Benjamin M Hunter
Biographic Data
| ID | 362676 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin M Hunter |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin M |
| FAMILY NAME | Hunter |
| SIGNATURE | HUNTER B M |
| AFFILIATIONS | King's College London |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5848-5245 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 32 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The case of privatisation in China’s hospital sector
Privatisation of previously public industries and services is part of the ideological shift associated with the global neoliberal turn of the past 40 years. This article examines such a change within the healthcare system in China: specifically, the formation and development of a private hospital sector, which by 2015 surpassed the number of public hospitals for the first time. We draw on documentary and interview-based data, both English-languag…
Private finance and the threat to global health
The expansion of private finance in global health is pronounced
Internationalisation and moral economies in healthcare
BACKGROUND: Contemporary conditions require detailed study of internationalisation. This article offers a novel perspective on processes of internationalisation in healthcare, adapting an approach from higher education studies and enhancing it with insights from sociological scholarship on moral economies. The article asks how institutions and individuals respond to the globalising healthcare environment, and what this reveals about normative que…
Financialisation and the Reshaping of Private Healthcare
The incursion of the financial sector into contemporary politics, economies and societies has been noted, yet financialisation remains under-explored in the sociological study of healthcare. Using the case of Maharashtra, India, and a qualitative research approach combining policy documents, witness seminars and in-depth interviews, we offer an account of how financialisation has been facilitated and enacted in this sector. We analyse the restruc…
Market making and the production of nurses for export
BACKGROUND: High-income countries increasingly look to the international recruitment of health workers to address domestic shortages, especially from low-income and middle-income countries. We adapt conceptual frameworks from migration studies to examine the networked and commercialised nature of the Indian market for nurse migration to the UK. METHODS: We draw on data from 27 expert interviews conducted with migration intermediaries, healthcare …
Not in it for huge profits but because it's right
While the growth of global markets in health-related services may have significant consequences for healthcare provisioning and training, it has received relatively little attention from the social sciences. This article examines UK-India, and specifically England-India, exports in health worker education and training as one such global market, drawing on sociological scholarship on moral economies to understand how trading in this field is const…
Constructing healthcare services markets
BACKGROUND: Healthcare services is an expanding international market with which national healthcare systems engage, and from which they benefit, to greater and lesser degrees. This study examines the case of the China-England engagement in healthcare services as a vehicle for illuminating the way in which such market relationships are constructed. FINDINGS: China and England have different approaches to the international healthcare services marke…
Decentred regulation
In order to progress towards more equitable social welfare systems we need an improved understanding of regulation in social sectors such as health and education. However, research to date has tended to focus on roles for governments and professions, overlooking the broader range of regulatory systems that emerge in contexts of market-based provisioning and partial state regulation. In this article we examine the regulation of private healthcare …
Human capital, risk and the World Bank’s reintermediation in global development
This article examines an attempt to reconstitute global development governance in a context of growing influence for private finance. We focus on the World Bank’s Human Capital Project (HCP) and Human Capital Index (HCI), which have stated aims of promoting economic growth and accelerating progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Informed by a review of publicly available World Bank materials, we argue that, through its …
The impacts of corporatisation of healthcare on medical practice and professionals in Maharashtra, India
A heterogeneous private sector dominates healthcare provision in many middle-income countries. In India, the contemporary period has seen this sector undergo corporatisation processes characterised by emergence of large private hospitals and the takeover of medium-sized and charitable hospitals by corporate entities. Little is known about the operations of these private providers and the effects on healthcare professions as employment shifts from…
Going for brokerage
BACKGROUND: The formation of domestic and global marketplaces during the past 50 years has opened up new commercial opportunities for third-party activity in healthcare systems. Commercial mediation of access to healthcare is one recent area of activity that sees companies and individuals offering to organise healthcare and travel in return for payment. With varying degrees of control over the location, type, cost and experiences of healthcare pr…
Neoliberalisation enacted through development aid
Despite a history of critical scholarship on development aid and neoliberalism in public health, very little specific attention has been drawn to how a tripling in aid commitments in the health sector after the Millennium Declaration created new opportunities for the advancement of neoliberal ideas and practices. Here we examine an externally funded aid project in Uttar Pradesh, India that seemed to embrace important public health and access to c…
Deconstructing the Financialization of Healthcare
Financialization is promoted by alliances of multilateral 'development' organizations, national governments and owners and institutions of private capital. In the healthcare sector, the leveraging of private sources of finance is widely argued as necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 target of universal health coverage. Employing social science perspectives on financialization, the authors of this article contend that this is a …
