News article
Sussex anthropologist talks about the role social sciences can play in the effective response to disease outbreaks
Professor of Anthropology
Amid the worst pandemic in 100 years, the public-health response to COVID-19 requires a significant understanding of human behaviour.
In a new episode of the Impacted podcast, a podcast series about research for real change, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex, James Fairhead, speaks about the role social scientists can play in creating a more effective response to disease outbreaks, in this case the battle against Ebola in west Africa in 2014.
In the half-hour episode, Professor Fairhead told co-hosts Suzanne Fisher-Murray and Will Hood how the group that he and other experts formed - the Ebola Response Anthropology Platform - ensured advice rooted in the social sciences was funnelled into the humanitarian response.
This was critical, as it ensured a better understanding of the role that cultural tradition and behaviour play in these situations, helping to resolve deep communication issues - something which proved to be an obstacle to fighting the spread of the Ebola outbreak from the outset.
Professor Fairhead, of the School of Global Studies, said:
“Some of the local interpretations of what was going on were rooted in historical experiences of European interventions, such as mining and timber operations.
“The intrusion by white people…had all the hallmarks of overt sorcery. Those who arrived dressed in suits and masks – were so easily associated, locally, with secret societies.
“So this mistrust between local groups and humanitarian organisations was beginning to be seen as a major obstacle, so a sense of local perspective to the humanitarian response seemed to be clearly necessary”.
In order to help overcome these mistrust issues, James and colleagues - including Melissa Parker at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - decided to pool their knowledge and resources online and establish the Ebola Anthropology Response Platform.
This platform grew to become a hugely important part of the response to Ebola, becoming a sub-committee of SAGE, the UK government’s scientific advisory group to the Ebola crisis, and, as a result, wielded considerable influence.
But for Prof. Fairhead, it is the respect given to anthropologists that is important.
“One of the legacies of our work is that organisations aren’t just going to respect anthropology more seriously, but are going to respect anthropologists from the region more seriously – and I think that that would be a fundamental outcome.”
He goes on to say: “Social sciences have become a hugely important part of the process and makes the humanitarian and medical approach difficult without it.
“With our group we were able to demonstrate that you can address political, communication and material issues around trust with expertise in social sciences”.
Impacted episodes are available to listen to for free at: https://soundcloud.com/user-931071968%20
For more information, visit: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/explore-our-research/impacted-research-impact-podcast