Ryan Essex: Anarchism and Health, Kartoniert / Broschiert

Klappentext

When we think about health, we often do so under certain constraints. When we think about healthcare systems we often think in relation to the State and other hierarchical institutions.

What if we no longer sought to change policy? What if we no longer appealed to pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices, or fickle authorities who have the power to just as easily revoke the rights they 'grant'? What if we could do away with hierarchy and bureaucracy?

At the heart of anarchism is a deep concern for our welfare, for our health and wellbeing, and many related concepts like freedom. This book ambitiously seeks to deepen the connections between anarchism and health by exploring how we could organise anarchically, whether inspired directly by anarchism or otherwise, to think about health in different ways. Covering a diversity of topics that deal with the organisation and hierarchy of healthcare systems, and key health-related issues like abortion, mutual aid during the COVID-19 pandemic, DIY medicine and refugee squats, amongst others, the book looks to subvert the influence of the State, capitalism, racism, colonialism, imperialism, genderism, transphobia and all other, interconnected forms of domination or 'archy' (rule).

Anarchism has extensive and wide-ranging ideas about how we should organise to achieve good health and how we should act now, in the deeply imperfect present, to look after one another and work toward these ideals.