{"title":"PHARMACY, MONEY AND PUBLIC HEALTH IN DAKAR.","authors":"Noémi Tousignant","doi":"10.1017/S0001972013000454","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Pharmacy students at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar must research and write a thesis to graduate. <i>Thésards</i> who took topics in analytical chemistry and toxicology describe their thesis work as a temporary opportunity to perform 'street-level' public health research that they regard as 'relevant' to the quality of people's lives. Expecting futures in the private commercial sector, <i>thésards</i> regretfully leave the thesis behind. This article explores the parenthetical nature of this moment - its brief openings and more durable closures - as part of the history of ways of being a pharmacist in post-colonial Senegal. The thesis as an interlude in students' biographies, curtailed by narrowed horizons of expectation, evokes other contractions: in the range of professional roles open to Senegalese pharmacists, and in the circuits of public health with which they might engage. For <i>thésards,</i> fieldwork, government work and commercial work entail spatial practices and imaginations; different ways of moving around the city and of tracing urban space that define pharmacists' roles in terms of the modes through which they engage with broader collectivities. Mapping <i>thésards'</i> parenthesis in Dakar is a means of capturing both their urban experience of work and the intertwining spatial, temporal and affective dimensions associated with this work. The past, probable and possible trajectories of pharmacy work are imprinted and imagined in the space of the city as field, market and polis. Pharmacists' prospects and aspirations are caught up in broader shifts in how education, (un)employment and entrepreneurship animate relations of association and exchange in Senegal.</p>","PeriodicalId":7464,"journal":{"name":"Africa","volume":"83 4","pages":"561-581"},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2013-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/S0001972013000454","citationCount":"10","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Africa","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1017/S0001972013000454","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ANTHROPOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 10
Abstract
Pharmacy students at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar must research and write a thesis to graduate. Thésards who took topics in analytical chemistry and toxicology describe their thesis work as a temporary opportunity to perform 'street-level' public health research that they regard as 'relevant' to the quality of people's lives. Expecting futures in the private commercial sector, thésards regretfully leave the thesis behind. This article explores the parenthetical nature of this moment - its brief openings and more durable closures - as part of the history of ways of being a pharmacist in post-colonial Senegal. The thesis as an interlude in students' biographies, curtailed by narrowed horizons of expectation, evokes other contractions: in the range of professional roles open to Senegalese pharmacists, and in the circuits of public health with which they might engage. For thésards, fieldwork, government work and commercial work entail spatial practices and imaginations; different ways of moving around the city and of tracing urban space that define pharmacists' roles in terms of the modes through which they engage with broader collectivities. Mapping thésards' parenthesis in Dakar is a means of capturing both their urban experience of work and the intertwining spatial, temporal and affective dimensions associated with this work. The past, probable and possible trajectories of pharmacy work are imprinted and imagined in the space of the city as field, market and polis. Pharmacists' prospects and aspirations are caught up in broader shifts in how education, (un)employment and entrepreneurship animate relations of association and exchange in Senegal.
期刊介绍:
Africa is the premier journal devoted to the study of African societies and culture. Editorial policy encourages an interdisciplinary approach, involving humanities, social sciences, and environmental sciences. Africa aims to give increased attention to African production of knowledge, highlighting the work of local African thinkers and writers, emerging social and cultural trends ''on the ground'', and links between local and national levels of society. At the same time, it maintains its commitment to the theoretically informed analysis of the realities of Africa''s own cultural categories. Each issue contains six or seven major articles, arranged thematically, extensive review essays and substantial book reviews. Special issues are published annually.