The Social Construction of Global Health Priorities: An Empirical Analysis of Contagion in Bilateral Health Aid

Abstract Donors of development assistance for health typically provide funding for a range of disease focus areas, such as maternal health and child health, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and other infectious diseases. But funding for each disease category does not match closely its contribution to the disability and loss of life it causes and the cost-effectiveness of interventions. We argue that peer influences in the social construction of global health priorities contribute to explaining this misalignment. Aid policy-makers are embedded in a social environment encompassing other donors, health experts, advocacy groups, and international officials. This social environment influences the conceptual and normative frameworks of decision-makers, which in turn affect their funding priorities. Aid policy-makers are especially likely to emulate decisions on funding priorities taken by peers with whom they are most closely involved in the context of expert and advocacy networks. We draw on novel data on donor connectivity through health IGOs and health INGOs and assess the argument by applying spatial regression models to health aid disbursed globally between 1990 and 2017. The analysis provides strong empirical support for our argument that the involvement in overlapping expert and advocacy networks shapes funding priorities regarding disease categories and recipient countries in health aid.

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Global health education for the post-pandemic years: parity, people, planet, priorities, and practices

Global Health Research and Policy ◽

10.1186/s41256-021-00234-y ◽

2022 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Kathryn H. Jacobsen ◽

Caryl E. Waggett

Keyword(s):

Health Education ◽

Global Health ◽

Health Priorities ◽

Global Health Education ◽

Skilled Professional ◽

The Social ◽

Student Learning Objectives ◽

Student Demand ◽

Access To Medical Care ◽

Comprehensive Framework

AbstractGlobal health degree programs are now offered by institutions of higher education in most world regions. Based on our review of the curricula for many of these programs, we identified five domains that are central to current global health education. “Parity” emphasizes health equity as the ultimate goal of global health. “People” comprises the social, economic, cultural, and political contributors to health and access to medical care for individuals and communities. “Planet” encompasses various aspects of globalization and environmental health that affect population health. “Priorities” and “practices” include the values, data, and tools used to design, implement, and evaluate partnerships, policies, programs, and other global health interventions in countries of all income levels. The pandemic is likely to increase student demand for global health education from the undergraduate through the graduate and professional levels. Our “5 Ps model of global health education” provides a comprehensive framework for the core student learning objectives for global health today. Knowledge of each of these domains is essential for preparing students for meaningful experiential learning and skilled professional practice in global health.

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Forever young? An analysis of the factors influencing perceptions of ageing

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x19000084 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (8) ◽

pp. 1669-1693 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Valeria Bordone ◽

Bruno Arpino ◽

Alessandro Rosina

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

Old Age ◽

Logistic Models ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Unique Data ◽

Factors Influencing ◽

The Social

AbstractDrawing on the revived literature on the subjective dimension of ageing, this paper investigates whether people aged 65+, usually defined as old, do actually feel old and which events they associate with feeling old. Logistic models are used on unique data from the 2013 survey called ‘I Do Not Want to Be Inactive’, conducted on individuals aged 65–74 in Italy (N = 828). It is found that a large proportion of respondents do not feel old at all. The analyses show that women are more likely than men to feel old and to think that society considers them old. While men feel old mainly when they retire, women associate this feeling with loneliness, loss of independence and death of loved ones. Higher-educated people are less likely to associate feeling old with loneliness and boredom than their lower-educated counterparts. The findings have important implications for the conceptualisation of ageing. Most people who are old according to the standard threshold of 65 do not consider reaching this age as a distinctive marker of old age in their lifecourse. This suggests that absolute thresholds for setting the start of old age are questionable. Feeling old seems to be mainly influenced by events, such as retirement and death of loved ones, hinting to the importance of the social construction of ageing in addition to its biological dimension. Researchers and policy makers are encouraged to give more attention to layperson views on ageing.

