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- Jansen Aasgaard, Karine, 1978-
(författare)
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Otherness and Disease in Reunion : The Politicisation of the 2005-2007 Chikungunya Epidemic
- 2014
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Ingår i: Tidsskrift for kulturforskning. - Oslo : Novus Forlag. - 1502-7473 .- 2387-6727. ; 13:1-2, s. 61-65
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Forskningsöversikt (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Fra mars 2005 til april 2007 ble den fransÂke øya Réunion i det Indiske Hav for første gang rammet av en epidemi av den vektorbårne sykdommen chikungunya. En vektorbåren sykdom innebærer at smitte overføres indirekte til mennesker via en biologisk bærer slik som mygg, fluer, flått og liknende. Chikungunya-viruset spres via mygg (aedes), og fører blant annet til sterke leddsmerter som kan vare i alt fra noen dager til flere år. Andre symptomer er feber, hodepine og utslett. Rundt 1/3 av Réunion’s totale befolkning på 802 000 mennesker ble smittet, og 250 døde under epidemien.
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| 2. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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Challenging chikungunya : Resistance to public health measures and aetiology during the 2005-2007 epidemic in Réunion
- 2020
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Ingår i: Disease Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World. - Cham : Palgrave Macmillan. - 9783030362638 - 9783030362645 ; , s. 237-254
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From 2005 to 2007, the French overseas department and western Indian Ocean island of Réunion was significantly affected by an epidemic of chikungunya. Chikungunya is a vector-spread disease (by the Aedes mosquito) which leads to painful rheumatic symptoms. This was the first occurrence of chikungunya in the region, and the disease infected almost 30 per cent of the island’s total population of 802,000 inhabitants.The large numbers in infected cases were, in part, due to the vector’s adaptation to an urban, that is a densely populated and domesticated, environment. For example, the Aedes mosquitoes reproduce in both natural and artificial reservoirs of stagnant water such as flower pots, bottles, plastic food containers, car tyres and other refuse often found close to people’s homes. As there was no known vaccine against the virus, public health policies considered the eradication of mosquito breeding grounds to be the most efficient preventive measure against disease diffusion. As a result, sanitary field agents regularly inspected people’s gardens since the onset of the epidemic. From a local perspective however, such interventions were often considered problematic. Not only did the field agents trespass cultural spatial boundaries regarding housing and living, but they also brought forth memories of how previous vector-borne epidemics such as malaria were addressed by the French public health authorities in the island. This contributed towards the stigmatisation of chikungunya and, in turn, the development of alternative disease aetiologies in Réunion.
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| 3. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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Defending the Body
- 2010
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Ingår i: Ethnologia Scandinavica. - Uppsala : Swedish Science Press. - 0348-9698. ; 40, s. 16-27
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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Otherness and disease in Reunion : The politicisation of the 2005 to 2007 chikungunya epidemic
- 2013
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this dissertation I investigate how decolonisation through inclusion instead of independence has affected processes of othering, and reactions to being othered. By othering I mean discursive colonial practices described by post-colonial theories, in which racial and cultural difference is produced as inferior vis-à-vis the “superior” West. The study is based upon a total of eight months of anthropological fieldwork and qualitative research in the French overseas department and Indian Ocean island of Réunion. I focus on the influence of processes of othering on conceptualisations and expectations of (equal) French citizenship, and experiences with disease on the island. This is discussed via the empirical case of Réunion’s first epidemic of the vector-borne disease of chikungunya, which infected almost 30 per cent of the island’s total population of 802,000 inhabitants with painful symptoms of arthralgia from 2005 to 2007. I concentrate particularly on the politicisation of the epidemic as indicated by the rise of polemics and frictions between the local printed press and the Réunionese population on one side, and the public health authorities and the French government on the other. I argue that the controversy was brought on by local reactions against discourses and practices of otherness within French officialdom, for example the late and insufficient preventative intervention by the government and public health authorities.My main argument is that departmentalisation has not erased processes of othering in Réunion, but that it has influenced its manifestations. To discuss this, I draw upon the feminist philosopher Luce Irigaray’s ontological approach to sexual difference and gendered otherness by applying her perspectives to explore processes of post-colonial othering. Within Western philosophy the other is produced in opposition to the initial concept of the same. While post-colonial theories primarily conceive of othering as a process to establish difference in order to justify subordination of the other, Irigaray argues that otherness emerges from a Eurocentric expectation of sameness, i.e. similarity. According to Irigaray, otherness is the result of the dominance of a Western philosophical oneness-model upon our ways of thinking and relating to the world, and is produced as the other is absorbed into the same. As a result the other is prevented from establishing independent and equal subjectivity. Within this line of thinking, otherness is not understood to be primarily produced through a manifestation of difference as indicated by post-colonial theories, but is rather a result of its inclusion into the same. I propose this as a useful approach to the discussion of how processes of othering may play out in a post-colonial situation characterised by inclusion instead of separation, as in the case of Réunion’s departmentalisation. Furthermore, I suggest that the politicisation of the chikungunya epidemic was largely caused by failed Réunionese expectations of equal citizenship.The question of otherness is investigated in the introduction to this dissertation, and in four separate articles. While the introduction provides a historical, theoretical and methodological framework for the reading