Quarantine and Its Malcontents
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7640835 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Umberto Pellecchia (0000-0003-1224-8698, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 15-24 |
| Publication date | 2017-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology in Action (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-201X • E-ISSN: 1752-2285 |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3167/aia.2017.240203 |
| OpenAlex | W2738629688 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 10 |
A bstract This article examines how populations affected by the Ebola epidemic in Liberia reacted to the implementation of mandatory, state-imposed quarantine as a way of curtailing transmission. The ethnography, based on in-depth fieldwork in both urban and rural areas, shows how mandatory quarantine caused severe social consequences for both people’s perceptions of epidemic control and their health-seeking behaviours. The authoritarian imposition of this public-health measure soon became a driver of social fear that contributed to the divide between institutions and population, jeopardising the control of transmission. Its implementation overshadowed more acceptable local quarantine measures that communities were organising to protect themselves from transmission. The analysis argues that quarantine in Liberia was counterproductive and suggests alternatives to epidemic control rooted in social acceptance and local practices
Authoritarianism · Control (management · Democracy · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Political science · Population · Quarantine · Social control · Sociology · State (computer science · Transmission (telecommunications · COVID-19 epidemiological studies · Demography · Engineering · Global Security and Public Health · Law · Medicine · Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
| Citations per year | 0.63 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Highly cited | No |