Neoliberal Health Organizing

Neoliberal Health Organizing
Author: Mohan J Dutta
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1315423529

Mohan J Dutta closely interrogates the communicative forms and practices that have been central to the establishment of neoliberal governance. In particular, he examines cultural discourses of health in relationship to the market and the health implications of these cultural discourses. Using examples from around the world, he explores the roles of public-private partnerships, NGOs, militaries, and new technologies in reinforcing the link between market and health. Identifying the taken-for-granted assumptions that constitute the foundations of global neoliberal organizing, he offers an alternative strategy for a grassroots-driven participatory form of global organizing of health. This inventive theoretical volume speaks to those in critical communication, in health research, in social policy, and in contemporary political economy studies.

Blind Spot

Blind Spot
Author: M.D. Salmaan Keshavjee
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2014-08-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 052095873X

Neoliberalism has been the defining paradigm in global health since the latter part of the twentieth century. What started as an untested and unproven theory that the creation of unfettered markets would give rise to political democracy led to policies that promoted the belief that private markets were the optimal agents for the distribution of social goods, including health care. A vivid illustration of the infiltration of neoliberal ideology into the design and implementation of development programs, this case study, set in post-Soviet Tajikistan’s remote eastern province of Badakhshan, draws on extensive ethnographic and historical material to examine a "revolving drug fund" program—used by numerous nongovernmental organizations globally to address shortages of high-quality pharmaceuticals in poor communities. Provocative, rigorous, and accessible, Blind Spot offers a cautionary tale about the forces driving decision making in health and development policy today, illustrating how the privatization of health care can have catastrophic outcomes for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Neoliberalism, Globalization, and Inequalities

Neoliberalism, Globalization, and Inequalities
Author: Vicente Navarro
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 357
Release: 2020-05-06
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1351863991

Since U.S. President Reagan and U.K. Prime Minister Thatcher, a major ideology (under the name of economic science) has been expanded worldwide that claims that the best policies to stimulate human development are those that reduce the role of the state in economic and social lives: privatizing public services and public enterprises, deregulating the mobility of capital and labor, eliminating protectionism, and reducing public social protection. This ideology, called 'neoliberalism,' has guided the globalization of economic activity and become the conventional wisdom in international agencies and institutions (such as the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, and the technical agencies of the United Nations, including the WHO). Reproduced in the 'Washington consensus' in the United States and the 'Brussels consensus' in the European Union, this ideology has guided policies widely accepted as the only ones possible and advisable.This book assembles a series of articles that challenge that ideology. Written by well-known scholars, these articles question each of the tenets of neoliberal doctrine, showing how the policies guided by this ideology have adversely affected human development in the countries where they have been implemented.

Neoliberal lives

Neoliberal lives
Author: Robert Chernomas
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2019-07-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1526110210

This book is about the transformation of America that has occurred over the past thirty-five years, as capitalist logic has expanded into previously protected spheres of life. This expansion has had devastating effects on the potential for human development. Looking at how human beings create themselves and their worlds on material foundations of health and the natural environment, through work and politics, the book chronicles how neoliberalism has limited human potential. At a time when neoliberalism’s effects are stirring various forms of popular resistance and opposition, this is a manifesto of sorts for the range of processes that need to be confronted if human potential is to be freed from the increasingly cramped quarters to which neoliberalism has confined it.

Neoliberal Governance and Health

Neoliberal Governance and Health
Author: Jessica Polzer
Publisher: McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP
Total Pages: 369
Release: 2016-09
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0773599541

Provoking urgent questions about the politics of health in the twenty-first century, this collection interrogates how neoliberal approaches to governance frame health and risk in ways that promote individual responsibility and the implications of such framings for the well-being of the collective. The essays examine a range of important issues, including childhood obesity, genetic testing, HPV vaccination, Aboriginal health, pandemic preparedness, environmental health, disability policy, aging, contingent work, and women’s access to social services. With specific attention to the Canadian context, contributors reveal how neoliberal practices and policies shape the health experiences of individuals, disadvantaged groups, and communities by cultivating self-discipline while further exposing to harm the lives and bodies of those already marginalized in consumer society. Building on the theoretical conceptualizations of power and government of French philosopher Michel Foucault, the case studies extend our understanding of the effects of neoliberal practices and policies in relation to social class, gender, racialized identity, colonization, and ability, and provide insight into how health-related discourse creates new requirements for citizenship and forms of social stratification. A timely intervention in the field of health studies, Neoliberal Governance and Health establishes the need for critical interdisciplinary scholarship to counter the individualizing and marginalizing tendencies of health-related policy, practice and research.

