Shifting identities
The transformation of community health workers in highland Guatemala
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2289671 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Jonathan N Maupin (0000-0003-2610-2737, Arizona State University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2015 |
| Volume | 39 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 73-88 |
| Publication date | 2015-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of Anthropological Practice (BOOK_SERIES) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2153-957X • E-ISSN: 2153-9588 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/napa.12065 |
| OpenAlex | W2526597428 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
| References cited | 22 |
Guatemala is one of the first countries in the Americas to establish community health worker (CHW) programs, and CHWs have served a central role in both large-scale national programs and small-scale nongovernmental organization (NGO) projects. The role of CHWs, including their training, responsibilities, and idealized identities, has never been uniform, and has fluctuated over time in response to changing international health paradigms, national socioeconomic and political processes, and local-level power structures and expectations of the position. In this paper, I examine the changing nature of CHWs in the Central Highlands of Guatemala by focusing on the case of the Behrhorst Clinic in Chimaltenango, Guatemala. The Behrhorst Clinic was one of the first to implement a CHW program in Guatemala, and is one of the few NGOs in the region to operate continuously since the 1960s, providing a unique case study to examine the history and transformation of CHWs in three distinct sociopolitical periods: the Primary Health Care era (1960s-1970s); the sociopolitical violence (1970s-1980s); and the aftermath of the violence (1980s-2000s). This longitudinal analysis of the Behrhorst health promoter program highlights central, ongoing issues facing CHW programs in Guatemala and beyond including: the political susceptibility of community participation and empowerment programs; community participation and representation; and the long-term and intergenerational impact of CHW positions that function as a mechanism for socioeconomic advancement through the provision of curative services
Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity
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Asha between spaces of state, empowerment and culture
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A poverty in understanding’
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Muslim communities’ identity transformation through the pela gandong ritual communication in Moluccas Immanuel Church, Indonesia
Health by the people, again? The lost lessons of Alma-Ata in a community health worker programme in Zambia
Refugees of a hidden war
The Guatemalan Military Project
Maryknoll Sisters, Faith, Healing, and the Maya Construction of Catholic Communities in Guatemala
Divergent Models of Community Health Workers in Highland Guatemala
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CHWs
Physical access and utilization of health services in rural Guatemala
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Whither community-based health care
Bridging the gap
Lay workers in primary health care
Integrated local health systems in Central America
Promoting health, promoting women
Citizen participation overplanned
Fruit of the accords
Will primary health care efforts be allowed to succeed
Health in the Guatemalan Highlands
Consensus and Coercion
Dependency Theory in the Political Economy of Health
Remaking the Guatemalan Midwife
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,14 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2025 (7) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 8 |