Global health intervention from North to South: (academic) preparation of students

Global health intervention from North to South: (Academic) preparation of students By Rashmi Singla & Louise Mubanda Rasmussen, Roskilde University, Denmark This chapter discusses how to conduct before- intervention preparation of students based on a pioneer course collaboration between the subjects Health Promotion and International Development Studies at Roskilde University. The focus is on agents of intervention from the Global North with Global South targets. The theoretical framework of the course includes, among others approaches from cultural psychological (Valsiner), critical psychiatry/ psychology (Fernando), culture-centered health communication (Dutta) and medical anthropology (Farmer, Nguyen & Lock). The course is framed around a critical conceptualization of globalisation covering spatial and ideological dimensions (Fassin). Today’s practice of global health interventions is contextualized with a broad perspective on historical continuity and ruptures: from legacies of mistrust in colonial medicine (Keller) to postcolonial approaches to mobile professionals (Fechter). Both sides in the encounter, emphasising ethno- racial representations and the burden of ‘otherness’ (Moodley), are in focus because the interventions influence both the agents of intervention and the targets. The course seeks to create a balance between the expert knowledge position and local knowledge systems through a multi-contextual combination of theory and practice. The chapter illustrates how students’ interactive participation is central to opening up a space where issues of power and identity in the encounter of global health interventions can be critically examined and reflected upon. We conclude the chapter by critically discussing the potential of analytic generalisation from the experience of running this course.