the building trades enabled the skilled men to use their “New Model Unions” as exclusive barriers against dilution by the semi-skilled and labouring classes. In consequence, the Amalgamated Unions had pacific tendencies which were only partially offset by thei…
Art Therapy Training as Continuing Education
Reproductive health services for refugees by refugees in Guinea I
This refugee self-help model appeared largely effective and could be considered for reproductive health needs in similar settings. Having any formal education appeared a major determinant of FP knowledge for men, while this was less noticeable for women. Thus, FP communication strategies for refugees should consider gender-specific messages and channels
Reproductive health for refugees by refugees in Guinea II
Our study revealed a high prevalence of STI symptoms, and gaps in sexual health knowledge in this displaced population. Learning about STIs from RHG health facilitators was associated with better knowledge. RHG's model could be considered in other complex emergency settings
Reproductive health for refugees by refugees in Guinea III
Refugee-led maternal health education appeared to increase facility delivery for these refugee women. Improved knowledge of danger signs and the importance of skilled birth attendance, while vital, may be less important in chronic emergency settings than improving facility access where quality of care is acceptable
Reproductive health for refugees by refugees in Guinea IV
Peer education was most strongly associated with reported HIV-avoidant behaviour change. Gender was most associated with HIV knowledge and risk perception. Refugee women had fewer misconceptions than men had, but were more likely to report HIV risk and less likely to report making behavioural changes. Peer education appears promising for HIV interventions in chronic-emergency settings, if gender disparities and related barriers to condom usage ar…
Is ‘child placement’ trafficking
Within the discursive‐institutional space occupied by organisations working on child protection, child trafficking is often assumed to represent a direct outgrowth of the socio‐cultural custom of ‘child placement’, whereby parents send their children to live (and work) within other households. In Benin, where research for this paper was conducted, the narrative of ‘placement corrupted’ has become so well established that the country's anti‐traffi…
Accountable to Whom? Accountable for What? Understanding anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in southern Benin
In Benin, anti-child trafficking discourse misrepresents the nature of youth labour migration, while anti-child trafficking policy fails to protect those “beneficiaries” in whose name it is officially designed. Despite this, both have remained stable for over a decade. This paper attempts to explain why. It argues that, in contrast to claims made by many other critiques of anti-trafficking work that policy makers are either ignorant or malevolent…
Protecting children from trafficking in Benin
This paper critically examines policy in Benin against child trafficking. Drawing on interviews and participant observation with adolescent labour migrants and their communities, it problematises both the assumptions underpinning anti-trafficking policy and the appropriateness of the initiatives that comprise it. It suggests that, in order truly to protect the young labour migrants defined as trafficked, the policymaking establishment needs to fo…
A critical appraisal of anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in Southern Benin
This article offers a critical overview of anti-child trafficking discourse and policy in Southern Benin. The article examines the major trends in interventions pioneered by the dominant institutional actors in the field, and looks at the discursive background against which they are formed. The article contrasts mainstream policy and discourse with the alternative narratives and policy suggestions pertaining at the level of the communities who fi…
Why does child trafficking policy need to be reformed? The moral economy of children's movement in Benin and Ethiopia
This article challenges policy discourses that frame children’s independent movement as intrinsically exploitative and threatening to their development. Drawing on research with children and adults in Benin and Ethiopia, two countries caught up in current efforts to eradicate child migration and the trafficking with which it has become associated, the article critiques assumptions about children’s vulnerability and physical dependence and contest…
Is walkability associated with a lower cardiometabolic risk
The Fortresses of Nurpur State
The old Nurpur state provides examples of fortification in the provinces of the Mughal Empire which exhibit genuine differences from imperial practice. This paper discusses the remains of three large forts which were built when Nurpur’s rulers were at the height of their powers in the 16th and 17th centuries. At Nurpur town, their capital, they built themselves a fine residential castle with impressive-looking defences. At Maukot they built a les…
Promoting ‘Healthy Childhoods’ and Keeping Children ‘At Home’
This article offers the first examination of its kind of the content and nature of anti‐trafficking policy as it is pursued in Benin. The article draws on data gathered from policy and project documents and from interviews and participant observation with actors integral to the constitution of policy in (and with influence over) the Beninese anti‐trafficking community. It attempts to bridge the oft‐lamented gap between page and practice by conduc…