Brokerage in commercialised healthcare systems
In many contexts there are a range of individuals and organisations offering healthcare services that differ widely in cost, quality and outcomes. This complexity is exacerbated by processes of healthcare commercialisation. Yet reliable information on healthcare provision is often limited, and progress to and through the healthcare system may depend on knowledge drawn from prior experiences, social networks and the providers themselves. It is in …
Public-private partnerships in sexual and reproductive healthcare provision
The past few decades have seen the growing popularity of public-private partnerships (PPPs) across the health sector – a catch all term used to encompass diverse activities involving both public and private sector entities in areas of global and domestic health. In the article we consider the factors that have led to this proliferation of PPPs in the healthcare delivery field and consider the link to the process of ‘scientization’ of healthcare. …
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria's investments in harm reduction through the rounds-based funding model (2002–2014)
This study represents an updated, comprehensive assessment of Global Fund investments in harm reduction from its founding (2002) until the start of the new funding model (2014). It also highlights the overall shortfall of harm reduction funding, with the estimated global need being US$ 2.3 billion for harm reduction in 2015 alone. Using this baseline, the Global Fund must carefully monitor its new funding model and ensure that investments in harm…
Global Fund investments in harm reduction from 2002 to 2009
This study represents the most comprehensive assessment of Global Fund investments in harm reduction. This funding, while substantial, falls short of the estimated needs. Investments in harm reduction must increase if HIV transmission among people who inject drugs is to be halved by 2015
Emerging infectious diseases in southeast Asia
Deconstructing the Financialization of Healthcare
Financialization is promoted by alliances of multilateral 'development' organizations, national governments and owners and institutions of private capital. In the healthcare sector, the leveraging of private sources of finance is widely argued as necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 target of universal health coverage. Employing social science perspectives on financialization, the authors of this article contend that this is a …
Decentred regulation
In order to progress towards more equitable social welfare systems we need an improved understanding of regulation in social sectors such as health and education. However, research to date has tended to focus on roles for governments and professions, overlooking the broader range of regulatory systems that emerge in contexts of market-based provisioning and partial state regulation. In this article we examine the regulation of private healthcare …
Brokerage in commercialised healthcare systems
In many contexts there are a range of individuals and organisations offering healthcare services that differ widely in cost, quality and outcomes. This complexity is exacerbated by processes of healthcare commercialisation. Yet reliable information on healthcare provision is often limited, and progress to and through the healthcare system may depend on knowledge drawn from prior experiences, social networks and the providers themselves. It is in …
Financialisation and the Reshaping of Private Healthcare
The incursion of the financial sector into contemporary politics, economies and societies has been noted, yet financialisation remains under-explored in the sociological study of healthcare. Using the case of Maharashtra, India, and a qualitative research approach combining policy documents, witness seminars and in-depth interviews, we offer an account of how financialisation has been facilitated and enacted in this sector. We analyse the restruc…
Not in it for huge profits but because it's right
While the growth of global markets in health-related services may have significant consequences for healthcare provisioning and training, it has received relatively little attention from the social sciences. This article examines UK-India, and specifically England-India, exports in health worker education and training as one such global market, drawing on sociological scholarship on moral economies to understand how trading in this field is const…
Emerging infectious diseases in southeast Asia
Global Fund investments in harm reduction from 2002 to 2009
This study represents the most comprehensive assessment of Global Fund investments in harm reduction. This funding, while substantial, falls short of the estimated needs. Investments in harm reduction must increase if HIV transmission among people who inject drugs is to be halved by 2015
The Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria's investments in harm reduction through the rounds-based funding model (2002–2014)
This study represents an updated, comprehensive assessment of Global Fund investments in harm reduction from its founding (2002) until the start of the new funding model (2014). It also highlights the overall shortfall of harm reduction funding, with the estimated global need being US$ 2.3 billion for harm reduction in 2015 alone. Using this baseline, the Global Fund must carefully monitor its new funding model and ensure that investments in harm…
Public-private partnerships in sexual and reproductive healthcare provision
The past few decades have seen the growing popularity of public-private partnerships (PPPs) across the health sector – a catch all term used to encompass diverse activities involving both public and private sector entities in areas of global and domestic health. In the article we consider the factors that have led to this proliferation of PPPs in the healthcare delivery field and consider the link to the process of ‘scientization’ of healthcare. …
Brokerage in commercialised healthcare systems
In many contexts there are a range of individuals and organisations offering healthcare services that differ widely in cost, quality and outcomes. This complexity is exacerbated by processes of healthcare commercialisation. Yet reliable information on healthcare provision is often limited, and progress to and through the healthcare system may depend on knowledge drawn from prior experiences, social networks and the providers themselves. It is in …