of the articles, the first article, “The 2005–2007 chikungunya epidemic in Réunion: ambiguous etiologies, memories and meaning-making” (Jansen 2013), focuses on how confrontations with otherness led to a local questioning of the biomedical aetiology of chikungunya. In order to make sense of the new disease on the island, people often chose to rely on alternative explanations regarding its transmission. In the second article, “The printed press’s representations of the 2005–2007 chikungunya epidemic in Réunion: political polemics and (post)colonial disease” (Jansen 2012), I discuss how the local printed press contributed to the instigation of the political polemics against the French government and the public health authorities. Their criticism was largely brought on as a reaction against representations of Réunionese otherness within the national press and officialdom, but also reflected local perceptions of desertion by the French nation state. The article is based upon an analysis of 111 articles on chikungunya during the epidemic in Réunion’s two main newspapers. In the third article, “Defending the body” (Jansen 2010), I focus on Irigaray’s perspectives on otherness as produced through inclusion and sameness, rather than through an establishment of difference. By comparing Irigaray’s approach to otherness with Simone de Beauvoir’s arguably phenomenological perspectives, the article explores how processes of othering have diverging effects on various bodies, which may influence experiences with illness. The article provides a theoretical backdrop for the reading of the dissertation. In article four, “Otherness as sameness: an Irigarayan perspective on decolonisation through inclusion in French Réunion” (submitted), I use Irigaray’s approach as a theoretical tool to explore how departmentalisation as a strategy for decolonisation has affected processes of othering and reactions to being othered in Réunion. The objective of the article is to acknowledge local struggles for equal citizenship as a strategic move towards the island’s decolonisation along the lines of struggles for emancipation. Moreover, I discuss how political events during the post-departmentalisation years may be described as political dynamics associated with post-colonial and neo-colonial societies simultaneously.
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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The 2005-2007 chikungunya epidemic in Reunion : Ambigious etiologies, memories and meaning-making
- 2013
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Ingår i: Medical Anthropology. - : Taylor & Francis Group. - 0145-9740 .- 1545-5882. ; 32:2, s. 174-189
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From March 2005 to April 2007 the French overseas department and Indian Ocean island of Réunion was significantly affected by an epidemic of chikungunya. Chikungunya is a vector-spread disease (by the aedes albopictus mosquito) that leads to painful rheumatic symptoms. The disease infected approximately one third of the island's total population of 802,000 inhabitants (Rallu 2009). This article is a discussion of local etiological accounts of chikungunya. The primary topic raised by informants was whether chikungunya was a vector- or air-borne disease. Even though informants had access to substantial biomedical information concerning the disease and its transmission, some were convinced by it and others were not. In order to make meaning of the disease, the Réunionese drew on various types of medical knowledge from different health sectors simultaneously. To understand people's experiences with chikungunya, we must account for all of their etiological explanations.
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| 8. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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The printed press's representations of the 2005-2007 chikungunya epidemic in Réunion : political polemics and (post)colonial disease
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of African Media Studies. - : Intellect Ltd.. - 2040-199X .- 1751-7974. ; 4:2, s. 227-242
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From 2005 to 2007 the French overseas department and Indian Ocean island of Réunion experienced for the first time ever an epidemic of chikungunya. Chikungunya is a vector-spread disease by mosquitoes that leads to painful rheumatic symptoms, and infected approximately one-third of the island’s population of approximately 802,000 inhabitants. This article is based upon a discourse analysis of text and images of 111 articles on chikungunya in Réunion’s two main newspapers. During the epidemic the Réunionese printed press functioned as a provider of information, and an instigator of political polemics. The newspapers’ criticism responded to ‘orientalist’ representations of chikungunya within national press – and officialdom, but also reflected local perceptions of neglect and abandonment by the French nation state. While taking issue with other studies of press coverage of the outbreak, however, I argue that the polemics illustrate historical Réunionese geopolitical identifications with France, instead of postcolonial opposition.
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| 9. |
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| 10. |
- Jansen, Karine Aasgaard, 1978-
(författare)
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Å bli vaksinert, eller ikke å bli vaksinert, er det (det eneste) spørsmålet? : Norske holdninger til vaksinasjon og svineinfluensa-pandemien i 2009 til 2010
- 2018
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Ingår i: Tidsskrift for kulturforskning. - Oslo : Novus Forlag. - 1502-7473 .- 2387-6727. ; 17:1, s. 73-88
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article I examine Norwegian lay people’s attitudes towards vaccination with the 2009–2010 swine flu pandemic as a case study. During the pandemic the Norwegian public health authorities recommended mass vaccination as a main strategy for preventing infection. Vaccination is at present voluntary in Norway, but almost 45 per cent of the population were vaccinated against swine flu, including 600 000 children. 70 of these children have since developed narcolepsy as a side effect of the swine flu vaccine Pandemrix. Although these cases appear to have had little effect on the vaccine uptake in the public vaccination program which continues to remain high, many Norwegians still express scepticism to new vaccines. By drawing on a rather heated mediatized debate between so-called vaccine supporters- and opponents in 2015, 196 responses to a qualitative questionnaire and interviews with 17 public health stakeholders, the article focuses on lay people’s own thoughts regarding whether to vaccinate or not. In most cases, such reasoning can neither be described as being supportive of nor opposed to vaccination, but rather something in-between, depending on the vaccine in question.
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