Social Anthropology

In this book, Harding forces us to reconsider the assumptions underlying ADHD and how we think about medical diagnoses, disability, health and authority. Harding unwraps these bewildering and conflicting ADHD issues while investigating the spiraling amount of overdiagnosed cases of ADHD, many often highly medicated and taught to conform rather than to thrive, no matter the individual or societal cost. Harding examines how the ADHD crisis drives perilous and dangerous conditions while providing fresh directions ahead to disarm this ailment and start harnessing ADHD as a beneficial form of human diversity. In this fresh approach to ADHD, results from more than four years of global field research from Finland to California investigating ADHD in children, adolescents and adults is woven together to create a fascinating tapestry of new ADHD understanding. In this new understanding, Harding provides everyday innovative approaches to harnessing and thriving with ADHD while dedicating pain staking effort to shedding insight into the many controversies igniting the ADHD crises. As Harding passionately argues, policy makers, healthcare professions, parents and other stakeholders are not only supporting the overdiagnosis of ADHD, but fundamentally thinking about ADHD all wrong. The Field Guide to ADHD: What They Dont Want You to Know passionately intervenes in this wrongly handled situation by forcing people to reconsider ADHD assumptions, providing evidence based directions for containing the perilous ADHD crisis and introducing highly impactful everyday solutions to harness the diverse benefits of ADHD.

A 1997 study by Lomas and Garside suggests a 62% prevalence rate of ADHD amongst homeless, which prompts a need for further elucidation of this relationship. This thesis study sought to examine the relationship between Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the homeless youth population aged 18-24. The overall focus was to investigate the prevalence rate of ADHD in homeless youth 18-24 and to examine the relationship between ADHD diagnosis (utilizing WURS and ASRSv1.1) and relational variables. A structured survey instrument was developed to collect interview data on demographics, employment status, substance abuse and housing instability variables. Twenty-four homeless youths (n=24, 20 males, 4 females; age range, 18-24, mean age=21.71 years) were randomly approached (n=85 approached) and verbally screened for study inclusion based upon reported age between 18 to 24 years. Participants were administered the ASRS-v1.1 and WURS dichotomous response structured survey instruments to determine ADHD diagnosis. Study data suggests a higher prevalence of ADHD in ages 18-21 (WURS 75%; ASRS-v1.1 88%) than ages 22-24 (WURS 56%; ASRS-v1.1 88%). Data suggests a marginally higher rate of ADHD diagnosis in males (ASRS-v1.1 95%; WURS 75%) than females (ASRS-v1.1 75%; WURS 75%). Participants in the 18-21-age cohort experienced an average of 68 days of housing instability while participants in the 22-24-age cohort experienced a proportionally higher average of 278 days of housing instability. Both age cohorts (18-21 and 22-24) suggested a 100% rate of unemployment and substance abuse. The majority of participants were Caucasian (18-24 88%; 22-24 94%; sample mean, 89%) with marginal African-Americans (18-21 13%; 22-24 6%; same mean, 5%) and other identified ethnicities (6%; age cohort 22-24). Data suggests a higher prevalence of ADHD in homeless youth aged 18-21 (WURS 75%; ASRS-v1.1 88%) that were newly homeless (avg. days experienced housing instability, 68), which may suggest that ADHD symptomatology could be a vulnerability factor influencing youth homelessness.

Abstract

Background:

Migratory populations at the US-Mexico border face considerable ethno-racial barriers, social exclusion, inequalities and disparities.  Migrants are routinely unable to access potentially life-saving prevention and intervention biomedical healthcare services. For this review study we focus on explicating discriminatory sociodemographic, ethno-racial and structural barriers to accessing biomedical health services in migratory populations transiting liminal spaces at and near the US-Mexico borderlands.

Methods:

For this study of migratory sociodemographic and ethno-racial discrimination in accessing and receiving biomedical healthcare services along the US-Mexico borders, we performed a computerized search in Google Scholar, Web of Science (ISI Web of Science) and JSTOR from April 2013 to April 2018 that followed by a literature review. In the search, agglomerations and combinations of the keywords “US Mexico Border Health,” “Discrimination” and “Racism” are utilized. We limited our review inclusion to English only articles and focused on peer reviewed sources in the past five (5) years for relevancy. Further article inclusion and analyses is determined by close review of article abstract and content for inclusion review applicability.

