In this research project, I examine and analyse globalised health care policies and the related infrastructures in the Kilimanjaro region in Tanzania. I will provide a holistic portrayal of a health system and the peoples it serves by exploring the vicissitudes of sickness and health and the plurality of therapeutic trajectories. The project produces new knowledge about the state of public and private health care systems and infrastructures under free-market conditions by using a local-scale approach to examine a global issue. Additionally, the project will contribute to a broader understanding of health-seeking behaviours by using ethnographic methods to analyse social dynamics of health care in the community and within health care systems. The project has an explicit aim of producing information that will have direct uses in improving health care systems and infrastructure in the developing world.

Team

There is an increasing surge in the conflict between farmers and carnivores in Namibia (as well as in many other areas). Namibian farmers are living on the edge between making economic profit or suffering losses from their activities every year. Loss of livestock predated by carnivores (such as lions, leopards, jackals) may significantly negatively affect the unstable economic balance of farmers at the end of the year. As a response, farmers have started to apply an easy-to-implement, yet illegal, solution consisting in the administration of poisons to predated livestock carcasses. Such practice not only kills carnivores, as in the farmers wish, but has repercussions on the entire ecosystem, with vulture species seemingly the most negatively, yet indirectly, affected. This project will use an interdisciplinary approach to understand the factors that most importantly affect the use of poison by farmers in Namibia. It will also allow to quantify and map the use of poison across the country. The map will pinpoint the major hotspots of poison use where conservation efforts should be focused in order to resolve the conflict between farmers and wildlife.

Team

Peter Bridgeford, Holger Kolberg

The concept of leadership is going through big changes. We have previously seen large changes in both the micro and macro levels of leadership. One of the key concepts to continue looking at would be the developing trends of virtualization and digitalization in regards to leadership. Long distance leadership especially through the internet, will be a fundamental skill required by future leaders. Digitalization is a common practice in many of today’s organizations, and mobile leadership is beginning to emerge as an equally important leadership tool. Working remotely from locations outside of the typical work environment is a growing trend within organizations and expert networks.

Team

Dr Päivi Huotari, Dr Päivi Tossavainen, Dr Marja Kukkurainen, Lecturer Pasi Laine, HAMK