An Epidemic of Uncertainty

Reviews / Votes

"An Epidemic of Uncertainty is dense and thorough in its engagement with the TLT study, interspersed with detailed ethnographic vignettes that give stories, names, and weight to the vast data collected and examined." * The Lancet * "The philosophy and history of mathematical probability and its applications have recently, and very evocatively, described it as 'the taming of chance'. Trinitapoli reminds us that this is certainly not the case. The calculus of risk, however impressive its achievements, cannot dispel the uncertainty of life events as people actually experience them. In the course of her analysis, she builds a simple and powerful explanatory framework attentive not only to the findings of her own superb ethnography, but to other demographers', anthropologists', and sociologists', contributions." -- Philip Kreager, Somerville College, Oxford University "Trinitapoli, with her storytelling, has successfully opened a window for the reader to look into village life in Balaka district in Malawi, and she has at the same time, addressed demographic phenomena of fertility, migration, and mortality in a context of rapidly changing local HIV epidemic. The sensitive and accurate portrayal of village life and its chatter, interwoven with uncertainty in decision-making over partnerships, parenthood, and divorce has given me a fresh perspective on how I will read HIV and demographic statistics in the future."
-- Nyovani Madise, Director of Research and Sustainable Development Policies and Head of the Malawi office of the African Institute for Development Policy "An Epidemic of Uncertainty is a multicourse gourmet meal for demographers. It is a book to settle into, chew on, and ruminate over with good friends. Empirically dense, theoretically rich, and analytically smart, the book moves the reader effortlessly between sophisticated quantitative analyses and everyday village and town life in and around Balaka, Malawi. And it brings demography, in all its interdisciplinary and conceptual splendor, to bear on the new subfield, Jenny Trinitapoli, the book's author, wants to usher in: Uncertainty Demography." -- Sanyu A. Mojola * Population and Development Review * "The data in the book is rich, innovative, and unveils a deep connection and understanding of the Balaka region in Malawi. Throughout the book, Trinitapoli expertly weaves together historical accounts of shifts in global HIV policy and the local legislative order, broader demographic changes in fertility, mortality, and migration, and data from her own longitudinal studies and ethnographic vignettes, to offer a compelling and complex analysis of the role uncertainty plays in the lives of young adults in contemporary Malawi." * Social Forces *