The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.
PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Sociol.
Sec. Gender, Sex and Sexualities
Volume 9 - 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/fsoc.2024.1443318
Why Feminist Participatory Methods Matter for Global Health Research in Sub-Saharan Africa
Provisionally accepted- 1 Center for Global Health Equity, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
- 2 Women Working with Women, Kisumu, Kenya
Research in global health is often framed as centering health equity. However, research and programmatic partnerships are often relationships between institutions and researchers in high-income countries (HICs), and researchers and actors in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), including many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Such relationships are rife with power dynamics that require thoughtful attention, and solutions. Feminist research methods, including perspectives from intersectional and African feminist thinkers, as well as participatory approaches, may offer a means of engaging with power inequities and challenging often taken for granted assumptions in the SSA context. Such epistemological perspectives and methods not only challenge "traditional" research relationships and challenge taken for granted assumptions about knowledge but are also driven by the lived experiences of health disparities in specific formerly colonized contexts and can therefore lead to context specific or localized solutions to complex health inequities. This paper explores how these specific perspectives and methods can challenge power dynamics that are often embedded in global health research and interventions in SSA.
Keywords: Global Health1, feminist2, participatory3, Methods4, power5
Received: 04 Jun 2024; Accepted: 23 Dec 2024.
Copyright: © 2024 Tucker and Awuor. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Heather M Tucker, Center for Global Health Equity, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States
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