Elsevier

The Lancet

Volume 366, Issue 9484, 6–12 August 2005, Pages 514-519
The Lancet

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Gates's grandest challenge: transcending technology as public health ideology

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  • Cited by (137)

    • Digital diagnostics from Tanzania: Beyond mere technological fixing?

      2023, Social Science and Medicine
      Citation Excerpt :

      It is the same argument made by Birn who advocates for a shift in the ideology towards social engineering, or a reform of the ‘socio-’ in what STS scholars have called socio-technical systems. For instance, in attempting to improve nutrition, the Gates Foundation, Birn proposes, could combine a pilot project in a particular locale, involving various different experts and community participation, with ‘international currency bailouts, farming subsidies in industrialised countries, and social security systems’ (BirnAnne-Emanuelle, 2005, 517). While the Gates Foundation already shapes national policies, as scholars have long argued, and indeed their technological orientation is itself an inherently social (in the widest sense of the term) process, this proposed shift in approach would see it expanding its interventions to new sectors and issues that are seen as determining healthcare systems and health outcomes.

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