Helen Lambert
Biographic Data
| ID | 97584 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helen Lambert |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helen |
| FAMILY NAME | Lambert |
| SIGNATURE | LAMBERT H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bristol |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2506-6316 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 64 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 458 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 63 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Ecologies of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) transmission across One Health interfaces: Waste, food and changing metabolic relations in rural China
Within the One Health framework applied to global health issues including antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and zoonoses, ecological linkages between animals, wastes, soil, water, and humans are increasingly being interpreted through the lens of pathogenic transmission. This framing problematises waste practices and cross-species contact in many parts of the Global South, where rural livelihoods are often closely integrated with farm animals and org…
Waste-ing antibiotics: Antimicrobial resistance, environmental pollution and unsettled science in the governance of pharmaceutical manufacturing
This paper analyses the role of scientific evidence in environmental health governance following recognition of the environment's role in the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It recounts events surrounding the Government of India's attempt to regulate antibiotic waste in the environment from pharmaceutical manufacturing in relation to a production site in north India where occupation, living conditions, and waste disposal practices dr…
Towards enhancing animal welfare standards in UK media: Part 2; insights from the industry
Animal use in the film, TV, and advertising industries is largely unregulated, which has given rise to numerous welfare issues and complaints over the years. In this study, through interviews and surveys conducted with industry stakeholders, including animal handlers, production teams, and other crew members, we have sought to explore the motivations driving animal welfare priorities, the challenges hindering implementation, and perceptions of po…
Towards enhancing animal welfare standards in UK media: Part 1; insights from public opinion and attitudes
Animals are frequently used in the UK for film, television, and advertising, but numerous stakeholders, including charities and industry representatives, have significant concerns regarding their on- and off-set welfare. However, it is unclear to what extent the public can identify animal welfare issues on screen or whether they know where to report any incidents. This survey sought to answer three research questions: (1) What are the levels of a…
The unseen use of antimicrobials: Drivers of human antibiotic use in a community in Thailand and implications for surveillance
We investigated sociocultural and economic drivers of human antimicrobial use (AMU) in Thailand through ethnographic research, interviews, focus groups and a cross-sectional survey. This community-based study generated findings clustered around three key themes: treatment-seeking practices, medicine use, and interpretation of biomedical constructs. Participants sought care from public health facilities for chronic conditions, but medicines from t…
A survey of patient and public perceptions and awareness of Sars-CoV-2-related risks among participants in India and South Africa
A cross-sectional survey among participants in India and South Africa to explore perceptions and awareness of SARS-CoV-2-related risks. Main outcome measures–proportion of participants aware of SARS-CoV-2, and their perception of infection risks as it related to their views and perceptions on vaccination, i.e., using COVID-19 vaccine uptake as proxy for awareness level. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data via web- and paper…
Prevalence, drivers and surveillance of antibiotic resistance and antibiotic use in rural China: Interdisciplinary study
This study aimed to characterise antibiotic prescribing and dispensing patterns in rural health facilities in China and determine the community prevalence of antibiotic resistance. We investigated patterns and drivers of antibiotic use for common respiratory and urinary tract infections (RTI/UTI) in community settings, examined relationships between presenting symptoms, clinical diagnosis and microbiological results in rural outpatient clinics, a…
Influences on treatment-seeking and antibiotic use for common illnesses in eastern China
People's treatment decisions in relation to antibiotic use in eastern China are influenced by an interplay of lay conceptual models of illnesses and antibiotics and broader organisational, social, and contextual factors. Interventions focusing on individual education to incorporate biomedical knowledge into lay understandings, and reducing situational and social incentives for self-medicating with antibiotics by strengthening access to quality pr…
Understanding adherence to self-isolation in the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic in England: A cross-sectional mixed-methods study
Understanding adherence to isolation and associated reasoning during the early stages of the pandemic is essential to pandemic preparedness for future emerging infectious disease outbreaks. Individuals make complex decisions around adherence by calibrating transmission risks, therefore treating adherence as binary should be avoided
Antibiotics in Catalan Primary Care: Prescription, Use and Remedies for a Crisis of Care
