Marginalization and health: Patients' voices from a Bangladeshi public hospital
Abstract
This is a co-scripted project that aims to understand the localized constructions of health, agency, and spaces for transformative changes in a community that is primarily based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Research was conducted with a community of patients who frequent the most renowned public hospital of Bangladesh. Being socially marginalized, the voices of this community are primarily absent from the dominant discourses on health, health care, and health policy development. Theoretically and methodologically grounded in the culture-centered approach to health communication, this research focused on foregrounding the voices of the community participants by listening to their narratives and stories of their experiences. The culture-centered approach was chosen as the theoretical lens for this study. Over a period of two months, I conducted 34 in-depth interviews, and wrote field notes and reflexive journal entries. The study revealed a complex construction of health by the community participants, a constant interaction between structural/economic barriers and participant agency, and reflexivity as the core to transformative change. The understanding of these localized participatory discourses assist in this study's contributions to theory, research, and praxis on the localized needs of this marginalized community.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Dutta, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Asian Studies|Communication|Health sciences|Health care management
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