Managerial relations in Kenyan health care: Empathy and the limits of governmentality

Brown, Hannah

Abstract

This article describes relationships between a team of mid-level government health managers working in a rural Kenyan district and those whom they managed: health workers based at rural health facilities. In this context, managerial expertise was heavily informed by personal biography and a moral obligation to empathize with the difficult working conditions and familial responsibilities of junior staff. Management should be studied seriously in anthropology, as a powerful social and bureaucratic form. This focus must extend beyond a concern with tactics and technologies of governance to consider how modalities of managerial expertise are also shaped by biography, intersubjectivity, and professional identity.

Citation

Brown, H. (2016). Managerial relations in Kenyan health care: Empathy and the limits of governmentality. Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 22(3), 591-609. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12448

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 13, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jul 25, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2016
• Deposit Date: May 16, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 25, 2018
• Journal: Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
• Print ISSN: 1359-0987
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9655
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 591-609
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.12448
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1384324