Lotte Danielsen

• Danielsen, Lotte (2017). Mødrehelse som image og valuta: Ulikhet, håp og performative konverteringer i Malawi. Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift. ISSN 0802-7285. 28(3-4), p. 179–198. doi: 10.18261/issn.1504-2898-2017-03-04-03. Full text in Research Archive
• Danielsen, Lotte (2017). Enforcing `Progress?: A Story of an MDG 5 Indicator and Maternal Health in Malawi. Development and Change. ISSN 0012-155X. 48(3), p. 429–451. doi: 10.1111/dech.12307. Show summary

  Considering the importance of metrics in current systems of global health accountability, this article analyses the dynamics behind a maternal health indicator. To achieve the target of Millennium Development Goal 5 (MDG 5) and increase the proportion of births attended by ‘skilled health personnel’, some districts in Malawi in 2010 introduced information campaigns to pro- mote births in hospitals and a fine to punish mothers who delivered outside of biomedical health institutions. The study is based on ethnographic research in one Malawian village. While many mothers described the ill treatment and bad conditions in maternity wards, most women still started to publicly sanction institutional births. This apparent contradiction can be understood by looking at the positions and motivations of the various actors who par- ticipated in the performance of MDG 5 in the village and how their projects became tied to the focus on improving the indicator. Rather than expressing a demand for the existing maternal health services as such, the ethnography suggests that the actors’ practices expressed hopes and claims to wider mate- rial improvements in a context of inequality. The article highlights dynamics that are concealed if we restrict the analysis to one of biopower, and expands the purview of the study of metrics into the spaces which indicators are intended to represent.

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• Danielsen, Lotte (2012). Nålestikkbistand redder ikke verden. Ny Tid. ISSN 0809-9049.
• Gopinathan, Unni; Danielsen, Lotte & Lie, Ann Louise (2012). Why a Youth Commission on Global Governance for Health? The Lancet. ISSN 0140-6736. 380(9839), p. 338–339.
• Holsten, Hilde Hartmann & Danielsen, Lotte (2011). Barnehekseri etter demokratisering. [Internet]. Forskning.no. Show summary

  I Malawi i Øst-Afrika forteller barn at de blir lært opp i hekseri om natten. Fenomenet har økt i omfang etter at landet ble demokratisert på 1990-tallet.

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