Doctors Without Borders - by Renée C Fox (Paperback)

About the Book

Enriched by vivid photographs of MSF operations and by ironic, self-critical cartoons drawn by a member of the Communications Department of MSF France, Doctors Without Borders highlights the bold mission of the renowned international humanitarian organization even as it demonstrates the intrinsic dilemmas of humanitarian action.

Book Synopsis

An intimate portrait of the renowned international humanitarian organization.

Winner of the PROSE Award for Excellence, Sociology and Social Work of the Association of American Publishers

Pioneering medical sociologist Renée C. Fox spent nearly twenty years conducting extensive ethnographic research within Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a private international medical humanitarian organization that was created in 1971 and awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1999. Drawing on unprecedented access to MSF staff meetings, doctors, and field workers, Fox weaves a rich tapestry of the MSF experience with emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Including vivid photographs of MSF operations, Doctors Without Borders explores the organization's founding principles, distinctive culture, and inner struggles to realize more fully its "without borders" transnational vision.

Review Quotes

Doctors Without Borders: Humanitarian Quests, Impossible Dreams of Médecins Sans Frontières provides detailed insights on the Doctors Without Borders medical ideals and culture . . . The result is a blend of organizational history and development and observations of the group's struggles to combat third world nation diseases, making for an outstanding social and health history.

-- "Midwest Book Review"

. . . a must-read for anyone considering a medical mission abroad or studying humanitarian assistance.

-- "Global Public Health"

A commendably reflective work of sociology that, more importantly, tells a remarkable history of care.

-- "Publishers Weekly"

A remarkable story of healing, conflict, and the journey of an organization once dismissed as a bunch of 'medical commandos' [and now] one of the most important health care humanitarian organizations in the world.

-- "Hospitals and Health Networks"

A treasured and monumental depiction of MSF's courageous and persistent commitment to millions of people in distress.

-- "South African Medical Journal"

Carefully researched and delightfully written, Doctors Without Borders establishes a new bar for those who would cover Médecins Sans Frontières in the future. This book will take its due place as one of the most comprehensive works on MSF.

-- "Science"

Generally interested readers will find Fox's thoughtful and thought-provoking overview ambitious and well worth the effort, while anyone focused on health care and medicine will be deeply fascinated.

-- "Booklist"

How has MSF come to occupy this role as canary in the coalmine, as the embodiment of humanitarian ideals and as a provocative moral force for medical ethics and human rights around the world? This question is answered in Renée Fox's rich sociological and historical text . . . A must-read for anyone considering a medical mission abroad or studying humanitarian assistance.

--Lauren Carruth "Global Public Health"

Over half a million people contribute $10 or $20 to MSF each month . . . Doctors Without Borders will enlighten them about how hard yet rewarding this work is.

-- "Springer: Sociology"

Sociologist Renée C. Fox has written an eloquent, sensitive, and complex ethnographic profile based on extensive fieldwork. Fox conducted numerous interviews and site visits, and attended a number of major meetings and conferences; she ended her fieldwork at a landmark event, the first meeting of a newly created International General Assembly which also marked MSF's 40th anniversary. She describes her role as an "insider-outsider" combining access to internal information, public documents, and a staff blog. These multiple methods allowed her to become a sensitive yet detached and objective observer of the social relationships and culture of MSF.

--Susan M. Chambre "Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly"

The author provides a well written ethnographic account of the often conflictual internal dynamics of inclusion and exclusion among various factions within MSF. This book is original in its scope, taking seriously the opinions and personal history of past and current MSF members, from the more prominent and infamous leaders to veterans of humanitarian aid and newcomers alike.

--Sadia Habib "The Sociological Imagination"

The author tells an exquisite story of the organization's origins and challenges. . . This book, honoring those who provide such important humanitarian assistance, will enrich a wide audience.

-- "Choice"

The first extensive social scientific description in English of MSF, its origins and action in the field, and its cultural identity.Reaching beyond the history of the organization--the schisms and tensions that it has undergone--the book aims to explore how these tensions are related to the field of operations and to what happens in the field.

--Johanna Siméant "European Journal of Sociology"

Whether you like MSF or not, and whether you already know it or not, Doctors Without Borders provides a refreshing and unusual perspective of this larger-than life organization. Without complacency, but with the candor and attention to detail a social scientist can marshal, Fox takes us backstage where MSFers breathe, agonize, exult, or fulminate to defend a complex and imperfect idea of humanitarian action.

-- "Perspectives in Biology and Medicine"

About the Author

Renée C. Fox is the Annenberg Professor Emerita of the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of Experiment Perilous: Physicians and Patients Facing the Unknown, In the Belgian Château: The Spirit and Culture of a European Society in an Age of Change, and In the Field: A Sociologist's Journey and the coauthor of The Courage to Fail: A Social View of Organ Transplants and Dialysis and Observing Bioethics