Adaptive sport as affirmation: "We focus on our strengths, not our disabilities".

This paper offers a counter-narrative to the stereotype of people with physical and cognitive impairments being less inclined to participate in athletic activities. It contributes to the affirmative model proposed by Swain and French, which posits a non-tragic view of disability that encompasses positive social identities. We employed the tools of ethnography and phenomenology to explore the adaptive athlete experience among individuals practicing various sports and exhibiting divergent levels of proficiency. Findings confirm the appropriateness of the affirmative model and provide examples of movement from the state of liminality to that of communitas as defined by Victor Turner.

The Body in the Mirror: Breast Cancer, Liminality and Borderlands.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women worldwide, and has a high mortality rate in northern Mexico. Its high rates present one of the principal health challenges of the California-Baja California border region. We employed "entangled" ethnography and interpretative phenomenological methods to explore breast cancer experiences among a group of Mexican immigrant women living on the US side of this border. We explore their trajectory from biographical disruption to biographical renewal. The entangled ethnographic approach includes reflections of the first author's experience as a genetic breast cancer survivor.

"Where they (live, work and) spray": pesticide exposure, childhood asthma and environmental justice among Mexican-American farmworkers.

Asthma prevalence is reportedly low for children of Mexican descent compared with other ethnic groups and Latino subgroups. The results of our exploratory ethnographic research among children of farmworkers in California dramatically suggest otherwise. Unstructured and semi-structured open-ended interviews and photovoice methods were combined to explore the lived experiences of members of a marginalized farmworker community. This research gives voice to a population of families living in the highly toxic, yet agriculturally wealthy environment of the San Joaquin Valley. Little work has been reported employing photovoice, a community-based participatory research method, to study childhood exposure to pesticides. A rich narrative about perceptions of pesticide exposure emerged from the ethnographic interviews. Thematic analysis yielded beliefs about the relationship between air quality and childhood asthma. The findings suggest that childhood asthma should be reviewed within the context of local levels of environmental exposure and the principles of environmental justice.

Nonprescription antibiotic therapy: cultural models on both sides of the counter and both sides of the border.

Antibiotic resistance is a global public health threat exacerbated by medically unwarranted or improper antibiotic use. Pharmacy counters at the U.S.-Mexico border provide an example of where lay decisions to use antibiotics in ways considered "risky" may be initiated and negotiated. We test how cultural and public health knowledge of antibiotics is distributed among pharmacy staff, local Mexican clients, and U.S. medical tourists in the bordertown of Nogales using a cultural consensus tool. We find that shared cultural models across these groups include public health statements; however, other shared statements are likely to reinforce antibiotic sales at pharmacy counters by those on both sides of the purchase as economic, rather than therapeutic, encounters. From a public health perspective, border pharmacy counters are not a location where increased "safe" knowledge about antibiotic use is being transmitted. However, we do find a positive relationship between "safe" knowledge and reductions in risky behavior.

Childhood asthma, air quality, and social suffering among Mexican Americans in California's San Joaquin Valley: "Nobody talks to us here".

Nearly one in five Mexican American children residing in California's San Joaquin Valley (the Valley) in 2007 had an asthma attack at some point in their life. Numerous epidemiological studies have suggested that compared with other ethnic groups and Latino subgroups residing in the United States, Mexican origin children have the lowest rates of pediatric asthma. Ethnographic research conducted in central California, however, suggests otherwise. Known for its agricultural produce, extreme poverty, and poor air quality, the Valley is a magnet for the Mexican immigrant farm worker population. We conducted an exploratory ethnographic study to examine health disparities, social suffering, and childhood asthma in the Valley. Many Valley residents believe that their children's health concerns are being ignored. Open-ended interviews uncovered a largely rural community suffering not only from the effects of childhood asthma but the inability to have their experiences taken seriously.

Childhood asthma on the northern Mexico border.

Children with asthma living on the northern Mexico border suffer not only from the physical aspects of this condition, but also from the lack of a clear biomedical definition and treatment plan for the illness. An ethnographic study involving participant observation and focused interviews in Tijuana, Mexico, sought to understand the intersection of diagnostic uncertainties surrounding childhood asthma on the part of parents, particularly mothers, living in acute poverty. Environmental factors such as dust and insects in impoverished homes probably acted as asthma triggers among many of the children in the study. Furthermore, management of children's asthma took place not only in biomedical clinics, but also in homes, traditional medical settings, and pharmacies, where mothers often sought remedies for their children's asthma attacks on an emergency basis. In all treatment settings, including biomedical ones, they often faced significant barriers to effective care, including the misuse of antibiotics. Thus, the role of pharmaceutical sales clerks, as well as pediatric asthma specialists, is explored in this article.