Reimagining Social Medicine from the South

“Compelling and original, Reimagining Social Medicine from the South rethinks core concepts in historical and anthropological discussions of health and healing in Africa through the lenses of political ecology and relational ontologies. Drawing on rich ethnographic and archival examples, Abigail H. Neely illuminates how robust conceptions of the ‘social’ at the heart of a pioneering social medicine project in rural South Africa nonetheless struggled to incorporate more-than-human understandings of life and well-being. The book's insistence that health and illness are entanglements that exceed the confines of the individual body and academic renderings of the ‘social’ alike is a call for place-based models for improving health that challenge global health's narrow frames of measurability and efficacy.” - Cal Biruk, author of Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World

“It is not easy to develop an analysis that incorporates both racial capitalism and witchcraft, but through her deeply respectful ethnographic examination of the work of a groundbreaking and highly influential health clinic in South Africa, Abigail H. Neely manages to do just that. Her penultimate chapter is a phenomenal rendition of the multiple ontologies of health.” - Julie Guthman, author of Wilted: Pathogens, Chemicals and the Fragile Future of the Strawberry Industry

"... Interested readers at all levels will gain important insights into the challenges posed by global initiatives in social medicine. Recommended. Graduate students and faculty. General readers." - S. W. Moss, Choice

“Neely’s theorizing is smart, sophisticated, and intriguing.” - Daniel Jordan Smith, International Journal of African Historical Studies

“Neely’s book will be especially useful for graduate students and professionals working with the large body of existing literature on health interventions . . . and need a strong model for how to rework this literature in exciting critical and theoretical frames.” - Casey Golomski, Medical Anthropology Quarterly

"Reimagining Social Medicine from the South is bound to intrigue any family physician. . . . Abigail H. Neely has successfully highlighted the conceptual framework of the practice of social medicine in South Africa, its uniqueness, the strengths of the PCHC model, and its weaknesses. She has emphasized the importance of social elements in the practice of social medicine. Her personal narrative makes the book an easy read, more humane and appealing." - Rashmi Rode, Family Medicine

"The argument is presented in a highly original way, via rich ethnographic exemplification, elegantly bringing theories of multiplicity and entanglement into dialogue with racial capitalism and political ecology approaches." - Branwyn Poleykett, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute