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The model proposed is a means for (i) documenting the resources a woman deploys to choose, seek, find, get and pay for treatment; (ii) comparing what she has/does with a neighbour facing similar symptoms and problems, and (iii) understanding which difference between them makes most difference to the way they manage illness. In a narrow economic perspective, only tangible items with easily enumerated values are called resources, and only the formal economy counts. This model allows assessment of the value of both formal and informal resources in the household system. It will not establish the absolute or market worth of households in the sample, but does offer a framework for comparing households which have the same access to a given set of treatment options when faced with the same symptoms. Its application improves the possibility of understanding which resources, or combinations of resources, make most difference to a household's capacity to seek and get the treatment it has decided it needs. The paper is one element of a multi-layered and multi-disciplinary study of 'The Informal Economy of Health in African Cities'. The overall project aims are (i) to map the cultural, infrastructural and clinical factors affecting the treatment-seeking behaviour of women in low-income urban areas; (ii) to compare their effect(s) on the management of symptoms of adult venereal infection (STD) and crisis symptoms in children under five. The project mapped the social context of illness management in a district of Kampala. Important dimensions of that context are: the infrastructure of the area, and the treatment options available in or around it; women's assessments of how good/kind/shameful/private/feasible/appropriate those options are, and the social and physical signs which trigger the conclusion that a symptom is 'serious enough' to need treatment outside the home in the first place. The focus here is the value of resources mobilized after the 'serious enough' assessment has been made. (For a wider picture, see Kampala Women Getting By. James Currey, London, 1996). Key words - treatment-seeking, informal economy, social resources, decisions of women, mobilizing help in illness, cities

The value of ethnicity varies with context. Whether and for whom it is a resource, a liability, or without salience of any kind depends on the options of a particular environment, and other-things-happening within it. By this reasoning, the simple fact of an ethnically mixed population is not predictive of whether or how ethnicity counts in the business of livelihood. This article argues that different kinds of urban system are more or less amenable to the ethnic option, and explores the extent to which localism and/or work may override or underwrite its effect. It reports the comparison of two inner London areas with similarly mixed populations but very different economic structures, and an ideal type model in which they are contrasted. In one type of system, ethnicity is consistently maximized/used/useful; in the other, localism is the lead principle. Analysis shows that different opportunities and constraints on work make the significant difference between them. The same model applied to a Kampala parish reveals an urban system which is neither 'ethnic' nor 'localist' in the London sense, yet confirms the systematic interrelation of ethnicity, work and localism. In the Kampala case the crucial difference is between men and women - in respect of their involvement in the local area, and the possibilities for making a living which it offers. Keywords: Ethnicity; ethnic resources; work; localism; Kampala; anthropology

We describe and reflect on a rapid qualitative survey approach called "Broad Brush Survey" (BBS) used in six community-randomized trials (CRTs)/studies in Zambia and South Africa (2004–2018) to document, compare, classify, and communicate community features systematically for public health and multidisciplinary research ends. BBS is based on a set sequence of participatory qualitative methods and fieldwork carried out prior to a CRT intervention and/or research by social scientists to generate rapid community profiles using four key indicators: physical features, social organization, networks, and community narratives. Profiling makes apparent similarities and differences, enabling comparison across communities and can be facilitated by an ideal model of open-closed systems. Findings have provided practical outputs (e.g., community profiles) and academic opportunities (e.g., community typologies). The BBS approach enables complex social landscapes to be incorporated in CRTs. This method has proven to be useful, adaptable and to have multidisciplinary appeal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban Poverty in Africa: From Understanding to Alleviation. Edited by Sue Jones and Nici Nelson. London: Intermediate Technology Publications, 1999. Pp.xiv + 193. [pound]15.95. ISBN 1 85339 474 2 Time [...]

Labour migrants with uncertain permissions to remain in a new country are especially vulnerable to exploitation. Based on interviews with Filipino domestic workers, this paper explores the variation in migrants' reaction to their present circumstance. Their response to injustice or neglect may fall anywhere along a continuum from abject resignation to aggressive activism. Our discussion concerns the capability of the context in which the migrant's response unfolds. We ask: what could happen here? In this context, what kind of response makes better sense? But the answer changes according to the migrant's focus. In the narrow context of this place at this time activism may not be feasible and what looks like resignation the only option. But if the context of response is expanded to include remittances which will send children to school or parents to hospital; and to visions of a better future back in the home country, then its capability changes. Resignation in the present maybe a strategy actively directed toward future goals. In this light resignation and activism are not fixed and opposite responses. The individual migrant combines them to match the capability of the context in which she defines herself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]