Deconstructing the Financialization of Healthcare
Financialization is promoted by alliances of multilateral 'development' organizations, national governments and owners and institutions of private capital. In the healthcare sector, the leveraging of private sources of finance is widely argued as necessary to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 3 target of universal health coverage. Employing social science perspectives on financialization, the authors of this article contend that this is a …
The impacts of corporatisation of healthcare on medical practice and professionals in Maharashtra, India
A heterogeneous private sector dominates healthcare provision in many middle-income countries. In India, the contemporary period has seen this sector undergo corporatisation processes characterised by emergence of large private hospitals and the takeover of medium-sized and charitable hospitals by corporate entities. Little is known about the operations of these private providers and the effects on healthcare professions as employment shifts from…
Going for brokerage
BACKGROUND: The formation of domestic and global marketplaces during the past 50 years has opened up new commercial opportunities for third-party activity in healthcare systems. Commercial mediation of access to healthcare is one recent area of activity that sees companies and individuals offering to organise healthcare and travel in return for payment. With varying degrees of control over the location, type, cost and experiences of healthcare pr…
Neoliberalisation enacted through development aid
Despite a history of critical scholarship on development aid and neoliberalism in public health, very little specific attention has been drawn to how a tripling in aid commitments in the health sector after the Millennium Declaration created new opportunities for the advancement of neoliberal ideas and practices. Here we examine an externally funded aid project in Uttar Pradesh, India that seemed to embrace important public health and access to c…
Constructing healthcare services markets
BACKGROUND: Healthcare services is an expanding international market with which national healthcare systems engage, and from which they benefit, to greater and lesser degrees. This study examines the case of the China-England engagement in healthcare services as a vehicle for illuminating the way in which such market relationships are constructed. FINDINGS: China and England have different approaches to the international healthcare services marke…
Decentred regulation
In order to progress towards more equitable social welfare systems we need an improved understanding of regulation in social sectors such as health and education. However, research to date has tended to focus on roles for governments and professions, overlooking the broader range of regulatory systems that emerge in contexts of market-based provisioning and partial state regulation. In this article we examine the regulation of private healthcare …
Human capital, risk and the World Bank’s reintermediation in global development
This article examines an attempt to reconstitute global development governance in a context of growing influence for private finance. We focus on the World Bank’s Human Capital Project (HCP) and Human Capital Index (HCI), which have stated aims of promoting economic growth and accelerating progress towards achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Informed by a review of publicly available World Bank materials, we argue that, through its …
Market making and the production of nurses for export
BACKGROUND: High-income countries increasingly look to the international recruitment of health workers to address domestic shortages, especially from low-income and middle-income countries. We adapt conceptual frameworks from migration studies to examine the networked and commercialised nature of the Indian market for nurse migration to the UK. METHODS: We draw on data from 27 expert interviews conducted with migration intermediaries, healthcare …
Not in it for huge profits but because it's right
While the growth of global markets in health-related services may have significant consequences for healthcare provisioning and training, it has received relatively little attention from the social sciences. This article examines UK-India, and specifically England-India, exports in health worker education and training as one such global market, drawing on sociological scholarship on moral economies to understand how trading in this field is const…
Private finance and the threat to global health
The expansion of private finance in global health is pronounced
Internationalisation and moral economies in healthcare
BACKGROUND: Contemporary conditions require detailed study of internationalisation. This article offers a novel perspective on processes of internationalisation in healthcare, adapting an approach from higher education studies and enhancing it with insights from sociological scholarship on moral economies. The article asks how institutions and individuals respond to the globalising healthcare environment, and what this reveals about normative que…
Financialisation and the Reshaping of Private Healthcare
The incursion of the financial sector into contemporary politics, economies and societies has been noted, yet financialisation remains under-explored in the sociological study of healthcare. Using the case of Maharashtra, India, and a qualitative research approach combining policy documents, witness seminars and in-depth interviews, we offer an account of how financialisation has been facilitated and enacted in this sector. We analyse the restruc…
The case of privatisation in China’s hospital sector
Privatisation of previously public industries and services is part of the ideological shift associated with the global neoliberal turn of the past 40 years. This article examines such a change within the healthcare system in China: specifically, the formation and development of a private hospital sector, which by 2015 surpassed the number of public hospitals for the first time. We draw on documentary and interview-based data, both English-languag…
Business (15 works) · Economic growth (13 works) · Economics (13 works) · Political science (12 works) · Health care (10 works) · Medicine (9 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Finance (7 works) · Healthcare Systems and Reforms (6 works) · Law (6 works)