Claire Laurier Decoteau's Books

The Western Disease

Contesting Autism in the Somali Diaspora

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

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The Western Disease

Contesting Autism in the Somali Diaspora

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

Autism has become an all-too-common diagnosis here in the United States. Typically diagnosed in early childhood, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is identified based on developmental delays in three areas: language, social skills, and particular behaviors. But what Americans know and think about autism is shaped by our social relationship to health, disease, and our country's medical system. The Western Disease explores the ways that Somali recent immigrants make sense of their children's diagnosis of autism. Having never heard of the disease before migrating to North America, they often determine that since autism doesn't exist in Somalia, it must be a Western disease. Many even believe it is Somalis' forced migration to North America that has rendered their children vulnerable to the development of autism. As Decoteau shows, autism--as a category, identity, and diagnosis--does not exist in Somalia because the infrastructure for its emergence is absent. When Somalis say that autism does not exist in Somalia, however, they mean that the disorder is Western in nature--that it is caused by environmental and health conditions unique to life in North America. Following Somali parents as they struggle to make sense of their children's illness and advocate for alternative care, Decoteau untangles the complicated ways immigration, race, and class affect the Somali relationship to the disease, and how this helps us understand our distinctly American approach to healthcare"--

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Page Count

278

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022677225X

ISBN 13

9780226772257

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

The Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

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Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

The Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

In the years since the end of apartheid, South Africans have enjoyed a progressive constitution, considerable access to social services for the poor and sick, and a booming economy that has made their nation into one of the wealthiest on the continent. At the same time, South Africa experiences extremely unequal income distribution, and its citizens suffer the highest prevalence of HIV in the world. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has noted, “AIDS is South Africa’s new apartheid.” In Ancestors and Antiretrovirals, Claire Laurier Decoteau backs up Tutu’s assertion with powerful arguments about how this came to pass. Decoteau traces the historical shifts in health policy after apartheid and describes their effects, detailing, in particular, the changing relationship between biomedical and indigenous health care, both at the national and the local level. Decoteau tells this story from the perspective of those living with and dying from AIDS in Johannesburg’s squatter camps. At the same time, she exposes the complex and often contradictory ways that the South African government has failed to balance the demands of neoliberal capital with the considerable health needs of its population.

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343

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022606462X

ISBN 13

9780226064628

The Western Disease

Contesting Autism in the Somali Diaspora

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

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The Western Disease

Contesting Autism in the Somali Diaspora

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

Because autism is an increasingly common diagnosis, North Americans are familiar with its symptoms and treatments. But what we know and think about autism is shaped by our social relationship to health, disease, and the medical system. In The Western Disease Claire Laurier Decoteau explores the ways that recent immigrants from Somalia to Canada and the US make sense of their children’s diagnosis of autism. Having never heard of autism before migrating to North America, they often determine that it must be a Western disease. Given its apparent absence in Somalia, they view it as Western in nature, caused by environmental and health conditions unique to life in North America. Following Somali parents as they struggle to make sense of their children's illness and advocate for alternative care, Decoteau unfolds how complex interacting factors of immigration, race, and class affect Somalis’ relationship to the disease. Somalis’ engagement with autism challenges the prevailing presumption among Western doctors that their approach to healing is universal. Decoteau argues that centering an analysis on autism within the Somali diaspora exposes how autism has been defined and institutionalized as a white, middle-class disorder, leading to health disparities based on race, class, age, and ability. The Western Disease asks us to consider the social causes of disease and the role environmental changes and structural inequalities play in health vulnerability.

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278

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University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022677239X

ISBN 13

9780226772394

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

The Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

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Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

The Biopolitics of HIV/AIDS in Post-Apartheid South Africa

By: Claire Laurier Decoteau

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Solve jigsaw puzzle

Age

Page Count

343

Publisher

University of Chicago Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

022606462X

ISBN 13

9780226064628

Book's by Claire Laurier Decoteau

The Western Disease

The Western Disease

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

The Western Disease

The Western Disease

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

Ancestors and Antiretrovirals

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