Search for: [Abstract = "The main aim of the thesis is to explain the role of social capital in the health practices of mothers in rural Ethiopia. To reduce high maternal mortality, the Ethiopian government has implemented a range of policies to expand medical services and empower women to better manage their health. National policymakers have organized female social networks to function alongside traditional ties in the communities. Despite the rich and diverse landscape of local social organizations, little is known about their links with developmental health policies. Applying Bourdieu’s definition of social capital, I addressed three research questions concerning \(1\) the forms and factors of women's creation of social networks \(2\) the links between social capital and health, and \(3\) the broader environment affecting care\-seeking and the position of health workers. Using the case of a rural community in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region \(SNNPR\), I conducted 50 interviews with ordinary women and policy stakeholders, and analyzed longitudinal data about the community, which was complemented by desk research and field observations. The results indicate that overlapping bottom\-up and state\-inspired social networks educate women and provide them with material, spiritual, and psychological support, but also control their maternal health practices. Institutional norms, gender, and material situation condition networking opportunities. The state’s effort to transform traditional habits regarding pregnancy and delivery in the name of modernization is hampered by structural factors that prevent women from accessing biomedical health care. Consequently, although state\-led pressure utilizing local social capital contributes to better maternal health, it also reproduces gender inequalities and may, unintentionally, draw attention away from the circumstances in which Ethiopian women live."]

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