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the twenty-first century's major health challenges. Linked to the extensive use of antibiotics and other antimicrobials, resistance occurs when microbes stop responding to medications. Rates of antibiotic consumption in Spain are among the highest in Europe. Drawing on research conducted in Catalonia, in this article we present findings from ethnographic fieldwork and semi-structured interviews with general prac…
Relationships Between Diagnosis, Bacterial Isolation, and Antibiotic Prescription in Out Patients With Respiratory Tract Infection Symptoms in Rural Anhui, China
OBJECTIVES: This paper aims to explore the direct associations of antibiotics prescription with clinical diagnosis and bacterial detection. It also analyses the relations of clinical diagnosis with symptoms and bacterial detection, with a hope of revealing indirect links to antibiotic prescription. METHODS: The study was implemented in one village clinic and one township health center in each of four rural residential areas in Anhui Province, Chi…
Impacts of Antibiotic Residues in the Environment on Bacterial Resistance and Human Health in Eastern China: An Interdisciplinary Mixed-Methods Study Protocol
Antibiotic resistance is a global health challenge that threatens human and animal lives, especially among low-income and vulnerable populations in less-developed countries. Its multi-factorial nature requires integrated studies on antibiotics and resistant bacteria in humans, animals, and the environment. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of the situation and management of antibiotic use and environmental transmission, this paper describe…
Exploring the impact of shielding advice on the wellbeing of individuals identified as clinically extremely vulnerable amid the Covid-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods evaluation
This research highlights the difficulties in providing generic messaging that is applicable and appropriate given the diversity of individuals identified as CEV and the importance of sharing tailored and timely advice to inform shielding decisions. Providing messages that reinforce self-determined action and assistance from support services could reduce the negative impact of shielding on mental health and feelings of social isolation
The experience of conducting collaborative and intensive pragmatic qualitative (CLIP-Q) research to support rapid public health and healthcare innovation
A key challenge for qualitative methods in applied health research is the fast pace that can characterize the public health and health and care service landscape, where there is a need for research informed by immediate pragmatic questions and relevant findings are required quickly to inform decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace at which evidence was needed to inform urgent public health and healthcare decision-making. This …
Anthropologists Answer Four Questions about the Pandemic
The United Kingdom has been badly hit by the pandemic, though COVID-19 is less common in Bristol and southwest England, where I live, than in most of the United Kingdom. At the time of writing (January 2021), we're in our third nationwide lockdown, with around 48,000 cases daily, have the highest number of deaths in Europe (more than 86,000), and the NHS is again overstretched. We moved to working from home when the first UK lockdown started in m…
Setting the agenda for social science research on the human microbiome
The human microbiome is an important emergent area of cross, multi and transdisciplinary study. The complexity of this topic leads to conflicting narratives and regulatory challenges. It raises questions about the benefits of its commercialisation and drives debates about alternative models for engaging with its publics, patients and other potential beneficiaries. The social sciences and the humanities have begun to explore the microbiome as an o…
Prescribing Antibiotics in Rural China: The Influence of Capital on Clinical Realities
Primary care clinicians in rural China are required to balance their immediate duty of care to their patients with patient expectations for antibiotics, financial pressures, and their wider responsibilities to public health. The clinicians in our sample appear to make greater efforts in managing immediate clinical risks and personal reputation than in considering the long-term consequences of their actions as potentially contributing to antimicro…
More than a teachable moment: Black lives matter
In the aftermath of Mr. George Floyd’s senseless execution on 25 May 2020, in commemoration of and in opposition to countless similar instances of police brutality against unarmed Black Americans, waves of solidarity have pulsed through US streets and now are surging internationally in protests, demonstrations, and vigils. The affirmation that ‘Black Lives Matter’ has likewise been pouring outward in personal as well as official statements. Numer…
Indian Therapeutic Hierarchies and the Politics of Recognition
Social science research on medicine in India has moved from village-based ethnographies to studies of the major medical traditions, and from a focus on indigenous folk practices to the influence of global biomedicine. This article shows how these academic trends have influenced the contemporary understanding of medical pluralism in India. The article then describes the socio-political structuring of medical plurality, by relating historical shift…
Migration as a risk and a livelihood strategy: HIV across the life course of migrant families in India
Migrant workers are understood to be vulnerable to HIV. However, little is known about the experience of migration-based households following HIV infection. This qualitative study examined the migration-HIV relationship beyond the point of infection, looking at how it affects livelihood choices, household relationships and the economic viability of migrant families. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 33 HIV-positive migrant men and wome…
Complex routes into HIV care for migrant workers: A qualitative study from north India