Results:

The computerized search returned n=57 articles of which after applying inclusion criteria and performing abstract and article analysis, n=7 articles are selected for inclusion in this study. This careful analysis and review of the study article suggests migratory, transient populations moving through liminal spaces at the US-Mexico border face considerable ethno-racial and sociodemographic discrimination, violence and social exclusion which present enormous barriers and structural inequities to participating in and receiving adequate biomedical services along the US-Mexico borderlands.

Conclusions:

Migratory populations transiting liminal spaces at the US-Mexico border encounter highly exclusionary, unequal and discriminatory biomedical healthcare according to our review. Increased attention is urgently indicated in investigating healthcare exclusion, disparities and inequalities. Continuing research must be pursued to develop inclusive policies and programs designed to address biomedical healthcare inequities, lapses and disparities, particularly in vulnerable migratory populations at and within the US-Mexico border zones.

Keywords: Global Health, US Mexico Border, Disparities, Inequalities

This paper examines the two busiest land border zones globally as measured by daily crossing activity in North America and Southern Africa. This includes the political border zones of Beitbridge in South Africa and Zimbabwe and San Ysidro and Tijuana in the United States and Mexico. The review and comparative analysis performed in this study suggests that these border zones exist as uniquely separate sovereign zones from host countries with distinct political, social, economic and spatial qualities. These border areas are underscored by a high prevalence of migratory transience, movement and insecurity. As highly insecure and transient migratory spaces, qualities of social, economic and health exclusion and inequality figure largely into the daily calculus of the lived border zone experience. These two border zones thrive under conditions of contested survival with an ingrained dichotomy of affective and physical violence contrasted with aspirations for hope, rebirth and renewal. This paper broadly examines this contested differentiation and the distinct qualities of the two busiest global land border crossings. This analysis and discussion offers empirical directions forward to frame deeply needed continuing research, development efforts and public policy formulation at and near the political boundaries of North America and Southern Africa.

This installation seeks to re/imagine the transnational materiality and lived experience of the conceptual global border zone and machinations of political boundaries by utilizing a mixed media installation of ten-fifteen items created during comparative participatory field-work in the Southern Africa and US-Mexico borderlands. This installation seeks to depart from impartial, biased and/or antiquated models of the daily global border in categorizing its people, spaces, places, objects, nuances and daily life as "other.” This work seek to depart from the characterization of border phenomenon as foreign, too difficult or too complex to define, as a place of "crises, chaos, conflict and crime," as commonly portrayed in media and empirical literature. Rather this mixed media installation seeks to reorient, contest and create a dialectical relationship between participatory data and the unequal epistemological and ontological threads found in media and empirical data. This installation reports on the daily global border experience from an empowered, inclusive and diverse perspective of co-knowledge creators. Thus, this ten-fifteen item installation seeks to push past presently situated and/or decided forms of global border materiality, subjectivity and spatiality in incorporating participatory knowledge while seeking to re/configure and re/orient built impressions of the global border and its people, spaces, places, objects and nuances.

ABSTRACT The democratic impulse that spurred a wave of political and economic reform policies in Cameroon in the 1990s appears to have witnessed a reversal. This is the case with urban governance policies. The imposition of state-appointed city administrators on locally elected mayors and councillors in contradiction to the aspirations of citizens has not augured well for local democratic practices. This interventionist drive by the state in the process of local democratization effectively excludes a considerable segment of urban residents from local governance proceedings. To understand the effects of these politically motivated policies on city politics in Cameroon, this paper draws from broad historical data, local press reports, and close observation of on-going development initiatives in the city of Kumba. This is done against the backdrop of persistent structural and political problems associated with the failure of city councils in Cameroon to provide meaningful and consistent service delivery such as garbage disposal. This paper concludes that sustainable urban development in Cameroon could be based on trust that embraces and cuts across all stakeholders within urban municipalities.

... Rogers Tabe Egbe Orock Department: Department of Anthropology, Archaeology and Linguistics University/Institution: Aarhus University Town/City: Moesgaard State (US only ... began earnestly articulating the ideological project of national unity up to 1990, when President Biya ...