What if hardship causes drug resistance?
The global response to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) emphasises individual responsibility and knowledge as key drivers of behaviour change. Although important, this focus tends to neglect contextual and structural dimensions of antimicrobial use. If marginalisation and precarity drive people into seemingly irrational antimicrobial use, then information campaigns and “nudges” are unlikely to change behaviour, and we might require fundamentally different health policy tools.
Taking a development studies perspective, this seminar will explore hardship as a driver of AMR-related health behaviour. We will examine specifically the concepts of marginalisation and precarity and study them empirically through recent cross-sectional qualitative and representative survey research from Thailand and Laos.
Considering lived experiences of rural and peri-urban dwellers, patterns of treatment-seeking behaviour among marginalised groups, and the influence of indicators of precarity on antibiotic use, the case analysis will provide new policy insights and outline research opportunities to explore structural factors in human health behaviour.
About the speaker
Before Marco Haenssgen's appointment at Warwick as Assistant Professor in Global Sustainable Development in January 2019, he held a position as Postdoctoral Scientist - Health Policy and Systems at the Centre of Tropical Medicine and Global Health, University of Oxford. Outside of academia, he has worked as a development economist and consultant for German development agencies (DEG, KfW), and has experience in aid evaluation, management consulting, and intergovernmental policy making at the United Nations.
He is a social scientist by training, holding a DPhil in International Development (2015) and MPhil in Development Studies (2012) from the University of Oxford and a BSc in General Management from the European Business School, Oestrich-Winkel (2009; now EBS University of Business and Law).
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