- Email: [email protected]
Mobilities and Health
Emotion, Space and Society 5 (2012) 279–280
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Emotion, Space and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/emospa
Book review Mobilities and Health, Anthony C. Gatrell. Ashgate, Farnham (2011). xi and 229 pp. $99.95 hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-4094-1992-1 Mobility has been on the forefront of recent core debates in society and space. However, in health-related research mobility surprisingly remains marginal. Anthony Gatrell’s book is a welcome and convincing plea for change – for us to pay more sustained attention to how people, viruses or objects on the move impact health and well-being. Drawing on research in geography, sociology and epidemiology, Gatrell connects mobility and health in four core areas – travel, migration, diffusion, and communication and care. Inspired by the ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences he does not solely focus on health risk due to mobility or spread patterns of disease, but equally incorporates positive effects that mobility can have on well-being, as for instance vacations. Gatrell’s book reviews literature and case studies from around the world and thus will particularly appeal to students and those seeking to get an overview of recent scholarship on movement, mobilities and health. Part 1 of the book is focused on travel, and on “whether the journey itself is a means of deriving pleasure or benefits to mental health” (p. 23). In this section Gatrell discusses walking, cycling, car traffic, trains, planes and boats as means of transport as well as objects of leisure activity, such as for vacations. For instance, tracing walking for health and pleasure back to the Parisian tradition of ‘flaneurs’ and the formation of British rambler associations in the early 20th century, Gatrell charts the health benefits of exercising one’s body outdoors, but puts equal emphasis on the risks walking and cycling might entail – such as the exposure to air pollution or dangerous traffic. The specific dangers that car traffic poses to human health are the subject of the next chapter, where Gatrell carefully establishes how, through the terminology of ‘accident’, blame is assigned to misfortune or encountered obstacles, a trope that underplays the systematic risk that car traffic poses to health. Focusing on tourism, Gatrell shows with nuance that mobility might not only imply benefits and risks for those moving, but can have negative consequences for those not on the move, such as people being exploited by (sex) tourism. In the second part of the book the focus lies on migration. Going beyond the physical and emotional implications that the act of journeying brings, the focus is on moving for longer periods of time. In contexts of forced migration such as slavery, human trafficking and environmental disasters, Gatrell shows that the dispossessed and displaced are most likely to suffer reduced security and health. For instance, improvised shelters such as refugee camps harbour disease through overcrowding or insufficient sanitary facilities. But voluntary migration – undertaken to improve one’s life – might also have unexpected negative health effects,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2012.07.002
as people coming to terms with new social and cultural environments might be prone to mental health issues. These geographies of vulnerability and mobility are markedly different from the ones discussed in the ‘mobilities turn’ literature and deserve much more empirical attention (p. 106). The third section of the book interrogates mobility from a rather different vantage point. Diffusion discusses disease spread in first and second modernity and focuses mainly on the mobility not of humans but of disease agents. The first chapter shows nicely how the spread of infectious diseases (smallpox, bubonic plague, cholera, influenza and measles) are interlinked with the spatial movements of people and goods – for instance, the introduction of smallpox to Southern America through the Spanish imperial conquest. In the second chapter, Gatrell focuses on disease spread in times of air travel and globalisation. Questions of biosecurity and social justice are mobilised when diseases such as HIV/AIDS, FMD, SARS or malaria are understood in the context of mobility. Gatrell concludes, “Some of the diseases considered here are shaped by the distribution of power and resources and their incidence increases as such power and resource access diminishes. Others, particularly respiratory infections, such as influenza are, in a global context, shaped in other ways by access to ‘network capital’. (.) Yet despite the importance of global mobility networks in second modernity, more local networks involving mundane mobilities continue to be important and cannot be neglected” (p. 150). In the last part of the book communication and care and their impact on health and well-being are conceptualised as “an embodiment of globalisation” (p. 185). The chapter argues that new information technologies establish more possibilities for information seeking and online or phone support structures. Mobile or telemedicine holds the promise of effective and efficient health care at a distance, but could equally be seen as a form of surveillance. Shortages in care staff in developed countries have triggered a brain drain of educated carers moving from developing countries, and often create domestic shortages in resource-poor countries of origin. Similarly, medical tourism might reinforce inequalities of health care, where private hospitals in resource-poor countries provide high-quality tertiary care for tourists, while neglecting primary health care for local populations. On the other hand, Gatrell argues medical tourism creates attractive employment for highly skilled local health care personnel and so might slowly contribute to reversing the brain drain of health workers. Gatrell’s always balanced assessments of studies from all over the world on the topic of mobilities and health makes for a wonderful review. However, this breadth comes with a price,
280
Book review / Emotion, Space and Society 5 (2012) 279–280
Gatrell’s book cannot offer more than a cursory and – at times – eclectic overview of the literature on mobilities and health. Having said this, the book is enjoyable to read and clearly written and thus provides a rich resource for students or scholars wishing to familiarise themselves with the breadth and promise of research combining mobilities and health.