Migrant workers are designated a bridge population in the spread of HIV and therefore if infected, should be diagnosed and treated early. This study examined pathways to HIV diagnosis and access to care for rural-to-urban circular migrant workers and partners of migrants in northern India, identifying structural, social and individual level factors that shaped their journeys into care. We conducted a qualitative study using in-depth interviews wi…
I am doing fine only because I have not told anyone’: The necessity of concealment in the lives of people living with HIV in India
In HIV prevention and care programmes, disclosure of status by HIV-positive individuals is generally encouraged to contain the infection and provide adequate support to the person concerned. Lack of disclosure is generally framed as a barrier to preventive behaviours and accessing support. The assumption that disclosure is beneficial is also reflected in studies that aim to identify determinants of disclosure and recommend individual-level measur…
Plural forms of evidence in public health: Tolerating epistemological and methodological diversity
What counts as ‘evidence’ is a question that has been explored in many arenas, but it has been a particular focus of debate in the health sector, where the notion of systematically appraising data about the effectiveness of interventions in order to inform everyday practice was first promulgated. In its original form, ‘evidence-based medicine’ (EBM) referred to the application of research findings from the study of populations to the clinical tre…
Mad, Bad or Heroic? Gender, Identity and Accountability in Lay Portrayals of Suicide in Late Twentieth-Century England
Balancing community mobilisation and measurement needs in the evaluation of targeted interventions for HIV prevention
2962 Introduction: Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), as the major inhibitory neurotransmitter, plays an essential role in multiple physiological functions, and its concentrations in the brain are modulated by receptors and transporters. Alterations in the distribution and expression of the GABA transporters (GATs) have been implicated in a variety of human diseases, such as epilepsy and schizophrenia. Availability of PET radioligands will facilitat…
Accounting for EBM: Notions of evidence in medicine
Misunderstanding Science: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, t…
Showing Roughness in a Beautiful Way: Talk about Love, Coercion, and Rape in South African Youth Sexual Culture
Sexual violence within as well as outside sexual relationships has far-reaching public health and human rights implications and is a continuing focus of popular debate, media coverage, and research in postapartheid South Africa. Partly because it has been shown to affect individual vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, sexual violence has in recent years become framed as a global public health issue. International research efforts to document the scale of t…
The Mortality Divide in India: The Differential Contributions of Gender, Caste, and Standard of Living Across the Life Course
Objectives. We investigated the contributions of gender, caste, and standard of living to inequalities in mortality across the life course in India. Methods. We conducted a multilevel cross-sectional analysis of individual mortality, using the 1998–1999 Indian National Family Health Survey data for 529321 individuals from 26 states. Results. Substantial mortality differentials were observed between the lowest and highest standard-of-living quinti…
Medical pluralism and medical marginality: Bone doctors and the selective legitimation of therapeutic expertise in India
Implementing community interventions for HIV prevention: Insights from project ethnography
Coded Talk, Scripted Omissions: The Micropolitics of Aids Talk in an Affected Community in South Africa
In this ethnographic article, we explore the character of local discourse about AIDS in an affected township community in South Africa, describing the "indirection" that characterized communication about suspected cases of AIDS. Through a case study of one affected family, the article first explores the diverse ways in which people came to "know" that specific cases of illness were AIDS related, and how this "knowledge" was communicated. We consi…
Tales of biographical disintegration: How Parents Make Sense of Their Sons' Suicides
Suicide research relies heavily on accounts provided by bereaved relatives, using a method known as the psychological autopsy. Psychological autopsy studies are invariably quantitative in design and their findings reinforce the medical model of suicide, emphasising the role of mental illness. They largely ignore the meanings that narrators attach to events, the nature of the sense-making task and the influences bearing upon it. This study drew on…
Discrimination and health in an English study
Introduction: Gift horse or Trojan horse? Social science perspectives on evidence-based health care
Suicide communication events: Lay interpretation of the communication of suicidal ideation and intent
The cultural logic of Indian medicine: Prognosis and etiology in Rajasthani popular therapeutics
Health-seeking strategies and sexual health among female sex workers in urban India: Implications for research and service provision
Mad Tales from the Raj: The European Insane in British India 1800-1858
Evidentiary truths? The evidence of anthropology through the anthropology of medical evidence
Anthropologists have become increasingly concerned about the discipline's lack of 'public engagement' with contemporary issues of late, but a key underlying problem - anthropology's unwillingness to address the nature and evidentiary status of anthropological knowledge itself - has remained largely unacknowledged. Here I approach this problem initially through an analysis of the rise of 'evidence' as a central concept in public policy and practic…
Injuries are Beyond Love: Physical Violence in Young South Africans' Sexual Relationships
South Africa's complex social and political history has produced conditions for interpersonal violence of multiple kinds to flourish. Violence experienced by girls and young women, including within their sexual relationships, has become an area of intense research and policy interest since the end of apartheid. Drawing on a long-term ethnographic study of young people in an urban township, this article explores how violent practices are variously…
Virgin Births and Sterile Debates: Anthropology and the New Reproductive Technologies
This article explores the anthropological debate surrounding new reproductive technologies (NRTs). It critiques the tendency within anthropology to focus on the sociocultural implications of NRTs through the lens of kinship, thereby neglecting the embodied experiences of women and the broader political-economic context. The authors argue that the focus on "virgin births" and the supposed disruption of traditional kinship structures obscures the c…
Plural forms of evidence in public health: Tolerating epistemological and methodological diversity
What counts as ‘evidence’ is a question that has been explored in many arenas, but it has been a particular focus of debate in the health sector, where the notion of systematically appraising data about the effectiveness of interventions in order to inform everyday practice was first promulgated. In its original form, ‘evidence-based medicine’ (EBM) referred to the application of research findings from the study of populations to the clinical tre…
Illness, Inauspiciousness and Modes of Healing in Rajasthan
Ethnographic material on local conceptions and treatment of certain kinds of illness in rural Rajasthan provides insights into the nature and pragmatic meaning of concepts of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness in everyday contexts. By analysing the internal logic of rituals directed at treating the sick, I elucidate the dual meaning of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness as conditions with predictive value that refer both to potentiality and to …
More than a teachable moment: Black lives matter
In the aftermath of Mr. George Floyd’s senseless execution on 25 May 2020, in commemoration of and in opposition to countless similar instances of police brutality against unarmed Black Americans, waves of solidarity have pulsed through US streets and now are surging internationally in protests, demonstrations, and vigils. The affirmation that ‘Black Lives Matter’ has likewise been pouring outward in personal as well as official statements. Numer…
Prescribing Antibiotics in Rural China: The Influence of Capital on Clinical Realities
Primary care clinicians in rural China are required to balance their immediate duty of care to their patients with patient expectations for antibiotics, financial pressures, and their wider responsibilities to public health. The clinicians in our sample appear to make greater efforts in managing immediate clinical risks and personal reputation than in considering the long-term consequences of their actions as potentially contributing to antimicro…
The experience of conducting collaborative and intensive pragmatic qualitative (CLIP-Q) research to support rapid public health and healthcare innovation
A key challenge for qualitative methods in applied health research is the fast pace that can characterize the public health and health and care service landscape, where there is a need for research informed by immediate pragmatic questions and relevant findings are required quickly to inform decision-making. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the pace at which evidence was needed to inform urgent public health and healthcare decision-making. This …
Medical Technology and Society. An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Book)
Mad Tales from the Raj: The European Insane in British India 1800-1858
Easa Conference, Prague 1992
The cultural logic of Indian medicine: Prognosis and etiology in Rajasthani popular therapeutics
Virgin Births and Sterile Debates: Anthropology and the New Reproductive Technologies
This article explores the anthropological debate surrounding new reproductive technologies (NRTs). It critiques the tendency within anthropology to focus on the sociocultural implications of NRTs through the lens of kinship, thereby neglecting the embodied experiences of women and the broader political-economic context. The authors argue that the focus on "virgin births" and the supposed disruption of traditional kinship structures obscures the c…
Paths to Asian medical knowledge
Film review
Eyes of Stone Eyes of Stone. Nilita Vachani, director and editor; Vangelis Kalambakas, camera; Suresh Rajamani and Pankaj Rakesh, sound. 1990, 94 minutes, color, PAL and SEACAM video, English or French subtitles, dialogue in Hindi and Mewari. For sale only: £65 or $100. Distributor: Nilita Vachani, FilmSixteen, C‐53 Mayfair Gardens, New Delhi 110016, India. Fax. no: 91–11–332–5993
Misunderstanding Science: The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology
Misunderstanding Science? offers a challenging new perspective on the public understanding of science. In so doing, it also challenges existing ideas of the nature of science and its relationships with society. Its analysis and case presentation are highly relevant to current concerns over the uptake, authority, and effectiveness of science as expressed, for example, in areas such as education, medical/health practice, risk and the environment, t…
Events, seminars and meetings
Illness, Inauspiciousness and Modes of Healing in Rajasthan
