Scrambling for Africa

Crane reveals how Africa went from being a continent largely excluded from advancements in HIV medicine to an area of central concern and knowledge production within the increasingly popular field of global health science.

Johanna Tayloe Crane is Assistant Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences of the University of Washington–Bothell.

Anthropologist Crane (Univ. of Washington-Bothell) presents a solidly documented and well-reasoned discussion of AIDS and its far-reaching effects. An excellent overview deals with resistance to treatment.. Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, professionals.

Vinh-Kim Nguyen, Université de Montréal and Collège d'études mondiales Paris:

In Scrambling for Africa, Johanna Tayloe Crane argues that the HIV/AIDS epidemic has enabled the emergence of a global research apparatus that extracts value (in the form of data, commodities, and careers) from embodied forms of inequality. Global economic inequalities—and the political forces that sustain them—translate into biological inequalities that make populations available for enrollment, observation, and the testing of interventions. Crane makes some very strong and hard-hitting points that buttress her nuanced critical stance.

Peter Redfield, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, author of Life in Crisis: The Ethical Journey of Doctors Without Borders:

Scrambling for Africa is a thoughtful and compelling work. Johanna Tayloe Crane engages a critical issue in contemporary medicine: the central roles played by AIDS and Africa in the rise of a newly 'global' form of health research. Accessibly written and featuring a wealth of rich material, her careful study offers new insight into this pivotal story.