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Gets AIDS and Survive? The "Perverse" Effects of Aid: Addressing the Social and Environmental Determinants of Health, Promoting Sustainable Primary Care, and Rethinking Global Health Aid

International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health ◽

10.1179/107735211807523972 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 364-382 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

David Egilman ◽

Tess Bird ◽

Fernando Mora ◽

Nicholas Druar

Keyword(s):

Primary Care ◽

Global Health ◽

Determinants Of Health ◽

Environmental Determinants ◽

Health Aid ◽

Environmental Determinants Of Health ◽

The Social ◽

Health Promoting

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Attempt to assess Canada’s expertise in global health research falls short

Health Research Policy and Systems ◽

10.1186/s12961-020-00634-5 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Theresa W. Gyorkos

Keyword(s):

Global Health ◽

Geographical Distribution ◽

Health Research ◽

Constructing Drug Using Victims

Contemporary Drug Problems ◽

10.1177/0091450917748981 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 67-81 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sofia Laguna

Keyword(s):

Middle Class ◽

Social Construction ◽

Social Identity Theory ◽

Drug Users ◽

The United States ◽

Drug Laws ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Congressional Hearings ◽

The Social ◽

Congressional Hearing

Sociologists and political scientists examining the social construction of public anxiety surrounding drug use in the United States have argued that racial minorities are the targets of the harshest drug laws while middle-class whites are shielded. In this article, I provide further evidence that middle-class, white drug users are shielded from harsh punishment by analyzing the process through which U.S. legislators and policy makers decide which drug users need punishment and which deserve protection and treatment. Analyzing transcripts from federal Congressional hearings, I examine the rhetoric of legislators and stakeholder witnesses concerning the use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) by middle-class whites. Building on the social construction literature, I use social identity theory to demonstrate how legislators within Congressional hearings create in- and out-groups in order to categorize different drug users and dealers. My analysis of Congressional hearing language concerning white MDMA use demonstrates that Congressional speakers use rhetoric to convince committee members and the wider public that middle-class, white drug users are different from drug users of color and that the appropriate policy response is education and treatment rather than punishment. My findings highlight how middle-class, white drug users are characterized differently from drug users of color, providing further evidence that U.S. drug policy has historically favored middle-class, white drug users.

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Studying the User: A Matter of Perspective

Media International Australia ◽

10.1177/1329878x0109800113 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 98 (1) ◽

pp. 113-128 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Supriya Singh

Keyword(s):

Social Construction ◽

New Media ◽

Information And Communication Technologies ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Consumer Confidence ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Goods And Services ◽

The Social ◽

Communications Technologies ◽

Information And Communication

Providers and policy-makers are interested in understanding consumers' use of new media and technologies. The challenge, however, is to work out ways in which qualitative research on the social construction and uses of the new communications technologies can connect with and reformulate issues central to industry and policy. In this paper, I present a way of exploring the perspectives of the user, and connecting them to the language and perspectives of providers and policy-makers. Users and their activities are placed at the centre of the questions. The questions and concepts then focus on the activity and nature of communication rather than the goods and services sold or the technologies being used. Information and communication technologies are studied within their social context. This research is most often qualitative because, for the most part, we are discovering new questions and exploring ambiguity. Once the user's perspectives have been discovered, it is easier to engage in dialogue with providers and policy-makers by focusing on concepts central to both sides, such as ‘design’ and ‘trust’. These concepts link issues important to the user to issues of production, diffusion and consumer confidence.

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Children's Gender and Parents' Color Preferences

10.31235/osf.io/6ng9p ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Philip N. Cohen

Keyword(s):

Gender Differences ◽

Social Construction ◽

Social Environment ◽

Online Survey ◽

Natural Experiment ◽

Color Preferences ◽

Child Socialization ◽

The Social ◽

Adults And Children ◽

The U.S

Gender differences in color preferences have been found in adults and children, but they remain unexplained. This study asks whether the gendered social environment in adulthood affects parents’ color preferences. The analysis used the gender of children to represent one aspect of the gendered social environment. Because having male versus female children in the U.S. is generally randomly distributed, it provides something of a natural experiment, offering evidence about the social construction of gender in adulthood. The participants were 749 adults with children who responded to an online survey invitation, asking “What’s your favorite color?” Men were more likely to prefer blue, while women were more likely to prefer red, purple, and pink, consistent with long-standing U.S. patterns. The effect of having only sons was to widen the existing gender differences between men and women, increasing the odds that men prefer blue while reducing the odds that women do; and a marginally significant effect showed women having higher odds of preferring pink when they have sons only. The results suggest that, in addition to any genetic, biological or child-socialization effects shaping adults’ tendency to segregate their color preferences by gender, the gender context of adulthood matters as well.

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