About this Book

Health and healing are distinctive domains as far as the pursuit of people's wellbeing is concerned. In Africa, both fields have increasingly he tome subject to monetization and commodification, in short, the market. Based on extensive fieldwork in nine African countries by scholars with diverse academic backgrounds, this volume offers different perspectives on the emerging markets and the way medical staff, patients, households and institutions navigate them in their quest for well-being. By presenting a detailed economic ethnography of this multifaceted process of navigating the market, the book sets a new agenda for research as a result of the current predicaments facing health and healing in African societies.

Marleen Dekker, PhD (2004), is a senior researcher in development economics at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, She has worked extensively on social networks and risk-coping strategies in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Togo.

Rijk van Dijk, PhD (1992), is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre in Leiden, His research focuses on the rise of new religious movements in Africa, particularly Pentecostalism, in relation to globalization and transnational connections.