Ethnographic material on local conceptions and treatment of certain kinds of illness in rural Rajasthan provides insights into the nature and pragmatic meaning of concepts of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness in everyday contexts. By analysing the internal logic of rituals directed at treating the sick, I elucidate the dual meaning of auspiciousness and inauspiciousness as conditions with predictive value that refer both to potentiality and to …
Health-seeking strategies and sexual health among female sex workers in urban India: Implications for research and service provision
Medical Questions of Identity
Methods and meanings in anthropological, epidemiological and clinical encounters: The case of sexually transmitted disease and human immunodeficiency virus control and prevention in India
Rapid assessment procedures informed by anthropology are increasingly commonly being utilised in the formulation of a range of international disease control and prevention strategies. Refinement of these rapid procedures has narrowly focused on their methods, in contrast with the broader potential scope of context‐based anthropological contributions. The control of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in India is used to illustrate …
Anthropology in health research: From qualitative methods to multidisciplinarity
As a response to concerns about the standard of qualitative research, attention has focused on the methods used. However, this may constrain the direction and content of qualitative studies and legitimise substandard research. Helen Lambert and Christopher McKevitt explain why anthropology may be able to contribute useful insights to health research Qualitative methods are now common in research into the social and cultural dimensions of ill heal…
Ethnicity, health and health services utilization in a British study
Despite the exponential growth in the number of studies addressing ethnicity and health, there is considerable debate about definitions of ethnicity, the appropriate use of ethnicity in health research and whether research focusing on ethnicity in the health field will ultimately result in reduced disadvantage or will simply contribute to the reification of ethnic origin as a cause of health problems. The authors present and discuss health outcom…
Ethnicity, health and health services utilization in a British study
Despite the exponential growth in the number of studies addressing ethnicity and health, there is considerable debate about definitions of ethnicity, the appropriate use of ethnicity in health research and whether research focusing on ethnicity in the health field will ultimately result in reduced disadvantage or will simply contribute to the reification of ethnic origin as a cause of health problems. The authors present and discuss health outcom…
Poems: A short history of Edith Trist, who came from a long line of Spanish pirates, How quickly the dispossessed turn, All I ever wanted of love
(2003). Poems: A short history of Edith Trist, who came from a long line of Spanish pirates, How quickly the dispossessed turn, All I ever wanted of love. Journal of Australian Studies: Vol. 27, Rezoning Australia, pp. 173-174
A draft preamble: Les Murray and the politics of poetry
A comparative analysis of communication about sex, health and sexual health in India and South Africa: Implications for HIV prevention
This paper provides a comparative analysis of modes of dialogue, non-verbal communication and embodied action relating to sex and health in two contrasting countries-India and South Africa-which have the world's two most heavily HIV-affected populations (in terms of numbers of people living with HIV). Drawing on material derived from multiple studies, including ethnographic and other forms of qualitative and multi-disciplinary research, the paper…
The Mortality Divide in India: The Differential Contributions of Gender, Caste, and Standard of Living Across the Life Course
Objectives. We investigated the contributions of gender, caste, and standard of living to inequalities in mortality across the life course in India. Methods. We conducted a multilevel cross-sectional analysis of individual mortality, using the 1998–1999 Indian National Family Health Survey data for 529321 individuals from 26 states. Results. Substantial mortality differentials were observed between the lowest and highest standard-of-living quinti…
Introduction: Gift horse or Trojan horse? Social science perspectives on evidence-based health care
Accounting for EBM: Notions of evidence in medicine
Ethnocentrism: Reflections on medical anthropology - Edited by Sjaak Van Der Geest & Ria Reis
Showing Roughness in a Beautiful Way: Talk about Love, Coercion, and Rape in South African Youth Sexual Culture
Sexual violence within as well as outside sexual relationships has far-reaching public health and human rights implications and is a continuing focus of popular debate, media coverage, and research in postapartheid South Africa. Partly because it has been shown to affect individual vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, sexual violence has in recent years become framed as a global public health issue. International research efforts to document the scale of t…
The limits of behaviour change theory: Condom use and contexts of HIV risk in the Kolkata sex industry
This paper uses ethnographic data from a sex workers' HIV project in India to consider the appropriateness of individual, social/group and structural theories of health behaviour when applied to HIV-prevention initiatives. Existing theories are critiqued for their modernist representation of behaviour as determined by individual rational decision-making processes or by external structural forces, with inadequate recognition being given to the rol…
Medicine (39 works) · Sociology (36 works) · Political science (26 works) · Psychology (21 works) · Public health (17 works) · Nursing (16 works) · Social science (14 works) · Geography (13 works) · Sex work and related issues (13 works) · Computer Science (12 works)