PhD defence Yoriko Masunaga

Supervisors

• Prof. Dr. Koen Peeters Grietens (ITM)

• Prof. Dr. René Gerrets (University of Amsterdam)

• Dr. Daniel H. de Vries (University of Amsterdam)

PhD Awarding University

University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group: Anthropology of Health, Care and the Body

Abstract

What happens when “community participation” is put into practice in global health interventions, and why do communities choose to participate, adapt, or refuse it?

This dissertation explores this question through malaria elimination interventions in The Gambia, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It follows a participatory approach called “Community Lab of Ideas for Health” (CLIH), co-developed with communities in The Gambia during a malaria trial, and later tried out in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as part of another malaria project.

Findings show that the use of CLIH changed depending on where it landed. In The Gambia, it created genuine two-way dialogues between researchers and community members. In Vietnam, communities used the participation process to voice historical marginalisation. In Laos, communities treated it as largely symbolic, responding with strategic disengagement. In Cambodia, people appropriated it as a mobilisation tool for broader recognition and resources.

Based on these differences, the dissertation argues that community participation is not a fixed method to simply copy from one place to another – it is something that gets reshaped by local history, trust, and politics every time it’s introduced. A participatory programme only works if it’s flexible enough to let communities push back, reshape it, or opt out. The dissertation ends by offering a practical way of thinking about participation that keeps this flexibility, power, and history in view, rather that treating community involvement as a simple checkbox in project design.