Health Care Under the Knife

Health Care Under the Knife
Author: Howard Waitzkin
Publisher: NYU Press
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2018-03-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1583676767

Health care professionals, activists and scholars weigh in on how the U.S. can address the shortcomings of the "medical industrial complex" and extend affordable health care to all “I’ve still got my health so what do I care?” goes a lyric in an old Cole Porter song. Most of us, in fact, assume we can’t live full lives, or take on life’s challenges, without also assuming that we’re basically healthy and will be for the foreseeable future. But these days, our health and well-being are sorted through an ever-expanding, profit-seeking financial complex that monitors, controls, and commodifies our very existence. Given that our access to competent, affordable health care grows more precarious each day, the arrival of Health Care Under the Knife could not be more timely. In this empowering book, noted health-care professionals, scholars, and activists—including editor Howard Waitzkin—impart their inside knowledge of the medical system: what’s wrong, how it got this way, and what we can do to heal it. The book is comprised of individual essays addressing the “medical industrial complex,” the impact of privatization and cutbacks under neoliberalism, the nature of health-care work, and the intersections between health care and imperialism, both historically and at present. We see how the health of our bodies in “developed” countries is tied to the health of the bodies of the labor force in the Global South, and how the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are linked strangely, inextricably, to our physical well-being. But this analysis would not be complete without the book’s final section, which delivers invaluable guidance for how to change this system. Recounting case studies and successful efforts for creating a more humane community, this book ultimately gives us hope that our health-care system can be rescued and made an integral part of a new and radically different society.

Removing the Barriers to Global Health Equity

Removing the Barriers to Global Health Equity
Author: Theodore H. MacDonald
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 340
Release: 2018-04-24
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1315357933

Medical research and global awareness of health inequalities continue to grow apace. Why then is global health inequality widening, with benefits disproportionally affecting the richest third? How can obstacles to more equitable healthcare be overcome? This passionately-argued book presents answers that will be essential reading for everyone interested in global health, public health, public policy and economics. Policy makers in global communities and government, political activists and all those with an interest in equality in healthcare will find stimulating, well-supported analyses of the interaction between neoliberal policies, geopolitical issues and health. Meanwhile professionals in international healthcare organisations, care agencies, and international charities will find challenging and refreshing socio-political solutions to those offered by the current neoliberal paradigm.

The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare

The Routledge Handbook of the Political Economy of Health and Healthcare
Author: David Primrose
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 726
Release: 2024-02-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1003846998

This handbook provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the gamut of contemporary issues around health and healthcare from a political economy perspective. Its contributions present a unique challenge to prevailing economic accounts of health and healthcare, which narrowly focus on individual behaviour and market processes. Instead, the capacity of the human body to reach its full potential and the ability of society to prevent disease and cure illness are demonstrated to be shaped by a broader array of political economic processes. The material conditions in which societies produce, distribute, exchange, consume, and reproduce – and the operation of power relations therein – influence all elements of human health: from food consumption and workplace safety, to inequality, healthcare and housing, and even the biophysical conditions in which humans live. This volume explores these concerns across five sections. First, it introduces and critically engages with a variety of established and cutting-edge theoretical perspectives in political economy to conceptualise health and healthcare – from neoclassical and behavioural economics, to Marxist and feminist approaches. The next two sections extend these insights to evaluate the neoliberalisation of health and healthcare over the past 40 years, highlighting their individualisation and commodification by the capitalist state and powerful corporations. The fourth section examines the diverse manifestation of these dynamics across a range of geographical contexts. The volume concludes with a section devoted to outlining more progressive health and healthcare arrangements, which transcend the limitations of both neoliberalism and capitalism. This volume will be an indispensable reference work for students and scholars of political economy, health policy and politics, health economics, health geography, the sociology of health, and other health-related disciplines. Chapters 1 & 8 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons [CC BY NC ND] 4.0 license.

Health Equity in a Globalizing Era

Health Equity in a Globalizing Era
Author: Ronald Labonté
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 464
Release: 2019-03-14
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0192572253

Why do some countries and populations suffer from poverty and ill health, whilst others are more prosperous and healthy? What are the inherently global (trans-border) issues that affect inequities in disease burden and health opportunities for individuals and nations? Traditionally, the focus of global health has been 'international health': the concern for high burdens of disease in generally low-income countries. To answer these questions however, we need to modernise our understanding of globalization as a phenomenon. Health Equity in a Globalizing Era: Past Challenges, Future Prospects examines how globalization processes since the on-set of neoliberalism affect equity in global health outcomes, and emphasises access to important social determinants of health. With a basis in political economy, the book covers key globalization concepts and theory, and presents a thorough background to the field. Case studies, illustrations, and new research all combine to make this title a comprehensive and current discussion of the various pathways that connect globalization to health equity outcomes. It looks at changes in migration, labour markets, trade and investment rules, international development assistance, health systems, infectious and non-communicable disease risks, environmental health, and gendered aspects of globalization's health dialectic. In addition, it argues for a reform of the global governance structure, the significant role of human rights, and the importance of a strong civil society in achieving greater social justice in health. Ideal for senior undergraduate and graduate students in global health programs, global health scholars and practitioners in government policy and health/development NGOs, Health Equity in a Globalizing Era: Past Challenges, Future Prospects is a significant contribution to our new understanding of globalization and global public health.