Occupy London as pre-figurative political action
This paper reflects on the Occupy London encampment as an example of pre-figurative political action. The paper articulates the major media-political criticism of Occupy as “unwieldy” and “in search of a narrative” (Anonymous 2012), before drawing on case studies of two of the Occupation's components – the Tent City University and the Welfare and Well-being Group – to suggest that this criticism fails to understand the intentional choice that “di…
Health and access to care for undocumented migrants living in the European Union
BACKGROUND: Literature on health and access to care of undocumented migrants in the European Union (EU) is limited and heterogeneous in focus and quality. Authors conducted a scoping review to identify the extent, nature and distribution of existing primary research (1990-2012), thus clarifying what is known, key gaps, and potential next steps. METHODS: Authors used Arksey and O'Malley's six-stage scoping framework, with Levac, Colquhoun and O'Br…
Teenage Labor Migration and Antitrafficking Policy in West Africa
Within the antitrafficking community, even legal child or youth work is often pathologized, seen as a "worst form of child labor" or, where movement is involved, as trafficking. Major policy responses thus focus on attempting to protect the young by preventing their movement or policing their work. Using a case study of adolescent labor migrants in Benin who work in artisanal gravel quarries in Nigeria, I provide evidence that suggests that the d…
Can performance-based incentives improve motivation of nurses and midwives in primary facilities in northern Ghana? A quasi-experimental study
BACKGROUND: Lack of an adequate and well-performing health workforce has emerged as the biggest barrier to scaling up health services provision in sub-Saharan Africa. As the global community commits to the Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage, health workforce challenges are critical. In northern Ghana, performance-based incentives (PBIs) were introduced to improve health worker motivation and service quality. OBJECTIVE: Th…
Fair publication of qualitative research in health systems
10.1186/s12939-016-0368-y
Of coyotes and caporali
Whether it be the coyote sneaking his 'victims' across the border, or the caporale coercing his gang labourers, dominant anti-trafficking discourses serve to depoliticise labour mobility and exploitation by locating causality 'inside' an individual criminal figure, and thus 'outside' of the systemic, structural forces that condition them. This chapter focuses on qualitative field research conducted with apparent 'victims of trafficking' in Benin,…
Child Trafficking, Youth Labour Mobility and the Politics of Protection
This book provides the first overarching, empirically grounded, critical analysis of child trafficking as an idea, ordering principle, and artefact of politics. It examines (once) hegemonic anti-child trafficking discourse, policy and practice, and does so by placing secondary literature from around the world in conversation the author’s paradigmatic case study of the situation in southern Benin. It deconstructs the child trafficking paradigm, co…
Community midwifery initiatives in fragile and conflict-affected countries
BACKGROUND: Birth assisted by skilled health workers is one of the most effective interventions for reducing maternal and neonatal mortality. Fragile and conflict-affected states and situations (FCAS), with one-third of global maternal deaths, face significant challenges in achieving skilled care at birth, particularly in health workforce development. The importance of community-level midwifery services to improve skilled care is internationally …
Associations of acute conflict with equity in maternal healthcare
The association between acute conflict and maternal services usage indicated some vertical equity, as equity patterns during conflict differed from recent trends in Egypt. The association between conflict and maternal care usage among potentially marginalised groups was minimal and not notably inequitable. Specific strategies should be included in maternal health policies to mitigate the unpredictable effect of conflict on maternal care equity. F…
Value and effectiveness of National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups in low- and middle-income countries
The Global Vaccine Action Plan proposes that every country establish or have access to a National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG) by 2020. The NITAG role is to produce evidence-informed recommendations that incorporate local context, to guide national immunization policies and practice. This study aimed to explore the value and effectiveness of NITAGs in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), identifying areas in which NITAGs may…
Neither predator nor prey
Within trafficking discourses, men appear as predatory and exploitative, while boys appear as victims. This flattens the complexities of social life and obscures the ways that constructs of masculinity frame the trajectories of labour migrants and their brokers. This article challenges those discourses, drawing on research with two groups of labour migrants characterized as 'victims of trafficking', as well as with 'traffickers' who help them to …
Political science (47 obras) · Medicine (36 obras) · Sociology (35 obras) · Migration, Health and Trauma (22 obras) · Nursing (21 obras) · Economic growth (18 obras) · Health care (18 obras) · Qualitative research (18 obras) · Law (17 obras) · Politics (17 obras)