Toward an International Political Sociology of Health and Medicine

Introduction

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2283503
AutoresAlison Howell (0000-0002-4814-6872, University of Manchester, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen6
Número3
Páginas315-316
Fecha de publicación2012-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Political Sociology (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1749-5679 • E-ISSN: 1749-5687
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1749-5687.2012.00166_1.x
OpenAlexW1579519457
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4

Health is a difficult thing to argue with. We desire it, pursue it, and wish it for others. And yet, actions taken in the name of health are certainly not always benevolent. Health imperatives—perhaps particularly in the global arena—are often vexed, caught up in the exercise of power, and come with unintended consequences. For this reason, the study of health in international relations, and of the uses, rationales, and authority of medicine, is of critical importance. It is also of critical importance now. Matters of global health have been the subject of increasing policy action, attention, and funding. Health and security have come to be increasingly rearticulated through each other. We are told that this is a time of attenuated global health vulnerability, when diseases or epidemics like HIV/AIDS, SARS, and influenza spread across borders with increasing ease and regularity, while noncommunicable diseases, “lifestyle” diseases, and mental health are also the focus of sustained policy concern internationally. Hence, security is becoming medicalized, allowing it to quite literally reach into our bodies (Elbe, this issue), in part through a biopolitical regime of global public health governance (Weir, this issue). At the same time, medicine is put to political purposes, not least of which in the conduct of war (Bell; McInnes and Rushton, both in this issue)

Biopower · Environmental ethics · Global health · Health care · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public health · Public relations · Sociology · Unintended consequences · Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology · Law · Medicine · Health Policy