The Burden of Elders: Anxiety, Depression, and Personal Networks in Two African Slums.

ABSTRACT: Although anxiety and depression have been central topics for scholars and clinicians in the United States, few studies have examined their correlates in sub-Saharan Africa and none have examined large urban slums. Using face-to-face interviews in two African cities, we analyze self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression in a community-based sample (n = 495). Ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze a variety of demographic and social predictors including sex, child-rearing, marital status, education, income, age, and neighborhood for residents of Agbogbloshie (Accra, Ghana) and Kangemi (Nairobi, Kenya). Controlling for other factors, two personal network dimensions were significant. Total network size is positively associated with symptoms of anxiety and depression in Kenya but not in Ghana. However, one factor was predictive of symptoms of anxiety and depression in both locations: the reported percentage of ties with older persons. Higher levels of anxiety and depression are associated with a larger share of older individuals in one's personal network.

Politics and trust in Ebola vaccine trials The case of Ghana.

Vaccine trials for infectious diseases take place in a milieu of trust in which scientists, regulatory institutions, and volunteers trust each other to play traditional roles. This milieu of trust emerges from a combination of preexisting linkages embedded in the local and national political context. Using the case of failed vaccine trials in Hohoe, Ghana, we explore this milieu of trust by employing the concept of tandems of trust and control, with a particular focus on the perceived characteristics of the disease and the linkages formed. An analysis of qualitative interviews collected in Hohoe following the West Africa Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 shows that the trust/control nexus in vaccine trials precedes the implementation of those trials, while both the characteristics of Ebola and the political context shaped the formation and breakdown of relationships in the trial network.

Who's afraid of Ebola? Epidemic fires and locative fears in the Information Age.

Epidemics have traditionally been viewed as the widespread occurrence of infectious disease within a community, or a sudden increase above what is typical. But modern epidemics are both more and less than the diffusion of viral entities. We argue that epidemics are 'fire objects', using a term coined by Law and Singleton: They generate locative fears through encounters that focus attention on entities that are unknown or imprecisely known, transforming spaces and humans into indeterminate dangers, alternating appearance and absence. The Ebola epidemic of 2014 had more complex impacts than the number of infections would suggest. We employ multi-sited qualitative interviews to argue that locative fear is the essence of modern global epidemics. In the discussion we contrast Ebola with both the Zika epidemic that followed and the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

What caused the flood? Controversy and closure in the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Causal attribution for one of the largest disasters in American history has undergone three major shifts. From August 2005 through November 2009, the principal explanation of the flooding of New Orleans was characterized by three distinguishable phases - reactive, organizational, and legal - as the catastrophic events of Hurricane Katrina were ascribed to natural, geotechnical, and environmental causes. From a monstrous storm, to failed levees, and ultimately the loss of wetlands through an insidious shipping channel, 'what happened' should be viewed as a technoscientific development in which media and litigation processes transformed the structural conditions for the production of knowledge claims. Video ethnography is used to examine causal transitions as structural conditions of inquiry changed. Levees - the most important symbol of failure - shifted from cause to consequence. Understanding of disaster cycled from nature to humans, and to nature once more.

Isolated in a technologically connected world?: Changes in the core professional ties of female researchers in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala, India.

Using panel data gathered across two waves (2001 and 2005) from researchers in Ghana, Kenya, and Kerala, India, we examine three questions: (1) To what extent do gender differences exist in the core professional networks of scientists in low-income areas? (2) How do gender differences shift over time? (3) Does use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) mediate the relationship between gender and core network composition? Our results indicate that over a period marked by dramatic increases in access to and use of various ICTs, the composition and size of female researchers core professional ties have either not changed significantly or have changed in an unexpected direction. Indeed, the size of women's ties are retracting over time rather than expanding.