Uli Beisel Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University HalleWittenberg, Reichardtstrasse 11, Halle, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] 6 July 2012
Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect
Emotion, Space and Society journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/emospa
Book review Mobilities and Health, Anthony C. Gatrell. Ashgate, Farnham (2011). xi and 229 pp. $99.95 hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-4094-1992-1 Mobility has been on the forefront of recent core debates in society and space. However, in health-related research mobility surprisingly remains marginal. Anthony Gatrell’s book is a welcome and convincing plea for change – for us to pay more sustained attention to how people, viruses or objects on the move impact health and well-being. Drawing on research in geography, sociology and epidemiology, Gatrell connects mobility and health in four core areas – travel, migration, diffusion, and communication and care. Inspired by the ‘mobilities turn’ in the social sciences he does not solely focus on health risk due to mobility or spread patterns of disease, but equally incorporates positive effects that mobility can have on well-being, as for instance vacations. Gatrell’s book reviews literature and case studies from around the world and thus will particularly appeal to students and those seeking to get an overview of recent scholarship on movement, mobilities and health. Part 1 of the book is focused on travel, and on “whether the journey itself is a means of deriving pleasure or benefits to mental health” (p. 23). In this section Gatrell discusses walking, cycling, car traffic, trains, planes and boats as means of transport as well as objects of leisure activity, such as for vacations. For instance, tracing walking for health and pleasure back to the Parisian tradition of ‘flaneurs’ and the formation of British rambler associations in the early 20th century, Gatrell charts the health benefits of exercising one’s body outdoors, but puts equal emphasis on the risks walking and cycling might entail – such as the exposure to air pollution or dangerous traffic. The specific dangers that car traffic poses to human health are the subject of the next chapter, where Gatrell carefully establishes how, through the terminology of ‘accident’, blame is assigned to misfortune or encountered obstacles, a trope that underplays the systematic risk that car traffic poses to health. Focusing on tourism, Gatrell shows with nuance that mobility might not only imply benefits and risks for those moving, but can have negative consequences for those not on the move, such as people being exploited by (sex) tourism. In the second part of the book the focus lies on migration. Going beyond the physical and emotional implications that the act of journeying brings, the focus is on moving for longer periods of time. In contexts of forced migration such as slavery, human trafficking and environmental disasters, Gatrell shows that the dispossessed and displaced are most likely to suffer reduced security and health. For instance, improvised shelters such as refugee camps harbour disease through overcrowding or insufficient sanitary facilities. But voluntary migration – undertaken to improve one’s life – might also have unexpected negative health effects,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2012.07.002
as people coming to terms with new social and cultural environments might be prone to mental health issues. These geographies of vulnerability and mobility are markedly different from the ones discussed in the ‘mobilities turn’ literature and deserve much more empirical attention (p. 106). The third section of the book interrogates mobility from a rather different vantage point. Diffusion discusses disease spread in first and second modernity and focuses mainly on the mobility not of humans but of disease agents. The first chapter shows nicely how the spread of infectious diseases (smallpox, bubonic plague, cholera, influenza and measles) are interlinked with the spatial movements of people and goods – for instance, the introduction of smallpox to Southern America through the Spanish imperial conquest. In the second chapter, Gatrell focuses on disease spread in times of air travel and globalisation. Questions of biosecurity and social justice are mobilised when diseases such as HIV/AIDS, FMD, SARS or malaria are understood in the context of mobility. Gatrell concludes, “Some of the diseases considered here are shaped by the distribution of power and resources and their incidence increases as such power and resource access diminishes. Others, particularly respiratory infections, such as influenza are, in a global context, shaped in other ways by access to ‘network capital’. (.) Yet despite the importance of global mobility networks in second modernity, more local networks involving mundane mobilities continue to be important and cannot be neglected” (p. 150). In the last part of the book communication and care and their impact on health and well-being are conceptualised as “an embodiment of globalisation” (p. 185). The chapter argues that new information technologies establish more possibilities for information seeking and online or phone support structures. Mobile or telemedicine holds the promise of effective and efficient health care at a distance, but could equally be seen as a form of surveillance. Shortages in care staff in developed countries have triggered a brain drain of educated carers moving from developing countries, and often create domestic shortages in resource-poor countries of origin. Similarly, medical tourism might reinforce inequalities of health care, where private hospitals in resource-poor countries provide high-quality tertiary care for tourists, while neglecting primary health care for local populations. On the other hand, Gatrell argues medical tourism creates attractive employment for highly skilled local health care personnel and so might slowly contribute to reversing the brain drain of health workers. Gatrell’s always balanced assessments of studies from all over the world on the topic of mobilities and health makes for a wonderful review. However, this breadth comes with a price,
280
Book review / Emotion, Space and Society 5 (2012) 279–280
Gatrell’s book cannot offer more than a cursory and – at times – eclectic overview of the literature on mobilities and health. Having said this, the book is enjoyable to read and clearly written and thus provides a rich resource for students or scholars wishing to familiarise themselves with the breadth and promise of research combining mobilities and health.
Uli Beisel Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology, University HalleWittenberg, Reichardtstrasse 11, Halle, Germany E-mail address: [email protected] 6 July 2012