Women, Literacy and Reproductive Health: An Ethnographic Study of Women Attending a Day Hospital in the Western CapeOrganization for Social Science Research in Eastern and Southern Africa, 2000 - Birth control - 74 pages The study sets out to analyse how one might best conceptualise the relationship between literacy and reproductive health care practices and the social world of the informants in the field site by taking the case of women attending a day hospital in the Western Cape, South Africa. The research method chosen is primarily ethnographic in nature. The data collection tools used in the study are interviews, participant observation and the recording of social narratives to develop an account of literacy and reproductive health care practices. By looking at various bodily representations such as experiences of pain, wounding, the open and closed body, and the social symbolism of pregnancy and childbirth, The Author addresses issues of medical technologies and reproductive health discourse. The Author suggests that future health care initiatives need to take cognisance of patient own literacy practices, their existing cultural understanding of their bodies, health and disease. |
From inside the book
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Page 2
... understanding of literacy will continue to make exaggerated claims on behalf of literacy's social effectivity . It is likely to carry symbolic dimensions beyond its capacity given the intractable domains it is linked to : the economy ...
... understanding of literacy will continue to make exaggerated claims on behalf of literacy's social effectivity . It is likely to carry symbolic dimensions beyond its capacity given the intractable domains it is linked to : the economy ...
Page 6
... knowledge systems . 3 I argue for a context - specific understanding of literacy . Thus while accepting Street's ( 1994 ) use of the terms " local and vernacular literacies " , I broaden the concept to include social and / or local ...
... knowledge systems . 3 I argue for a context - specific understanding of literacy . Thus while accepting Street's ( 1994 ) use of the terms " local and vernacular literacies " , I broaden the concept to include social and / or local ...
Page 7
... literacy skills and those who do not . Fingeret's skills- orientated understanding of literacy networks tends to depict all literacy mediation as synonymous with networks of reciprocal exchange associations . Relations of power and the ...
... literacy skills and those who do not . Fingeret's skills- orientated understanding of literacy networks tends to depict all literacy mediation as synonymous with networks of reciprocal exchange associations . Relations of power and the ...
Common terms and phrases
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